I've been watching a lot of videos recently about the various dangers people used to live with. Arsenic and lead in paint, makeup, or even consumables. Asbestos, radium, mercury, and all manner of highly dangerous materials in virtually every product you can imagine. There were physical dangers as well, like poorly designed and installed electrical systems, but it's the chemicals that really get my attention. In some cases it was a matter of suppression of the known dangers in the name of profit, but in many cases it was simply a matter of not knowing. Regardless, what strikes me is that it's easy to think "well that was a long time ago, we know everything now", but I'm sure they thought the same thing back then. Who's to say we're not indulging in something just as bad today that we won't realize for decades to come?
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50 years from now...
"Can you believe people used to buy and put around their home little recording devices that sent all of their conversations away to be harvested for data?"
"They didn't know better, they just thought they were searching for a cooking recipe or turning off the lights with voice prompts" -
Progress by knowledge through hindsight. It's true, we often don't realize something is dangerous until it's too late and lives are lost. All the more reason to research due diligence in something "new" or simply stay away from it until more is known about it. Vaping is one example that comes to mind.
- vanished and RGProductions
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@MEC-777 Actually yeah that fits the pattern I've seen described numerous times previously to a tee. Something comes out, it gets popular, people start dropping like flies from it, but despite that it takes years or even decades for people to accept the fact there's a link and stop using it or ban it.
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