465
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] theinspectorst@kbin.social -5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

In 1990, as the BSE ('mad cow disease') crisis in the UK was unfolding and shortly after scientists had found proof that the disease could indeed cross species, the Agriculture Secretary John Gummer went on national TV to try to force his four-year-old daughter to eat a beef burger for the cameras, to convince the public to keep eating British beef.

Several hundred people ended up dying from CJD (the human variant caused by eating infected beef). It remains one of the most widely derided photo ops in British political history.

[-] afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world 27 points 1 year ago

Right but that isn't really comparable. Radiation has been studied for over a century while prions were a total unknown at the time.

Just because one person does one dumb thing on camera doesn't mean that everyone facing a camera does dumb things.

[-] theinspectorst@kbin.social 8 points 1 year ago

Right, I'm not suggesting otherwise. I'm just observing that, for someone who remembers that time, seeing a politician eating for the cameras to prove some food is safe brings to mind this very specific unfortunate example.

[-] livus@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

For me it brought to mind Thomas Midgley, who did a public stunt where he poured petrol lead additive over his hands and gave himself lead poisoning twice.

[-] PenguinJuice@kbin.social -1 points 1 year ago

Yikes that is pretty diabolical. Using children to prove a point is horrible.

[-] forgotaboutlaye@kbin.social 8 points 1 year ago

I mean, at least use someone elses children.

[-] livus@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

...like Edward Jenner did with the smallpox vaccine.

this post was submitted on 25 Aug 2023
465 points (97.9% liked)

World News

39041 readers
2596 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS