> "Risk assessments conducted by the US Environmental Protection Agency and others have concluded that the hazardous constituents in inorganic fertilizers generally do not pose risks to public health or the environment."
What I believe you're missing is where this might be coming from. We live in an Institutional crisis, where for years propaganda was spread and amplified by internal and external actors (like Russia) to undermine institutions, with lies and conspiracy theories.
Bold claims were made that organizations and the government were captured by private interests, completely disregarding that actual qualified people are working to make sure things are safe, like products we consume.
Just for context, RFK Junior is the US Secretary of Health and Human Services.
So, to circle back to your quote, the Risk assessment made by the US Environmental Protection Agency could be easily dismissed by the following unfounded and unsupported claim, "yeah the US Environmental Protection Agency is serving the big companies; they should be dismantled."
Like it would be the easiest thing for Russia to start a trend to sway people to demand a ban on phosphate. They did similar things with regard to Ukraine, to the point where the US Administration is amplifying russian talking points.
To be clear, I'm not saying this article is a propaganda piece; what I'm saying is that this sort of opinion from someone who doesn't seem to fully understand the subject is a prime example of something that could be amplified for propaganda and contribute to institutional demise.
You seem to be implying that all claims of regulatory capture, or even simple incompetence or bias, are all the result of Russian propaganda seems like a pretty bold claim to me.
I am sure there are people who want to sow distrust for their own ends, but there are also good reasons for distrust.
> what I'm saying is that this sort of opinion from someone who doesn't seem to fully understand the subject is a prime example of something that could be amplified for propaganda and contribute to institutional demise.
Part of the solution is transparency and full information.
> “It’s not in our interest to share product with public or private agencies,”
> You seem to be implying that all claims of regulatory capture, or even simple incompetence or bias, are all the result of Russian propaganda
Can you quote me on that? Because it's like you didn't even read what I wrote. How can I be more clear than:
> To be clear, I'm not saying this article is a propaganda piece; what I'm saying is that this sort of opinion from someone who doesn't seem to fully understand the subject is a prime example of something that could be amplified for propaganda and contribute to institutional demise.
How is this implying that ALL claims, incompetence, or bias ARE the result of propaganda? And where am I wrong to say that this sort of thing is being amplified by, for example, popular US Podcasts that were, and some for sure still are, being funded by the Russian regime?[0]
This isn't a conspiracy theory by the way: it's well known that there are people being paid to promote propaganda, and there are people - like you said and well - that want to sow distrust for their ends, and also get paid by Russia to do it. There's still an ongoing investigation about the example I gave, but it's probably a mix of both.
But these aren't just the two types of people in the information space, that's just silly. Still, you should pay attention to who has, or gets, a big reach.
> Part of the solution is transparency and full information.
Is it? Because the solution seems to be about having a certain aesthetic, being loud, and disregarding everything else - you just need to make pauses to say "and that's a fact/the truth is/everyone knows this/it's common sense". Just look at the Trump administration, it's working pretty well for them.
OT: When you read hyperbole, the debate/discussion shifts somewhat subtley but substantially. Exploration and examination of the facts and merits ends - the word 'all' eliminates any variation from the extreme; it becomes attack and defense.
I agree with that, but that wasn't the point of my comment to say that any amount of disinformation is a product of propaganda.
My point is that there's a new Institutional crisis being exacerbated by conspiracies, disinformation, and misinformation. A lot of people have strong opinions based on a shallow perception of reality.
This contributes to the acceleration of Institutional collapse (like Democracy, Public Health, Public Service...), and it's being amplified by foul actors to feed back more into this nonsense. This feeds into distrust or even irrational hate of institutions that contributed to the success of Western countries.
I just gave a few concrete examples, with sources, of such an activity.
I'm not saying everything is right, or that there aren't problems, like corruption, opacity, etc. But it doesn't warrant destroying everything for the sake of an aesthetic or a misplaced sense of resentment acquired on social networks.
What I believe you're missing is where this might be coming from. We live in an Institutional crisis, where for years propaganda was spread and amplified by internal and external actors (like Russia) to undermine institutions, with lies and conspiracy theories.
Bold claims were made that organizations and the government were captured by private interests, completely disregarding that actual qualified people are working to make sure things are safe, like products we consume.
Just for context, RFK Junior is the US Secretary of Health and Human Services.
So, to circle back to your quote, the Risk assessment made by the US Environmental Protection Agency could be easily dismissed by the following unfounded and unsupported claim, "yeah the US Environmental Protection Agency is serving the big companies; they should be dismantled."
Like it would be the easiest thing for Russia to start a trend to sway people to demand a ban on phosphate. They did similar things with regard to Ukraine, to the point where the US Administration is amplifying russian talking points.
To be clear, I'm not saying this article is a propaganda piece; what I'm saying is that this sort of opinion from someone who doesn't seem to fully understand the subject is a prime example of something that could be amplified for propaganda and contribute to institutional demise.