> Let's adopt GMOs! It's from the guys that brought us Thalidomide!
This is IMHO a really major reason for opposition to GMOs: people do not trust the "establishment" in general anymore.
I actually hear someone say once: "if it comes from a big company, it's about fucking you over or taking your money." People have a sense that they are serfs and that overtop of them are a bunch of feudal lords rubbing their hands together and cackling about new ways to impoverish, poison, or otherwise stick a boot in their face.
This perception has many bases, but ultimately I think it's an emotional reaction to the contemptuous treatment that the public receives by way of the political class and the PR industry. When you talk "down" to people and treat them like idiots, it foments contempt. This contempt is expressed through distrust and suspicion.
And there are certainly people who fit the "cackling feudal monster" stereotype. I don't believe they are in the majority, but there are enough of them to create a bad impression. Keep in mind that human beings give excessive weight to negative examples. If you walk through a neighborhood and someone mugs you, you will forever consign it to a status as a "bad neighborhood" even though 99.99% of the neighborhood's residents would never do that. The same goes for elite deviance. A single Bernie Madoff creates the same perceptive effect as an entire ruling class made up of Bernie Madoffs.
"if it comes from a big company, it's about fucking you over or taking your money."
Also e.g. social networks and cell phones come from big companies, but for some reason no one is suggesting to ban the technology that they are based on.
This is IMHO a really major reason for opposition to GMOs: people do not trust the "establishment" in general anymore.
I actually hear someone say once: "if it comes from a big company, it's about fucking you over or taking your money." People have a sense that they are serfs and that overtop of them are a bunch of feudal lords rubbing their hands together and cackling about new ways to impoverish, poison, or otherwise stick a boot in their face.
This perception has many bases, but ultimately I think it's an emotional reaction to the contemptuous treatment that the public receives by way of the political class and the PR industry. When you talk "down" to people and treat them like idiots, it foments contempt. This contempt is expressed through distrust and suspicion.
And there are certainly people who fit the "cackling feudal monster" stereotype. I don't believe they are in the majority, but there are enough of them to create a bad impression. Keep in mind that human beings give excessive weight to negative examples. If you walk through a neighborhood and someone mugs you, you will forever consign it to a status as a "bad neighborhood" even though 99.99% of the neighborhood's residents would never do that. The same goes for elite deviance. A single Bernie Madoff creates the same perceptive effect as an entire ruling class made up of Bernie Madoffs.