"When we had asbestos there was less autism. Big pharma teamed up with big construction to screw us up"
this post was submitted on 15 Apr 2025
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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.
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Because Russia, the number one exporter of asbestoes and the number one disinformation capital of the world.
When seatbelts were introduced to cars, there was a big movement against them. Some by car manufacturers to keep costs down, but a lot of backlash was from good ol' natural born idiots so contrarian and averse to change they'd let themselves die just to give a smug look about not doing what someone asked of them. The sort of dumbass who during the height of pre-vaccine Covid would drown in the fluid buildup in their lungs and refuse treatment because doing so would be an admission of fault.
These past 9 years have made me DEEPLY cynical about my fellow man. There is no bottom. No level of malicious stupidity is low enough. It's not even disappointment anymore, I'm resigned to it. Some people are so beyond hope, so beyond redemption, it's like trying to get a fucking deer to recognize itself in a mirror. Just ZERO awareness, no theory of mind, object permanence is a fucking coin flip. If it weren't for my principles, my absolute refusal to engage in dehumanization, I'd be tempted to write them off as another species just to cope with the dissonance that comes from seeing people acting that self destructive. Like it doesn't make sense. You'd expect at some point some form of pattern recognition and harm avoidance to develop. "Hey, putting my hand on the stove hurt. It hurt every time I did it. It hurt everyone I saw someone else do it too. I'm gonna put my hand on the stove and it won't hurt this time.".
I was annoyed about the seatbelt laws, but I was a little kid at the time. I came from an era of riding in the back of dad's truck and enjoying the breeze. Hell, I went from New England to Canada in the back of a capped truck. I was eight years old and never thought anything of it.
However, as I got older into my teens I got more adamant about using a seat belt, even when the laws were still sorta gray here (you were let off with no warning most times). Now its second nature, even if I'm heading 3 mins to the store. Some people still don't because they think that they're only endangering themselves. Thing is, I have a brother in law that's a first responder. He's seen people torpedo out of windows in head-on collisions and into the other car, injuring the other driver/passengers.
Honestly, I don't get what the whole problem is. You barely even notice them on you. Most people who don't put on a simple and comfortable safety belt are just being fucking stubborn children who don't like being told what to do. I'm glad I grew out of that way of thinking. Some my family are those "good ol' natural borns". They'll tell me I don't have to put my seatbelt on and every time I adamantly say, "I always do". My other brother in law will literally crank the radio so he can't hear the seatbelt alarm. Drives me insane, but I love the idiot.
I hated them as a kid because they were uncomfortable and didn't fit right. My mom made is wear it but I used to put the chest belt behind my back as soon as she turned around because it dug into my neck. I probably should have been in a car seat for way longer than I was. As an adult I don't even notice it.
There are still people that buy "belt silencers" or sit on their seatbelts to drive without. Newer cars will alarm, and mine even shuts down if you drive without a seatbelt
My sister's boyfriend bought an oldtimer with no seatbelt. The previous owner installed some and he took them out again. I think there is nothing that brings him more joy than to tell people how he doesn't need a seatbelt. He also drives his children around in this deathtrap. But he also refuses to wear a helmet when they ride their ebike. My sister nagged so long about it that he now takes the helmet with him, but he doesn't wear it, that's the compromise they reached. Some people are just fucking weird.
Seen bumper sticker: No air bags, we die like men.
To be fair, I find that funny.
I assume it's sarcastic, but you never know
I enjoyed reading this. Well put. I also share this recent realization. It's made me feel a bit less imposter syndrome. Among other things.
Old car guys are still bitter over unleaded gas. Some will drive to airports to buy the leaded stuff.
LOL, libs are trying to ban asbestos! They want us all to catch fire! Asbestos causing cancer is a conspiracy, do your own research. Besides, Ivermectin will cure any cancer caused by asbestos.
/s (because the USA is crazy and someone would really post this and mean it)
Post it on reddit, and that will end up as a google AI recommendation next week.
I can see them railing a line of asbestos just to own the libs. Better than vaccine denial I suppose, at least it limits the damage.
A guy I went to HS with definitely did this one time on a dare. A piece of insulation fell out of the kiln in shop class n another kid smashed it n told this kid he'd give him $5 to snort it. No one thought he would, but this dude absolutely railed it. Someone asks the shop teacher later what the tiles were made of and he says asbestos mostly, but it's fine as long as you don't mess with it. 💀
I keep checking on his Facebook every couple of years to see if lung cancer got him. So far, he's still kicking lol.
Here in Australia we just banned engineered stone because it tends to cause silicosis
And yep, lots of shitty business owners whined and a few shit customers on Facebook
Silicosis is what's killing people at the moment, and business owners in particular don't seem to care, despite the fact there's is alternatives
I have no idea engineered stones causes silicosis. Is it the manufacturing or the installation or the home owner getting too close to it that causes it?
When it's cut for bench tops and such , that's what exposes people.
Lots of stonemasons here in Australia now have silicosis because of it.
Natural stone has far less issues and there is stone available which doesn't cause it
Business owners were also claiming they weren't given enough time to switch. Everyone including me (I have a friend with silicosis now) has known engineered stone was dangerous to work with for years.
So they had years of warning that it was dangerous But they pretend like it was unexpected.
We (srtaya) tried to introduce cutting standards as the silicosis is avoidable, but the cutting technique is more expensive so it got skipped for the cheaper dangerous methods.
You probably know about it more than me..
I've been onsite plenty of times when they've been cutting that stuff up. Some owners argued better PPE would be enough for the Stonemasons, but it won't protect other people where its being cut.
Furthermore, nobody NEEDS engineered stone anyway, and people tend to take shortcuts when they are in a rush
And its mainly the workers affected. The people selling it are sometimes the ones who aren't even cutting it up (especially because they know there are risks).
Feel bad for my friend though who now has silicosis and no way to cure it.
It was the same with asbestos, there were correct handling procedures but they were skipped enough for people to still get sick from it. Better we don't use it if we don't need to.
People are just going to have to re-learn just how fucking scary the measles and polio are, I guess.
I'm curious if America children dying will weaken the anti vax movement in other countries.
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I used to live in a city called Asbestos, the mine was closed back in 2012 and older folks are still angry about it, they'll even tell you that the workers handling it weren't in worse health than anyone else in the city... The worst part is that it was banned in the construction industry 30 years prior, so they kept exploiting the mine only to export it to countries that hadn't banned it, even if it meant killing people there...
People would be making TikTok videos eating asbestos and cramming it up their bums claiming it cures COVID
There's still some pro-asbestos people, so it didn't go away 100%. I remember reading a completely mental Conservapedia article blaming 9/11 on not using asbestos.
That was Rush Limbaugh, may he rot in piss.
It actually was just recently (a year ago) banned fully in the US. Before that, it was just prohibited to be used in new construction.
What do you mean with fully banned in this example?
Pretty sure here in Europe there are also still plenty of cases where you're not forced to remove asbestos, like inaccessible old plumbing that's embedded in the utility shafts of apartment blocks. So it's also not fully banned here yet either, in that sense.
If it didn't cause cancer, asbestos is a fucking miracle material, there are people TODAY who are hugely pro-asbestos
People have been pro-asbestos dating back to Roman times, and even back then it is said they knew it was harmful as well. But used it anyway. 😆
I mean you do have to wright in thr pros and cons. Like asbestos is crazy good in what it does. if you have it in your building and don't fuck with it, it doesn't matter. I'm not some pro asbestos nut or anything, but they banned asbestos because of health concers, but smoking and alvohol is still fine, which has absolutely no positive side effects
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I’m in a comment war with a nicotine denialist on here now!
In the 90s, there were still tons of people angry about seat belt laws. It’s every American’s God Given Right to fly out of the windshield and probably kill someone else.
There is this meme about:
Don't forget airbags have also killed people.
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In fact, the industry did sue and win a lawsuit in 1991 narrowing the range of asbestos compounds banned by the EPA. There have always been huge waves of resistance to every harmful compound banned by the government, from leaded gas to cigarettes to chlorofluorocarbons that harmed the ozone layer. The difference is that the present consolidation of wealth in the hands of a small group of billionaires, who control a consolidating group of media corporations, allows for unprecedented ability to control public opinion. Meanwhile, the amount of junk information floating around in social media, and failing public education, has disordered our systems of discourse. There is much more limited ability to vet quality sources of information, leaving people to worry more about fictional chemtrails than about the very real pesticides in their food
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Hate to break it to you: https://www.archpaper.com/2018/08/epa-asbestos-manufacturing/
Russia has a town named after asbestos and lobbies for asbestos.
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