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Comment by mro_name | Hacker News Reader

I wonder who are today's Semmelweis. Privacy advocats? Paper lobbyists? Climate activits?

And how to no go insane and drown in Cassandra syndrome?

Climate activists? Really? While the causes of most climate activists are pretty valid and usually based on plenty of science, the comparison is absurd. Semmelweis was almost universally derided by all professional and public sectors for his findings. Most climate activism on the other hand is pretty much a default media-friendly, celebrity-friendly, widely socially and scientifically supported stance that has enormous popular appeal. I mean, you seriously think the two contexts are comparable? It's a disservice to what Semmelweis really had to deal with in his time.

Privacy advocates are a bit closer to the mark but though they have much less popular voice than climate activists, they're also widely listened to (even if few organizations do much to apply their advice).

I honestly have no idea what a paper lobbyist is.

Think of the climate people in the 80ies.

> paper lobbyist

one who wants to slow down datafication of all aspects of life. Both private and public. I took paper as a symbol.

Even in the 80's and we could go as far back as the 70's, climate activism was robustly supported by many sectors of society, media and popular culture. Not as much as it is today but far ahead of a doctor being literally destroyed and later killed through negligent detention for his views.

I've never heard of paper activism as an actual cause. Interesting, and definitely less known than the others it seems.

Indeed, the grim fate of Semmelweis is extreme. But think, for example, of Ken Saro-Wiwa, who fought Big Oil and was executed.

As for paper - I suspect that written letter communication leaves a much smaller footprint than sending emails and printing on demand. However, I have no evidence of this yet.

But https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/ has something about the rebound effect exceeding the initial savings.

Constant Anxiety Won't Save the World: https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2017/08/constant-...

Indeed. Last year I resolved to only get upset about things I can change. The challenge now is to tell the difference.

One example today relates to teaching (in college). Most instructors (~75%) predominantly lecture, even though hundreds of studies have shown that increases the failure rate of students by 55% on average compared to teaching with some active learning. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1319030111 We're losing hundreds of thousands of STEM major students because of that alone, disproportionately students from underrepresented groups. https://www.pnas.org/content/117/12/6476

To a degree the early people in the western countries who called for wearing masks. Ironically they were laughed at due to a cargo cult based on Semmelweis‘s insights.

> cargo cult based on Semmelweis‘s insights.

Uh, how so?

Pierre Kory: https://podcastaddict.com/episode/123865326

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