Hacker News Reader

Comment by sumthinprofound | Hacker News Reader

The Rise and Fall and Rise of the Chemistry Set:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/the-rise-and-f...

>> The Federal Hazardous Substances Labeling Act of 1960 required labels for toxic and dangerous substances, and chemistry set makers removed the alcohol lamps and acids from their kits. The Toy Safety Act of 1969 removed lead paint from toys but also took its toll on the sets. The creation of the Consumer Product Safety Commission in 1972 and the passing of the Toxic Substances Control Act in 1976 resulted in further limits on the contents of the kits. <<

the tyranny. /s

View on HN

What word do you think is appropriate when someone prohibits people from doing what they want in a way that doesn't threaten (or even inconvenience) anyone else?

Also, it seems like it might be a struggle to raise great chemists when access to chemicals becomes restricted for young people. Hopefully we've discovered all of chemistry and there is nothing important left to find in that field, otherwise this might be doing net harm to the next generation.

I don't have a generalized rebuttal however in this specific instance they were literally selling poison to children.

I mean, yeah? There isn't any contention over the facts here. Interesting chemicals are not safe to ingest. What word do you think covers the action of swooping in and making other people's personal decisions for them, on the sole basis that you would make different decisions?

I probably don't agree with your spending decisions. What do you want to call if I were empowered to make better ones on your behalf? Tyranny is a good word for it.

What you describe is neither cruel nor oppressive I think "tyranny" misses the mark.

I've got a lot of concerns about your use of language here, because:

1) Tyranny is different to cruelty. Tyrants don't have to be cruel.

2) How is this not oppression? Someone wants to buy their son a chemistry kit, the son is probably all excited about it because there is something dangerous and exciting to learn about and then some random enforcer is coming in and stopping that from happening because they disagree with that family's value judgements. If that isn't oppression in the small, oppression may not exist. Oppressors can all say that they're worried about the safety of the people they oppress - that is a common argument oppressors make if they feel like justifying themselves. Imagine that line coming out of the mouth of a Communist Party spokesperson over in China, they aren't implementing their policies out of a sense of malice - they think they are good for China.

"cruel and oppressive government or rule." is the Oxford English Dictionary definition of tyrrany.

Curiously, Webster's [0] doesn't include the word cruel. Possibly the Americans and the British use the word differently. I suspect the British are working around the fact that they have a monarch; the US definition is closer to my understanding of the original Greek tyrants.

[0] https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tyranny

This article points out that pretty traditional chemistry sets are still available:

https://www.homesciencetools.com/product/thames-kosmos-chem-...

https://www.brightminds.co.uk/products/chem-lab-c3000-chemis...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com