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Comment by throwawaylinux | Hacker News Reader

Turns out just about everybody, all around the world, loves authoritarian laws when they agree with the alleged goal, or when the psychological propaganda worked on them. If it's not the children, it's grandma, or someone else.

Turns out there are a small number of actual anti-authoritarians who have always been consistent. And then there are countless hangers-on who proclaim to be an anti-authoritarian resistance when it suits them. It's funny, the fact people co-opt it shows that they see it as a noble and worthy ideology, yet it's still one they're happy to discard the minute some talking head put on TV by a corporation tells them to be outraged.

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I'd love to be put in contact with some of these true Scotsmen^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H anti-authoritarians. I need staunch moral support in my tireless, lonely fight against the soulless minions of orthodoxy who blithely kowtow to the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 [0]. My perfectly fine produce deserves the embrace of the free market; it isn't up to some pencil-pusher in Washington to have the final say in how much lead there is in a tomato, it's between God, Man, and the Invisible Hand.

Are you one of the countless hangers-on who proclaim to be an anti-authoritarian resistance when it suits them?

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pure_Food_and_Drug_Act

Phew, well I'm glad somebody is thinking of the children. Thank you for your service :) Sorry if I hit a nerve.

>>>just about everybody, all around the world, loves authoritarian laws when they agree with the alleged goal, or when the psychological propaganda worked on them

You made a really strong claim in the post I'm quoting, and suggested that you are among those hardcore anti-authoritarians whom you lionize. But this is a real(ish) world example of that belief being challenged, and instead of explaining your principled stance, you're playin' around; you suggested you had "hit a nerve". Ah, right, I guess I'm just too emotional. Gotta stand up for what's right! No, not like that.

Of course I'm being facetious about my leaden tomatoes, but so too are you, and other readers of these words should think about how the "anti-authoritarians" actually practice their claimed stances, and where they don't.

Non-authoritarian solution is to have certification. It will be up to consumer to buy only food certified by PureFood.

I don't think a world where Yelp and the BBB managed the food safety ratings of restaurants would be a good one. That's a "solution", but is it a solution?

Besides, my tomatoes are certified safe by Nutr-Alert and SafeCo. SafeCo even lets me doctor the lab results myself, for a little extra! I'm still in negotiation with PureFood, but I'm sure this little speedbump will be ironed out before you know it. Iron is good for you, anyway; they don't even test for that.

You can still have a government FDA agency, but with a voluntary certification program. The problem is everyone prefers authoritarian solutions.

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