Comment by jongjong | Hacker News Reader

Comment by jongjong | Hacker News Reader

When I read this sort of stuff, it feeds directly into my conspiracy theory about how people are being intentionally pacified using chemicals.

- Headphones marketed towards children. (children are most vulnerable as they are developing)

- Chemicals released "especially during exercise when heat and sweat are present." (teens who exercise and are fit/strong/threatening)

It's disturbing how prevalent forever chemicals are.

Every time I've seen some child's toy or device and the idea "This would be a perfect way to target children to disrupt their hormones" came to my cynical, paranoid mind... After a little bit of investigation, I found it's full of endocrine disruptors!

E.g. I bought a small inflatable swimming pool for my toddler son and I noticed how he was putting his mouth on the sides and I thought "Would be a perfect way to deliver endocrine disruptors to toddlers" - So I did some searching, contacted the manufacturer; surprise; it's full of phthalates but they claim 'within approved regulatory limits'!

Then I saw my son's toothbrush had some blue rubber behind to 'scrub the tongue'; it had some cartoon characters on it to appeal to children and I though to myself "That would be a perfect way to get some endocrine disruptors directly into children's mouths on a daily basis"... I did a search and guess what? Do I need to say it, you conspiracy theorist!?

Now this story about children's headphones...

Now consider all this in the context of declining sperm counts and media narratives which conveniently frame population control as the main solution.

I think one of the main problems is that regulations don't work. Under a capitalist system, the government cannot monitor everything that is being sold on the 'free market' or else it's not a free market anymore. The only way to have a functioning capitalist system is by getting rid of regulations and instead replace them with HARSH punishment. No more 'limited liability' bs! If a corporation does something bad; everyone should be fined, including the shareholders! You didn't know? Too bad! You should have done your research! I'm a dumb consumer and even I could figure out that the product contains endocrine disruptors!

It's just insane that we let it come to this. Bring back full liability! Just jail for executives and a fine for shareholders would help a lot.

There’s a discontinuity in this conspiracy theory: you haven’t explained how endocrine disruption pacifies the population (or anything else, besides disrupting their endocrine system).

As always, the more parsimonious answer is that plastic is cheap and that nobody is incentivized to determine the long term cost of usage/exposure. You don’t need a conspiracy to explain the outcomes here; profit motive suffices.

I know certain financial interests love this discontinuity because we can't discuss fully without getting into taboo subjects. I prefer to leave it to the reader to infer how hormonal dysfunction might lead to a passive demeanor.

> it feeds directly into my conspiracy theory about how people are being intentionally pacified using chemicals.

What is more likely? That there's a grand conspiracy involving thousands of people to chemically pacify the population. Or that products made with plastic are cheap and easy to make.

I don't know. I really wonder sometimes. For example:

Does adding an endocrine-disrupting 'tongue scraper' to children's toothbrush actually lower costs? Does this feature even add any value at all to the product? Why not clean the tongue with the bristles! The feature doesn't seem to justify the cost. All I can see is added marketing 'value'.

Also, people like to draw a distinction between "There is an intentional conspiracy by government officials to disrupt children's hormones" vs "Government officials know that children's hormones are being disrupted and they not only let it happen, they give the official seal of approval to the products, certifying their safety, when they are provably not safe in the aggregate if you look at population health statistics."

From my perspective, both cases are malicious and I don't see the point of trying to figure out which one is the case! It's a discussion of lesser evils and it seems like a deflection.

It's a conspiracy either way; in the second case, it's a conspiracy of neglect. A conspiracy of people getting paid to do nothing about a problem that they're claiming to be preventing! In the very best light, it's a false solution which acts as a placeholder for a real solution.

> The feature doesn't seem to justify the cost. All I can see is added marketing 'value'

You think marketing value does not justify added costs?

> Why not clean the tongue with the bristles!

Same reason you don't use the bristles to brush your hair. It doesn't work as well as a solution made for that purpose.

> Government officials know that children's hormones are being disrupted and they not only let it happen

Government officials define exact safety thresholds and rules for product materials to prevent health problems. That's why today we are debating trace amounts of something in plastic instead of lead in paint causing nationwide crime spikes and cognitive decline.

> When I read this sort of stuff, it feeds directly into my conspiracy theory about how people are being intentionally pacified using chemicals.

Why pacified? I don't really have "conspiracy theory" about this (as in, I don't think there's a group doing it intentionally), but I've idly wondered if the state of the world could be partially explained by things like microplastics and plastic chemicals leeching into our bodies. Kind of like the leaded gasoline/increased crime hypothesis.

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