How the sugar industry shaped key government research about your teeth

Re:How the sugar industry shaped key government research abo... by aethertap on Friday March 13, 2015 @08:56AM (#9196859)

This is true, but I think it glosses over a bunch of important structure in society that isn't obviously connected to the voter. An analogy might be to say that ultimately, all of your behaviors come down to the neuron. While technically true, it ignores brain structures, hormones, emotional state, etc that are almost always more important in actual treatment than any attempt to deal with individual neurons.

Society is an enormously complex thing with all kinds of hidden influences and imbalances, and I think that saying "it's all the voter" tends to shut down thinking about the real alternatives for fixing problems. I'm not saying that I know what those alternatives are, just that they are likely to exist because we live in a society with structure. Since they're likely to exist, I think we should be looking for them and trying to address them in order to treat this kind of problem.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:How the sugar industry shaped key government research abo... by crusso on Friday March 13, 2015 @09:05PM (#9201118)

I think that saying "it's all the voter" tends to shut down thinking about the real alternatives for fixing problems

There are plenty of real alternatives for fixing problems that involve the voter: Education, access to information, encouraging cultural changes, etc.

In part, I was countering the previous poster who was blaming the 'Industry' boogey man, for why sugar has done the damage it has - but not mentioning the culpability of a government so easily influenced by money and then voters so easily influenced by politicians who don't have their constituents' interests at heart.

As you say, it's complex. But, we could talk about fixes on HN all day, but until voters elect smart politicians with integrity who will implement fixes, it's all just academic.

[ Parent | on HN ]