loulou24
On this particular topic, we in Europe are increasingly frequently getting a painful refresher.
Thanks for the link.
Why not?
Look, an increasing number of people (not just me) are realizing how detrimental to their life this little habit has been. Many wish they realized it sooner. And when they realize they are far from being alone [1], they naturally tend to think the effect of porn might be understated in our society.
I'm not judging anyone, if people enjoy it and it doesn't affect negatively their lives, good for them. And if I'm wrong and people like me end up being just a minute minority, then Great News!
But I really don't understand why I get downvoted for this and I understand even less this rambling about 'prudes'.
People just don't realize it precisely because we don't talk about it, people around don't notice it and you can keep the same pair of trousers (unlike when you drink too much soda).
I think that in a few years, opinion will shift and we'll consider porn as a public health problem.
I'm wondering if people here would react the same if "adult websites" was replaced with "added sugar".
Would people use arguments like
- kids will always find ways to become diabetic!
or
- I use to eat plums, I never had problems.
Which could be the difference between teenage curiosity and the beginning of a debilitating addiction (depending on the transfer speed).
I banged my head on this for months and finally had to acknowledge (on my birthday, to make it even more depressing) that there was no hope.
And that's really painful.
Plus the circumstances don't make it easy to deal with this extra feeling of loneliness.
The handling at Windscale was even worse. Even before the 1957 fire, the neighboring villages and countryside were getting contaminated daily without any authority doing anything about it.
But I think it's also well documented now that the Ukrainian communist local authorities could have handled the evacuation much better and much sooner. If only for having the tendency to wait for higher ranks from Moscow to take the difficult decisions for them.
Some criticize this, saying that it's not a reliable source. Personally, I agree with you that it's a master work really worth reading.
And I was frankly disappointed too by how the miniseries used Alexievich's work.
For instance, they turned the deeply poignant love story between a condemn fireman and her devoted wife into some empty crap in which both individuals are just oblivious to the drama in their life.
I don't even understand the logic! A Nobel price author gives you the most beautiful scene in which a bedridden dying hero remembers to offer flowers to his wife on Victory day...
... and you turn it into this?! Depressing !!
An article by two engineers critical of RMBK's design had been published long before. In 'Kommunist' no less (the Central Committee's journal).
Source: Adam Curtis documentary 'A is for Atom' (1992)
KGB censorship is not needed, societies rarely listen to what alarmists/cassandras have to say anyway.
> evacuation was swift and well organized;
This could be argued.
It was not swift: It took 36 hours for Prypiat to be evacuated, with people sunbathing and attending (dry) wedding parties in the mean time... The most elementary instructions (stay home, shut the windows) were not given for fear of appearing as "too alarmist".
And it was not that well organized: For instance, the buses used for the evacuation came from Kiev and were used immediately after on their normal routes without prior decontamination.
I'm not even going to talk about the handling of the May 1st, Workers day celebration, unnecessarily maintained despite alarming contamination levels in the atmosphere.
Source: Serhii Plokhy's book "Chernobyl: History of a Tragedy" (2018)
> Miners were enthusiastic and well compensated
I think it's difficult to convey now the level of patriotism in the mind of the miners and soldiers. Maybe courage has declined so much that our societies can't comprehend it anymore. I've read that soldiers were promised big compensations but didn't receive anything though (or maybe inflation ate it up).
For me the biggest problem was the usual naive way scientists and science are presented in movies. The know it all, all rational super human hand-bound by obscurantist authorities.