Whether I have a reasonable explanation for this change or not doesn't change the fact that that comment was a simplistic caricature. I never claimed to know the full answer. But I am nearly certain it doesn't begin with those evil corporations literally trying to make people sick. Merchants of Doubt, which is a great book related to this subject, is full of stories about how cigarette and PFAS corporations like Dupont pulled all sorts of shady shit to cover up the harms their products caused consumers. At no point has it ever been suggested, either in that book or anywhere else that I'm aware of, that corporations did it on purpose to make people ill so they could what, make money through the healthcare industry? Touch grass.

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cluckindan a day ago | parent | next [-]

DuPont pulled shady shit because executives were heavily incentivized to maximize profits in the short term.

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avazhi a day ago | parent [-]

Ok? No shit?

That's not the same thing as literally trying to make people sick, as the original commenter said and as I was replying to initially. Being negligent is not the same thing as being malicious; intent matters. Even if I try to cover up a harm, that doesn't mean the harm itself was my intention. If you guys can't understand the nuance there then I dunno what to tell you.

	▲	cluckindan 21 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Leaving a valve open by mistake and accidentally venting toxic gas into the neighborhood is negligence. Ordering the valve be opened is malicious.
	▲	masfuerte 21 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		It's not negligence. Negligence is when you don't test product safety and ship an unsafe product without knowing it. You can reasonably argue this was the case in the early days of cigarettes. If you continue to ship a product after you know it is harmful you are deliberately causing harm.

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thrance 21 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

You clearly misunderstood what "if companies can freely poison everyone, profits go up" meant. It's not that the rich are poisoning people for its own sake and laughing manically to themselves. It's that removing regulations and lowering safety standards allows companies to recoup the money they were legally required to spend on upholding them, hence increasing their profits at the cost of public health. Which, I hope you'll concede, is a morally terrible thing to do.