Thursday, August 25, 2016

This is an Actual Thing?

I could make that a label since I'm unaware of so much. I believe that being aware of so many things that you are unaware of is part of the means of preventing denialism. Note that I'm making no jokes about rivers in Egypt.


In the psychology of human behavior, denialism is a person's choice to deny reality, as a way to avoid a psychologically uncomfortable truth.  Denialism is an essentially irrational action that withholds the validation of an historical experience or event, by the person refusing to accept an empirically verifiable reality.  In the sciences, denialism is the rejection of basic facts and concepts that are undisputed, well-supported parts of the scientific consensus on a subject, in favor of radical and controversial ideas.  The terms Holocaust denialism and AIDS denialism describe the denial of the facts and the reality of the subject matters,  and the term climate change denialist is applied to people who argue against the scientific consensus that the global warming of planet Earth is a real and occurring event primarily caused by human activity. The forms of denialism present the common feature of the person rejecting overwhelming evidence and the generation of political controversy with attempts to deny the existence of consensus. The motivations and causes of denialism include religion and self-interest (economic, political, financial) and defence mechanisms meant to protect the psyche of the denialist against mentally disturbing facts and ideas.

Ooh look, they have GMOs, too.

There is a scientific consensus  that currently available food derived from GM crops poses no greater risk to human health than conventional food,  but that each GM food needs to be tested on a case-by-case basis before introduction.  Nonetheless, members of the public are much less likely than scientists to perceive GM foods as safe.  The legal and regulatory status of GM foods varies by country, with some nations banning or restricting them, and others permitting them with widely differing degrees of regulation.

However, opponents have objected to GM foods on grounds including safety. Psychological analyses indicate that over 70% of GM food opponents in the US are "absolute" in their opposition, experience disgust at the thought of eating GM foods, and are "evidence insensitive".

With lots of good links there to support the idea that GMOs are safe. Bah, what do scientists know.

A report issued by the scientific council of the American Medical Association (AMA) says that no long-term health effects have been detected from the use of transgenic crops and genetically modified foods, and that these foods are substantially equivalent to their conventional counterparts.  

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