a thoughtful web.
Good ideas and conversation. No ads, no tracking.   Login or Take a Tour!
comment
kleinbl00  ·  2781 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Planning the Purge: GOP life after Trump

Are you going to make an argument? Or sit back and cast aspersions? Because I've noticed you like to go "see that organization that conservatives have been defunding and castrating for decades? Look, they made a mistake, therefore THEY ARE COMPLETELY WORTHLESS" and it's bullshit.

You're better than that, rd95 is better than that, we're all better than that.

I think you've never interfaced with OSHA. I think you don't understand that workplace safety isn't about how many people are dying it's about safety and health. OSHA, for example, regulated asbestos. They regulated welding. They regulated noise. Because while everybody knew all this shit was dangerous, OSHA regs for noise exposure (for example), predated civil noise code by 15 years.

And see, my great uncle welded non-OSHA. He was blind by 50. I welded OSHA. I see fine. More than that, I have a functional respiratory system. And I've worked on non-OSHA sets, and I've worked on OSHA sets, and on a non-OSHA set one of my coworkers tore his fucking patella off.

Up'n'down, mutherfucker. A half dozen times a day. You can't see it from the photo, but it's 18" up, and then another 18" to the deck, and it's covered in frost, and that frost never melts, and I did it for five weeks, and he did it for one, because he spent the other four in bed rest. Not getting paid.

That's a picnic table. You're above it. It's night. It's 10 below. It's covered in frost and ice and it's 18" wide and it's unlit. And your job is to walk it a dozen times a day.

That truck? You need a CDL to drive it, by the way, but since we were on private property you don't, but then someone complained to OSHA, and the producers sat behind the poor kid they interviewed for two fucking hours to intimidate him into giving the right answers because you know what? The law exists such that OSHA complaints are handled that way.

Because OSHA is a failure, right? Throw it all out. Because while the fatalities are going down, they were obviously going down before so the whole artifice is a sham, right?

It's like the FDA. I mean, it's not like thalidomide was a big deal. The fact that it was never approved in the US is a blow against capitalism or some shit. And yeah. Vioxx. But between thalidomide and Vioxx were people such as -

well,

we've been here before.

See, I work in the world. Where dangerous shit happens. And I know how helpful it is to be able to say "sorry, man, I'd love to climb that 3-story scaffold without a safety harness to hang a microphone but, you know, it's against my union regs." Because I can say that - SOMETIMES - and sometimes I can't and for you to sit there and pretend there's no difference?

I mean, really.

I'm being polite. It's difficult. There are times where it is clear you are speaking from a position of ideology, rather than experience or knowledge, and those times are unattractive.

I've fallen off a 10' ladder. I didn't enjoy it. And I've been given tasks that, when handled poorly, lead to injury. And when it's abundantly clear that OSHA, for example, is a part of the equation, I don't get those tasks anymore.

And that's a cause worth fighting for.

Worth fighting YOU for.