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Comment by rootusrootus | Hacker News Reader

> 'pollution' is [...] politically charged.

If I ever needed to know how tribal our society has become, here it is. Pollution now has a varying definition depending on if you are left or right. Jesus.

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I was wondering where the side of "what if we reduce pollution for nothing???" would move the goalposts. I have no idea what would convince these folks to reduce pollution.

The sad thing is when people don't lean towards a particular political orientation based on what they believe but choose what to believe based on their political orientation.

"political" means more than left and right.

Pollution has a different interpretation depending on your body composition. Some microbes thrive on Nitrogen Oxide.

Nobody said anything about left or right, just that it was political.

Remember all the headlines about "California fails to meet air quality standards?" .. Usually that's because of particulates, ie pollen.

> If I ever needed to know how tribal our society has become

At what point of history have humans not been tribal?

Yes, there has always been some tribalism. But I am old enough to recall when the fact that you were Democrat or Republican was a secondary bit of information, not the deciding factor in who your friends and family were.

I really don't see how you can use the word "some" here -- tribalism is ingrained at us. See: Racism, the Halocaust (prejudice against Jews), Nationalism, any set of kids on a playground.

He was probably only referring to the situation in the US, where the political polarization (and tribalism) has undeniably increased in the last decades.

It has a varying definition because Leftists lost touch with reality along time ago, and it has spread into every part of the party doctrine.

How can you assert common definitions when Leftists wholly embraces relativism, where you can deny objective facts and substitute your feelings as facts, and use those feelings as justification for literally anything?

it's not entirely new, we've been in Mad Max territory for a while

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_coal

shiny and chrome!

It goes further than that. Pollution can also be racist as some races pollute more than others. I’ll let you guess which one.

Tbf everything has always been politics. How we handle issues are a social discussion..

That said, this is a definition problem… which used to be agreed upon lol. The issue is one political party is trying to use the term “pollution” to enact policy changes; so it becomes political and definitions change, etc in a fight for power.

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