SJ • Young Ruler

The obvious trap that anti-GMO campaigners keep falling into is to base their argument around science instead of economics. That's a surefire way of losing the debate and making yourself look like some kind of Pastor Chris conspiracy kook. Look, I come from a family where if you close your eyes and throw a stone, it will hit a doctor. They're like ants. And I can tell you for free that doctors are some of the most arrogant and intransigent professionals you will ever meet, especially where it concerns things that fall within their scope which they don't fully understand - but they will never admit it to you. A doctor is like a pilot. They are trained to carry out specific tasks using a written set of instructions and parameters. Everything functions off checklists, instructions, and equipment that someone else created, and their job is to demonstrate knowledge of, and compliance with these things. It's not a doctor's job to question the funding, motive, or methodology behind a peer-reviewed research paper. It's not a doctor's job to question why certain research studies have NOT been carried out and why. A doctor's job, like a pilot's job, is to read what someone put in the book and follow the instructions built on this information. If a study conclusively proving that GMO food has negative health consequences has not been done because nobody will fund it, it's not a doctor's job to ask why. Just like despite Boeing whistleblowers as far back as 2014 having complained about the 737 MAX program, it wasn't the Lion Air pilot's job to determine whether the design of this aircraft posed any hazards. Their job was to follow checklist and do as they were told. The truth that you will never hear a doctor admit is that most doctors are not especially knowledgeable about things outside their narrow field of specialisation. And even within their field, the knowledge they have is the knowledge that the medical industry allows them to have. Until now as you're reading this, many American doctors and nurses are still taught that there are racial differences in how pain is felt, and that black women feel less pain than white women. As a result of this completely racist, unscientific, 18th century nonsense which nobody has removed from the books, black women in the US are routinely given less anaesthetic during medical procedures, and they are 7-12 times more likely to die during pregnancy and childbirth than white women. If you point this out to an American doctor, he will find excuses to deny the obvious or take offense at being queried by a layman who hasn't done 100 level Anatomy. Until Bill Gates funds a peer-reviewed study showing that this 18th century anachronism shouldn't be taught in medical school, and then lobbies the Department of Health to change its guidelines, they will keep defending it because that's what the books say. So as an anti-GMO campaigners, the dumbest thing you can do is start quoting obscure or suppressed studies to 'prove' to a medical professional that GMOs are bad. It's a fight you cannot win and you would be foolish to even try. By the time he whips out a paragraph of 5-syllable words that he learnt from his medical textbook, you'll be left blinking your eyes and looking like a dickhead. Bill Gates is a very smart guy. He has ensured that the entire medical research space cannot produce any research that contradicts the one that supports his financial interests, and typically nobody who wears a white coat dares to stand up to him. So stick to the economic argument, which is that one man cannot be allowed to privatise and monopolise an entire continent's food supply. Force them to remain on the defensive by using an argument that anyone can understand, and there is no logical comeback for. Stop losing and looking silly because you want to take on a white coat on their own turf. It doesn't end well. Stick to what you can prove and defend empirically. Leave the Pastor Chris nonsense out.