• elbucho@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    Now, I’m not the conspiracy-minded type. I’m not going to say that aliens from some other part of the galaxy detected us as an emerging threat, and so sent a probe to our planet to spray stupid juice into the atmosphere. But if aliens from some other part of the galaxy DID detect us as an emerging threat, and sent a probe to our planet to spray stupid juice into the atmosphere, wouldn’t that explain, like, pretty much everything?

      • elbucho@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        You make an excellent point. Maybe Thomas Midgley, Jr. was actually an alien bent on the destruction of Earth’s galactic expansion potential. He was, after all, the person responsible for both leaded gas, and chlorofluorocarbons.

        • nova_ad_vitum@lemmy.ca
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          5 months ago

          He was a brilliant chemical engineer who ended up having the most tragic of legacies . He probably had a greater effect on earth’s ecosystem than any other single organism.

          • omega_x3@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            A terrible person who also died testing his own invention. So even though he caused massive damage to the Earth and humanity he also is responsible for the death of one of the biggest threats to the Earth and humanity so at least one thing he did was helpful.

            • CitizenKong@lemmy.world
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              5 months ago

              Just like heroic Adolf Hitler who killed the evil Adolf Hitler, sacrificing his own life in the process.

              Now I imagine an episode of Quantum Leap where Sam Beckett is Hitler in the bunker.

          • tyler@programming.dev
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            5 months ago

            Brilliant? From reading the Wikipedia page it sure does seem like he just wanted to invent stuff no matter how terrible it was for humans, including himself. And he made up fake press conferences to “prove” that it was safe. Completely unethical and idiotic.

        • TargaryenTKE@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          Midgley contracted polio in 1940 and was left disabled; in 1944, he was found strangled to death by a device he devised to allow him to get out of bed unassisted.

          Maybe, JUST MAYBE, there is some justice in this world