Elon Musk draws fire for playing down impact of America’s atomic bombing of Japan: ‘Not as scary as people think’
Elon Musk draws fire for playing down impact of America’s atomic bombing of Japan: ‘Not as scary as people think’
‘It is not as scary as people think, basically,’ Tesla chief says
Elon and Trump make the worst possible argument for nuclear power I have ever heard:
"Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed but now they are full cities again," the multibillionaire owner of Tesla, SpaceX and X said.
"That's great, that's great," Mr Trump responded.
"It is not as scary as people think, basically," Mr Musk added.
They joked about nuclear power facing a “branding problem”.
“We will have to rebrand it,” the former president told Mr Musk. “We will name it after you or something.”
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Not defending these two unethical bullies in general, but on this particular paragraph they are totally taken out of context. It is obvious that they are not downplaying the atrocities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki but merely stating that nuclear energy is not bad since people are already living there again.
Then they are simply idiots. A nuclear bomb like Hiroshima and Nagasaki are much different than the meltdown in Pripyat. That still has dangerous levels of radiation.
Fair point. I should've made the distinction. But in any case, nuclear power plants aren't bad.
- Our Friend The Atom (1957), educational video by Disney.
- The Safest Source of Energy Will Surprise You, spoiler: nuclear energy is the safest.
- Titans of Nuclear, nuclear energy podcast. If you watched the series Chernobyl, I highly recommend this podcast's five dedicated episodes expanding on the misinformation it contains.
- Nuclear Energy, Zondag met Lubach.
- We have a solution for final disposal of spent nuclear fuel.
As I said in my original post, the problem is that it is the worst possible argument you can make in favor of nuclear power, not that there are arguments in favor of nuclear power.
I'm just addressing the fuss that's being created. They are clearly not saying “the bombings were not as bad as people think”, but the headlines and articles make it seem so.
By doing this we are using the same spurious tactics as they are. Inundating people with blown out of proportion news like this will desensitise them to step into action when it will actually be warranted—the boy who cried wolf.
They spew tons of misinformation/disinformation/fallacies that should be addressed instead.
No, he's saying nuclear power isn't as scary as people think because things got better in the cities that America dropped atomic bombs on.
Which is exactly what I quoted him saying.
I can't disagree with what you quoted, nor state that it is a good argument—it isn't, as was already pointed out and which I do agree with. I'm emphasising that they are not saying “the bombings were not as bad as people think”.