Asymmetric Delusions and Pragmatism
Sometimes I joke that to conservatives, the solution to every problem is to cut taxes; to liberals, the solution to every problem is to eat local. Of course, purported panaceas on both the left and right are snake oil, even if peddled by true believers. So, the other day I picked on my own tribe: foodies. To be frank, I have a love-hate relationship with the movement. It has thin and oftentimes paranoid underpinnings. But while a lot of things advocated by the movement are illogical or scientifically baseless (like the dangers of GMOs), the movement also strikes me as mostly harmless, and sometimes even beneficial. There are some important and disastrous exceptions, like the movement to kill golden rice, which could save the lives of millions and save millions more from blindness. But for the most part, the movement to "eat local," and all it's offspring, doesn't strike me as particularly harmful. Here in Hawai'i there are delusional ideas that we