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posted by martyb on Wednesday May 15 2019, @11:43AM   Printer-friendly
from the did-you-see-that? dept.

In an observation piece at Scientific American, Ralph Nader (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Nader) writes about the decades of struggles by conscientious engineers—whether employees or consultants—who strive to balance professional ethics with occupational survival.

Nader writes:

[...] today's engineers are working in an improved environment for taking their conscience to work. Yet much more remains to be done to safeguard the ability of engineers to speak truth to the powers-that-be.

For starters, the word whistle-blower—once popularly meant to describe a snitch or a disgruntled employee—now describes an ethical person willing to put his or her job on the line in order to expose corrupt, illegal, fraudulent and harmful activities. Indeed, in the aftermath of recent Boeing 737 MAX crashes, the media routinely and positively refers to disclosures by "Boeing whistle-blowers." Congressional investigating committees and federal agencies have called for whistle-blowers to come forward and shed light on corporate misdeeds and governmental agency lapses.

To put it mildly, this was not always the case.

LINK: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/when-engineers-become-whistleblowers/


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by ikanreed on Wednesday May 15 2019, @05:46PM (7 children)

    by ikanreed (3164) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday May 15 2019, @05:46PM (#843904) Journal

    And heaven help you if you whistleblew on Bush, Obama, or Trump. Enjoy your foreverjail(or life in exile).

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 15 2019, @06:33PM (6 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 15 2019, @06:33PM (#843915)

    Yes, that's terrible. Clinton would mercifully allow you to suicide with six shots to the back of your head.

    • (Score: 5, Insightful) by ikanreed on Wednesday May 15 2019, @06:42PM (5 children)

      by ikanreed (3164) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday May 15 2019, @06:42PM (#843920) Journal

      I'm glad you believe a stupid conspiracy theory about a shitty candidate. It makes it so helpful to invent and believe fake bullshit about someone who has done a ton of terrible real bullshit.

      It's just so great that one person can monumentally misread an autopsy report, and then for the next 30 fucking years, people will just spout complete fabrications derived from their dumbassery. It's so good for my democracy. Nothing makes me happier than your dumbshit views being the primary available counter-culture to a shitty status quo that, say, makes "tough on crime" bills that ruin millions of lives.

      I'm just so fucking happy that the most popular alternative media to our shitty narrative-spinning corporate hell is fucking Inforwars.

      Just once, I'd like to see a cure for the illnesses in american democracy that's not a hundred times worse than the disease. Stuffed suit pseudo-intellectuals vs complete fucking morons. Those are your fucking choices.

      • (Score: 2) by Farkus888 on Wednesday May 15 2019, @11:02PM

        by Farkus888 (5159) on Wednesday May 15 2019, @11:02PM (#844011)

        Wow, you got modded troll for calling out the troll. I did my part for justice. By chance do you have a newsletter I can subscribe to?

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 15 2019, @11:59PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 15 2019, @11:59PM (#844027)

        Once is an accident. Twice is a coincidence. Three times is enemy action. Seventy is the Clinton campaign.

        http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/RANCHO/POLITICS/BODIES.php [whatreallyhappened.com]

      • (Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday May 16 2019, @02:43AM

        by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Thursday May 16 2019, @02:43AM (#844090) Journal
        There's always choice 3 - don't be part of the problem. I'm not going to burn democracy to the ground just because there's a crazy person in society somewhere. Freedom means among other things the freedom to be an idiot. Breath in a paper bag or something and chill. This AC is never going to believe non-crazy stuff because that would destroy his exclusivity. Might as well have someone make money off of that. It's the American way.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 16 2019, @06:37AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 16 2019, @06:37AM (#844160)

        Nothing makes me happier than your dumbshit views being the primary available counter-culture to a shitty status quo that, say, makes "tough on crime" bills that ruin millions of lives.

        Uh, you know Trump pushed for and then signed a law to do something about that, right? Van Jones even had to admit it, horrified to see his issue done by a republican. Kayne West was involved too, meeting Trump at the Whitehouse to discuss things before the law was passed. It's all pretty weird sounding, but it appears that Trump is your kind of guy.

        Trump is so weak on crime that he won't even lock her up.

      • (Score: 1) by shrewdsheep on Thursday May 16 2019, @08:15AM

        by shrewdsheep (5215) on Thursday May 16 2019, @08:15AM (#844179)

        I think the solution is quite simple: switch from majority voting to proportional representation, parties are going to actually disappear!