• CountryRoads [fae/faer,it/its]
    ·
    4 years ago

    Because the Flint water crisis was entirely caused by privitization, and admitting that is political suicide. Flint had perfectly fine water for decades. It only had issues when in 2014, in order to save money, they switched from getting water from Lake Huron, 50ish miles away and subcontracted through Detroit's water system, to getting water from the Flint River.

    Everybody in Michigan knew that the Flint River was completely toxic due to industrial pollution. I grew up in that area, and no one I knew would even swim in the Flint river or eat fish from it, let alone drink from it! The change was promoted by budget cuts, though, so they naturally skimped on the extra treatment necessary to make that toxic sludge potable for humans. It was so fucking bad that GM had to switch water supplies at their plants because the water was corroding car engines, but government officials claimed that it wasn't a public health issue!

    • OhWell [he/him]
      ·
      4 years ago

      This is true, but it looks even worse on Democrats. They came in and promised to fix all this and then did nothing.

      Any time someone mentions "harm reduction" with that party, I am reminded of when Obama came down there and pretended to drink their water. He told them it was fine and then left. They had so many chances to actually do something but refused. We see you, we hear you, and we don't care - that's their message.

      • CountryRoads [fae/faer,it/its]
        ·
        edit-2
        4 years ago

        It's incredible to me because again, everyone fucking knew that the river water was poison after decades of industrial/agricultural pollution. There was absolutely zero accident or whoopsie or "we tried and failed". They intentionally switched the water supply from adequate to "too corrosive to manufacture cars" knowingly because whelp, we just gotta tighten the belt :shrug:

        • NonWonderDog [he/him]
          ·
          4 years ago

          And then there were stories for months about people complaining that the water wasn't potable, and just being told by their government to stop being precious babies about the taste. All before the lead poisoning was confirmed.

    • ThisMachinePostsHog [they/them, he/him]
      ·
      4 years ago

      This is 100% the case. The Flint river is disgusting af and it's a common joke in the area that it's a big dumping ground for stolen cars and sex workers.