Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community - View Single Post - The Anti GMO movement, is it the new Kony 2012?

troutman · 06-23-2015, 02:08 PM

Anti-GMO founding father Mark Lynas says internet trolls changed his mind

http://www.cantechletter.com/2015/06...nged-his-mind/

Lynas says the catalyst for his reversal was slightly more lowbrow: an internet troll. “The moment was probably when I published my last anti-GMO piece in the Guardian newspaper in 2008 and I’d just won the Royal Society Science books prize for Six Degrees: Our future on a hotter planet,” he said. “I was enjoying being celebrated as a trusted scientific authority. And the comments under my anti-GMO article said, ‘This guy doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about. He’s clearly not familiar with the science on the issue.’ That wounded me. So, I actually learned something from Internet comments. I realized that I had to shut up. Then I had to educate myself and start right back to basics.”

Lynas’s reversal came early in 2013, in dramatic fashion. At the Oxford Farming Conference, he delivered a 50 minute speech that was met with what he describes as “shocked applause”.

“It was a complete demolition, not just of anti-GMO but of the whole organic thing,” Lynas told the Guardian. “For a lot of people, it was an ‘Oh ####’ moment. They realised they’d been lied to, at a very profound level, by the very people they’d trusted.”

Good job Trolls!

06-23-2015, 02:08 PM	#445
troutman Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Crowsnest Pass Exp:	Anti-GMO founding father Mark Lynas says internet trolls changed his mind http://www.cantechletter.com/2015/06...nged-his-mind/ Lynas says the catalyst for his reversal was slightly more lowbrow: an internet troll. “The moment was probably when I published my last anti-GMO piece in the Guardian newspaper in 2008 and I’d just won the Royal Society Science books prize for Six Degrees: Our future on a hotter planet,” he said. “I was enjoying being celebrated as a trusted scientific authority. And the comments under my anti-GMO article said, ‘This guy doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about. He’s clearly not familiar with the science on the issue.’ That wounded me. So, I actually learned something from Internet comments. I realized that I had to shut up. Then I had to educate myself and start right back to basics.” Lynas’s reversal came early in 2013, in dramatic fashion. At the Oxford Farming Conference, he delivered a 50 minute speech that was met with what he describes as “shocked applause”. “It was a complete demolition, not just of anti-GMO but of the whole organic thing,” Lynas told the Guardian. “For a lot of people, it was an ‘Oh ####’ moment. They realised they’d been lied to, at a very profound level, by the very people they’d trusted.” Good job Trolls!