we can't let the collapse of civilization stop us from making the river look polluteder

  • TossedAccount [he/him]
    ·
    edit-2
    4 years ago

    I'm watching the NBC news and the live on-site reporter is attributing this to "that sneaky, sneaky plumbers' union". Was this even their decision?? Did everyone involved assume this was just harmless food dye or something? That's the only scenario I can imagine in which this isn't utterly horrifying.

    UPDATE: Yes, they do assume it's a harmless food dye.

    • invalidusernamelol [he/him]
      ·
      4 years ago

      It's a tradition. The dye was/is used to check for leaks in buildings by flushing the pipes with it and checking for green in the river. I don't really see how it could be any worse than city runoff and apparently the green coloration is from a reaction with pollution in the river because the powder is initially orange.

      For years it was some retired cop, but this year it was a plumbers union. So critical support for our union comrades doing something that most people seem to enjoy.

      • acealeam [he/him]
        ·
        4 years ago

        So critical support for ... doing something that most people seem to enjoy.

        not hating things? in my chapo?

      • TossedAccount [he/him]
        ·
        4 years ago

        No objections if it's actually harmless. But holy shit is it unsettlingly weird and American in the most garish way possible.

        • invalidusernamelol [he/him]
          ·
          edit-2
          4 years ago

          It's definitely unsettling lol, it's kinda weird how is only a few people that do it. Like for 60 years it was just one dude and his immediate family doing it with 2 boats, one with people sifting the dye in with flour sifters and another following to churn it up.

          Wild how something that seems so massive in scale is done by such a small group.

    • TossedAccount [he/him]
      ·
      edit-2
      4 years ago

      The studio anchor at the end of the video: "this feels like a semblance of normalcy."

      THIS IS A CORPORATE LOCAL MEDIA MOUTHPIECE'S IDEA OF NORMALCY WHAT THE FUCK

      Matt Christman was right. These suburban white people would destroy the world to save fucking Applebee's.

      UPDATE: Not that this isn't a fucking weird thing to do in line with the homogenization of all American culture, but apparently it is normal (annual even!) and assumed to be safe.