# Good Ideas Killed By Association **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 7, 2014, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-ideas-killed-by-association/706552 "2014-12-07T06:46:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Alley\_Dweller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alley_dweller/32/430_2.png) [@Alley\_Dweller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alley_Dweller)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2014, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-ideas-killed-by-association/706552/21 "2014-12-08T19:19:35Z")
Someone had a good idea that insurance should cover the cost of end of life counseling with your private doctor. That of course became associated with government death panels and dropped like a hot potato (in the United States). ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2014, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-ideas-killed-by-association/706552/22 "2014-12-08T19:26:35Z")
Most nights, my parents sleep under a quilt made by my great grandmother. It was probably made in the 20s or earlier, and it is festooned with swastikas. To my knowledge, my great grandmother had no Native American ancestry. She just wanted to make a quilt with Native American symbols. The arms of the swastikas on the quilt do at least turn the opposite direction from the Nazi swastika. ---
**Author:** ![Icarus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icarus/32/72_2.png) [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2014, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-ideas-killed-by-association/706552/23 "2014-12-08T20:26:40Z")
I think I am going to be stretching the rules a bit - I find that in the US, we flat out reject some very sound, straightforward ideas because…well…they’re European! (And if it’s European, it must be just awful, yucky poo.) [ul] [li]The Metric System - They kinda tried half-heartedly back in the '70s, but it all died on the vine.[/li][li]Universal Healthcare - Nope (crosses arms) not gonna happen![/li][/ul] I mean really, join the rest of the world. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2014, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-ideas-killed-by-association/706552/24 "2014-12-08T22:40:02Z")
> [@Bayard](#): > > Most nights, my parents sleep under a quilt made by my great grandmother. It was probably made in the 20s or earlier, and it is festooned with swastikas. To my knowledge, my great grandmother had no Native American ancestry. She just wanted to make a quilt with Native American symbols. The arms of the swastikas on the quilt do at least turn the opposite direction from the Nazi swastika. My grandmother, an American Jew, made a lovely needlepoint tablecloth as a teen. It is covered with hundreds of little swastikas, each carefully sewn by her. I sometimes use it to cover my bridge table, but always feel I need to explain its origin. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2014, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-ideas-killed-by-association/706552/25 "2014-12-08T23:11:34Z")
The proliferation of health-related woo has made it harder to discern good ideas from bad ideas. About ten years ago, my mother was seeing one of the holistic/naturalist practitioners to treat some health issues. Suddenly every other food was a “trigger” food for her asthma. She was a firm believer in her special alkaline water and magical magnetic bracelets. Crazy stuff. But not all of it. She had identified sugar/refined carbohydrate as a “trigger” for her asthma and arthritis. Of course this made us all roll our eyes, because it just sounds made up. But turns out she was onto something. ---
**Author:** ![Waymore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/919ad9/32.png) [@Waymore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waymore)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2014, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-ideas-killed-by-association/706552/26 "2014-12-09T04:52:08Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > Socialism. Elaborate ---
**Author:** ![Waymore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/919ad9/32.png) [@Waymore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waymore)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2014, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-ideas-killed-by-association/706552/27 "2014-12-09T04:54:31Z")
> [@grude](#): > > I’m not gonna lay out a GD level post here, but even into the modern day I find state’s rights usually is invoked and upheld on odious crap, but should a state want to allow their citizens some freedom suddenly the commerce clause or some loophole is found to disallow it. > > Shakes fist at supreme court. > > (kind of a lefty libertarian) Do you mean marijuana legalization? ---
**Author:** ![usedtobe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2014, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-ideas-killed-by-association/706552/28 "2014-12-09T06:35:38Z")
> [@Waymore](#): > > Elaborate 100 years ago, San Francisco had a Socialist government. It: Built Golden Gate Park. The structure near the carousel was called "The Woman’s Building. It has an original ramp and the floor is several feet above ground. The ramp was for baby carriages and the elevated floor provided privacy for nursing. Bought the Hetch Hetchy Valley (next door to Yosemite), dammed it and built an aqueduct to the city. It operates on gravity the entire distance - no pumps. They also bought the Crystal Springs in San Mateo County - the only source of water on the peninsula. SF sells the water to San Mateo. Among other things. But now “Socialism” really means “Stalinist Communist” and is rightly denounced by all right-thinking Americans. le sigh… ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2014, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-ideas-killed-by-association/706552/29 "2014-12-09T15:25:19Z")
Various food sensitivities to things like gluten or lactose or MSG. I realize there are some people who have legitimately serious physical problems with these substances. But there are also people who just claim these conditions to excuse their general fussiness or to call attention to themselves. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2014, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-ideas-killed-by-association/706552/30 "2014-12-09T15:35:02Z")
> [@usedtobe](#): > > But now “Socialism” really means “Stalinist Communist” and is rightly denounced by all right-thinking Americans. > > le sigh… Well, you nailed it with the last: for too many who might otherwise be open to socialist ideas, the notion is tainted by association with the rather overbearing French/Spanish contingent. My focus includes a related concept developed mostly by French Socialists!™ and I have to work to dissociate the valid notions from the gallic table-pounding. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2014, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-ideas-killed-by-association/706552/31 "2014-12-09T15:37:58Z")
Men who like babies and small children. I haven’t held a baby in many years; with no grandchildren on the horizon it will probably be a while yet. I’ve been in a number of situations where a wee one was passed around by the women, but without someone making an assertive offer to me it’s just no longer comfortable to even show any interest, much less ask. (And yes, I have had a few encounters where a mother all but shoved her infant into my arms, maybe from knowing it had to be that way. I appreciated it.) ---
**Author:** ![Recusant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@Recusant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Recusant)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2014, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-ideas-killed-by-association/706552/32 "2014-12-09T16:17:18Z")
The guillotine. Here’s a form of capital punishment that (unlike hanging) is really, really hard to screw up; that quickly and reliably kills its victims, and is (I assume) quite a bit cheaper to operate than most other forms of execution (it certainly would be nowadays). Completely killed (in the court of non-French public opinion, anyway) by the crazed excesses of the Reign of Terror. Interestingly, technology can address one of the few real downsides, the concern over pain: there’s no real reason we have to rely on gravity to accelerate the blade; we could use pneumatic acceleration. Still not enough? Magnetic acceleration! Prepare the Gaussotine! ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2014, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-ideas-killed-by-association/706552/33 "2014-12-09T17:22:58Z")
> [@Recusant](#): > > The guillotine. Here’s a form of capital punishment that (unlike hanging) is really, really hard to screw up; that quickly and reliably kills its victims, and is (I assume) quite a bit cheaper to operate than most other forms of execution (it certainly would be nowadays). Well, tying a few kilos of C-4 around an executant would work even more efficiently and in the blink of an eye. But if there’s to be any public support for capital punishment, the methods need to be gore-free, and I think decapitation gives all but the hardest of us the squicks. So I wouldn’t put the blame entirely on the RoTters. ---
**Author:** ![Recusant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@Recusant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Recusant)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2014, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-ideas-killed-by-association/706552/34 "2014-12-09T17:41:56Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > Well, tying a few kilos of C-4 around an executant would work even more efficiently and in the blink of an eye. > > But if there’s to be any public support for capital punishment, the methods need to be gore-free, and I think decapitation gives all but the hardest of us the squicks. So I wouldn’t put the blame entirely on the RoTters. ::Sigh:: C4, C4, C4- don’t you people know of any other explosives? Poison with cyanide, blow up with C4. In my day, we showed creativity with our murders, darn it! Yes, killing people with explosives is more time-efficient, but not more financially efficient- and that’s always part of the problem. And yes, the other big problem with the guillotine is that it makes a terrible mess, but in my above post, I’m working from the assumption that you’re going ahead with the whole ‘capital punishment’ thing. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2014, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-ideas-killed-by-association/706552/35 "2014-12-09T18:26:08Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > Men who like babies and small children. > > I haven’t held a baby in many years; with no grandchildren on the horizon it will probably be a while yet. I’ve been in a number of situations where a wee one was passed around by the women, but without someone making an assertive offer to me it’s just no longer comfortable to even show any interest, much less ask. > > (And yes, I have had a few encounters where a mother all but shoved her infant into my arms, maybe from knowing it had to be that way. I appreciated it.) Huh, I guess my husband is luckier. He loves babies, and tiny children. But luckily, we have friends who trust him with them. He was bouncing a baby for nearly half an hour on Sunday at the neighborhood Christmas party. Then, when the baby needed Mommy, he entertained two small girls with a marble rolling toy and some shape sorters. > [@Recusant](#): > > ::Sigh:: C4, C4, C4- don’t you people know of any other explosives? Poison with cyanide, blow up with C4. In my day, we showed creativity with our murders, darn it! > > Yes, killing people with explosives is more time-efficient, but not more financially efficient- and that’s always part of the problem. And yes, the other big problem with the guillotine is that it makes a terrible mess, but in my above post, I’m working from the assumption that you’re going ahead with the whole ‘capital punishment’ thing. If you have the right plumbing to handle the blood, I don’t see why it should make too much of a mess. Explosives – yes, that would be horribly messy, and kind of a nightmare for whoever had clean-up duty. Granted, I’ve never decapitated anything larger than a rat, but other than needing to collect the blood, it was actually quite tidy. A dead-bolt gun, like they use to kill horses and other large livestock would be another cheap, reliable, simple method. As for avoiding undue pain – some morphine or sedatives should do the trick. and if the doctor was just prescribing it for the pain, and someone else/some other method did the actual kililng, it probably wouldn’t be too hard to get both drugs and doctors for the purpose. I have often wondered why those states that do executions use such convoluted methods. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2014, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-ideas-killed-by-association/706552/36 "2014-12-09T18:52:42Z")
> [@Recusant](#): > > ::Sigh:: C4, C4, C4- don’t you people know of any other explosives? Poison with cyanide, blow up with C4. In my day, we showed creativity with our murders, darn it! Welll… WE know who’s on the payroll of the Semtex Consortium… ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2014, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-ideas-killed-by-association/706552/37 "2014-12-09T19:50:20Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > Well, tying a few kilos of C-4 around an executant would work even more efficiently and in the blink of an eye. > > But if there’s to be any public support for capital punishment, the methods need to be gore-free, and I think decapitation gives all but the hardest of us the squicks. So I wouldn’t put the blame entirely on the RoTters. This is why most states that have capital punishment use lethal injection. No blood. The convict just goes to sleep and never wakes up. The one I wonder about is the electric chair. I get that Thomas Edison basically conned the state governments into using it in an (unsuccessful) effort to discredit AC electricity. What I don’t get is why anyone kept using it. After maybe three executions, max, I’d think the guys in charge would look at each other and say “You know, this is pretty demented. Let’s go back to hanging, OK?” ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2014, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-ideas-killed-by-association/706552/38 "2014-12-09T19:55:18Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > I have often wondered why those states that do executions use such convoluted methods. Yeah, I’m really curious why in the light of the drug shortages, death penalty states haven’t just quietly moved to inert gas asphyxiation. More humane overall, and no gore or anything like that. Plus, it’s absurdly simple to get hold of nitrogen gas, since it’s used for welding, in medicine, etc… > **[Inert gas asphyxiation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inert_gas_asphyxiation)** > > Inert gas asphyxiation is a form of asphyxiation which results from breathing a physiologically inert gas in the absence of oxygen, or a low amount of oxygen, rather than atmospheric air (which is composed largely of nitrogen and oxygen). Examples of physiologically inert gases, which have caused accidental or deliberate death by this mechanism, are argon, helium, nitrogen and methane.\[citation needed\] The term "physiologically inert" is used to indicate a gas which has no toxic or anesthetic Ac... ---
**Author:** ![SandyHook](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dec6dc/32.png) [@SandyHook](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SandyHook)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2014, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-ideas-killed-by-association/706552/39 "2014-12-09T20:39:31Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > Any perfectly acceptable, but uncommon, English word spelled “…igger” such as _jigger_,\*\* _chigger_\*\*, or _snigger_, and of course _niggardly_. Please, that’s chigro. ---
**Author:** ![syncrolecyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f08c70/32.png) [@syncrolecyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/syncrolecyne)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2014, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-ideas-killed-by-association/706552/40 "2014-12-10T04:55:17Z")
In parts of the Southwest where swastikas as Native American symbols have a strong heritage, you still see them, sometimes in brickwork or in tiles. But this has certainly declined over time. The New Mexico State University yearbook was the swastika until 1983, when I gather the university just got tired of explaining why their yearbook had that name. [http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1346&dat=19830507&id=AAowAAAAIBAJ&sjid=iPsDAAAAIBAJ&pg=7178,3097670](http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1346&dat=19830507&id=AAowAAAAIBAJ&sjid=iPsDAAAAIBAJ&pg=7178,3097670) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-ideas-killed-by-association/706552.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-ideas-killed-by-association/706552.md?page=3)