Sometimes we get it wrong too !

As one of our founders reminds us: “It’s important to face life with a good deal of humility. I’ve found that out in flying–I may have 15,000 hours or so of flying all kinds of different aircraft but the only important hour is the one in front of me. And if I get too high-minded in life, the wonderful God of my understanding will find a way to knock me off my high-horse and bring me back down to Earth.”

We often write about the danger of rhetoric or psychological manipulation. Terms like ‘weapon of war,’ ‘universal background check,’ ‘assault-style,’ or ‘gun violence’ are used to provoke a psychological response to target a non-living thing instead of rightfully targeting bad behavior. Or terms like ‘decarbonization’ are used (conjuring a mindset of something dusty and dirty rather than life-giving CO2) to perpetuate the ‘climate change’ scam. And then used to manipulate people to pass laws restricting the thing rather than the behavior (which is usually already illegal). Thus punishing only ‘the good guys’ and making the problem worse; providing an ever increasing downward spiral for miscreants to write and enforce laws (and suck up resources/bolster their power base).

As such, we regret when WE fall into a similar trap.

We’ve used the term ‘fossil fuel’ on several occasions. It was pointed out to one of our associates that not only is this incorrect, but a psychologically manipulative term as well. While the origin of the term is unclear, it is recorded as being used by chemist Caspar Neumann in 1759 to describe fuels that come from something akin (but not technically correct) to fossils; old stuff that has died and been morphed into useful fuel. But was later used by J. D. Rockefeller in the late 19th/early 20th century in an attempt to manipulate the price of oil (implying scarcity of supply which was wholly untrue–oil is the second most common liquid on earth second only to water). And during present day is used to imply a fuel that is not only scarce but also outdated (who likes being called an old fossil ?!?). With a manipulative sense of obsolescence projected into their use. This is obviously not true — hydrocarbons will be used as fuels (as well as to synthesize useful compounds for mankind) for our foreseeable lifetimes. And constitute some of the most useful chemical compounds on the planet.

We agree and regret our error. And pledge to be more vigilant in the future.

We will use the more correct term “hydrocarbon” or “hydrocarbon fuel” in the future.

And thank all for pointing out this error to our staff.