Letter to the editor: In calling on antinuclear activists to "live up to their own ideals" and help find better ways of disposing of nuclear waste, advocates of nuclear power merely prove their own dishonesty. ████████ █████ ████ ███████████ █████████ ████ ███ █████ ███ ██ ███████ █████ ██ ████ ██ █████████ ███ ████ ███████ ███ █████ ██████ ██ ███████████████ ██████████████ ███ ███████ ██████ ████ ██ █████████ ██ ███████ █████ █████ ████████ ████ ███████ █████ ██████████ ██ ████ ██████ ███ ████ ████████ ██ █████████
The author concludes that people who call on antinuclear activists to “live up to their own ideals” and help find better ways of dispoing nuclear waste are being dishonest.
Why does the author believe this?
Because everyone (including the pro-nuclear) knows that antinuclear activists want to get rid of nuclear power as soon as possible.
But finding better ways of disposing of nuclear waste (as some people call on antinuclear activists to do) would probably make nuclear power likelier to continue.
The premises establish that asking antinuclear activists to find better ways of disposing nuclear waste would likely undermine their own goal, which is to end nuclear power as soon as possible. But even if this is true, and even if pro-nuclear people are aware of it, what makes it “dishonest” to call on antinuclear activists to find better ways of disposing nuclear waste? We don’t have any principle that allows us to call this kind of request dishonest. Let’s look for a principle that gets us from the premise to the conclusion. For example:
If you call on someone to do something that undermines what they want to do, you’re being dishonest.
Which one of the following ███████████ ██ ██████ ████ █████ ██ ███████ ███ █████████ ██ ███ █████████
If other options ███ ██████████ ██ ██ █████████████ ██ ████ █ ████████ ██████████ ██████ ██ ██████ ████ ███ ███ █████████ ██ ███████ █████
It is better ██ █████████ █ ███████████ ███████ ████████ ████ ██ ███ ██ ███████ ███ ██ █████████ ██ ████ ███ █████████████ ██████ ███ ████████ ██ █████ █████
If one is ███████ ██ ██████ ██ ███ ██ █ ███ ████ ████ ████████ █████████ █████ ██████ ██ ██ █████████ ██ ███ ████ ████ ██ ██ ███ ███ ████ ██ █████ ███████
It is irresponsible ██ ███ ██ ██████ ██████ ██ ████ █ ████████ ██████████ ██ ██ ██ ███ █████ ███ ██████ ████ ████ ████████ ██ ███████████
It is dishonest ██ ███ ██████ ██ ████ ██ ██ █████ ██████ ███████ █████████ ███████ █████ ███ ██████ ████████ ████ ███████