Edison shocked animals with AC to disprove Tesla, trying to prove that DC is safer. That is fact. However, the article already states in the beginning:
Edison’s link to the death of Topsy the elephant may not be entirely grounded in reality.
As I posted a while back, this is a rumor that comes along often, The killing of Topsy was done by her handlers as they wanted to get rid of her, they could not handle her anymore after an incident with her original handler. The film of the killing was released by Edison films yes, but Topsy was killed a decade after the war of the currents, and Edison wasn't even in charge anymore of the company after the merger with General Electric. He wasn't present during the electrocution of Topsy, did not have any electric business anymore, and again there is no evidence whatsoever that he was involved.
I learned about the killing of Topsy because I am very interested in the life of Nicolai Tesla and his inventions. I dislike Edison because imo he did Tesla wrong, but I learned quickly that the most despicable thing attributed to him is very likely not true.
Man literally invented the electric chair entirely to showcase how bad going out this way is, and the psychopaths of the prison industrial complex wonder why people are becoming sceptical of the notion that the death penalty can be administered in any way that isn’t cruel and unusual.
The whole point of punitive death is to be cruel and unusual to the alleged transgressor, to offer their corpse as a blood sacrifice on the altar of sadistic vengeance to the victims or the next of kin thereof
Quick and painless execution was solved long ago. Shotgun from behind them. Like a light switch turning off. But it is rough on the guards.
The real problem is we keep finding innocent people on death row. People that SCOTUS can’t even hand waive away. Until recently SCOTUS just up and ruled that new evidence can’t be considered by federal courts. So now innocent people on Death Row are pretty much just relying on the good will of the governor.
So yeah, we know we’re killing innocent people and we refuse to stop.
The more you read about that shithead edison, the worse it gets. The asshole acted with an impunity that defies modern logic.
As it was, there was no social media and our current sensibilities back then, information took much more effort to spread, so way too many people have revered him as some sort of saintly hero. Word didn’t spread about how narcissistic and petty, how cruel to the point of savagery, he was.
That goes ditto for Marconi, his “billion-dollar innovation” consisted of stealing every academic research idea and design within reach, and patenting every single one as his own.
Of course there is. It may not be morally justified, but it’s still logical.
Their logic isn’t “We need to better society so that all may live in harmony”, it’s “I must control as much as possible to stave off the inevitable nothingness of death”.
Assuming all things that are repugnant to you have no logic to them at all is an easy way to misunderstand and underestimate those who can do the most harm to you.
science.howstuffworks.com
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