It used to be that when you talked about Big Government conspiring with Big Pharma to use human beings as guinea pigs in bizarre medical experiments, people would look at you as if you were some kind of loon. "Oh, the American government would never do that," they'd say, smug in their self assurance that they are somehow ruled by compassionate, honest government operatives and corporate do-gooders who are always looking out for the public's best interest.
Imagine their shock when the thin veil of disinformation was lifted with last Saturday's announcement that the U.S. government was apologizing for intentionally infecting innocent Guatemalans with diseases so they could study the effects of antibiotic drugs.
Welcome to the real world, folks. In the real world, governments are the great mass-murderers of our world. Throughout human history, more human beings have been maimed, tortured and murdered by governments than by any other type of organization on the planet. And virtually all of that activity has been justified under the excuse that they were working to "make the world a better place."
