Identifying with Cheap Clean Diesel

A modern product must be democratically cheap so everyone can use it. It must be clean, and have other incompatible traits that urge on disaster by stipulating committee definitions and mandatory compliance.

Diesel engine fumes can cause lung cancer and belong in the same potentially deadly category as asbestos, arsenic and mustard gas, World Health Organisation (WHO) experts said on Tuesday.
[Reuters]

Companies promoted clean diesel so consumers could feel good that their higher gas mileage wasn't harmful to the world they drive through, but this was just marketing. Nitrogen oxide levels produced by burning diesel fuel hadn't changed. Most diesel vehicles continue spew fumes like a traditional gas van used to purge dissidents and enemies of the state.

While exhaust catalysts have decreased total nitrogen oxides from petrol cars by around 96%, real-world tests show that pollution controls on diesel cars are not as effective. New diesels produce similar nitrogen oxides to those bought 15 years ago.
[Guardian]

Cheap diesel shows that requirements to produce the impossible are sure to fail. Companies can't admit failure to meet unattainable standards or price themselves out of the market with expensive technology, so faking seems initially better than admitting technical failure. They know they will eventually be caught, and consider that a better option.

It also reminds us that in modernity much is faked for appearance. When you can be anyone you want to be, and can shamelessly claim to have traits you don't possess, why not also produce any kind of test results you desire, even those which do not correspond to the matter being tested?

Clean diesel identifies as having low pollution levels and it is hateful, close-minded, and bigoted to deny its inner feelings.