The thing is that nuclear energy could have been used to replace other things that uses oil energy instead. It could have lowered carbon emissions, instead it just adds to energy expense.

They would probably be alright if they had picked Trump as pope.

but I have a hard time believing there isn’t some sort of cost to pay for a magic pill that makes you skinny

There is a cost. It is called money, it is incredibly expensive, and they need to take it for life.

Combined with the trite “Fahrenheit is for humans, celsius is for water”.

Because this generational strife nonsense is the most succesful distraction from the actual class war which is occurring. If they can get people in the same exploited situation to fight amongst themselves for any reason except their economic status (age, skin colour, gender, nationality etc.), then the oligarchs have succeeded a little bit with their propaganda efforts.