My life would be a lot easier and better if, when I searched for a health related subject, the search engine only looked at the sites of large, reputable hospitals and government health organizations.
James Petrosky: I don't want your natural, I don't want your home remidy, I especially don't want your spirituality. I just want to know a handful of possible reasons why my mouth has tasted bitter for weeks.
I reflected on this on September 1, 2024
I was writing a post about the evils of complementary and alternative medicine and my power went out 😮
Coincidence? I mean, yeah, probably, those fiends are too busy finding cancer patients to take advantage of
James Petrosky: Got an issue with my fundamental point here? I encourage you to go do some good quality research. I'm not available to argue about to ❤️
James Petrosky: If it makes you feel better, new agers and faith healers are similarly problematic. Also not debating this.
Ron: Not enough is made of the fact that people who push that crap are actively preventing people who need real help from getting it in time to matter. Evil indeed.
James Petrosky: Ron I was reading my memories and it apparently took less than a day for the algorithm to serve up this kind of stuff to me. Skepticism has long been one of my interests, so I'm okay, but not everyone would be
Its been a constant stream of fake medicine, weird new age bullshit ("energy healing"), natural nonsense and, the most frustrating to me, faith healers, for the past year. Mostly on Facebook ads, although genuinely a lot less than I expected, and while Facebook is really bad about taking down con artists, their block function seems to work in a very absolute way. I don't see a lot of objectionable cancer stuff on Facebook anymore.
On the wider internet, things are more dire. Google is terrible about letting you block dangerous advertisers, and the place I spend the second most time is YouTube. Google ads power much of the rest of the internet, too, making it often difficult to navigate.
Its all very frustrating, because even though some of these clowns might genuinely believe in what their doing (new agers and natural fanatics are generally in this camp), the whole lot of them get a lot of people killed. I devoted much of my adult life to scientific skepticism, which puts me, personally, in a good place when it comes to these people. I've seen their claims, often am familliar enough with their products to know if they've been properly tested, and if that testing reflected well on them (none of the things I listed pass these tests). And, if I don't know their products and claims, I have a strong network of people who I trust and who I can ask.
None of which helps the people who were not fortunate enough to be exposed to skepticism. Or those who grew up in the church, and think seeking out real medicine is equivalent to questioning their faith. Or people who's support group is made up of those well meaning frauds who still get people killed.
I want a call to action, to tell you to write your MPP/MLA to kick medical fraudsters out of the medical system, and your MP to put these con artists in jail. But their lobbies are far, far too powerful, because their lies are too profitable. The best I can reasonably hope for is that we can save a few of our most vulnerable from wasting their time, their money and, in the case of people like me, what little life they have left on dangerous charlatans.
The following was originally posted August 30, 2022
If your wondering how fast advertisements for nonsense natural remedies take over your feed, it's within hours (maybe quicker, I was at work and not paying full attention).
I've already blocked and reported a half dozen.
Right now I'm still in a position where I can laugh these off, block some scammers, and move on. If I start to break, someone please just point me at Science Based Medicine to set me straight again ❤️
I reflected on this on August 20, 2023
If your wondering how fast advertisements for nonsense natural remedies take over your feed, it's within hours (maybe quicker, I was at work and not paying full attention).
I've already blocked and reported a half dozen.
Right now I'm still in a position where I can laugh these off, block some scammers, and move on. If I start to break, someone please just point me at Science Based Medicine to set me straight again ❤️