"The markets are filled with quack remedies. While it’s possible a very small (a very very small) percentage do some good, the overwhelming majority do harm. I say this because even ones that don’t hurt you directly (like homeopathy which is just plain old water) still hurt because people who take these so-called "alternative" medicines aren’t taking real medicine, medicine that can help them.Of course, the alt-med quacks don’t see it that way. As a legal representative of one of these awful companies said:
In our view it’s a battle between the right to speak and the government’s censorship.
Hey, attorney guy: it’s not censorship if you are falsely advertising a product. There is a legal term for that: fraud."
-- Phil Plait, explaining why so many of TMR's posts are labeled "fraud", for Discover Magazine.com.
Actually it's even worse than that TMR. Even a lot of mainstream medicines don't really work as advertised but the drug companies want them sold. And a lot of mainstream health advice is crazy - like the bizarre campaign by the British Government to persuade everyone that salt is poisonous - I mean how can that remotely be related to reality?
ReplyDeleteThe problem is that the new-agey `What I believe is real' ethos has infected areas which - superficially - appear to be mainstream science.
Seems to me it means that you must become skeptical to the point of paranoia in any situation lest you're taken in by the madness.
These really are the End Times I think. The lethal combination of stupidity and venality are extinguishing the light of reason. The lights are going out but nobody realises they can't see any more because they're too busy daydreaming in their own fantasy world.