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Tags alternative medicine , medical conspiracies

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Old 19th March 2014, 02:08 PM   #1
blutoski
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Survey: Half of Americans believe in at least one medical conspiracy theory

Select findings:
  • 37 percent believe the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is preventing access to natural cures for cancer and other diseases because of pressure from drug companies.
  • 20 percent believe doctors and the federal government continue to push vaccinations even though they know they cause autism and other psychological disorders.
  • 20 percent believe health officials know cell phones cause cancer but are doing nothing because large corporations won’t let them.
  • Smaller numbers believe chemical companies are dumping dangerous chemicals into the environment under the guise of water fluoridation; the U.S. is deliberately infecting black Americans with HIV; and genetically modified food is part of a secret program to shrink the world’s population.

Published in JAMA Internal Medicine (Allegedly - I can't find a link to it - ?)


ETA: Found it. [Medical Conspiracy Theories and Health Behaviors in the United States]
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Last edited by blutoski; 19th March 2014 at 02:10 PM.
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Old 19th March 2014, 04:45 PM   #2
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Wow. That's really a shame.
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Old 19th March 2014, 05:18 PM   #3
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Originally Posted by blutoski View Post
Select findings:
  • 37 percent believe the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is preventing access to natural cures for cancer and other diseases because of pressure from drug companies.
  • 20 percent believe doctors and the federal government continue to push vaccinations even though they know they cause autism and other psychological disorders.
  • 20 percent believe health officials know cell phones cause cancer but are doing nothing because large corporations won’t let them.
  • Smaller numbers believe chemical companies are dumping dangerous chemicals into the environment under the guise of water fluoridation; the U.S. is deliberately infecting black Americans with HIV; and genetically modified food is part of a secret program to shrink the world’s population.

Published in JAMA Internal Medicine (Allegedly - I can't find a link to it - ?)


ETA: Found it. [Medical Conspiracy Theories and Health Behaviors in the United States]
I found the percentages of the people who neither agreed nor disagreed even more discouraging.

As for one-in-five believing cell phones cause cancer, do they believe it enough to not use cell phones?


ETA:
Agenda 21 was passed in 1992 when the world population was 5.5 billion. Today it is 7.1 billion. Monsanto and the Evil Cabal appear to be comically inept.
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Last edited by Ladewig; 19th March 2014 at 05:24 PM.
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Old 19th March 2014, 06:54 PM   #4
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Survey results are so fun...and almost unbelievable at times. Like the Jay Leno man on the street questions.
I wonder what percent people believe doctors are in cahoots with undertakers?
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Old 19th March 2014, 07:22 PM   #5
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Originally Posted by Iamme View Post
Survey results are so fun...and almost unbelievable at times. Like the Jay Leno man on the street questions.
I wonder what percent people believe doctors are in cahoots with undertakers?
Oh, indeed they are: http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/story?id=1702722
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Old 21st March 2014, 04:09 AM   #6
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What's the percentage of USAians that believe in alien abduction, angel visitation and gods?
Some people are just gullible, ignorant and stupid.
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Old 21st March 2014, 04:57 AM   #7
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And some people wonder "why we bother" with such "stupid conspiracy theories" that "no one would really believe".
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Old 21st March 2014, 06:19 AM   #8
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Originally Posted by Horatius View Post
And some people wonder "why we bother" with such "stupid conspiracy theories" that "no one would really believe".
Oh Mein Gott, the U.S. is awash in Clayton Moore's.
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Old 21st March 2014, 09:26 AM   #9
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Yeah, this is my favorite comment on the matter...

"How’re we supposed to know what to believe when we’re presented with decades of peer-reviewed research supporting the consensus of the scientific community and then my aunt posts the exact opposite thing on Facebook?"

Half Of Americans Believe In Medical Conspiracy Theories
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Old 21st March 2014, 10:45 AM   #10
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Originally Posted by blutoski View Post
Select findings:
genetically modified food is part of a secret program to shrink the world’s population.

This looks like a huge failure to achieve the objective...
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Old 21st March 2014, 11:44 AM   #11
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Originally Posted by Degeneve View Post
This looks like a huge failure to achieve the objective...


NWO Kitty tried to tell them....


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Old 21st March 2014, 12:46 PM   #12
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Originally Posted by isissxn View Post
Wow. That's really a shame.
Seconded. I'd like to think the questions were faulty.
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Old 22nd March 2014, 07:58 AM   #13
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Originally Posted by marplots View Post
Agh! Curse you for that link. And curses to the reporter for his ignorant misuse of the phrase "begs the question".

I know that it's a losing battle, and that "begs the question" has lost its logical meaning decades ago, but it still bugs the heck out of me. It does not mean, "raises the question." It means, "assumes that which is to be proven," dagnab it.
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Old 22nd March 2014, 02:31 PM   #14
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Originally Posted by phiwum View Post
Agh! Curse you for that link. And curses to the reporter for his ignorant misuse of the phrase "begs the question".

I know that it's a losing battle, and that "begs the question" has lost its logical meaning decades ago, but it still bugs the heck out of me. It does not mean, "raises the question." It means, "assumes that which is to be proven," dagnab it.
I used to be irked by people saying fôr-tā' when they meant fôrt.

Then someone told me that people are no bigger than the things that upset them.

As Queen Elsa so lyrically put it: "Let it go."
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Old 23rd March 2014, 04:57 AM   #15
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I wonder what a Venn Diagram of this would look like. I'm willing to bet you'd see a lot of overlap.
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Old 23rd March 2014, 09:12 AM   #16
marplots
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Originally Posted by Donal View Post
I wonder what a Venn Diagram of this would look like. I'm willing to bet you'd see a lot of overlap.
That's only because the Venn are in on it.
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Old 24th March 2014, 11:42 PM   #17
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Originally Posted by CastorTroyy View Post
Yeah, this is my favorite comment on the matter...

"How’re we supposed to know what to believe when we’re presented with decades of peer-reviewed research supporting the consensus of the scientific community and then my aunt posts the exact opposite thing on Facebook?"
But, but, there are a couple incidents of fringe scientists making misleading claims or fudging evidence... Thus science is invalid!
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Old 25th March 2014, 09:31 AM   #18
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Originally Posted by rommelrommel View Post
fringe scientists ... fudging evidence
True.

I am trying to find the corresponding word to describe what the alt-med folks do to evidence.

"what fringe scientists do to evidence" is to "what fringe alt-med folks do to evidence" as "fudging" is to " ? "
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Old 25th March 2014, 10:18 AM   #19
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Originally Posted by Ladewig View Post
True.

I am trying to find the corresponding word to describe what the alt-med folks do to evidence.

"what fringe scientists do to evidence" is to "what fringe alt-med folks do to evidence" as "fudging" is to " ? "
"...describing the virtues of my penis."
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Old 25th March 2014, 10:24 AM   #20
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Quote:
37 percent believe the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is preventing access to natural cures for cancer and other diseases because of pressure from drug companies.
This one I do believe.
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Old 25th March 2014, 10:30 AM   #21
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Originally Posted by marplots View Post
That's only because the Venn are in on it.
Oh, well done.
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Old 25th March 2014, 05:57 PM   #22
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Originally Posted by NoahFence View Post
This one I do believe.
I don't, I have yet to see any evidence. Did someone confess? Paper trail?
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Old 25th March 2014, 10:28 PM   #23
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Originally Posted by Ladewig View Post
Agenda 21 was passed in 1992 when the world population was 5.5 billion. Today it is 7.1 billion. Monsanto and the Evil Cabal appear to be comically inept.

Oh no, no, no. They want the population to go up first so the decline will seem even more impressive! Remember, the truly evil bad guys don't just want to do evil, they want the evil to look spectacular! An evil genius without loads of flash and style? Unthinkable!
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Old 4th June 2014, 08:32 AM   #24
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NPR did a story on this topic this morning. They claim 50% of Americans believe in at least one conspiracy, not just medical conspiracies.

http://www.npr.org/2014/06/04/318733...iracy-theories
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Old 23rd June 2014, 07:21 AM   #25
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This thread is one half sad.
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