#quackery

[creature-wizard]

The thing about the statement "X woo therapy is based in science, actually!" is that it's not usually wrong, but it also overlooks the part where the woo uses the scientifically demonstrated thing as a springboard to launch itself into sheer goofiness. Like using the fact that different colors have been scientifically demonstrated to have an effect on your mood (and therefore, can somewhat improve your mental health and subsequently your physical health) to go and claim that the right color of light can cure cancer and diabetes and literally every ailment.

Same goes for the double slit experiment; the experiment showed that putting a monitoring device on the photons interfered in such a way that it changed the behavior of the photons. The woo crowd used that as a springboard to launch into the total nonsense of "your perception literally physically alters the world around you!" Like no Jan the presence of a monitoring device making photons act different doesn't mean we can all just believe our way out of chronic pain.

#science #pseudoscience #quackery #quack medicine #pseudomedicine #medicine #woo

[titleknown]

I feel like it says something that American fundie Christians constantly brag about their strict biblical literalism and how they don't "pick and choose" from their holy book

And yet, when you look into the origins of their beliefs 9 times out of 10 it turns out it's based on some very specific interpretation of scripture by some insane person from the 1800s reading the bible wrong.

And said insane person also said shit like "Shove a barbed electrum rod up your urethra to cure tuberculosis!" or something equally batshit.

#quackery #history #religion #christianity #american christianity #biblical literalism #the bible #theology #the great awakening #silly

[bethanythebogwitch]

I honestly can't believe it's legal to sell quack alternative medicine. Pushing fake medicine kills and maims people and there's nothing stopping people from selling it while claiming it's real. In other contexts, if you sell someone a fake product while calling it real, it's fraud but if its fake medicine somehow there's nothing we can do to stop it? Everyone pushing fro alternative medicine should be liable for murder if someone dies while taking their product if real medicine could have saved them and selling any kind of alternative medicine should be illegal. Its fucking insane that this is allowed.

#alternative medicine #quackery #pseudoscience #alternative medicine by definition #either has not been proven to work #or has been proven not to work #if it has been proven to work #its called medicine

[peashooter85]

What were these old timey jiggly machines and were they supposed to do?

Around the mid 19th century a popular medical theory was the idea that massage was good for health as it strengthened muscles through "passive exercise" and flushed the body of toxins. At the time Europe and North America was undergoing the Industrial Revolution, and there were many inventors who sought to invent new technologies to treat illness and care for patients. One of the pioneers of "mechanotherapy" was a Swedish physician named Dr. Gustav Zander, who invented series of exercise and health machines between 1850 and the turn of the century. Many of these machines actually were quite brilliant and would be the forefathers of modern exercise and weightlifting machines common in gyms today.

Among his many inventions were mechanical belt vibrating machines that were to take the place of human hands for delivering massages to patients.

Dr. Zander intended his belt vibrators to be used for patients who were badly crippled, injured, paralyzed, or bed bound in order to maintain muscle tone and prevent muscle atrophy. However around the early 20th century medical and fitness quacks began to invent and patent their own machines claiming that they could either cure any disease or that they could spot reduce fat and build muscle. They especially became popular as a muscle building and fat removing machine due to the allure of being able "exercise" without actually having to exercise. Many companies who manufactured these machines marketed to this allure.

The main theory behind these machines, or at least the main theory marketed by exercise belt manufacturers was that the vibration caused by the machine would physically breakdown fat and flush it out of the body. Thus loop the belt around your waist and it would break down that beer belly giving you a toned core. Loop it around your chest and it will reduce those man boobs. Loop it around your bum and it will reduce your fat bum giving you a muscular bum. This of course is all a load of humbuggery, and at best all the these machines did was make people look silly in the gym.

Regardless of their effectiveness, these vibrating belt exercise machines skyrocketed in popularity, especially the 1920's with increased access to electricity and an unprecedented boom in wealth. They could be found in every gym, health spa, and even in people's homes. Popularity declined during the Great Depression and World War II as declining wealth during the depression and lack of resources during the war stunted production and availability. They made a comeback in the 1950's and maintained some popularity into the 1960's. By 1970 they finally died out and never came back into popularity again.

Ha! Just kidding. While old timey belt vibrating belt exercise machines have gone extinct, today in the Year of our Lord 2022 there are a wide variety of vibrating and electro-muscle stimulating machines which claim to be able to turn your flabby belly into six pack abs, give you bulging biceps, and a give you a firm butt all without any effort. The only difference are these devices are much smaller, much cheaper, and can be ordered with the click of a mouse. In our new digital age, what was once old timey humbuggery has merely evolved into modern day fuckery.

#history #health #fitness #medical quackery #quackery #humbuggery #fuckery

[vintage-tech]

Usually I see Pinkham's Compound in liquid form, but I came across a tablet bottle.

#antique #technology #medicine #quackery

[demi-shoggoth]

2023 Reading Log pt 16

The last books I read in 2023, and the least books I've read in a year since starting to keep track. But 80 books is still nothing to sneeze at.

76. Pandemonium: A Visual History of Demonology by Ed Simon. This book rules; it’s up there for best books I’ve read in 2023. As the title suggests, the book is primarily concerned with high quality reproductions of art of demons and hell in the Western tradition, organized by era, with accompanying essays discussing the role played by demons in culture and what they symbolize in literature, religion and art. These build to a crescendo, as the last essays are about the modern era as an Age of Moloch, where destructive, unrelenting consumption is the rule of the elite, which articulates feelings that I have had as a demon-obsessed ex-Christian for some time. It also talks about the Cthulhu Mythos as a post-modern demonology, which probably pisses ST Joshi off something fierce, so I give it props for that as well.

76a. A Curious History of Vegetables by Wolf D. Storl. “Curious” is an excellent word to describe this book, as its author is a nut. We’re talking, “consults astrological charts for planting certain vegetables” nut. Although the cover calls him an “ethnobotanist”, Storl is clearly a crank of the highest order—the introduction includes ranting about how vegetables are full of deva spirits, but GMOs are possessed by rakshasas. I was willing to read along for quite a while with this as a book about the magical properties and beliefs about plants—I got about halfway. But by that point, the author’s continual paranoia about using drugs as medicine, claiming that every vegetable is a panacea, and obvious disdain for scientific curiosity or little things like “evidence” got to be too much for me. That’s not me elevating him into a strawman, BTW. He goes into a lengthy rant about “The Shoemaker and the Elves”, talking about how scientists destroy magic with their curiosity and thus ruin the world. Blech.

77. Most Delicious Poison by Noah Whiteman. I’m a sucker for books about poison, and this is a good one. I think I’d still recommend Plants that Kill above this, but this is an excellent follow-up for the reader. This book talks a lot more about the modes of action of particular chemicals, and how chemicals fall into families of molecules that often have related properties. The book is one of those part science/part memoir nonfiction books that seem to have grown in popularity. The author was inspired to write it in part by his father’s death from alcoholism. So definitely go into it with a trigger warning in mind.

77a. Sex in the World of Myth by David Leeming. Abandoned after the Greece/Rome chapter. I abandoned it partially because it lumped Greece and Rome together and talked about their views on sex and sexuality as if they were interchangeable and consistent through the thousands of years of their existences, partially because the author is a Freudian. Life is too short to read books by Freudians. The specific line that made me give up was when the author defined all pornography as violent and exploitative. Blanket statement.

78. Household Horror by Marc Olivier. This is a weird one, even by the standards of “scholarly analyses of horror movies”, in that it looks at the horror movies it covers from the perspective of inanimate objects within them. Sometimes literally—the author discusses The Exorcist through the lens of Regan’s bed being possessed before she is—and sometimes figuratively—what does the exact make and model of the typewriter, and the reams and reams of hand typed text, say about The Shining? It’s witty and engaging, and an interesting way to view and review movies that, for the most part, have received a lot of critical attention already.

79. Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything by Lydia Kang and Nate Pedersen. This is a re-read; I bought this book shortly after it was released in 2017 and read it then. But, the podcast Behind the Bastards did an episode on radium quackery that used it as a source, and I was still stinging from having started and abandoned two crappy books in as many weeks, so I wanted something of a comfort read. Of course, my version of a “comfort read” involves gross medical malpractice and people poisoning themselves and others. I’m strange. The book is organized into chapters by subject (elements, animal products, vegetable poisons, etc), and is very well illustrated with vintage advertisements, engravings and photographs. There are more in-depth books about just about all of the topics covered here, but this is an excellent survey of the more shameful corners of medical history.

80. Words from Hell by Jess Zafarris. It’s a book on etymology! Namely, the etymology of profanity, slurs, sex, violence, drugs, crime, monsters… It’s a bit of a mixed bag in terms of theme, but is organized well within. A recurring topic is the hidden biases built into the English language, from “sinister” meaning “left-handed” to the classism built into words like “rascal” and “villain”. The author is good about discussing multiple hypotheses for word origins, and about when things are uncertain and unknown. And she’s a sex-positive WLW, which goes a long way towards giving me good feelings towards any book (an example joke: when discussing the shared root word of “vagina” and “vanilla”, she quips “no wonder they’re both so fun to lick”).

#reading log #etymology #botany #quackery #medical history #demonology #horror movies

[theexodvs]

Not one of Alfred Kinsey's studies could withstand anywhere close to the amount of scrutiny that has been applied to Andrew Wakefield's 1998 study without being retracted.

#alfred kinsey #Andrew Wakefield #Quackery #quacks #pseudomedicine #Pseudoscience #This is not a whatabouism #I categorically deny a link between autism and vaccines and have publicly denied such a link *on this website* several times #But if Wakefield is going to be laughed out of academia Kinsey should be as well

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

Apparently, everything we know about light, optics, biology and evolution is just a lie and a big conspiracy to... *checks notes*... sell you glasses.

As expected, behind every single "alternative medicine" grifter is a product they want to sell you.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/anti-glasses-influencer-samantha-lotus-says-she-can-heal-your-eyesight-for-dollar11

“You may have been told that you need glasses, but that’s actually a lie.” So says Samantha Lotus, a self-described “holistic master coach” and Canadian online wellness influencer, who says she can teach you to see clearly again for only $11. Lotus is offering her tens of thousands of social media followers the chance to throw away their glasses and heal the “spiritual, emotional, mental and physical reasons” behind their bad eyesight, according to an Instagram post. Lotus says she teaches “holistic multidimensional healing” methods and has already healed her own eyesight, so that she no longer needs glasses, according to her social media. In a post on Friday, Lotus claimed she had 338 people signed up to take her online masterclass. But there’s a catch: “If you’re closed minded and want to stay a victim, this is NOT FOR YOU,” she writes.

Someone actually paid to attend, "so you don't have to." After over an hour of ramble, it pivoted into selling essential oils and other nonsense.

#Samantha Lotus #Big Optometry #glasses #conspiracy theory #conspiracy theorists #eyesight #scammers #alternative medicine #essential oils #quackery #wellness #pseudoscience #pseudoscientific bullshit #holistic medicine #wellness industry #religion is a mental illness

[racefortheironthrone]

Are you familiar with Peter Turchin’s work and if so, what are your thoughts? Is he considered a serious historian?

After researching this guy’s bio for a bit, I can say that he’s not a historian - his PhD seems to be in Zoology - and this whole cliodynamics business seems to be a discipline that he invented in a brazen act of academic columbusing/academic imperialism. Historians do not consider him a serious historian, and nor do I.

The problem with Turchin’s entire academic project is twofold: first, there is not enough data to do the kind of precision mathematical modeling that he purports to do. When it comes to pre-modern history, there are huge swathes of time and space and human experience for which we do not have records, either because the records didn’t survive to the present, literacy rates weren’t high enough to produce the desired types and levels of records, or the literate classes simply didn’t consider worthy of being written down. When it comes to modern history, things are a bit better because modern societies tend to produce written records at an incomprehensible volume, but here the problem is that the sheer mass of records plus certain specialized problems in library sciences that are too complicated to go into in this post (but I’ll explain if someone asks me) means that only a tiny fraction of these records are digitized, let alone digitized in a way that they can then be put into a database and modeled upon. As my old professor Eric Foner put it during new major orientation: “the difference between ancient history and modern history is that in ancient history you know all your sources but there aren’t any, and in modern history there are tons of sources but you don’t know them.”

Second, even if there was enough data, trying to accurately and meaningfully model all of human history is a futile endeavor. This is something that we discuss in introductory theory courses - the complex interplay of historical forces and individual agency/contingency, the literally infinite number of factors that influence human society and behavior, and so on. The historiography of ideas is littered with failed attempts to construct total theories of history - the Hegelians, the Marxists, the objectivists (which isn’t the same thing as Randian Objectivism, it’s complicated and I’ll explain in another post if anyone really wants to know), huge swathes of sociology but especially the structuralists, significant swathes of political science and psychology, and oh my god so many economists. It’s pretty much a cliche at this point for social scientists to say they were inspired to become social scientists by childhood dreams of becoming a psychohistorian like Hari Seldon. The problem is that psychohistory is science fiction, it’s not real, and it can’t be real because humans are too damn complex and contradictory. It is a massive red flag that Turchin has explicitly compared cliodynamics to psychohistory; it’s like when some Silicon Valley disruptor starts talking about how their latest project was inspired by their favorite sci-fi series.

So yeah, this guy seems like a total quack.

#history #theory #theory of history #historiography #quackery #psychohistory #academia #academic columbusing #history of ideas

[pwlanier]

August J. I. Töpler Electrostatic Influence Machine,

Bakelite or early plastic stand with 13-in. dia. stationary disk in front of a rotating disc,

two stationary arms with combs and a center rotating arm with additional combs.

Bonhams

#gadget #gizmo #contraption #quackery

[flumptonbronzebottom]

From Nature’s Secrets and The Secrets of Woman Revealed; or How to Be Born an How to Live by J. H. Ruttley, M.D., 1875

I think he was doing it wrong…

#weird history #history #1870s #medical history #quackery

[dandyads]

Robinson's Turkish Bath Cabinet, 1908

Adjusted for inflation, this apparatus that cures 75% of all diseases would run you $400 in today's money.

#quackery #did anyone actually buy this #dubious medical claims #adjusted for inflation #1900s #1908 #vintage advertising

[dougielombax]

I think far too many people in Ireland are still susceptible to homeopathy and quackery.

Especially in light of the pandemic.

It’s deeply troubling.

I’m talking everything from hypnotherapy to placebo bullshit to homeopathy to alternative “medicine” to quack “cures”.

*BOOOOO!!!!! HYPNOTHERAPY!!!!!!!*

*MIRRORS LIE TWICE*

It’s sickening and deeply troubling.

#dougie rambles #personal stuff #ireland #vent post #fraud #quackery #lies #bullshit #placebo #hypnosis #stupidity #coronavirus #pandemic #gifs #mister manticore #monument mythos #analog horror #tangentially #mirrors lie twice

[mywifeleftme]

280: Reveen // Stop Smoking... Stop Over-Eating

Stop Smoking... Stop Over-Eating Reveen 1978, Reveen Recordings

Novelty record with a fab sleeve here, featuring hypnotic self-help suggestion courtesy of the Man They Call Reveen, an Australian-born magician who toured a trough through Atlantic Canada for 35 years. Due perhaps to the limitations of the LP format, Reveen spends the majority of each side of the record inducing the listener into a hypnotic state by telling you Hooow reLAXed Yooouuuu Arrreeee and COUNting DOWN in a DRONing CADEnce before rather briefly outlining what is bad about smoking and over-eating respectively and supposedly planting the suggestion you mightn’t want to do either of those things anymore. Reveen’s accent is kind of stuck in one of the middle stages of Animorphing between his native Australian and a poncy Received British accent, which makes everything he says funny. I’ve never been susceptible to hypnosis (…unless?), so neither side pulled me under and cured me of my ways, though the record is acceptable as ASMR and I conked right the fuck out listening to it this afternoon.

Reveen was both a mesmerist and a magician—I’m just old enough (41) to have possibly caught the tail end of his career, but never saw a performance. From what I can gather from the sparse clips online, he ran a very old school show, dressing himself in faux Eastern finery and no doubt reciting borrowed stage patter about having learned certain of his arts from Oriental mystics. His illusions look fairly stock, but he probably didn’t have to do more than the basics to thrill rural Canadian audiences in an era before widespread cable television and the internet. He’s largely forgotten these days, though his resemblance to Ricky from the Trailer Park Boys is the source of a running gag, but in his day his gently hokey mysticism was woven into the fabric of his adopted country, and a warm nostalgia still faintly clings to his powerfully coifed visage.

280/365

#reveen #magician #hypnosis #self help #quitting smoking #quitting overeating #therapy #quackery #atlantic canada #private press #vinyl record #kitsch #camp #magic #illusionist #asmr #sleight of hand #legerdemain #prestidigitation

[clatterbane]

CGMs' from a doctor's perspective in non-diabetics-discussion. And my question about influencers who discuss "spikes" and the misinformation spread to those of us who use CGMs.

Came across this in another sub; many people use CGM's who do not have diabetes and it's an interesting discussion about how people use this info without having the background knowledge of one's own endocrine system. I see an increase in people coming into diabetes subs to discuss "spikes" or "spiking their insulin" and thought this video is quite relevant to that discussion. How people are turning to disordered eating, or not understanding the absolutely normal functions (up and down) of their own pancreas. Also, I'm looking at the sheer amount of "influencer" discussing "spikes" and then spreading misinformation. This part of the video discusses misinformation of CGM within non-diabetic populations. thought it was quite interesting!

The relevant sections should start around 4.40 mins: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BUAIyGVlac&t=280s

EDIT: I think this is allowed in the sub-meant to be a discussion about CGM's and people without diabetes and how it can cause anxiety in people. If not allowed let me know. I am T1 and have heard these types of comments in real life, and them trying to compare their (non T1) data to mine etc.

Edit 2: the rest of the video is not relevant to this discussion. The CGM discussion is 4.40 to about 11 minutes.

I don't have the spoons to say much about this myself right now, but would also recommend the video link. I'm all for people doing whatever the hell they want with their own bodies--and everyone having access to the necessary technology!

But, things really have gotten this goddamn ridiculous with the fearmongering aimed at the conscientious walking worried well, feeding (haha!) straight off our society's fucked-up relationship with food and pervasive ableism. With such a variety of lucrative quackery attached to it. It's honestly pretty distressing to think about.

#medical stuff #quackery #ableism #diabetes #cgms #look out honey cause i'm using technology #alarmism #fearmongering #disordered eating

[vintage-tech]

Things I have learned from this 1942 advertisement:

If you poop regularly, you won’t catch so many colds.

Not only will Rawleigh’s Quinine Bromine Laxative Cold Tablets help you address the common cold, you will also be cured of malaria, constipation, and reality; sodium bromide is a hypnotic, anticonvulsant, and sedative.

Don’t forget your little brother, he’s huffing Vick’s Vapo-Rub laced with lavender and pine needles.

You can eat Mentholatum, with a twist of thyme oil and nutmeg on cedar leaves, or you can put it on your chest like a normal person.

There is such thing as synthetic mustard.

While you’d expect a balsam to be topical, you can drink it and it will both make goop come flying out of your nose and, courtesy of the ipecac and senega, your lunch come flying out of your mouth.

Medical science has changed its mind about many things in the last 80 years and you’re no longer allowed to put about half of these ingredients in medicines anymore.

#vintage #1942 #medicine #quackery #the cure is worse than the disease #advertisement #technology