Sometimes, you just stand back in awe of the amount of pseudoscience being posted on Steemit :-)
This is a new series which is going to expose and debunk all kinds of "quackogenic" posts out there - harmlessly ludicrous or plainly dangerous.
I consider battling pseudoscience as an important duty. We are all part of one environment that we all share, so spreading socially detrimental pseudoscience affects each one of us.
It is impoartant that we try to keep each other informed and educated, as much as possible, and in sustainable way. By keeping ourselves scientifically literate we directly improve the quality of life of all others in our society (and humanity as a whole).
There is a limit of tolerance when it comes to bullshit. Tolerance is not about accepting someone's right to spread pseudoscience which affects public health or right to perpetuate ideas which hinder sustainable progress of humanity.
I have decided to provide a lot of references to science the shit out of all quacklords who may doubt my post.
Also, all this information can be useful for any of you, who ever need to debate these subjects with any quack follower.
Flat Earth
I was trying to start logical discourse with the above user, but after few minutes I quickly realized that there is no point in explaining science and evidence to someone who does not value science enough, or values his/her personal beliefs more than science.
I don't think there is point in wasting my time, explaining why it is an utter nonsense.
Any person with minimum of scientific literacy of primary school level would understand it.
If you are unconvinced, just read these articles:
Some criticism (non scholarly sources):
"The Flat Earth Theory"
https://skeptoid.com/episodes/4338
"Are Flat-Earthers Being Serious"
http://www.livescience.com/24310-flat-earth-belief.html
"Flat Earth"
http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Flat_Earth
Anti-vaccination movement
Ok, this is a serious issue. This pseudoscientific fear mongering is a serious threat to public health, especially health of children.
The above Steemit user, seems to be a persistent shill for anti-vaccination movement. What is sad, is that her posts earn hundreds of dollars.
Here is why, this is all load of crap.
Lets start with this great video by SciShow:
If the above video has not convinced you, here is what scientific community has to say about it:
"The Vaccine-Autism Connection: A Public Health Crisis Caused by Unethical Medical Practices and Fraudulent Science"
http://aop.sagepub.com/content/45/10/1302
"Vaccines are not associated with autism: An evidence-based meta-analysis of case-control and cohort studies"
Very good meta-analysis (Meta-analysis is a statistical analysis that combines the results of multiple scientific studies).
https://autismoevaccini.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/vaccines-are-not-associated-with-autism.pdf
"Does antigenic overload exist? The role of multiple immunizations in infants." 2003
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14753385
"Vaccine Safety Controversies and the Future of Vaccination Programs" 2005
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/7485362_Vaccine_Safety_Controversies_and_the_Future_of_Vaccination_Programs
"Adverse events following immunization: perception and evidence" 2007
http://lib.ajaums.ac.ir/booklist/955899.pdf
"Vaccination Safety Update" 2008
"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2680557/"
"How the case against the MMR vaccine was fixed" 2011
http://www.bmj.com/content/342/bmj.c5347.full
"Wakefield’s article linking MMR vaccine and autism was fraudulent" 2011
http://www.bmj.com/content/342/bmj.c7452.full
"A case of junk science, conflict and hype" 2014
http://www.nature.com/ni/journal/v9/n12/full/ni1208-1317.html
"MMR doctor Andrew Wakefield fixed data on autism" The Sunday Times 2009
http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/public/news/article148992.ece
"Lancet retracts 'utterly false' MMR paper"
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2010/feb/02/lancet-retracts-mmr-paper
Other criticism (non scholarly sources):
"Anti-vaccination"
http://www.skeptics.com.au/tag/anti-vaccination/
Anti-vaccination Movement (AVM)
http://skepdic.com/antivaccination.html
"Anti-vaccination movement"
http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Anti-vaccination_movement
Colloidal gold or silver
Very dangerous, "snake oil" type of alternative medicine. This user keeps advertizing these products which are sold on their website.
There is absolutely no scientific evidence to support any of the extraordinary claims attributed to colloidal gold or silver. There is plenty of evidence to point out it's toxic effects. If you start taking colloidal silver, you are likely to turn into smurf :-)
Also, silver or gold are not essential mineral in humans, so there is no dietary requirement for silver or gold, therefore there are no such things as a silver or gold "deficiencies". Claims made about the effectiveness of colloidal silver or gold products for different diseases have no scientific support.
Of course, proponents of these products have an easy answer - there is a conspiracy of big pharma and governments trying to hide the truth from us about these wondrous cures.
This is an opinion of experts from scientific community, from last 20 years.
The scientific consensus is clear:
U.S. Department of Health
https://nccih.nih.gov/health/silver
"Silver products for medical indications: risk-benefit assessment" - Center of Drug Evaluation and Research, Food and Drug Administration 1996
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8632503?dopt=Abstract
"Over-the-Counter Drug Products Containing Colloidal Silver Ingredients or Silver Salts "- Federal Register Vol. 64 - 1999
https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-1999-08-17/pdf/99-21253.pdf
"Final rule: Over-the-counter drug products containing colloidal silver ingredients or silver salts" Federal Register Vol. 64 - 1999
http://www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/98fr/081799a.txt
"Argyria following the use of dietary supplements containing colloidal silver protein" 2000
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11107524?dopt=Abstract
"Argyria in the ED"
http://www.ajemjournal.com/article/S0735-6757(01)80252-7/abstract
"Operation Cure All Wages New Battle in Ongoing War Against Internet Health Fraud" - Federal Trade Commision 2001
https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2001/06/operation-cureall-wages-new-battle-ongoing-war-against-internet
"FTC Announces First Two Enforcement Actions Against Purveyors of Bioterrorism Defense Products"- Federal Trade Commision 2002
https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2002/02/ftc-announces-first-two-enforcement-actions-against-purveyors
"Believe it or not--silver still poisons" 2002
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12361115
"Colloidal silver & related products" - Australian Government Department of Health 2004
https://www.tga.gov.au/colloidal-silver-related-products
"Colloidal Silver: What You Need To Know" US Department of Health and Human Services 2004
https://nccih.nih.gov/sites/nccam.nih.gov/files/Get_The_Facts_Colloidal_Silver_10-07-2014.pdf
"Argyria secondary to ingestion of homemade silver solution"- Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology" 2005
http://europepmc.org/abstract/med/16021155
"Systemic argyria associated with ingestion of colloidal silver" - University of California 2005
http://escholarship.org/uc/item/0832g6d3
"Silver nasal sprays: misleading Internet marketing" 2008
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18478796
"Consumer Advisory: Dietary Supplements Containing Silver May Cause Permanent Discoloration of Skin and Mucous Membranes (Argyria)" 2009
http://www.fda.gov/Food/RecallsOutbreaksEmergencies/SafetyAlertsAdvisories/ucm184087.htm
"Twelve supplements you should avoid"
http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/magazine-archive/2010/september/health/dangerous-supplements/supplements-to-avoid/index.htm
"Inspections, Compliance, Enforcement, and Criminal Investigations" FDA Warning Letter 2011
http://www.fda.gov/ICECI/EnforcementActions/WarningLetters/ucm253264.htm
"A systematic review of silver-containing dressings and topical silver agents (used with dressings) for burn wounds" 2012
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22030441
"Scam 'cures' for swine flu face crackdown" Los Angeles Times
http://articles.latimes.com/2009/may/02/business/fi-swine-flu-scams2
Other criticism (non scholarly source):
Science-Based Medicine website:
https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/hi-ho-silver/
I hope that you enjoyed the first issue :-)
If you spot any pseudoscience around Steemit, please feel welcome to drop me a message in comments or chat, so I could expose it in the next issue :-)
No upvote from me :)
Allow me to explain:
a good "debunking" takes the claim of evidence, assumes the strongest interpretation of the argument, explains the background behind these ideas and then presents solid counterarguments, evidence to the contrary and sound reasoning.
A gish gallop of links to heavily biased sites such as "rationalwiki.org" dismissing whole theories instead of addressing simple claims of evidence openly and honestly does not an argument make.
"Conspiracy theorists" will not take you seriously because you do not address their arguments and dismiss you. Most of them will not even bother to click on rationalwiki links simply because all their "debunkings" use the same faulty logic and bad and dishonest argumentation. Meanwhile, "conventional wisdomists" will pat your back in thanks for reinforcing their beliefs. Nothing has been won this way, quite the contrary, instead of helping those who are maybe just stuck in the wrong loop, you alienate them even further.
I summary, you are doing the scientific method, curious inquiry and intellectually honest open-mindedness a huge disfavor with this sort of post, it can only serve to solidify the beliefs of those who have already formed their opinion and are unwilling to change it. Someone on the fence trying to form an informed and educated opinion will not be swayed either way, because there are hardly any news or arguments in the links that have not already been addressed and refuted by the peddlers of the conspiracy theories.
Disclaimer: I am not a flatearther (although I am sure that in a serious, honest, open and fairly moderated debate, I could show many a rotundist the end of his wisdom) and I know nothing about gold and silver, but the first sentence of the video on vaccines was a slap in the face of everyone who has to braincells to rub together and tries to educate himself objectively and honestly.
"There is no debate to have: Vaccines don't cause autism and save millions of lives per year." Wow, much argument, so convince! And then it continues with cheap appeals to authority, misrepresentations and distortions of the actual arguments of antivaccine activists and to psychopathologize all those whose lifes took a turn for the worse just hours after they received their oh so healthy shots. I call it "coincidience theorizing".
My intentions are sometimes misunderstood, so let me clarify: I am not here to fight you, or to defend any particular theory. I am here to help you make a better argument to achieve your stated goal to dispel myths and misconceptions with the scientific method:
I agree with that. But then you continue to call everything that is not "received wisdom" "bullshit", "quack" and "crap"; that is as if I had begun my post by calling you a sheeple!
I am sure you can do better, here is some inspiration :)
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Upvoted both this post and the OP. I can tell that you are a very meticulous thinker. You are debunking the debunkers using a deeper layer of logic. The first type of debunking is good, but this deeper layer of debunking is even more important.
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Damn you took their ass to church. preach!
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I have provided extensive list of credible scientific sources including government analysis. You cherry picked links such as rationalwiki, which I only provided as an extra information, while ignoring all other.
Funnily, when I was writing the reference to rationalwiki, I had the thought - "Maybe, I should not add this extra reference as someone may cherry pick it as biased in order to refute all other references I have provided".
Your claim about "appeal to authority" is invalid. This logical fallacy does not work this way. It is not an appeal to authority if the authority is a credible expert source. It is logical to provide reference to opinion of experts in the field.
Debunking does not necessary mean the need to write an extensive explanation.
These cases have been already debunked by scientific community, so I don't have time and need to dissect their arguments once again. It is enough to point out to these debunking articles and provide wide list of scientific references. It is enough to refer to legit criticism out there.
This series is to be of funny nature, not as some sort of dissecting essay.
Btw, I appreciate letting me know about "No upvote from me ". Certainly, I would seriously beat myself up about losing such an important vote...
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Ouch, that hurt.
Please have a nice day :)
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Where can I get a machine that can raise a city like that? I like the Death Star, but sometimes you just want to destroy 1 city.
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I'm sorry but I don't understand what you are referring to
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Upvoted, Followed and you have some great links posted. It is hard to combat against "truthers." They firmly believe they are right and we are wrong. I'm on your side though!
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Thank you for upvoting and following. I'm glad to know that there are people like you :-)
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the only things i saw here that were pseudoscience were flat earth and hollow earth. i used to believe a lot of this propaganda against people who question vaccines and colloidal silver. then, about fifteen years ago i got tired of all the secondhand knowledge. the impetus was my personal discovery of confirmation bias and learning the trivium method and quadrivium. once you begin to do the experimentation yourself, you discover all kinds of crap is being taught in schools and published everywhere. there is also some value in the philosophy of science but feyerabend takes it too far. take back your mind. you can do it.
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akareyon is my new hero. i don't usually go in for heros.
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Yeah, my jaw dropped as I was reading it in pure awe of the level of digital asswoop.
Cberviolence at it finest. 8D
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haven't been to church in 26 years. feel absolutely no need but, still i find this vast entertainment in doing theological smackdown. the internal logic is kind of engaging. many religious people are verging on crazy. consumed by fear to the extent of talking to their invisible super hero in the sky, some are among the smartest people i've ever met, to this day. there was the minister who was a nuclear physicist, tons of engineers. i grew up in it but i never did understand the need.
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upvoted
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Thank you :-)
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Great post. There's a problem with incentivizing popularity rather than the truth.
However do note to be skeptical of even trusted logical sources. Perhaps it's even more important to debunk the imperfect debunkers than the obvious idiots.
http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/who-will-debunk-the-debunkers/
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Thank you.
You are right. We should question everything. I'm going to read this article when wake up :-)
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And thanks for regularly upvoting my posts. I always reciprocte :-)
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Checkout this podcast which looks at a lot of popular myths and deplodes them with the science. https://gimletmedia.com/show/science-vs/
And if you're interested in podcasts here's a list I made of my favorite ones:
https://steemit.com/steemit/@jonno-katz/14-podcasts-that-rock-my-world
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Oh great. Thanks :-)
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