How Steemit can save millions of lives?

in #steemit7 years ago

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I’d like to just put my thoughts on paper, so to speak, an aside from the science and the fiction, because there’s something that bothers me on this site. I think this site can prevent countless deaths if used correctly.

Now I’m a big fan of free speech, and I really appreciate the magical aspect of this site which brings people from all walks of life together. People who would otherwise hate other people on Facebook are essentially forced to come together in an amicable way with open ears.

Otherwise how would you get paid?

So I never want that to actually stop. I don’t want the site to start filtering out people I happen to disagree with.

Having said that, the pseudoscience that plagues the website is potentially life threatening. This might seem sensationalistic, but it has happened numerous times and continues to do so all over the world: misinformed believers killing themselves or their babies or their boyfriends based on insane beliefs.

But these beliefs don’t typically sound insane to those who haven’t spent years of their life building their critical thinking skills. And that’s the issue. It’s not that these people are complete morons, what they’re doing is falling for something all humans are vulnerable to; herd mentality.

Put a baby alone in a room of Hindus and that kid will grow up a Hindu, believing in everything Hindu. If you put a baby alone with a bunch of biologists, and you’ll get yourself a biologist. Like father, like son, as they say.

But that in itself doesn’t represent what is true. Of course it doesn’t. But that doesn’t matter. When that baby becomes a young child and starts to be inquisitive about the world, those questions asked that go out of line with what all the other Hindus believe will be quickly stamped out and suppressed. They will teach the child in a direction that they are most familiar and comfortable with.

When he asks a question that can be answered with ease by them, they will all quickly jump to attention with enthusiasm and teach him ‘the way’. This gives confidence and that child suddenly has no doubt that he had a good question, he learned something valuable, and that he is a good boy.

Lap it up.

But we all fall for this. I remember in school; it was a CoE (Church of England) school. My parents weren’t religious, as far as I could tell, and I guess in England nobody actually cares about religion for the most part, but either way, between our real classes teaching real subjects, we had some assemblies where we would sing church music, sing parts of the bible, have bibles handed out to us once in a while. I think there was even a cross on the uniform!

To this day, I still have those songs ringing around in my head ‘thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heav’n’. It wouldn’t take much for that to actually make a lasting impression on a child, who goes to seek answers to the principle.

The principle will decide to be impartial and simply forward the child to the local vicar and that’s the end of that.

The same goes for pseudoscience. Thanks to the wonderful revolution of the internet, anyone can find that room of Hindus, wherever they are. Anybody can find that vicar. If you love cars, you go to a mechanic forum. If you love cars, you go to exhaustiveromance.com. There you will feel at home, surrounded by others with the same mind as you. You’ll support each other and recognize that you’re all correct.

But why does the rest of the world say otherwise?

Well obviously there’s a reason. It’s because… the world is against us. It’s a conspiracy. Obviously nobody would believe car lovemaking is wrong in a logical world, but the government, yes, the government is behind all this because… well we don’t know right now but it’s true.

When you read Huckleberry Finn, you’ll often laugh at the stupidity of the King and the Duke trying to fool Huck with their pseudo intellect. How absurd! But that’s a terrifying reflection of what’s actually going on in the world today. Two big grown men who have convinced themselves they are great, passing their knowledge onto one small child from a place of authority. In most cases around the world, that kid doesn’t stand a chance. Thankfully Huck was at least a little savvier than that.

Just recently, I saw a post about how a doctor claims 97% of chemo doesn’t actually work, according to a 12-year study of people all over the world with cancer. 97%.

The ONLY reason we’re still treating patients with it is because chemo is expensive and it lines the pockets of doctors with lovely cash, much more than simply prescribing natural medicine.

Instantly I was a believer in the evil intent of Big Pharma. But then I accidentally typed ‘snopes.com’ into google, and within seconds, I came across this:

FALSE? Well, I just had to read more. So I scrolled and I read. And I discovered after about 1 minute of skimming that the study was not only incredibly questionable, but it also took place in the 1950’s! My dad was barely a year old. HIV was not even heard of.

Even worse, the paper in question discusses data from the 1920’s, with a sample size of people barely over 100 in number.
Additionally, the data was then cherry picked and misunderstood, and incredibly biased.

Snopes goes on and on about this one instance of pseudoscience. It’s all there, plain to see, open to check and scrutinize for yourself.

Snopes is essentially the best and in my opinion most important website on the internet and we should all have it bookmarked.

There are 50 million views on the above video. There are going to be some people in that 50 million that will refuse chemo because of that video they once saw saying Doctors just want to be rich. Those people may die.

Anti-vaxxers have already on numerous occasions been imprisoned by endangering and sometimes killing their child by refusing to vaccinate and even further, to get treatment for their sick, dying child.


Source
Damage caused by the anti-vaccination movement. Measles in red, Mumps in brown, Rubella in blue, Polio in gold, Whooping cough in green, other in yellow

People have died or become very sick with the belief that they are breatharians – people who do not need to eat or drink, and can survive on the energy of the universe alone.

David Wolfe, the food babe, Anita Sarkeesian, Donald Trump. These people aren’t scientists. They’re murdering people.

In less developed countries, it’s even worse. Between 1999 and 2007, 343,000 people lost their lives to AIDS in South Africa because the government embraced AIDS denialism.

In the middle east, Pakistan and other Muslim countries, vaccine workers trying to cure polio are literally being shot dead by anti-vaxxers.

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These people, these deniers, these pseudoscientists are not mentally disabled. As shocking as that is to say, but they have been surrounded by other believers; friendly, calming people with white shirts and clean ties. They’re supportive and help them, guide them to the way of the all-natural lifestyle. They warn them about those scary sounding chemicals in expensive medicine that we don’t even have information about (if you don’t know about snopes). Stay away from that, and come to me they say.

And the result is literally, without adding any exaggeration, the loss of millions of lives that did not need to be lost.

The internet is the single most powerful tool in helping kill these individuals by having misrepresented and false science instantly at your fingertips at any given time. In India, more people have access to smartphones than toilets. We need to, as individuals, do what we can to protect them.

Steemit is a fantastic community and nowhere else have I seen people actually listen to others, at least on some level, that oppose them than I do on here. The most unique thing about this site is that members are actively encouraged to listen on here in hope for monetary reward.

That’s not to say that they will actually be open to those ideas, the human brain is flawed and there are numerous battles going on within that makes it very uncomfortable for the brain to be wrong. But if we just do our part, we can literally save lives.

If people don’t listen to people, just drop a link from Snopes.com, or a print screen. Show evidence, not patronization. People are more open to change if the feel they are the ones doing the searching themselves.

That’s all I have to say. I hope this place can grow and change the world. Thanks for reading!

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Critical thinking is necessary for us to lead free and prosperous lives, and most people seem unwilling to develop it in themselves. And that's okay, but it comes with a cost. I am against laws that "protect from misinformation", but I am for fraud legislation, which is a more libertarian concept.

However, your statements are just the flip side. I could write a post asking how many lives were destroyed and terminated by people's belief in chemo and vaccines and anti-depressants and anti-psychotics...I could go on.

There are people (I've met two personally) who's children's lives were changed dramatically by detrimental treatment accepted as standard medicine. And on chemo, I have a few success stories in my vicinity and a few obituaries as well.

Instead of railing against this treatment or that, we should focus on people's happiness, and helping guide people to actions that feel best. Some people avoid vaccines out of fear, and shouldn't, while others use them out of fear, and should't.

If you could go on, please do. I'd need evidence that removing vaccines from the world somehow would be better for us than keeping them.

I honestly want you to try. good luck

It's not about removing vaccines from the world, it's about you staying away from my right not to use them.

I would love evidence too...maybe we could ask the government to investigate...oh, wait, they'd never actually do that and settle this once and for all.

What are you on about?

Is it my right to not stop that crazy gunman from shooting his gun in the street whenever he feels like it? Think about it.

Look, the idea of vaccines sounds great but the implementation is like gross negligence. You just have to dig in order to find the truth. I have found that wherever there is so much controversy surrounding something, something stinks. It's rotten. That's your first clue.

It might be a lot of work but when you start to know the truth it is so worth it. From the bottom of my heart. Good luck.

And to that end, it's mostly about the idea that all bodies, brains and systems work and respond differently to different things. " Nothing is good or bad; only thinking makes it so." - Shakespeare. The strength of belief itself may be behind efficacy across the board with respect to healing.

I find that to be a convient generalization which isn't necessarily true at all. You can easily see that things are going in the wrong direction for society as a whole so there must be systemic problems which we all have in common.

I don't believe in generalizations other than to be convenient, untruths. Indeed systemic problems persist throughout humanity, but the source of many still lies within the individual. Our thoughts are what kill us. It is not the technology, the guns or the vaccines. Fighting is a low vibration. To "fight" anything, without first identifying its cause, its a solution looking for a problem. Self mastery is a lonely path and I can't teach anyone anything.

Please provide the evidence, the burden of proof is not on me

Read @ura-soul or @canadian-coconut, not going to repeat what they have already clearly demonstrated. You can also watch any of Truth about Vaccines documentary series.

I feel like all these anti-vaxx replies are completely missing the point...

Whatever, take your next flu shot please.

Good job. Enjoy indirectly killing people!

Shifting the burden of proof will not make your beliefs true.

I have spoken directly with the author of the paper that is being quoted about chemotherapy - it was NOT from the 1950s - it was published by the Australian Royal college of Radiologists about 13 years ago: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15630849

Having studied this topic for 10 years and read a vast array of authors, including Gorski - AND having seen Snopes being found to be totally wrong on a variety of subjects AND having had to watch my own mother DIE from chemotherapy last year - I am passionate about exposing the reality here. I have a science degree and am pretty capable with processing information. As such I have combined numerous speakers and sources on the controversial subjects - such as vaccines and cancer. I suggest readers review my hard work and draw your own conclusions instead of just jumping to ANY conclusion based on bias or desire to believe anything at all. 'Voices of authority' prove time and time again that they lie, are biased or are just as likely to introduce error as anyone else.
I suggest checking out my recent posts for a variety of speakers I have found over 10 years that I almost NEVER see linked on pages that claim that the problems with chemotherapy and vaccines are 'pseudoscience'.

cancer:
https://steemit.com/health/@ura-soul/cancer-can-be-healed-without-chemotherapy-correct-nutrition-lifestyle-changes-detox-and-environmental-changes-are-required

and vaccines:
https://steemit.com/health/@ura-soul/vaccines-and-related-criminality-masses-of-research-shows-thinking-about-vaccines-is-flawed-professionals-speak-out

This is a different study, only a 5 year study, a very small sample size of just 22 individuals, different author

When I asked, years ago, for the study that was being referenced in the video highlighted on Snopes - I was pointed repeatedly to the one I posted here and not to any other. Did you read it? The study is a meta-analysis and certainly not based on a small sample group by any means.

I read the brief, seemed small to me, but as you can see, I'm getting hundreds of comments...

I'm legitimately interested if that is the case, however it doesn't take away the point of my article since the chemo thing was just something I pulled as an example. If you at least agree that we should talk about these things, engage in discussion with an open mind, then I'm happy.

A few respondents here seem to think the best thing to do is keep to their own beliefs and ignore everything else

Yes, I am totally open to discussing the reality of the situation with an open mind. I have received several death threats from pro-vaccine 'crazies' and so far in all my (probably hundreds) of online conversations regarding chemotherapy and vaccines, I have never been proven to be incorrect in what I am saying.
I am only interested in the truth and health - which is provably not the pure agenda of the pharmaceutical industry. I once worked for Glaxo and know first hand.

Evidence would be appreciated here

Evidence of what? I have already linked you to hundreds of hours of research.

Oh sorry I didn't see your second comment at all. I'm getting way too many comments to keep up with. I'll look into it

Hi first I want to say I enjoyed your style...Some months ago an article came to my attention about a new study in UK. Somehow nobody really ever thought about checking out how many people die in 1 month after receiving chemo. So they looked at it and found out in 1 hospital it was about 50 % and other hospitals up to above 70% of patients. I don't know where this article is but you might get interested, if the truth is what you really seek, to find it out. Also there is a 9 episodes documentary The truth about cancer where some doctors, parents and survivals speak about their journey. Also you could look at the story of Dr. Simoncini and his findings on what cancer really is. It is then not to difficult to understand why the chemo was brought to cancer treatment. I attended a lecture of dr. Brian Clement of Hippocrates health institute where in passed 30 years or something more then 40 000 terminal cancer patients have cured. He spoke about the most poisonous chemo of that time, in the 80s if I recall it right, which was based on zyclon B. This chemo was given to aids patients, the scientist who told him this in that time knew also this would kill the dying people faster but they will bring more money first. One doesn't have to be the smartest boy in the class to see what is really happening. Just follow the money...if you really want the truth of course...and then you will see the same people who control drugs, control food and water by now, lobbying and paying out the politicians...many eye witnesses and whistleblowers come out these days..It is therefore not a dangerous pseudoscience..it is dangerous to believe the richest and most powerful who control everything to care about each one of us. They don't.
But I enjoyed your way of writing and hope you mean what you say about being open to discussions...I think finding truth should be our highest priority and we all should work together instead of trying put each other down for having a different opinion or knowledge. i think the best way to find the truth is look around in your life, just like @ura-soul who saw with own eyes things happening on or without chemo..these are reliable sources and not the payed scientists and agents of propaganda. Only the fact that children get kidnapped to be put on chemo even if they and the parents do not want that should be at least alarming. I decide for my child for it is my flesh and blood, my tears and laughs, my effort and care...no government or pharma should be able to take it away...and yet they do because they own our children, they own us, they own our lives...But who loves my child the most? Me or my president? Me or my doctor? Me or the classroom teacher? Me or the paus? It is me...so I have the best intentions for my child, I want it to be happy and healthy. There are to many perfectly healthy children who die or get disabled after vaccines...then it is more than obvious parents will get afraid of vaccination. Even if it was right thing to do, why all the additives like aluminium, msg or even nagelase? It doesn't make any sense...And because all of this, people do not trust big corporations and politicians anymore...can you blame them? I don't even trusted my teachers at school because they were not able to give me some logical explanations about things they were teaching. So I follow my own logica based on information I find, never just believe anything but keep digging and digging until it feels right and I think if people start to do that more instead of fighting about whether the government loves us or tries to kill us there will be much more clear.
Have a blessed day and thanks for your thoughts.

Bravo! Thank you.

You seem to be bent on keeping your own beliefs and ignoring anything that doesn't agree with them.

Vaccination and chemotherapy are archaic technologies that demonstrably do physical injury to a larger than admitted segment of the populations who use them. If the FDA was not being used, by the pharmaceutical industry, to suppress new technologies, this would all be a moot point. Search the patent record if you wish to convince yourself. If @ura-soul cannot inspire the interest in truth in you, I wonder if anyone or anything can.

I'mm too drunk to go into this, especially given this post is months old. I disagree with your views, I disagree with ura-soul, but I fully enjoyed my debate (though I got too busy to get back to it...should set a reminder).

ura-soul did indeed inspire interest in truth, but the truth I found was apparently different to you guys.

That's fine with me, I love a debate, I love learning and being corrected, as long as it's civil, and ura-soul (up to where I caught up) was being very civil... so I'm not sure why you went on a tirade of comments on an ancient post of mine?

Objective truth is not subjective, and it is always relevant.

It was hardly a 'tirade'. I'm merely getting caught up.

Anyone searching for this topic can still find it, I did.

Thanks @mobbs for this sincere and thought-provoking piece. I think on similar themes often about how, in this new world of fake news and totally siloed self-affirming media consumption, we lose the common ground (based in facts) to have real discussions and make progress working with people who have fundamentally different views. I think in a way, this site and more broadly blockchain-based technologies, are a lesson for how best to fight the growing threat of falsehoods, fake news, and pseudoscience, as you call it.

We do indeed live in a more divisive time than ever before, with ISIS playing the political game and strategically timed attacks, Trump, Brexit and more. It's scary!

We can all find common ground if we just take a deep breath and respond thoughtfully, I think.

This does not demonstrate proof, but I find, in my own experience that what most people believe is fundamentally flawed, and the facts are not to be found in the pro- versus anti- stances of a false dilemma. The answer is usually something not addressed by either 'side'.

Keep it up!

do you think steemit has what it takes for mass adoption?

Not in its current state. For example, I have very real concerns about when the Chinese find out about it en masse and, well, you got yourself 400 million users doing everything they can to abuse the system with 400,000 phone sim cards each and so forth. On the other hand they will do wonders in trading.

There's a reason it's still in beta I guess, there's just so much to figure out, but I definitely thing it can accomplish this in some years from now

It's not just about manipulation, I think in order for mass adoption to occur with such a platform it'd need to be easy to use. Currently it's a bit difficult to sign up and even though it's beta, I do believe it's not the platform for the typical person. People coming from Reddit, 4chan, forums, wordpress blogs? Sure. The average consumer from FB and Twitter? Ehhh. I do think there's a lot of potential, I mean there's going to be millions of users for sure.. but hundreds of millions might be a little over-reaching (unless things change, which they totally could).

Wonderful ideas! I agree I noticed as I refer more and more people from Facebook, They rapidly get confused and give up. When I first started here, it took months to get the hang of it. Even now I don't feel like I understand all of it. Some of it is a little confusing to me. Things need to be easier. People usually are hesitant on investing any sort of time, or money on something that may not pan out.

Right, I generally tend to steer away from the technical aspects of the site. Think about grannies on the street or some 13 year old trying to figure out delegation, voting for witnesses (and what that even would be), hardforks, etc. <<< That's pretty much simple stuff, but it takes some research to fully understand what it is. With people who can't even figure out Instagram, I'm saying Steemit is more for the tech savvy. And when you factor in payouts through cryptocurrency, it just makes everything a bit more trickier. People immediately scream SCAM! It is what it is, but I think there's a limit with Steemit's growth eventually (a few years down the line). It's unique, and it will have an amazing fanbase due to that.. but it'd need to introduce marketing and simplify a few things to get it to the masses.

Well, true, but then again, cryptocurrency is quite literally the future and for people like me who just don't get it, we have to put up or shut up. We have to put the time in or we're gonna fall behind. The same could be said for social media. The time of just liking and sharing is probably going through a very slow death.

Maybe 'some years' is putting it lightly though, you're right

The average person still has no idea what a Bitcoin is. I mean when I tell girls what I do.. they think it's related to like stealing or they're honestly confused what a "cryptocurrency" is. Nevermind the grannies on the street ;p

Bitcoin and especially mt.gox and silk road has put a bad name to it and its innovation.

I think without the darknet markets, the prices of cryptocurrencies wouldn't be where they are right now. For years Bitcoin was used while few knew about it. When Alphabay put up Monero and Zcash and similar onto its marketplaces, boom, the prices rose. Of course these aren't GIANT details, but it's enough to have a decent sized impact on the market. I agree wholeheartedly that BTC has a bad reputation on it though due to it, Mt. Gox, Cryptsy, etc. The only thing we can do? Keep going further and spreading the knowledge as much as we can. People will eventually become more open to it anyways

Well yeah. I'm basically one of those girls too. But We say this stuff about the phone and the internet when they're new too. This things tend to have an exponential curve about them. I guess we'll see!

There's a lot of people who don't fact check anything for themselves, even when it comes to something as important as voting for a leader of their own country.

You're right that the disinformation about chemotherapy could kill a lot of people. I'm usually against laws regarding the right to speak, but there should be some sort of consequence for spreading blatant misinformation about important matters such as health and politics.

In the past when there was no internet media, the newspapers could be held acocuntable by some Government body. However, they abused that power and they merely became propaganda tools. The internet allows us access to vast swathes of information and opinions which is a blessing. It's up to the reader to be more diligent though and stop accepting information at face value.

I couldn't agree more. I wish more people understood this. Great post!

This is a well written post, I agree with most of your view points, keep it up.
You earned my 100% upvote for this post..more success and lets stay in touch.

Welcome and more success.
Dont forget to check out my post for a link to collect free crypto..a once in a life time opportunity.

There is indeed a lot of misinformation in the internet.That's why the source of the information has to be verified before we can accept that information as true.