Conspiracy Theory Antidisestablismentarianism Shepherds Cretinoid Sheep

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Conspiracy Theories Adversely Affect Public Health
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Conspiracy Theories in Science

Ted Goertzel
7 May 2010

Conspiracy theories that target specific research can have serious consequences for public health and environmental policies

www.nature.com...

Conspiracy theorists—some of them scientifically trained—have claimed
that the HIV virus is not the cause of AIDS,
that global warming is a manipulative hoax
and that vaccines and genetically modified foods are unsafe.
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These claims have already caused serious consequences: misguided public health policies, resistance to energy conservation and alternative energy, and dropping vaccination rates.
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Social scientists have forfeited much of their potential influence because they are too often perceived as advocates for a cause rather than as objective researchers.
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"Conspiracy theories are dangerous when the meme is used to discredit scientific evidence in a public forum or in a legal proceeding."

I'm dangerous. This is a public forum. I'm discrediting a sourced and cited scientist.

I cannot say I support all of the CT "claims" but I like to think someone SHOULD be fighting on the CT side of the information war.

that said... do recall this recent thread:

www.abovetopsecret.com...
The Dangers of Pharma Conspiracies?

A WOMAN has walked free from court after deliberately infecting her baby with HIV because she thought it was HARMLESS.

Any way... the article is a very good, well documented read written by :

Ted Goertzel, professor in the Sociology Department at Rutgers University, Camden, NJ, USA.


Are conspiracy theorists and Abovetopsecret a threat to public health?

your thoughts?

My child is not vaccinated.

spinning conspiracy memes,

Sri Oracle

ps.

5 more flags and I'm a "Bronze Content Contributor" ...I always wanted to be a writer! Much thanks for reading.

[edit on 21-7-2010 by Sri Oracle]

*LINE REMOVED* (Sorry, guess I was too quick on this one)


For the record, I think conspiracy theories are perfectly normal and essential to human spiritual and psychological development on a species level. If we just accepted everything we were told without question, we would be at an evolutionary dead end.

[edit on 7-21-2010 by rogerstigers]

*oops*

[edit on 21-7-2010 by Sri Oracle]

conspiracy theories are like the emergency exit of the theater, anyone who rallies against them is ignorant of their value or never sits in the theater.

Originally posted by rogerstigers
Um, who are you quoting in these quotes?

For the record, I think conspiracy theories are perfectly normal and essential to human spiritual and psychological development on a species level. If we just accepted everything we were told without question, we would be at an evolutionary dead end.

In my opinion, it would not be a dead end, just manual evolution. Someone who even somewhat controls the actions of an individual controls for a time the very rate of change of that individual.

I think we are totally encapsulated save for personal thought, and even now the thoughts we think are seldom totally original, either modifications of some pre existing thing or an imagining of a pre existing action.

We are almost totally collared and our evolution is almost totally under control by the thousand armed beast.

The system is built so very few will be able to have the thought processes that cause extreme damage to the system.

reply to post by Sri Oracle


wrong.

lies cause these problems.

if large events investigations were open to the public, in all aspects, conspiracy theories would almost cease to exist.

While medicine has its place, I find it difficult to believe that everyone on medicine actually needs it. I take diabetes medicine to control my insulin. I take a calcium supplement for my bone health. Both were prescribed by my doctor. But I have to wonder if I and others would need all of this if our air, water and food were not saturated with crap we don't need.

reply to post by Sri Oracle

that global warming is a manipulative hoax and that vaccines and genetically modified foods are unsafe.

So i take they would like us to believe that in our world, that Global Warming is real and that genetically modified foods without proper test studies are completely safe?

I have a thread exactly like this that i put up yesterday but its more about mental health but it sort of covers everything in a way. Take a look.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

With global warming we have seen the Earth cooling versus warming. There is no doubt that a lack of ecological balance is causing climate issues but global warming seems to be a corporate coup versus a reality.

How many people died from cancer that received the polio vaccine?
GMOs are not safe. They pump cows pull of hormones to make them grow faster and that mutated meat is ingested by the populous. We already see the results throughout the western world.

What I don't understand is why that is labeled a "conspiracy theory" with a negative connotation. The truth is that corporations conspire to increase profit and decrease loss. In the case of GMOs they get a higher profit margin. It is technically a conspiracy by definition.

Public health issues are caused by the lies westerners are told. The food pyramid and education specific to diet are funded mostly by the dairy farmers of old and multi-nationals of today. There is no scientific proof that man needs to eat animal products. You can get amino acids from any number of sources to build proteins. You get protein from dark greens. Nutrients are richer in most plants than any animal product. It takes more energy to break down animal flesh than natural fruits, nuts and veggies.

100 calories of crap is worse than 100 calories of sun-infused organics. Why is this a conspiracy? Clean fuel is a corporate marketed product, why not think the same way about your body?


Here is the bottom line. If it makes you healthy it is bad for business.

Originally posted by zroth
100 calories of crap is worse than 100 calories of sun-infused organics. Why is this a conspiracy? Clean fuel is a corporate marketed product, why not think the same way about your body?


Here is the bottom line. If it makes you healthy it is bad for business.

Its ok crazy CT'er, keep it down, it will be ok...

Its just your orthorexia nervosa acting up.

Would you like a Valium?

www.abovetopsecret.com...
"Fixation with healthy eating can be sign of serious psychological disorder"

Sri Oracle

Wow, a very lengthy article that is largely ignorant of the key points in conspiracy lore to begin with.

Why should someone write about conspiracies if they don't have the intellect to research the claims for themselves?

I have formally challenged Mr. Ted Goertzal to discuss point-by-point in a public forum.

Awaiting his response.

Originally posted by beebs
Awaiting his response.

Nice.

I'd like to reiterate that this, 2 month old, several page article is a very good read, very ANTI YOU; the conspiracy theorist, very well sourced, and worthy of your time; I've read it a few times now.

Keep your enemies closer.

To understand this success, it is useful to think of conspiracy theorizing as a ‘meme’, a cultural invention that passes from one mind to another and survives, or dies out, through natural selection (Dawkins, 1976). As rhetorical devices, conspiracy theories compete with memes such as ‘fair debate’, ‘scientific expertise’ and ‘resistance to orthodoxy’.
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Conspiracy theories appeal to people who are discontented with the established institutions of their society and especially with elites in that society. They are likely to believe that conditions are worsening for people like themselves and that the authorities do not care about them. A conspiracy theory gives believers someone tangible to blame for their perceived predicament, instead of blaming it on impersonal or abstract social forces. The meme becomes a habit of thought: the more people believe in one conspiracy, the more likely they are to believe in others.
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The logic of the conspiracy meme is to question everything the ‘establishment’—be it government or scientists—says or does, even on the most hypothetical and speculative grounds, and to demand immediate, comprehensive and definitive answers to all questions. A failure to give convincing answers is then used as proof of conspiratorial deception.
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Other conspiracy theories include claims that a major drug company hid reports that its leading anti-inflammatory drug caused heart attacks and strokes (Specter, 2009); environmental scientists have conspired to keep refereed journals from publishing papers by researchers sceptical that global warming is a crisis (Hayward, 2009; Revkin, 2009); physicians or drug companies have conspired to suppress non-mainstream medical treatments, vitamins and health foods; and that big business and the medical establishment have conspired to obstruct the search for a cure for AIDS so they can continue to sell their ineffective drugs and treatments (Nussbaum, 1990).

Many of these theories are clearly absurd...

...with your approval: I'm now the latest Bronze Content Contributor at the Above Top Secret Conspiracy Community!


Thank You!


Sri Oracle

[edit on 21-7-2010 by Sri Oracle]

Originally posted by darkelf
While medicine has its place, I find it difficult to believe that everyone on medicine actually needs it. I take diabetes medicine to control my insulin. I take a calcium supplement for my bone health. Both were prescribed by my doctor. But I have to wonder if I and others would need all of this if our air, water and food were not saturated with crap we don't need.

Prior to our "air, water and food" being "saturated with crap", humans rarely lived into their late thirties, let along forties, due to lack of modern medicine. This would seem to suggest that disease predates such pollution, and that the pollution isn't the root cause of most diseases. Of course, pollution DOES adversely affect your health, given you live in certain areas or eat massive quantities of unhealthy foods, but those are personal choices people are free to make.

[edit on 7/21/2010 by VneZonyDostupa]

Ohhh so just take ATS down
Is that what you guys want ?

Viva la cospiracy theory. It's healthy for you, to search and find facts.

Originally posted by zroth
Public health issues are caused by the lies westerners are told. The food pyramid and education specific to diet are funded mostly by the dairy farmers of old and multi-nationals of today. There is no scientific proof that man needs to eat animal products. You can get amino acids from any number of sources to build proteins. You get protein from dark greens. Nutrients are richer in most plants than any animal product. It takes more energy to break down animal flesh than natural fruits, nuts and veggies.

A strictly vegan diet has been associated with slow/limited growth in children, as well as macrocytic anemia in children breastfed by vegan mothers. Additionally, vegans typically have to take several pill-form supplements to meet their iron needs.

Doesn't this sort of hint to you that you need some level of animal-product in your diet? Fish is a wonderful source of protein, iron, and many other nutrients.

100 calories of crap is worse than 100 calories of sun-infused organics. Why is this a conspiracy? Clean fuel is a corporate marketed product, why not think the same way about your body?

No one is saying this is a conspiracy. Are you done with your little strawman argument now?

This would be a conspiracy theory:
Apparently 1 in 3 has diabetes in the US.
how can that be....?
It is from the diet and life style promoted by the system.
Insulin doesn't cure Diabetes
It is a PLOT to have people hooked so they are controlled permanent cash cows.
Wouldn't it be better for the public health for a doctor to prescribe a cure...?
No you would have to be INSANE to want to be cured...

Dark Elf have you checked out this research...?
This doctor has a simple diet and exercise regimen
that cures type 2
100 percent if followed....

Now I haven't checked to close, but I think he was quoting proper experimental data...might be worth a look...
The diet doesn't require buying his products either...

per day:
5 serving whole grains
4 servings deep green vegetables
3 servings fruit not grapes or oranges
2 servings lean protein
1hour exercise
half your body weight in pounds = water in onces.
askdavesandoval.com...

Of course it is a conspiracy theory to think that the incidence of Diabetes is a deliberate command and control / soft kill method designed to hold people hostage, and keep them controlled.... and suck them dry of resources...

People would be INSANE to use a cure that would free them when the best choice is obviously to be at the mercy of a system that has been proven to have your worst interests at heart...

PS the life expectance of 30 / 40 years in the past is not true.
once infant mortality was subtracted the average life expectancy was in the 70s 80s

just look at places that don't use western systems.

[edit on 21-7-2010 by Danbones]

[edit on 21-7-2010 by Danbones]

reply to post by VneZonyDostupa


I love that you gave me the Carl's Jr. sposnored anti-vegan argument.

Yes a poor and unbalanced diet will slow a child's development. This is true of meat eaters too.

Sure fish is fine if it is not farmed and GMO'd or worse now cloned.

Enjoy your franken-foods but don't feel that you have to evangelize for the GMO meat industry.

Eatng meat is not required for healthy living, despite what the multi-national agricultre and farming, industry funded scientists are telling you.

Peace

reply to post by Sri Oracle


lol. yes a valium would be nice.

cheers

reply to post by zroth


Please provide sources for any of your claims.