Is this a 'lol' or 'facepalm' moment?
Cor blimey!
I'm not an advocate of 'woo-woo' bullshit like clairvoyance, alternative medicine, physic powers or faith healing. Not least because they are bullshit, but because they can be actively harmful. That in mind, imagine my reaction yesterday when someone came into the café peddling leaflets advertising their alternative medicine clinic opening in the area. Alas, it was Nicola who dealt with this charlatan and she just gave a mild 'okay' when asked to put the leaflets out. Had I been there, oh, shit would have gone down, let me tell you.
When I saw what the leaflets were I was very tempted to hurl them straight into the bin. She stopped me and said it was 'harmless'. She explained that, while unemployed, she'd been sent on a course at one of these alternative medicine clinics and had done some work with homoeopathy. Christ.
My problem, as I explained, though with agitation and an almost incredulous disbelief that someone could take any of it seriously after getting a science GCSE, is that it is a scam. It's a scheme designed to pray on the vulnerable and sick in society - make them part with their livelihoods and trust in something that has about as much likelihood of working as doing nothing but believing that you'll get better. A real doctor will give you the facts - the risks, the chance of success, the research, the data, the theory and even the side effects of the medicine he or she will give you. And they'll do it FOR FREE (I'm taking of the NHS, of course, not sure how you approach this in americaland). An 'alternative medicine' con artist will assure you there are 'no risks', that it WILL work, that it is 'proven' (though they will never cite a reputable source, if they cite at all), that they alone can help you where real medicine cannot. And they'll charge an extortionate fee that may bankrupt you. They want you to take it on faith, basically. Because there certainly isn't any evidence to back up their absurd claims and every single test or investigation into these scams has revealed them for what they are - nothing. Occultists, transcendentalists, and faith-healers of every religion know the auto-deceptive power of 'faith'.
It was at this point that I was, inevitably, accused of being closed minded. I explained that I am open to any new ideas if they can be shown to be accurate and have a measurable and reliable effect in reality. Homoeopathy is none of these things, quite the opposite. Despite anyone's assertions of personal conviction, it is impossible to distinguish alternative medicine from no treatment at all, or, at best, a placebo. That's why faith healers don't work in hospitals and why alternative medicine is 'alternative', because if it worked, it wouldn't be 'alternative' it would be 'medicine'. And just like in the case of faith healing, the most staunch believers in alternative medicine will refuse to accept any evidence that is given to them to show the infective nature of this bullshit. These sorts of claims, unsupported by evidence will almost certainly be wrong at the onset regardless of the source, and without any means of regulation, will only get wronger over time.
This is why I despise it so much - take a sick person, a vulnerable person, a desperate person, sell them some snake oil and then, instead of disappearing as the most honest con-artist would, the alternative medicine pusher will repeatedly enforce the conviction that it is working and that they just need to take more of their snake oil and perhaps re-mortgage their house while they're at it. So, rather than seek actual help from real doctors, get the truth, their real chances of recovery and the best medicine that has been rigorously tested against every fail-safe known to medical science.
Grrr. In the end I threw it into the bin when she wasn't looking. *shrug* You can't win them all.
Anyway, happier news...
I gots me an Ushanka!! :D I got a grey one because Jonathan has a black one and I don't want them to get mixed up. I'm sad mine doesn't have a communist badge on it. I'll have to find one myself, I suppose. XD
Tomorrow I will be dying my EPIC COAT burgundy. For... um... MYSTERIOUS REASONS! Yes. >:D
EDIT:
MERLIN TONIGHT WAS MAGNIFICENTLY EPIC!! :D
So much wank! EXCALIBUR! LADY OF THE LAKE! HOLY GRAIL CUP OF LIFE! ROUND TABLE! PERCIVAL! KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE! MERLIN MAGIC FIGHT! GIUS MAGIC FIGHT! DRAGON! SWORD IN THE STONE! OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG! I was just waiting for Mordred to show up. XD
And another series next year? W00t!!!
Oh, for some reason this reminds me that Doctor Who has been filming at Cardiff Castle recently! YAY! It'll be lovely to see somewhere I've actually been to on DW. :) I hope it's a story about Dragons!!
I'm not an advocate of 'woo-woo' bullshit like clairvoyance, alternative medicine, physic powers or faith healing. Not least because they are bullshit, but because they can be actively harmful. That in mind, imagine my reaction yesterday when someone came into the café peddling leaflets advertising their alternative medicine clinic opening in the area. Alas, it was Nicola who dealt with this charlatan and she just gave a mild 'okay' when asked to put the leaflets out. Had I been there, oh, shit would have gone down, let me tell you.
When I saw what the leaflets were I was very tempted to hurl them straight into the bin. She stopped me and said it was 'harmless'. She explained that, while unemployed, she'd been sent on a course at one of these alternative medicine clinics and had done some work with homoeopathy. Christ.
My problem, as I explained, though with agitation and an almost incredulous disbelief that someone could take any of it seriously after getting a science GCSE, is that it is a scam. It's a scheme designed to pray on the vulnerable and sick in society - make them part with their livelihoods and trust in something that has about as much likelihood of working as doing nothing but believing that you'll get better. A real doctor will give you the facts - the risks, the chance of success, the research, the data, the theory and even the side effects of the medicine he or she will give you. And they'll do it FOR FREE (I'm taking of the NHS, of course, not sure how you approach this in americaland). An 'alternative medicine' con artist will assure you there are 'no risks', that it WILL work, that it is 'proven' (though they will never cite a reputable source, if they cite at all), that they alone can help you where real medicine cannot. And they'll charge an extortionate fee that may bankrupt you. They want you to take it on faith, basically. Because there certainly isn't any evidence to back up their absurd claims and every single test or investigation into these scams has revealed them for what they are - nothing. Occultists, transcendentalists, and faith-healers of every religion know the auto-deceptive power of 'faith'.
It was at this point that I was, inevitably, accused of being closed minded. I explained that I am open to any new ideas if they can be shown to be accurate and have a measurable and reliable effect in reality. Homoeopathy is none of these things, quite the opposite. Despite anyone's assertions of personal conviction, it is impossible to distinguish alternative medicine from no treatment at all, or, at best, a placebo. That's why faith healers don't work in hospitals and why alternative medicine is 'alternative', because if it worked, it wouldn't be 'alternative' it would be 'medicine'. And just like in the case of faith healing, the most staunch believers in alternative medicine will refuse to accept any evidence that is given to them to show the infective nature of this bullshit. These sorts of claims, unsupported by evidence will almost certainly be wrong at the onset regardless of the source, and without any means of regulation, will only get wronger over time.
This is why I despise it so much - take a sick person, a vulnerable person, a desperate person, sell them some snake oil and then, instead of disappearing as the most honest con-artist would, the alternative medicine pusher will repeatedly enforce the conviction that it is working and that they just need to take more of their snake oil and perhaps re-mortgage their house while they're at it. So, rather than seek actual help from real doctors, get the truth, their real chances of recovery and the best medicine that has been rigorously tested against every fail-safe known to medical science.
Grrr. In the end I threw it into the bin when she wasn't looking. *shrug* You can't win them all.
Anyway, happier news...
I gots me an Ushanka!! :D I got a grey one because Jonathan has a black one and I don't want them to get mixed up. I'm sad mine doesn't have a communist badge on it. I'll have to find one myself, I suppose. XD
Tomorrow I will be dying my EPIC COAT burgundy. For... um... MYSTERIOUS REASONS! Yes. >:D
EDIT:
MERLIN TONIGHT WAS MAGNIFICENTLY EPIC!! :D
So much wank! EXCALIBUR! LADY OF THE LAKE! HOLY GRAIL CUP OF LIFE! ROUND TABLE! PERCIVAL! KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE! MERLIN MAGIC FIGHT! GIUS MAGIC FIGHT! DRAGON! SWORD IN THE STONE! OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG! I was just waiting for Mordred to show up. XD
And another series next year? W00t!!!
Oh, for some reason this reminds me that Doctor Who has been filming at Cardiff Castle recently! YAY! It'll be lovely to see somewhere I've actually been to on DW. :) I hope it's a story about Dragons!!