Who thinks of this stuff?

If you thinks it's bad among healthy people, just wait till you see the charlatans circling the cancer industry.  15 years ago when my grandfather was diagnosed with a terminal GBM, told he had less than a year to live and put his affairs in order.  His wife went full monty into the world of "alternative medicine".  
 

It was a freaking disaster.  Reiki healing sessions.  Poly MVA treatments.  Raw cranberry juice.  The capper of her insanity was to fly him to Florida to sit between two "healing golden orbs".   It was all scams and cons designed to take financial advantage of desperate people. 

Mndsm said:

All medicine is quackery, until it works. 

And that is a terrible and inaccurate definition of medicine. 
 

In reply to KyAllroad (Jeremy) :

When we were busy legalising weed here in Canada, I had a friend from America tell me that was a good thing because weed can cure cancer.

Considering that my mom (who was a RN and lived through the sixties) had died two years earlier after a 20+ year battle with cancer that kept coming back, it took all my willpower to not promptly tear my friend a new a-hole.

I think if the cure were that damn simple, we'd have it sorted by now.

ProDarwin said:

I could leave the title & first line of this thread as is, and replace the picture with about 1000 different things and it would be just as valid.

 

I don't know who thinks of it.  Often times the person who came up with it/sells/spreads the word it is a strong believer in it.

... And there is no larger fanatic than an adult convert.

Mndsm said:

All medicine is quackery, until it works. 

We have a word here in Canada for alternative medicine that works.

We call it medicine

In reply to Jumper K Balls (Trent) :

That "technique" is not taught at any chiropractic schools and would have gotten you kicked out of Palmer when I was there. There are whack jobs all over the place and in every profession. 

Suprf1y said:

Mndsm said:

All medicine is quackery, until it works. 

We have a word here in Canada for alternative medicine that works.

We call it medicine

Exactly.

BTW, that's almost a direct quote from the Tim Minchin video that I posted.

I run into the stuff with depressing regularity.  An internet connection is equivalent to, or even superior to my 10 years of school and decades of experience.

You guys should see what my hippy friends tell me will cure my Type 1 diabetes. It would make your head explode.

Magic rocks? If you think you feel better, and it isn't going to harm you (aside from liberating money from your wallet), who the berkeley cares?

Seriously, why care?

In reply to Appleseed :

Because I seriously believe that tolerating - let alone encouraging - this kind of:

A) fraud

B) suspension of critical thinking

C) pseudo-science

D) idiocy

E) all of the above

... is having and will continue to have a profound negative effect on the reasoning abilities of the civilized world. 

I have a vested interest in living in a society of people who can think critically and make informed decisions. We are currently seeing the results of decades of tolerance for the kind of thinking that results in magic rock water bottles. 

And I don't like those results one bit.  Do you?

Duke said:

In reply to Appleseed :

Because I seriously believe that tolerating - let alone encouraging - this kind of:

A) fraud

B) suspension of critical thinking

C) pseudo-science

D) idiocy

E) all of the above

... is having and will continue to have a profound negative effect on the reasoning abilities of the civilized world. 

I have a vested interest in living in a society of people who can think critically and make informed decisions. We are currently seeing the results of decades of tolerance for the kind of thinking that results in magic rock water bottles. 

And I don't like those results one bit.  Do you?

Where do you draw the line?

What if I replaced the first photo with a religious text instead?

In reply to ProDarwin :

Personally I put religion on the same side of the line as magic rock water.

I recognize that not everyone does... but I will say that the danger religion represents is directly proportionate to how much a given follower tries to sell others on the effectiveness of their magic rocks. 
 

In reply to ProDarwin :

But let me also say this - a person who keeps their spiritualism to themselves and enjoys their life is only making Pascal's wager, assuming that they take reasonable physical care of themselves using science for all the physical aspects of their life. 

Any individual is welcome to make any choice at all in any manner they wish AS LONG AS IT AFFECTS ONLY THEM. But why a person would choose to make a decision about a physical topic based on unmeasurable, non-rational belief is beyond me. 

In reply to ProDarwin :

Or let me put it a third way - if you just think shiny green rocks look pretty in your water, drink away. 

It's the thinking they will help your liver part that's the problem. 
 

"It's immoral to let a sucker keep his money"

-Canada Bill Jones

In reply to Duke :

I hope it gets worse. The only thing I trust is chaos. Entropy never fails me. The things I give a E36 M3 about grows smaller every day. Idiots, and the magic rocks they believe in don't even make the list. I sound like I'm joking but I'm dead serious. 

Duke said:

In reply to ProDarwin :

Personally I put religion on the same side of the line as magic rock water.

Was going to say the same thing yesterday, but thought I'd leave the R word out of it.

In reply to Duke :

i E36 M3 you not this is what MIL gave me yesterday 

and this is the magic water bottle

she also bought Carli some magic rock deoderant that doesn't actually contain the magic rocks, it has them in the cap of the container.  It was berkeleyING 20 dollars.  These people are making a killing.

Edit- holy E36 M3 the phone thing was $29.99 i feel very bad she got it for me because i'm an shiny happy person who thinks her reiki magic rocks vibration stuff is quacky.  It makes the water bottle seem a bargain at $40.  A fool and their money.....

time to see if i can start epoxying $3/50lb pebbles from home depot to E36 M3 and charging a fortune for them

Yeah, Pat is going to be harmonized! ?? 

Keep all the packaging so it's still like-new (and don't use up all the harmony) then list the item on eBay as unused. 

Give yourself a selling name like Sea of Tranquility or TouchStone healing stones. 

I once harmonized yo momma and she vibrated thu tha floor HEY-YOOOOOOOOOOO

You don't even need to buy stuff to sell to these people.

A person I used to work with paid someone to come to his home and find out what was causing his health issues.

The answer was that, at night, he is supposed to turn off the breakers that supply the electrical circuit in his bedroom. Apparently all the stray current zipping around while he sleeps was giving him migraines.

The man also wears a magical magnetic bracelet and has magnets around the fuel line on his car to align the fuel molecules so they burn more efficiently.

I've tried explaining that if $0.50 worth of magnets got you more fuel mileage, the manufacturers would have been all over that years ago.

I feel bad for people who get taken by these snake oil salesman. 

In reply to ShawnG :

I want to want to feel bad, but I just don't. 
 

In reply to Pat :

Sorry, bud. But yeah. 
 

Patrick said:

In reply to Duke :

 

i E36 M3 you not this is what MIL gave me yesterday 

Their harmonies were so unbelievable.

OHHHH!

For Christmans one of my kids gave me a magic keyboard for my MAC.

Pretty sure it's not really magic. It doesn't even have any rocks

Suprf1y said:

It doesn't even have any rocks

Have I got a deal for you!

You can step right up, step right up
That's right, it fillets, it chops, it dices, slices,
Never stops, lasts a lifetime, mows your lawn
And it mows your lawn and it picks up the kids from school
It gets rid of unwanted facial hair, it gets rid of embarrassing age spots,
It delivers a pizza, and it lengthens, and it strengthens
And it finds that slipper that's been at large
Under the chaise lounge for several weeks
And it plays a mean Rhythm Master,
It makes excuses for unwanted lipstick on your collar
And it's only a dollar, step right up, it's only a dollar, step right up

Lizzie and the Rain Man

Tanya Tucker

part of it....

Step back non-believers
Or the rain will never come
Someone start that fire burning
Somebody beat the drum
He said some may think I'm crazy
For making all these claims
But I swear before this day is over
You folks are gonna see some rain.........