Perusing through Facebook last week I noticed peculiar status written by distant relative who I haven't seen in over a decade. Being that I'm the type of person who feels obligated to take a stand against pseudoscience and fake news, I felt that I had to comment and set the record straight. Here's the status:
It's a pretty common conspiracy theory that somebody, somewhere, has the cure for cancer but is keeping it a secret from everybody else because that person makes money off the drugs/methods to treat cancer. But it's pretty ridiculous to actually believe that. It's woo on par with a flat earth, chemtrails, and vaccines causing autism. Here's my initial comment (all my comments will be in Red, the original poster's comments are in Blue):
I think it was a straightforward and easy to understand explanation to debunk a really dumb conspiracy theory. The "Credible Hulk" wrote this piece explaining just how dumb this belief really is. I'm not really sure how anybody could believe this bunk, and because this belief could potentially cause great harm (for example, I asked for donations this past June for my annual St. Baldrick's event to cure childhood cancers, and I was told by a friend back then that he doesn't donate to cancer charity because he believes the government already knows the cure--so children's cancer research has lost some money, at least in part, because at least one person believed the conspiracy and refused to research something he thought was already solved), I feel obligated to stand up on my soap box and correct this nonsense, as uncomfortable and time consuming as it may be. But another person with whom I'm not friends with on Facebook and whom I don't know at all commented and had a lengthy discussion with me. Here is the chat.
The video that Emily linked me to was of a police officer testifying in court that some "doctor" Byrzynski he visited with his daughter cured her brain cancer only that she died a few months later, cancer free, of brain damage caused by radiation she recieved prior to visiting Byrzynski. More on this quack job later.
This second YouTube video appears to have come from a law firm and shows a man who claims he saw corruption in a pharmaceutical company he used to work for whereby the company gave paid speaking engagements to doctors in return for the docs prescribing certain medicines. The video never gives the name of the man speaking, nor the company he allegedly worked for, so I can't fact check any of the claims. This notwithstanding, the video has nothing to do with uncovering the secret cure for cancer.
This is where I started to get a little agitated--it's when I investigated the "doctor" from the first YouTube video she posted.
Wikipedia pretty much sums up everything you need to know about Byrzynski and his clinic. But that wasn't even the worst of it, because I looked into Project Camelot next. Emily said this is her primary source of information. It's the reason why she believes the government is hiding the cure for cancer from everybody.
All the information I stated here about Kerry Cassidy was found either on her own website, or on her RationalWiki. I understand that I shouldn't be surprised that a person like Kerry Cassidy exists, but for some reason it astonished me. And I learned that she has quite the following on social media, too.
Those were the last comments. If you couldn't tell by the Facebook comments, Emily is pictured in her profile picture with a very young child. Somebody who thinks there's a government conspiracy to hide the cure for cancer and believes in alternative medicine could make ill-informed decisions for her son if he ever became ill. If he had an operable tumor as a child, she might try homeopathic solutions or home remedies rather than surgery and treatment. This could result in the child's death. Somebody dumb enough to get their "news" from a Kerry Cassidy might make horrible decisions at the voting booth--they could even elect a local politician with an anti-science, anti-medicine agenda.
I'm not exactly sure how to combat this highly disturbing ignorance that is seemingly widespread across America, Land of the Stupid. With the internet and social media, really dumb ideas spread instantly to millions of gullible people. There are times when it feels like all attempts to be rational are futile and that the gullible idiots, who far outnumber the cogent thinkers, have already won. In the end, however, I somewhat feel a moral obligation to continue speaking out against conspiracy theories, anti-science, and invalid logic.
It could save the life of a child with a mom getting her news from Project Camelot one day.
Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/GodsNotReal_
Like me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/godsnotreal/
It's a pretty common conspiracy theory that somebody, somewhere, has the cure for cancer but is keeping it a secret from everybody else because that person makes money off the drugs/methods to treat cancer. But it's pretty ridiculous to actually believe that. It's woo on par with a flat earth, chemtrails, and vaccines causing autism. Here's my initial comment (all my comments will be in Red, the original poster's comments are in Blue):
I think it was a straightforward and easy to understand explanation to debunk a really dumb conspiracy theory. The "Credible Hulk" wrote this piece explaining just how dumb this belief really is. I'm not really sure how anybody could believe this bunk, and because this belief could potentially cause great harm (for example, I asked for donations this past June for my annual St. Baldrick's event to cure childhood cancers, and I was told by a friend back then that he doesn't donate to cancer charity because he believes the government already knows the cure--so children's cancer research has lost some money, at least in part, because at least one person believed the conspiracy and refused to research something he thought was already solved), I feel obligated to stand up on my soap box and correct this nonsense, as uncomfortable and time consuming as it may be. But another person with whom I'm not friends with on Facebook and whom I don't know at all commented and had a lengthy discussion with me. Here is the chat.
The video that Emily linked me to was of a police officer testifying in court that some "doctor" Byrzynski he visited with his daughter cured her brain cancer only that she died a few months later, cancer free, of brain damage caused by radiation she recieved prior to visiting Byrzynski. More on this quack job later.
This second YouTube video appears to have come from a law firm and shows a man who claims he saw corruption in a pharmaceutical company he used to work for whereby the company gave paid speaking engagements to doctors in return for the docs prescribing certain medicines. The video never gives the name of the man speaking, nor the company he allegedly worked for, so I can't fact check any of the claims. This notwithstanding, the video has nothing to do with uncovering the secret cure for cancer.
This is where I started to get a little agitated--it's when I investigated the "doctor" from the first YouTube video she posted.
Wikipedia pretty much sums up everything you need to know about Byrzynski and his clinic. But that wasn't even the worst of it, because I looked into Project Camelot next. Emily said this is her primary source of information. It's the reason why she believes the government is hiding the cure for cancer from everybody.
All the information I stated here about Kerry Cassidy was found either on her own website, or on her RationalWiki. I understand that I shouldn't be surprised that a person like Kerry Cassidy exists, but for some reason it astonished me. And I learned that she has quite the following on social media, too.
Those were the last comments. If you couldn't tell by the Facebook comments, Emily is pictured in her profile picture with a very young child. Somebody who thinks there's a government conspiracy to hide the cure for cancer and believes in alternative medicine could make ill-informed decisions for her son if he ever became ill. If he had an operable tumor as a child, she might try homeopathic solutions or home remedies rather than surgery and treatment. This could result in the child's death. Somebody dumb enough to get their "news" from a Kerry Cassidy might make horrible decisions at the voting booth--they could even elect a local politician with an anti-science, anti-medicine agenda.
I'm not exactly sure how to combat this highly disturbing ignorance that is seemingly widespread across America, Land of the Stupid. With the internet and social media, really dumb ideas spread instantly to millions of gullible people. There are times when it feels like all attempts to be rational are futile and that the gullible idiots, who far outnumber the cogent thinkers, have already won. In the end, however, I somewhat feel a moral obligation to continue speaking out against conspiracy theories, anti-science, and invalid logic.
It could save the life of a child with a mom getting her news from Project Camelot one day.
Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/GodsNotReal_
Like me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/godsnotreal/
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