152
King Charles has appointed a homeopath. Why do the elite put their faith in snake oil? | Martha Gill
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 06 Feb 2024
152 points (96.3% liked)
Skeptic
1329 readers
8 users here now
A community for Scientific Skepticism:
Scientific skepticism or rational skepticism, sometimes referred to as skeptical inquiry, is a position in which one questions the veracity of claims lacking empirical evidence.
Do not confuse this with General Skepticism, Philosophical Skepticism, or Denialism.
Things we like:
- Civility
- Thoughtful discussion based on evidence and facts
- Humor
Things we don't like:
- Personal attacks or disrespectful attitude
- Wild speculation on events with no evidence
- Low-effort comments and posts
Other communities of interest:
"A wise man proportions his belief to the evidence." -David Hume
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Only a homeopath or one among every other kind of treatment because he can afford it as he is rich as fuck?
This is the likely truth. Prolly has like 40 specialists trying every type of treatment under the sun.
The minor saving grace of homeopathy (I can't believe I'm saying this), is that it can give hope, and the downstream effect of positive emotion can help people recover more quickly. (link)
Where this falls apart, are cases where the money being charged for this positivity are extortionate, where people are encouraged to only seek alternative medicine, and where the effects are treated as something other than helping you feel better.
It's downright distressing when you see somebody forgoing treatment that has a good chance of actually curing things, because someone is actively selling them on homeopathic benefits far greater than feeling better.
Edit: I just realised, I'm not on my home instance, I'm on a skeptic board. So I will clarify, I do think it's a bunch of quack, but belief in it may help some people.
Even if it's just one other "treatment" it's still bad. Not just because it's a waste of money, but there can be interactions. Certain foods change how drugs act, and who knows what weird remedies they would suggest that are harmful.
Then if this quack is on the team of specialists, the real doctors have to either waste time listening to garbage, or waste time trying to convince Chuckles to ignore the garbage.
Not to mention the fact that it's possible that they might not make certain suggestions when they know a scam artist is throwing doubt into the actual scientifically backed process.
When people say "why not try everything?" this is why. You can't follow a real treatment plan and psudo-nonsense at the same time.