New Study: Nearly Half Of All Americans Are Dangerous Stupid Idiots

[MrScorpio]

The new Cosmos couldn’t have come at a better time, but the real question is whether or not it can undo the damage that science deniers have done.

Being a climate change proponent or supporting evolution while denying the usefulness of vaccinations can make you a dangerous hypocrite – the same scientific rigors prove all of these. Yet, a large number of Americans continue to make artificial distinctions between them, leading to a rampant belief in dangerous and foolish conspiracies. In fact, a new study published this week in the highly-respected Journal of the American Medical Association shows that nearly half of the population subscribes to some form of medical conspiracy.

Looking at them individually:

A full 37% of the population believes that the FDA is working with “Big Pharm” to squelch evidence of the effectiveness of non-traditional, alternative medical treatments for things like cancer and disease because they won’t make money. Here’s a question you should ask yourself: how much do you think it costs to produce a new drug? If you guessed $5 billion, you’re right. Furthermore, just how many of the new drugs tested meet FDA rigor and standards so that they make it to market? If you said only 5% of all drugs created make it to market, you’re right again. Which isn’t to say that drugs aren’t money makers, but… how much do you think it costs to produce a new herbal supplement, slap “all natural” on the front, and then ship it to market, and how many do you think fail FDA testing procedures? Not enough to keep the vitamin and natural supplement industry from becoming a multibillion dollar a year industry.

One in five people think that vaccinations cause autism. This link has been disproved before. Andrew Wakefield was a lair, the BMJ has called him an elaborate fraud, and as a direct result of his bogus study, he’s caused vaccination rates to drop. This one is particularly offensive, because while there’s no evidence that vaccinations cause autism – none – it suggests that some parents would rather have a dead child than a child who is on the autistic spectrum. Vaccinations work; if you doubt it, look up Variola major and get back with us.

Another 20% of respondents believed that cellphones cause cancer. There’s no reliable study at all to suggest this. There isn’t just one study, either; a trip to PubMed to search for the subject turns up hundreds of studies with different search terms ranging from “cell phones and brain tumors” to “cell phones radiation,” with most of them not supporting the link between cell phones and cancer, leading to the conclusion that there isn’t any viable connection between the two.

http://crooksandliars.com/2014/03/new-study-nearly-half-all-americans-are

[Cali_Democrat]

1. Ya, but Americans are definitely right about chemtrails.....which had me thinking...

What if Malaysian flight 370 was actually on a secret mission to spray chemtrails on a remote island when it crashed?

Think about it.

[chrisa]

10. Big Pharma is teaming up with Monsanto / COINTELPRO to kill some poor guy that's stuck on an island!

The monsters!

[Hekate]

2. Sad. KnR

[Demeter]

3. There are two forces generating conspiracy theories

Finding out stuff like no actual Iraq WMD, and NSA spying,

and the Bell Curve.



In the first case, the "conspiracy theories" are actual facts concealed by government propaganda.

In the second case, people's intellectual weaknesses are being exploited by the unscrupulous for power and profit. Their cover story is the pervasive government propaganda, casting doubt on all opinions and public information.



The first is evil, the second is evil...it's more likely that the first can be overcome by ethical reporting and prosecution of the government, the second by strong useful public education, honest reporting, and prosecution of the frauds who are not in government.

Corruption is endemic in this nation. An ethical person has no future, and would be well advised to "do as the Romans do" and restrain his ethical impulses for friends and family and immediate community.

[sendero]

4. i think......

..... this is all the natural result of the clear understanding by most people that money has corrupted EVERYTHING in this country, including "science".

Lots of us believe in real science but when it becomes clear that many if not most "scientific studies" somehow always reach conclusions that favor whoever funded the study, well, it sure takes the stars out of your eyes.

This guy makes a point of talking about big Pharma, i wouldn't if I were him because they are a case study in the failure of "science", as clearly evidenced by the huge number of costly pharmaceutical recalls that have been made over the last 10-15 years that can only be explained by rigged studies.

So IMHO the huge level of skepticism among the public is not as unjustified as this pearl-clutcher would suggest.

[ReRe]

5. The dangerous stupid idiots are...

... the 47% who voted for Mr Foreign Policy big hair Romney in 2012. IMVHO.

[LostOne4Ever]

6. This is without a doubt one of the

best titles I have seen on DU.

[marions ghost]

7. Buncha crap

--and really wrong about what it takes to bring a drug to market. They spend the bulk of their money on marketing and NOT on research and development, the costs of which have gone down.

This sounds like drug company propaganda.

[grahamhgreen]

8. Scientists Condemn New FDA Study Saying BPA Is Safe: "It Borders on Scientific Misconduct"

Scientists Condemn New FDA Study Saying BPA Is Safe: "It Borders on Scientific Misconduct"
Researchers working on a joint NIH-FDA program to better regulate harmful chemicals accuse the agency of undermining their research with a flawed and deceptive study.
—Mariah Blake on Mon. March 24, 2014 3:00 AM PDT

[cali]

9. yep. drug company propaganda. and I am not a conspiracist at all

yes, people are dangerously stupid- pretty much everywhere, and driven by dangerous emotions like fear, but thinking that drug companies are, on the whole,like the vast majority of corporations, driven almost entirely by profits, isn't stupid.

[SidDithers]

11. DU rec...

This is going to rustle some feathers.



Sid

[steve2470]

14. indeed nt

[DanTex]

12. Cellphones causing cancer isn't a "conspiracy theory".

It's a conjecture, and not an entirely irrational one. True, no studies have found a reliable link, but that doesn't prove that there isn't one. First of all, cell phones haven't been in wide usage long enough for reliable studies of the effects of decades worth of cell phone usage. Second, the conjecture that cell phones might have harmful effects isn't based on voodoo. It's based on the fact that they emit radiation.

The article draws the conclusion that "there isn't any viable connection between the two". But this isn't the conclusion that most scientists would draw from the totality of the evidence, which is "it doesn't look like there's a connection, but we don't know for sure." For example, the National Cancer institute phrases the current state of knowledge as follows:

--Cell phones emit radiofrequency energy, a form of non-ionizing electromagnetic radiation, which can be absorbed by tissues closest to where the phone is held.
--The amount of radiofrequency energy a cell phone user is exposed to depends on the technology of the phone, the distance between the phone’s antenna and the user, the extent and type of use, and the user’s distance from cell phone towers.
--Studies thus far have not shown a consistent link between cell phone use and cancers of the brain, nerves, or other tissues of the head or neck. More research is needed because cell phone technology and how people use cell phones have been changing rapidly.

http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Risk/cellphones

Also, while it's true that the FDA isn't covering up evidence of the effectiveness of alternative medicine, the paragraph whitewashes problems with the relationship between the FDA and pharmaceutical companies, and studies funded by entities with a profit interest, etc.

I basically agree with the sentiment of this article, but it overstates its case.

[JaneyVee]

13. my cellphone manual actually came with a case study

Saying that cell phones do in fact raise the risk for brain tumors.

[dilby]

15. I just watched Dallas Buyers Club, I guess that movie was just a lie.

I mean big Pharma and the FDA want whats best for us, right. Not saying vitamins can replace medicine but I am saying some medicines given to us are worse than vitamins.

[PasadenaTrudy]

16. And I'm sure

the HAARP machine is behind the weird weather patterns...

[malthaussen]

18. One thing is certain: rock and roll leads to depravity. n/t