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BioTerrorism Will Save Your Life with the 4 Thieves Vinegar Collective [video]

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11–20 of 215 posts

Re: BioTerrorism Will Save Your Life with the 4 Thieves Vinegar Collective [video]

#11

I’m put off by their website. It seems too well crafted for their main focus to be on their stated goal of giving individuals the tools to treat themselves. The actual aim seems closer to marketing or perhaps influencing public discourse on the subject https://fourthievesvinegar.org/

…which would be one way of giving individuals those tools, no?

Re: BioTerrorism Will Save Your Life with the 4 Thieves Vinegar Collective [video]

#12

https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/anarchist-drugs-ag... >"Our ultimate hope is to get to a point where we're no longer necessary because the notion of DIY medicine, no matter anybody's opinion of it is common enough that if it comes up in conversation, someone can say 'Oh I'm just going to 3D print a replacement'". >No, no, that is not going to be happening any time soon, or (frankly) at all. I could go one f…

Personally, I find this guy to be unbearably smug.

Re: BioTerrorism Will Save Your Life with the 4 Thieves Vinegar Collective [video]

#13

I’m put off by their website. It seems too well crafted for their main focus to be on their stated goal of giving individuals the tools to treat themselves. The actual aim seems closer to marketing or perhaps influencing public discourse on the subject https://fourthievesvinegar.org/

I would imagine that there are many designers out there who would be very happy to contribute to a project like this on a volunteer basis.

Also, purposely making your website look less "well crafted" strikes me as quite cynical (and almost certainly counterproductive).

> The actual aim seems closer to marketing or perhaps influencing public discourse on the subject

A worthy aim, no?

... How much do giant drug corps spend on marketing? Last I remember, it was more than they spend on drug development; in the tens of billions of dollars annually. In this context, quibbling that a website seems too nice seems remarkably misguided.

Finally, considering how much effort has been put into helping people actually make these things - far more than anyone else! - I think trying to redefine their aim to be just marketing is deeply unfair.

Re: BioTerrorism Will Save Your Life with the 4 Thieves Vinegar Collective [video]

#14
post #12

https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/anarchist-drugs-ag... >"Our ultimate hope is to get to a point where we're no longer necessary because the notion of DIY medicine, no matter anybody's opinion of it is common enough that if it comes up in conversation, someone can say 'Oh I'm just going to 3D print a replacement'". >No, no, that is not going to be happening any time soon, or (frankly) at all. I could go one f…

Personally, I find this guy to be unbearably smug.

This. And it’s partially not even true. They clearly did create a lot of resources, that they present on their website and GitHub. Is everybody printing their own meds at home yet? No, and I get that the people might be offputting if they react quite confident but they can still do very good and very valuable work.

Re: BioTerrorism Will Save Your Life with the 4 Thieves Vinegar Collective [video]

#15
post #9
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s the opposite of the Dropbox comment, which asserted it was already easy to do. This criticism asserts it’s too hard.

Sorry, the implication was that it’s “easy to do” insofar as simply getting it from a pharma manufacturer. The problem is getting the drugs you need is not easy to do, and while 4 thieves isn’t “easy” yet, it actually is way easier than arguing with insurance, needing a PA, getting a letter of medical necessity, only to still get rejected, and then having to argue with your state insurance board through an IMR. That’…

> All it takes is one or a few people to start doing this for friends, and it begins to spread.

Has this in fact happened?

If the drugs are "actually" cheap and easy to make, I suggest importing them from India. If they aren't "actually" easy to make, you aren't going to successfully make them.

Re: BioTerrorism Will Save Your Life with the 4 Thieves Vinegar Collective [video]

#16

I’m put off by their website. It seems too well crafted for their main focus to be on their stated goal of giving individuals the tools to treat themselves. The actual aim seems closer to marketing or perhaps influencing public discourse on the subject https://fourthievesvinegar.org/

> It seems too well crafted for their main focus to be on their stated goal of giving individuals the tools to treat themselves.

Is this how you think about everything? Do you go to a restaurant with nice chairs and think, "The food here must suck, they spend too much money on the furniture"?

Re: BioTerrorism Will Save Your Life with the 4 Thieves Vinegar Collective [video]

#17
The whole show feels like the financial literacy courses that are being offered by credit card companies. The system is stacked against the individual, we need to keep the notion of "personal responsibility" alive. Do we want this future: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/26/world/americas/mexican-ca...

I know people who cook their own medicine, but they are trained as chemists or microbiologists and have access to lab facilities. If Joe Sixpack stated doing his own, it'd look like so: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/26/world/americas/mexican-ca...

We know that niche stuff like Daraprim or trientine is easy to produce because it used to be cheap before the financializers got there. I'm not yet convinced that the solution is to cook your own, one should lean on the government to have a national facility.

Re: BioTerrorism Will Save Your Life with the 4 Thieves Vinegar Collective [video]

#18
> We all know that custom, hand-made, artisan-crafted, boutique tools are always better than something factory made.

Right. We all know the best chips in the world are made by local artisan silicon-etchers. None of that TSMC pasteurized crap. You simply can't beat a 1nm brush and a steady hand. We all know this industrial revolution thing was a mistake.

Re: BioTerrorism Will Save Your Life with the 4 Thieves Vinegar Collective [video]

#19

https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/anarchist-drugs-ag... >"Our ultimate hope is to get to a point where we're no longer necessary because the notion of DIY medicine, no matter anybody's opinion of it is common enough that if it comes up in conversation, someone can say 'Oh I'm just going to 3D print a replacement'". >No, no, that is not going to be happening any time soon, or (frankly) at all. I could go one f…

Is the 4thieves content specifically wrong? I would rather take some risk with some autonomy than be subject to dealing with the sort of people I have encountered in the drugs and illness business, like said author.

hacking is a way to provide dignity to people in how they relate to systems. be warey of the ones who object to that.

Re: BioTerrorism Will Save Your Life with the 4 Thieves Vinegar Collective [video]

#20
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, the implication was that it’s “easy to do” insofar as simply getting it from a pharma manufacturer. The problem is getting the drugs you need is not easy to do, and while 4 thieves isn’t “easy” yet, it actually is way easier than arguing with insurance, needing a PA, getting a letter of medical necessity, only to still get rejected, and then having to argue with your state insurance board through an IMR. That’…

> All it takes is one or a few people to start doing this for friends, and it begins to spread. Has this in fact happened? If the drugs are "actually" cheap and easy to make, I suggest importing them from India. If they aren't "actually" easy to make, you aren't going to successfully make them.

Yes, it has. Abortion access is one example.
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