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I couldn't escape poison oak, so I started eating it

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Re: I couldn't escape poison oak, so I started eating it

#141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>No platform owes you the right to amplify nonsense. The government can’t make you stop, but individual platforms or individuals themselves? They’re free to do whatever, just like you. Don’t like it? Start a Truth Social and go yell at your adoring fans all you want. Governments of the world, including the US government, have repeatedly been shown to order these "private" platforms around. So this argument is cooked.…

> You should ask yourself why conspiracy theories make more sense to people than the truth While conspiracy theorists believe this to be the case, and they are people, they're a slightly-vocal minority, and thus it'd be disingenuous to represent what conspiracy theorists think as what "people" think, unless you clarify that you're using the term "people" to refer to 1+ persons, not any indicative majority. As you and…

>While conspiracy theorists believe this to be the case, and they are people, they're a slightly-vocal minority, and thus it'd be disingenuous to represent what conspiracy theorists think as what "people" think, unless you clarify that you're using the term "people" to refer to 1+ persons, not any indicative majority.

Conspiracy theorists are everywhere. Just casually mention price fixing and you'll see endless speculation from just about everyone about how "they're out to get you". Mention politicians and lobbyists and they will readily speculate about who is on the take, based on stupid shit like physical traits of a person. These same people will then cry about a bunch of other conspiracy theories that don't jive with their preconceived notions.

>As you and I both said upthread: there will always be greater than zero pseudoscience conspiracy theorists who view literally anything as confirmation of the conspiracy theory.

This is true. Likewise, many "normies" regard the existence of nutty conspiracy theorists as evidence that any speculation about possible conspiracies is evidence of stupidity or even insanity.

>This is not evidence that they, or any significant amount of people, have said they can make conspiracy theories and pseudoscience go away forever. There's nothing wrong with "coming out against" disinformation.

First of all I didn't say that. Second of all, there is a lot wrong with trying to police speech, especially under the pretense of it being "disinformation". If you care about disinformation then you put out good information only, engage in debates, and so on. Basically stop treating your fellow citizens like children for merely disagreeing. Even if we want to suppress untrue information, it is extremely difficult to be 100% sure what is true, and the intellectual and popular discourse requires free expression of controversial ideas. If you don't want to have your worldview challenged, there are many ways to tune out the stuff you don't care for. The problem we have is that the authoritarians are threatened by the fact that someone out in the world disagrees with them. They can't handle that because their egos are too fragile. (Of course, some authoritarians do not care about the ideas at all. They just want power and the ideas are the tool they use to get it. We have this type in the West too.)

Re: I couldn't escape poison oak, so I started eating it

#142

You don't need to eat it. A well-known phenomenon in the US military is that some of the sites for Basic Training of new recruits have prodigious quantities of poison oak/ivy/sumac as the local flora. As consequence of the military training, you are rolling around in those plants daily. Initially, a large percentage of people have the usual reaction but it quickly disappears after a few weeks and it never happens aga…

I would be very surprised if that works.

The component that causes the reaction is not the allergen. It's a chemical that reacts with multiple proteins in the body - it's a very reactive molecule and not at all selective.

So theoretically, subsequent exposures would create new antigens each time - molecules your immune system hasn't seen before.

Re: I couldn't escape poison oak, so I started eating it

#143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

huh, every time I eat a kiwi my lips get itchy. I just googled and it doesn’t look like it contains urushiol, but it does contain an allergen called “actinidin”. This thread made me realize I’m allergic to kiwi’s…

You may have oral allergy syndrome (OAS), which is similar to food allergy but not as severe. It doesn't typically lead to anaphylaxis. It is caused by pollen allergy, where the food has a protein similar to one that's in the pollen you're allergic to. This is called "cross-reactivity". Personally I have OAS with raw carrots, which is likely cross-reactive from my birch pollen allergy. Raw carrots make my throat mild…

What are egg whites linked to?

That symptom matches my reaction to egg whites but the weird thing is, it's only some forms. I can eat hardboiled eggs no problem (probably because the allergen has denatured), but not most other forms itch while baked goods are very hit or miss. The worst are meringues and macaroons.

Re: I couldn't escape poison oak, so I started eating it

#144
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> crimes JR has committed against modern science Science doesn't work like that, religion does. "Science" harmed itself with some people and an ideology heavily censoring opponents, and by shutting down any debate, including scientific one.

The very idea that one can commit "crimes" against science by discussing ideas (however false) is shameful. As you said, it's no different than religious accusations of heresy. It's truly disheartening to see a backwards and illiberal idea like that being promoted here.

However false?

Even lying about how science works?

Re: I couldn't escape poison oak, so I started eating it

#145

I have read that the urushiol is also present in the skin of the mango fruit. I don’t know if those who consume a lot of mangoes or have grown up with mango trees around them are immune to poison oak’s urushiol(arguably much more concentrated) as its present in stems, saps, leaves, skin more than the flesh..but they likely have more tolerance. Also..in India, we don’t burn mango leaves or branches as it increases res…

Cue all the jokes about jackfruit having it too

The only food in the world I'm allergic to is cempedak, a close relative of jackfruit. If I eat a ripe one, I get puffy red duck lips like a Kardashian for a while.

Re: I couldn't escape poison oak, so I started eating it

#146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You may have oral allergy syndrome (OAS), which is similar to food allergy but not as severe. It doesn't typically lead to anaphylaxis. It is caused by pollen allergy, where the food has a protein similar to one that's in the pollen you're allergic to. This is called "cross-reactivity". Personally I have OAS with raw carrots, which is likely cross-reactive from my birch pollen allergy. Raw carrots make my throat mild…

What are egg whites linked to? That symptom matches my reaction to egg whites but the weird thing is, it's only some forms. I can eat hardboiled eggs no problem (probably because the allergen has denatured), but not most other forms itch while baked goods are very hit or miss. The worst are meringues and macaroons.

You probably have a genuine food allergy to egg. I don't see egg in OAS lists. I see some research saying that common egg allergens are destroyed by cooking as well (though this is not true for all cooking methods or all food allergens). I would see an allergist. It's probably a good idea for you to carry an epi-pen. Even if you've only had low severity reactions so far, it's always possible that the next one will be severe, and egg is hard to avoid.

Re: I couldn't escape poison oak, so I started eating it

#147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Name one fraudulent paper on that page. I know you didn't look at them. Better yet, give me 3, since you are so convinced it's all fraud.

I will not engage with you further and simply refer you to [1], which includes some of the studies used in your fraudulent website. And the data has only gotten more damning since 2021. [1] https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/ivermectin-much-more-than-y...

It's not a fraudulent website. I'm familiar with the blog you linked to and frankly I think it's run by a bunch of snobby conformists who pose as free-thinkers. Therefore, I don't expect much. But I may look over the post when I get time. Thanks for trying, I know what I asked is a lot of work. It's just not as clear-cut as you think, and it certainly wasn't at the time everyone came out against it.

Just look at the low depths the media went to in order to smear Ivermectin, a Nobel-prize winning drug for humans with minimal side effects, and that should tell you there is more to it than we were officially told. As I said before, they literally tried to connect the Joe Rogan thing to horse Ivermectin, and fabricated a hoax about an ER not treating gunshot victims because of people falling ill with the veterinary stuff. Meanwhile in Africa, people routinely take inexpensive Ivermectin that they buy with great ease. It all sounds fishy. I can't ignore the official lies, even if I do find some research that claims no benefit is there.

If you dig into this stuff more, you'll find that pharmaceutical companies fund studies to cast doubt on established medicines that they can't make money on, such as those with expired patents. If there was a simple silver bullet solution to covid and big pharma couldn't monetize it, they would surely bury the results. The huge investments in vaccines could not be allowed to fail, as many elites were heavily invested in the producers of those vaccines.

Re: I couldn't escape poison oak, so I started eating it

#149

I have read that the urushiol is also present in the skin of the mango fruit. I don’t know if those who consume a lot of mangoes or have grown up with mango trees around them are immune to poison oak’s urushiol(arguably much more concentrated) as its present in stems, saps, leaves, skin more than the flesh..but they likely have more tolerance. Also..in India, we don’t burn mango leaves or branches as it increases res…

huh, every time I eat a kiwi my lips get itchy. I just googled and it doesn’t look like it contains urushiol, but it does contain an allergen called “actinidin”. This thread made me realize I’m allergic to kiwi’s…

I started getting something a bit like that with bread. My whole mouth would go numb. I've eliminated it from my diet - was a bit of a wrench, but I've got over it now, and no more numb mouth.

Re: I couldn't escape poison oak, so I started eating it

#150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Science is not conducted through public debate. Full stop. There's a reason why it's peer review, and not talk show host review. You're only saying that because you happen to disagree with what is being said. Full stop.

The scientific principle is based on proving thing by experimentation. it is empirical that means that you should be able to re-produce the results of a thing or assertion by following the details in a paper. The public might be able to do it themselves. But the point is, its not about who says what, its about can it be reproduced. scientist "A" says that the sky is blue because of "x". devises an experiment to prove…

>The scientific principle is based on proving thing by experimentation.

As documented in Kuhn's "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions" there are periods where little progress is made because scientists get tunnel vision. It takes someone to come along and push things in a different direction, perhaps to the detriment of people with decades or lots of money sunk into a different orthodoxy, and navigating that turmoil can be challenging.

Who do you think decides which research gets funded, or published? If you go too far outside of what's acceptable to the establishment, your career is over. When there are billions of dollars on the line and your opposition can literally fund a dozen studies to "discredit" your take, it doesn't matter if your results can be reproduced or not. It could be many years before the truth comes out, if it ever does.

>None of that requires asserting bollocks on a chat show. Sure science outreach is great, but its not _really_ part of the method.

If you want to get funding for research then sometimes it is necessary to engage the public. If you hope to buck the well-monied establishment with hot takes, you might even need legal support. Besides that it's just interesting to hear what people are working on. I think people like to know what scientists think, and it gets boring to hear just a single opinion about things nonstop.

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