yeah, I'm afraid I'm with tacit on this one. The problem comes with the definition of "placebo" and how much value is placed on that "something" that is effected. What people report as being affected is not anything that can be measured and can be achieved by a variety of methods, including deep breathing excercizes and the like. So I just can't support anyone who charges money for a placebo while passing it off as "medicine", because it's not actually treating a specific disease or even anything measurable. It's just making people re-evaluate things like "pain" but not actually curing whatever the original problem was. There are all sorts of psychological tricks that can do that for free.
I throw in the deceit required, the intellectual dishonesty, to sell alt.med or placebos as "medicine" as part of my valuing estimation.
I think of it in these terms. Let's say I go to magic show. I could go to someone like Penn & Teller, who are illusionists, etc. I'm paying money to be entertained. Or I could go to someone like Uri Geller, who tells people she is really performing feats of magic. Now, me, personally, I might be entertained either way, because I know that both of them are equally bullshit, but sleight of hand is still pretty cool in its own right (actually, the reality of magic tricks as tricks is far more interesting than a supernatural explanation, but that's besides the point, I think).
However, someone who goes to a fraud like Sylvia Brown or faith healers or anyone else who claims to be doing real magic ... those people are not going for entertainment value. They are being defrauded and these charlatans are taking their money under false pretenses, some of whom are actually doing real damage because of the false pretenses they encourage. Even if people are entertained while they're being ripped off, they're still being ripped off.
I view anyone who sells a placebo under the guise of real medicine the same way - a fraud who is taking advantage of the gullible or the desperate, who is intellectually dishonest, who is stealing.
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Date: 5/23/09 04:54 am (UTC)From:I throw in the deceit required, the intellectual dishonesty, to sell alt.med or placebos as "medicine" as part of my valuing estimation.
I think of it in these terms. Let's say I go to magic show. I could go to someone like Penn & Teller, who are illusionists, etc. I'm paying money to be entertained. Or I could go to someone like Uri Geller, who tells people she is really performing feats of magic. Now, me, personally, I might be entertained either way, because I know that both of them are equally bullshit, but sleight of hand is still pretty cool in its own right (actually, the reality of magic tricks as tricks is far more interesting than a supernatural explanation, but that's besides the point, I think).
However, someone who goes to a fraud like Sylvia Brown or faith healers or anyone else who claims to be doing real magic ... those people are not going for entertainment value. They are being defrauded and these charlatans are taking their money under false pretenses, some of whom are actually doing real damage because of the false pretenses they encourage. Even if people are entertained while they're being ripped off, they're still being ripped off.
I view anyone who sells a placebo under the guise of real medicine the same way - a fraud who is taking advantage of the gullible or the desperate, who is intellectually dishonest, who is stealing.