The infuriating rise of anti science behavior in every corner of society.

submitted by Bogos from self.GenderCritical

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[–]Bogos[S] 15 insightful - 1 fun15 insightful - 0 fun16 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

Yes, a lot of what I said exists on both left and right. What issues do you have with the left specifically in regard to science, beyond what I mentioned ?

[–]Lilith_Fair 15 insightful - 1 fun15 insightful - 0 fun16 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Antivax is not limited to the right. It crosses party line and there are a lot of holistic, hippie types who buy into all that, as well as all the Gwenyth Paltrow Goop crap. I've seen tons of lib-fem type moms-the kind who are all into natural foods, everything "natural" and organic, save-the-earth types who are very much antivax too. They blog about it with arguments backed by "science".

[–]RestingWitchface 11 insightful - 1 fun11 insightful - 0 fun12 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

I think the reason why many women are into natural foods, alternative therapies, etc. is because the mainstream healthcare system has failed them so badly. I have a lot of personal experience with this – in 2013, I became very sick with a severe virus and nobody could help me. I was sick for years on end, and I basically had doctors telling me I was mentally ill (despite testing positive for the virus showing a very clear trigger). When I was in this position, alternative therapies became very attractive because they offered to actually help me. The one I tried actually did help. I am not an anti-vaxxer, but I completely sympathise with women who have no trust in medicine/science, because I have experienced its failings first-hand. I think the medical community should start taking responsibility for those failures rather than painting those women as crazy or naive. It has been my experience more than a few times that the advice I got from other women was better than anything offered by my doctor.

[–]OrneryStruggle 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I tried some alternative therapies for some of my health issues which actually had a good track record of showing efficacy in clinical trials - a lot of medications that actually work are only "naturopathic" because they are natural and thus can be sold OTC without a script, but can do similar things to drugs on the market. Ephedra is one example from Chinese medicine. For a lot of women with weird health issues no one knows how to treat, this makes naturopathic medicines attractive I think BECAUSE it is all OTC and doesn't require a prescription, and therefore self-medication is possible.

They actually did help (I had a very clearly quantifiable symptom which resolved almost immediately upon starting them), and my GP ended up telling me to keep it up, so it's not even like doctors don't accept "alternative" therapies at times. I had a specialist actually recommend an OTC "natural" medicine for a symptom once.