The Quack-Files: Introduction
Confessions of a Quackbuster is one of many Quack-Files projects.
INTRODUCTION
Warning! This is a skeptical and biased website (*)
The fact that this website focuses on one side of the coin, is an acknowledgement that there is another side which has been investigated. This website has a definite and conscious bias, which isn't the same thing as a negative "prejudice", which is defined as "an opinion or leaning adverse to anything without just grounds or before sufficient knowledge."
I see an informed and conscious bias as something positive & desireable, in contrast to prejudice. If one doesn't have a bias, one doesn't have an opinion worth defending. I see it as the result of an analysis of the issues, resulting in the taking of a standpoint more in favor of one side than of the other side. In other words, I am biased for objective evidence, and biased against a lack of such evidence. This naturally results in a bias for Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) and modern medicine, and a bias against so-Called Alternative Medicine (sCAM). I'm not interested in anything that is just "so-called". I don't want to base my clinical decisions and my consumer protection efforts on something that is anecdotal, tenuous, unproven, speculative, and often deceptive.
As a former true believer in so-Called Alternative Medicine, even using it to treat terminally ill patients, I have experience from the "inside". I have seen too many deaths, including among my own family members who were believers in sCAM, and can no longer close my eyes to this situation.
I am not interested in making all forms of sCAM practices illegal. What I want to see is truth in advertising and no more false claims of proven effectiveness. The public should understand what it is they are dealing with. What they then do is their own choice. I simply do not believe that promoters should have the freedom to deceive their hapless victims. This "freedom" is what the so-called "Health Freedom" movement is fighting for. On the contrary, I believe in something entirely different. I believe in Freedom of Informed Choice.
(*) Now that I've gotten your attention.....;-), I hope you'll be curious enough to read on. This site is intended to polarize opinions. Hopefully you'll choose to be a quack-buster, rather than a quack-booster. Neutrality is impossible, since not to choose is itself a choice. Choose to be an active consumer protector by joining, and learning from, the Healthfraud Discussion List.
The Quack-Files
INTRODUCTION
Warning! This is a skeptical and biased website (*)
The fact that this website focuses on one side of the coin, is an acknowledgement that there is another side which has been investigated. This website has a definite and conscious bias, which isn't the same thing as a negative "prejudice", which is defined as "an opinion or leaning adverse to anything without just grounds or before sufficient knowledge."
I see an informed and conscious bias as something positive & desireable, in contrast to prejudice. If one doesn't have a bias, one doesn't have an opinion worth defending. I see it as the result of an analysis of the issues, resulting in the taking of a standpoint more in favor of one side than of the other side. In other words, I am biased for objective evidence, and biased against a lack of such evidence. This naturally results in a bias for Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) and modern medicine, and a bias against so-Called Alternative Medicine (sCAM). I'm not interested in anything that is just "so-called". I don't want to base my clinical decisions and my consumer protection efforts on something that is anecdotal, tenuous, unproven, speculative, and often deceptive.
As a former true believer in so-Called Alternative Medicine, even using it to treat terminally ill patients, I have experience from the "inside". I have seen too many deaths, including among my own family members who were believers in sCAM, and can no longer close my eyes to this situation.
I am not interested in making all forms of sCAM practices illegal. What I want to see is truth in advertising and no more false claims of proven effectiveness. The public should understand what it is they are dealing with. What they then do is their own choice. I simply do not believe that promoters should have the freedom to deceive their hapless victims. This "freedom" is what the so-called "Health Freedom" movement is fighting for. On the contrary, I believe in something entirely different. I believe in Freedom of Informed Choice.
(*) Now that I've gotten your attention.....;-), I hope you'll be curious enough to read on. This site is intended to polarize opinions. Hopefully you'll choose to be a quack-buster, rather than a quack-booster. Neutrality is impossible, since not to choose is itself a choice. Choose to be an active consumer protector by joining, and learning from, the Healthfraud Discussion List.
The Quack-Files
posted by Sitemaster | 5:05 PM
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