fattypatties

Okay, remember I said "science" is a magic word?

This is a great example as to why it is important to clearly understand methodology and content in scientific reporting. I can think of no better example of the kind of thing that contextualizes scientific reporting in popular sources. If you think this is an unusual plan, you're wrong. I guarantee that every pharmaceutical company and chemical company in the world has a similar marketing plan. They just don't conveniently publish it on the web.

thanks to Zuska for the heads up on this

Look, the reason this is important to me is simple. My fat body has been the debate of science and medicine for some time and there is little evidence to support the supposed science created by the well-oiled diet-pharamceutical industrial complex. But scientific discovery is under attack from many sources these days and it isn't ironic or surprising that the same people who create government policies designed to scare us about food and weight are the same people who use their so-called moral code to filter science. On the right, scientific study is being co-opted to prove morality. On the other side (not the left, because it ain't liberal), capitalists are co-opting scientific discovery to set up their own profit centers. Since universities are so heavily funded by both of these factions and since they have acquiesed to the pressure by pushing academics into grant races rather than supporting exploration and discovery free of such biases, we have to work hard to sort through the filters. We have to take what we hear in the media with a great big grain of salt. We have to inspect the data.

Bottom-line. If you are not able or willing to inspect the data for yourself and you are not able or willing to think critically about the possibilities of bias, hidden agendas or just plain misleading conclusions, then DON'T REPEAT THE MEMES.

Any sentence you begin with "studies have shown..." should be stopped right there. If you can't name the study and haven't read it, then shut up!

Why?

Not because I believe everything we think or say should be documented. Talk from your experience if you like.

People like the ones who created the "Wedge Strategy" are depending upon you to repeat their messages.

Admit you don't know. Tell people you have only heard about it and can't really know it. Talk from your own experiences. Ask your self and disclose to others what your source of information is.

Why is this important? Because all of this misinformation leads to death, destruction and poor quality of life. Words harm.

So think. Disclose. Examine. Question everything. I know it hurts your brain.

If it is too much for you to think about these things, then shut up.