What's the harm? Anti-Woo-Woo Site

[Broomstick]

I assume this has been around for a time, but I just found it: What's the Harm?, a website detailing the real harm woo-woo bullshit does to real people. One of the interesting things I found is that successful prosecution of some practices is more common than I thought. Anyhow - take a look, folks, some of this might be useful in debating advocates of woo.

[Ahriman238]

Very interesting. Thanks for posting, Broomstick.

[madd0ct0r]

cool. thanks!

I wonder what sections they'll be adding over the years..

[Ziggy Stardust]

"Psychic surgery"?!?!?!?!

[Broomstick]

Yeah, that one has kind of fallen out of fashion these days, but it was big in the 1970's and even into the 80's. Not just skeevy charlatans promising a cancer cure but it also would pop up in fiction at the oddest times.

[Korvan]

Some of them are a bit of a stretch such as believing that the moon landing was a hoax is harmful because Buzz Aldrin will punch you out. Or Holocaust denial is harmful because Germany and other places will throw you in jail for espousing such beliefs. It's like saying that NAMBLA is harmful because you could go to jail rather than the harm from all the, I don't know, child rape?

[Zaune]

Yeah, that one has kind of fallen out of fashion these days, but it was big in the 1970's and even into the 80's. Not just skeevy charlatans promising a cancer cure but it also would pop up in fiction at the oddest times.

Huh. There's an actual name for that? I thought it was something David Renwick made up specially for an episode of Jonathan Creek.

[Flagg]

"Psychic surgery"?!?!?!?!

Yeah if you've never seen "Man on the Moon" about Andy Kaufman, there's a scene featuring it and it's really an evil practice that preys on the most desperate. Basically they take a balloon or latex condom, fill it with fake or animal blood and some organ meat or anything else that looks disgusting, and as they are pretending to magically penetrate your skin with their hand they pop it and "pull out the cancer" then show it to you to "prove" they removed it. Then you go home and die.

[mr friendly guy]

Yep, psychic surgery was quite "popular" a few decades ago particularly in the Phillipines.



James Randi shows how its done. Funny story, the lead psychic surgeon needed to go to a conventional hospital in the Phillipines when he had IIRC cancer. One wonders why he doesn't get all those psychic surgeons he trained to remove his tumour.

[CarsonPalmer]

Some of them are a bit of a stretch such as believing that the moon landing was a hoax is harmful because Buzz Aldrin will punch you out. Or Holocaust denial is harmful because Germany and other places will throw you in jail for espousing such beliefs. It's like saying that NAMBLA is harmful because you could go to jail rather than the harm from all the, I don't know, child rape?

I think its the top of the page tagline "here are x people who were harmed by not thinking critically" that makes some things read weirdly, like the guy who claimed to have magic powers and was promptly beaten to death by an angry mob (which is also not generally a concern for people claiming to have magic powers in the developed world).

[fgalkin]

Or their one sole "expose" of cupping where a doctor accidentally set the patient on fire. Except that has nothing to do with cupping, and everything with the incompetence of the person performing the procedure. By that reasoning, heart transplants are woo-woo, because hey, botched surgeries.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

[Broomstick]

The difference is that heart surgery, despite the real risks, actually, on average, provides benefit to the patient. The vast majority of people getting open heart surgery are better afterwards. Cupping, however, grants no benefits whatsoever while carrying risk of being burned.

[Broomstick]

Upon reflection, I suppose one could also make the point that while cupping is useless as a cure, it is likewise largely harmless as well (aside from unintentional ignition incidents), as opposed to some other forms of woo-woo.

[fgalkin]

You mean, other than the studies that show it works?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... 81566.html

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

[Terralthra]

No control group for all but one study mentioned. Gimme a break.

[cosmicalstorm]

And lets not forget:

Why Most Published Research Findings Are False
http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/inf ... ed.0020124