The jaw-dropping effect of pseudo-science
Jaw-dropping I'm going to unashamedly call this first episode of Jon Ronson's Things Fell Apart, as mine actually did that when I listened to this last night! A must listen. On a par with Andrew Wakefield, if not much worse.
The devastating effect of the invented term 'excited delirium' by a deputy chief medical officer Charles Wetley, to explain deaths he didn't investigate properly, his sponsorship by a taser company and its subsequent use in courts all over America to exoneration violence by police for decades...you might guess where it leads. But I won't spoil it. How we didn't know this already is bizarre.
But what has rocked me all over again this morning was deciding to get a free sub to the Daily Telegraph (mainly see what they thought about vapes) and to read this article: 'The jaw-dropping histories behind our modern day culture wars." by Charlotte Runcie Article interesting and then I read the BTL comments. My jaw dropped again. This is not America, these are the opinions of middle England. Charlotte must have been rather shocked too.
The jaw-dropping histories behind our culture wars - be sure to look at comments
It's relevance for Addiction Economy, I will finally get to! I am seeing in our research how science, pseudo science and 'isms' of one form or another, against ordinary people, poor people, fat people, addicts infect the entire discourse, shape the commercial environment, treatments, regulation, and all of our approach to the subject.
Jeez, honestly everything I read in this Addiction Economy work sends me somewhere else requiring another big rethink, it's doing my head in!