You know what I really hate these days? If you answered "everything" then, thank you, you've clearly been paying attention. If you answered "life-sized dolls" then you're partially right. If you answered "frito pie" then you're clearly a fucking moron.
No, but, really--you
know what I really fucking hate these days? All these
pseudoscientific doctor shows that have popped up in the past year or
two, peddling an infuriating pastiche of vague, bullshit statistics,
scare tactic proclamations, and retarded-ass computer
simulations/graphics which serve no purpose other than to provide
something at which visual stimuli-addicted Americans can goggle. And by
"all these" shows, I really mean two: The Doctors and The Dr.
Oz Show. There are probably more out there, but we don't have
cable--so my universe only encompasses the choices available on six
channels. Whatever. As far as I'm concerned, two are more than enough.
So, the first (and really the main) point that I take issue with is all the pseudoscientific malarkey that's going on here. It brings to mind my brief, glorious tirade against Tresemme's Hydrology haircare line. Fucking idiots. It also reminds me of an article from The Onion, my most trusted news source in these troubled times. (Personally, I would welcome the addition of Extreme Gravity to the Science Channel's lineup, but I'm a fucking nerd. Apparently.)
But back to my point:
I hate pseudoscience. It's just so...demeaning. To real science, I
mean. And to those of us who actually value things like evidence and the
scientific method and putting Mentos into Diet Coke and seeing if it
explodes. But seriously--dumbed down pseudoscience makes actual science
seem so much lamer and more easily accessible than it actually is. Not
that science shouldn't be accessible or anything. But there's a
difference between communicating complex scientific ideas and
information in a way which facilitates its understanding...and
simplifying shit to a point where it becomes meaningless and boring. And
hellshitdamnfuckasstitties!--science ain't meaningless and boring! I
think Einstein said that.
More importantly, I take issue with people invoking the ideas of "science" and "medicine"--or even just using "science-y" sounding words, as in the case of Tresemme's Hydrology line--in order to establish a (false) sense of authority. The automatic ceding of authority to doctors--something which both patients and doctors consciously and unconsciously participate in--is a cultural tendency I take issue with as it is. It's a complex interplay that involves ideas about power, knowledge, bodies, gender, class, race, and a plethora of other annoying liberal arts college vocabulary words. So it pisses me off that shows like Dr. Oz and The Doctors not only enthusiastically perpetuate this kind of shit, but actually make it so much worse by doing such an embarrassingly bad job of presenting medical information--like they're airhead anchors on some celebrity gossip show.
The ultimate problem here is that with this self-generated authority, the authoritative person (or institution) is granted undeserved legitimacy, potentially aiding in the justification of ridiculous or harmful ideas. In other words, people will be more likely to believe some stupid bullshit The Doctors say (even when it's beyond their scope within the medical field) simply because they are Doctors, and also because they are invoking Scientific Statistics to (weakly) support their claims.
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Stay tuned for the exciting second half of this boringass tirade, because I'm too lazy to finish writing it right now!