this post was submitted on 14 Mar 2025
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Science Memes

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[–] frustrated_phagocytosis@fedia.io 146 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Confidently incorrect is the default with these people. I spend most of my time with family aggressively correcting misinformation about my field and related ones. They will die earlier thinking they know more because of Youtube. Getting them to stop taking bad health advice and mystery joint injections from a fucking chiropractor is the latest battle.

[–] vaguerant@fedia.io 91 points 1 day ago (7 children)

The impression of legitimacy enjoyed by chiropractic is too damn high. I was well into my 20s before I ever heard a single word about it being pseudoscience. Walking around (usually on people's fucking spines) calling themselves doctors, I absolutely believed it was just some sub-variety of physiotherapy, which I guess is the point. In the whole universe of alternative medicine, I think that has to be the practice which has most effectively disguised itself as conventional medicine. It's gross.

[–] Skullgrid@lemmy.world 33 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

I was well into my 20s before I ever heard a single word about it being pseudoscience.

every fucking tv show and film referring to them as some sort of curer of back issues probably doesn't help

[–] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 8 points 22 hours ago

And the regs are really bad in the country making all that TV.

[–] skulblaka@sh.itjust.works 18 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

I walked in to a chiropractors' office once to try and see if they'd take me for an appointment, found a brochure proudly proclaiming that chiropractic treatments can help cure autism and cancer, and turned right the fuck around and walked back out.

If you think you need a chiropractor you actually need a physical therapist and anyone trying to tell you otherwise is lying to you.

[–] psud@aussie.zone 2 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago)

One of my mates goes to a chiro. The rest of us detail for him how our problems were helped by physios and they were fixed, and stayed fixed, while he needs to see a chiro every 3 months for just exactly the same problems

He describes himself as an idiot, and I believe him. He still goes to a chiro.

Australia has high respect for chiropractic because the King likes them, and when he was a prince he was pretty influential too. No idea why it would be popular outside the Commonwealth

[–] grue@lemmy.world 13 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago) (2 children)

I guess I should count myself lucky for where I grew up: there's a big/famous chiropractic school in this city, so this creepy motherfucker was on TV commercials all the time:

collapsed inline media

Never mind quackery; I thought it was legitimately some sort of cult!

[–] CarrierLost@infosec.pub 8 points 20 hours ago

Oh you grew up near Atlanta. I, too, am a Sid Williams commercial survivor.

[–] blackbrook@mander.xyz 2 points 15 hours ago

I just don't get how people don't have the sense to run from someone who looks like that.

[–] bobs_monkey@lemm.ee 11 points 23 hours ago

The way chiropractic plays itself as the cure all for any ailment with regular "adjustments" is the real bullshit, it's straight up a sales pitch to get people in a recurring schedule for that sweet appointment revenue. Don't get me wrong, when I've thrown my back out the best and most immediate relief I've found is to have the guy super twist and crack my back loose just so I can get some mobility to stretch and walk. But the way they sell it as you need several appointments a week to stay "regular" is a crock of shit.

[–] barsoap@lemm.ee 8 points 21 hours ago

The quackness of chiropractors depends on where you are, in many places it's indeed just a type of physiotherapy, or better put you have to be a physio to be a chiropractor. Similarly, in practically all of the world osteopaths are quacks while in the US they're doing evidence-based medicine with particular philosophical accents.

[–] Pot8o@mander.xyz 4 points 14 hours ago

In Australia they are able to request some x-rays. As in the entire spine, which ends up irradiating radio-sensitive organs like the thyroid and ovaries, often in young people. As a radiographer this shit drives me up the fucking wall, especially given the already frustrating battles over inappropriate imaging requests from real, actual doctors. Want to know a contributing factor to the increase in cancers? The absolutely absurd radiation doses people are sucking up over years of over-imaging.

[–] zea_64@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 20 hours ago

They provided me valuable placebo (I think). I still have no idea what my issue really was, but at least it's gone. Never been back to a chiropractor since though.

[–] segabased@lemmy.zip 10 points 19 hours ago

I find irony that they disregard expert opinions on the things they are experts for (climate scientists for example) but will accept an entire worldview of opinions based on someone being "smart" like the opinion of a software engineer has on philosophy or politics.

Reject the expert on the subject they're an expert on because that makes them "elite" and they were trained to think that was bad, but accept an unfounded opinion of someone who may be smart in an unrelated field because the opinion is "different" so it must be "smart"

I think this is the trap all self assigned internet intellectuals fall into. They parrot opinions and vibes from echo chambers that discredit real science or real reporting and call it enlightenment. This in itself is stupid, but then even more stupid people are drawn in and suddenly we have a big club of geniuses

[–] blackbrook@mander.xyz 1 points 15 hours ago

Just curious, is this chiro actually injecting something into their joints? Or is it like pretend injections, like with that magic gun thing that makes a click but doesn't actually do anything?