Why do people make stuff up?

[conuly]

I'm reading the comments to an article on how natural diets may help ADHD (well, duh) and got to read an angry little screed on how the US has the highest cancer rates in the world and this is ALL the fault of the evil corporations who value profit over human lives and the sell-outs in the government who, unlike their counterparts in Europe, don't care enough to ban dangerous chemicals. "Do you think this is a coincidence???"

Actually, the nation in the world with the highest cancer rates is Denmark, followed by Ireland. The US is number 7 on the list... but that's not very surprising, as wealthier nations tend to have higher cancer rates.

The WHO attributes this in part to better medical care in richer countries. If more people are able to get to the doctor and be diagnosed with cancer, the rates will increase.

Also, although the WHO does not say this, it seems obvious to me that if you live in a country where you're likely to die in childhood from diarrhea, or in your teens from AIDS, or in your early adulthood from war, you're not going to live long enough to die of cancer!

In the US we're very lucky in that we mostly do not die of easily preventable diseases like measles or polio, we have ready access to clean water, and war is unlikely to touch us in our own streets. But that means that we have more time to die of rarer diseases like cancer.

And it's not that I don't think that the eeeeeevil corporations put money over human lives at least some of the time (but not all of the time, after all, they need paying customers!) or that the government isn't in business's pocket. I just don't like people making shit up when it's just as easy to google it and find out the truth.

Comments

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

Well-said; you nailed it exactly.

'The government" does not hold a gun to anyone's head and force them to buy junk food, tobacco, or toxic personal and household products. The eeeeevil corporations may indeed put money over human lives some of the time: this is hardly news, but what ever happened to "Let the buyer beware"? Suppose the buyers develop the sense to not buy shit that's bad for them, or that's being sold by evil bastards?

Not every cancer has to be aggressively treated. A lot of the kinds people develop in old age apparently grow so slowly that the people will die of something else before the cancer becomes a serious problem.

Natural diets help everybody, whether they've got ADHD, cancer or whatever. Processed carbs, hydrogenated oils and chemical additives are bad for everybody, whether or not they've developed health problems yet. But sheesh, doesn't everybody already know all this stuff? If they don't, it's because they haven't been arsed to pay attention.

However, I don't think that's the case. I think most people like to pretend they 'didn't know', when the truth is that they did know, but were unwilling to act on their knowledge. I've got a very dear friend whose addiction to Dr. Pepper has already crippled her and will probably kill her at a relatively young age, but how is that the Dr. Pepper Corporation's fault? She knew the shit was bad for her when she first started buying it, exactly the same as me with cigarettes.

I fervently oppose the 'Nanny State', where we're supposedly to be protected from this and forbidden from that "for our own good" because we're too ignorant and childish to make our own choices. The government has no right to tell us what we may do with our own bodies, period. It does have a right and a duty to prevent other people from doing things to our bodies without our knowledge and consent, which is why every cigarette pack bears a fair warning, "Caution: this shit may kill you".

If people choose to ignore the warning, that's their choice, but then they don't get to whine when it does kill them.

[ironychan.livejournal.com]

It's easier to believe that the conspiracy is out to get you than it is to think about and take responsibility for your actions.