Comment · Wed, January 28, 2015 · Ceretropic
Is this a dangerous subreddit filled with pseudoscience?
Original post in this thread
[deleted] · 169 points
I can find no way of objectively quantifying the contents of this subreddit that doesn't result in a straight-forward determination that it's filled with pseudoscience, which is inherently dangerous.
Has anyone considered that there should be far more disclaimers present in the sidebar and/or alongside all of the discussions happening here?
It seems that "a friend tried this relatively-unstudied herb and they noticed they were able to remember certain things better" is a valid post, when I think that most sane people would dismiss comments like this out-of-hand in any other context. Why do mods allow such threads? How is it not dangerous to perpetuate health-related "information" that is so anecdotal?
I hope we're willing to have an open, honest critique of ourselves. You should be genuinely concerned if this post gets massive downvotes or deleted by mods.
EDIT: The level of defensiveness is unbelievably over the top. We should always be erring on the side of caution, yet 100% of the replies are suggesting that everything is perfect, nothing can be improved, and that a couple sentences buried in the FAQ are all that could possibly be done. Others are telling me to unsubscribe…
What they were answering
osazuwa · -3 points
got to take a tough tone with anti-scientific sentiment though. should one take a gentle tone with climate deniers and vaccine conspiracy theorists?
u/MisterYouAreSoDumb · Ceretropic
I generally take a tough tone when I feel it is warranted, and a soft one when either the tough standpoint has been covered by someone else, or I feel a more inviting tone would be more productive. You can yell all day long at climate deniers and vaccine nuts, but it will just make you tired. It's not going to change their views. If anything, it's going to make them more militant in those views. The only way to get someone to change, is to make that change come from within. That takes different strategies for different people.