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
NotHyplon · 6 points
The guy is likely trying to stir up stuff for the sake of it. Similar to other threads where they have declared themselves Vegan. See:
Being a dick to a dairy farmer
And there is a post full of links to articles about red meat causing cancer from huffington post in there and other places (Lancet etc).
OP's Science:
This isn't an area where there's conflicting research on both sides; there's actually a complete lack of evidence showing animal products are good for us.
I think that speaks for itself in terms of being balanced.
u/MisterYouAreSoDumb · Ceretropic
I just thought I would take another approach, since everyone else seemed to have the outward backlash covered. He complained that nobody wanted to even entertain the idea there was something wrong, so I entertained it.
I do think there is always room for improvement. I was hoping he actually had some substance behind his stance, so that we could possibly work to make a better subreddit. As he has not responded to me, I will take that as a no for now.