I refuse to read shock media as a rule. Anyone qualified care to comment on the quality of the article?
Also worth mentioning this was lifted and edited off another blog that has since gone down.
Also worth mentioning this was lifted and edited off another blog that has since gone down.
Basically: “here’s my idea that might sound crazy, but there might be some reasons to explore it in more depth”.
The attitude that “it goes against the grain so I won’t even consider it” seems problematic though when the subject is one that we still know very little about.
Step 2. Give me money
A tale as old as time…
Apply this response to a group raising concerns about the safety of asbestos and seeking funding for research to validate or debunk those concerns.
People fear disease because of its impact on wellbeing and life expectancy.
Not all fear is warranted or healthy, but fear also drives action and is an evolutionary advantage. There’s a good reason to stop smoking, because one hopes to avoid a painful death via lung cancer.
“Lock your doors, or risk invasion and bodily harm by local street gangs” is an appeal to fear, and sound advice depending on your neighborhood.
Fear can obviously be weaponized/misused, but not all fear-based arguments are inherently so.
With all of that said, I didn’t really see fear mongering in this article. Instead, potentially sobering thoughts.
The article starts with:
> Endemic Pathogens are Making You Crazy and Then Killing You. Nobody warned you about them, but they’re destroying your mind and they’re everywhere.
Maybe we have significantly different perspectives on fear mongering, but that’s archetypal fear mongering in my book. The article then goes on to summarise a number of fringe scientific theories that are not substantially supported by evidence, including linking autism to vaccines. The article then concludes with a call to action to help philanthropically fund the industry in which the author works as a venture capitalist (and don’t see any disclosure about this conflict of interest in the article).
If the article left you feeling soberly thoughtful, then perhaps you could make a donation to the author’s next funding round. But from my perspective “be afraid, give me money” seems like a perfectly reasonable summary.
It links to published studies on each of these links.
Coxsackievirus B4, Herpesvirus 6, Enteroviruses, and Cytomegalovirus have all been linked to type 1 diabetes and pancreatic failure.
EBV, however, has been identified as a strong precursor for MS. Due to difficulty in conducting studies on viruses, research in this area has been limited, but recent interest in auto-immune disorders caused by COVID has led to renewed funding.
mRNA-based vaccines are also being tested for auto-immune diseases thought to have viral causes.
Its most severe central neurological manifestation is herpes encephalitis.
How do you know this article was lifted off another blog?
That blog, in turn, generates a warning because it is presenting a ghost.io certificate.
The author name appears here https://return.life/category/views/page/5/
Sensationalizing fear by presenting existing niche knowledge as an elevated concern for day to day living. This is why it's sometimes referred to as fear-mongering.
eg: Did you know how lethal drinking water can be? Simply drinking water has killed plenty of people in modern times. Click here to know more.
Shock media, like most phrases, is an amalgamation of ideas. In this case, "Shock Jock" and Media. The implication is that it's not purely click-bait and the point of the media is not purely informational.