I confess that until recently I didn’t know that disbelieving “germ theory” was still a thing. Until then I’d only encountered it in an odd magazine appearing circa 1910. Titled A Stuffed Club. It was published by one J. H. Tilden, M.D. The magazine was a monthly platform for Tilden to rant against “germ theory,” treating disease with medicines or drugs, and other aspects of “the quackery of modern medicine.” He’d feel right at home with the End of Covid crowd. Tilden believed that all ills could be prevented and/or cured by “rational living.” He ran a retreat for a while and sold books, but never seems to have become a world class grifter.
It reminds me of a self-published turn-of-the-century book modestly titled Heat and Cold; or, The Secret of the Universe. The author, who had no scientific training to get in the way of his discoveries, had observed that when he burned leaves, instead of falling to the ground the leaves rose into the air. In a flash of intuition he realized that “gravity theory” was a hoax. Over the next hundred and some pages he describes how all the things that we attribute to “gravity” are actually caused by the natural attraction and repulsion between bodies with different temperatures.
I wonder if I could make a few bucks by peddling reprints of Heat and Cold to the terrain theory crowd.
The part of this that puzzles me is that ‘terrain theory’ would even be a good fit for antivaxers.
If I were trying to account for the efficacy of vaccines without access to even the rudiments of contemporary immunology the metaphor of a ‘terrain’ that can be modified by certain external influences for greater or lesser function and defensive effect would actually be a pretty attractive one. A wrong one, sure; but there’s nothing about the metaphor of body-as-terrain that suggests juice fasts or aligning chakras rather than vaccines as a soil amendment.
i think that’s the problem right there. that’s a new thing to put in your body, or for a mask, on your body. and that’s not “normal” or “natural”
modern life requires trust in some parts of medicine ( vaccines! ) and distrust in other parts ( re: the sacklers, big pharmaceutical companies, doctors who ignore reported symptoms, racism in medical care, etc. )
that subtlety can be hard to parse. easier - if wrong and dangerous - to say it’s all witchcraft
After reading just the clean summary, my brain felt like paste. I cannot imagine how Jennifer’s brain is even functioning now! Thank you for the scary info ride, but yiiiikes.
I believe a lot of conspiracy theory works because of that psychological drive.
The thing humans most value and fear losing is agency and control of their lives within the world. The mechanisms of the universe throw up a lot of stuff to take that away from us.
It’s easier to ascribe those outcomes to maliciously cunning human agents than to the semi-random factors which actually are the cause.
There is also an appeal of being in the know, of being one of the cognoscenti rather than one of the mass of sheep, which is why Flat Earth theory is popular.
Conspiracy theories are particularly attractive to conservative minds because conservatives minds are less good at dealing with change, and need to find a mechanism to process it.
Oh, this again. I remember this line of nonsense from a previous round of science denial in the face of a pandemic. It helped to kill hundreds of thousands.
And that time, it was also fuelled by grifters looking to profit from selling “alternative” treatments
The good news is, we’ve done it before so the evidence is against that hypothesis. We basically fixed the ozone hole, which required big collective action from many countries in a short time frame. That was the biggest existential crisis the planet had ever seen until climate change. Yet we fixed it so well that people forget it ever even happened.
Humans can and do solve big problems together, even in the midst of hating each other. So chin up, everyone.
I used to love a good conspiracy theory. Didn’t believe them, but it was fun story telling. Wish there was more Foucault’s Pendulum? These nutters are willing to give you a watered down version!
The past decade really put the kibosh on that little joy. Too hard to ignore the negative effects they’re having on society at this point.
This seems weirdly isomorphic with some sort of post-edenic ‘peaceable kingdom lost’ notion of the world. And I totally get the appeal; who doesn’t feel that Koyaanisqatsi vibe at multiple times in the day. It combines here with a hefty dose of magical thinking. It seems like a not-unexpected place for a non-critical thinker (or someone not very smart) to land. I personally find the terrain theory much more emotionally appealing than the germ theory … it gives me a sense of control and agency over my fate. I can just get zen and eat stuff from farm-to-table and I’ll be healthy and happy.
Parasites at the top, of course, but that’s kind-of a given.
Sometimes, when a species overpopulates it’s niche, it has a sudden population collapse and a die off.
You’re going to have to assume that for a self aware species, the mechanism for that collapse is likely to be a breakdown of that self-awareness.
This is something that really worries me about climate change action long-term. My feeling is that the balance will tip soonish and there will be collective, global action to address climate change (or, you know… we’re just well and truly fucked). Because the bigger players like the US have the most to lose and can make the biggest impact, we will begin to see real progress in planetary health by the end of my lifetime and significant positive impacts by the end of this century.
And then all of the regressives will start reading old Ted Cruz speeches and listening to Joe Rogan podcasts and we’ll start seeing the sort of denialism that comes with the luxury of a vaccinated population forgetting how devastating certain diseases were historically. Hopefully by then oil extraction and other massive carbon contributors have been rendered economically infeasible and they don’t make much of a dent, but it’s definitely going to happen.
