Snake oil

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• Spotted_Lady@wolfballs.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago

  Interestingly, snake oil was more beneficial than a lot of things today, and some science is recognizing it. There are lycopenes or something in that which have some health benefits, just not for the conditions the snake oil was sold to treat.

  Of course, most of the alleged "snake oil" wasn't even that. Obtaining actual snake oil was rather dangerous and therefore expensive. So some tried to imagine what snake oil tasted like. So they likely imagined it tasted nasty and bitter. So why not mix up some virgin olive oil or other plant oil, and lots of hot peppers, and sell that as "snake oil?" If someone never had actual snake oil, how would they know the difference?

  Interestingly enough, even the fake snake oil had health benefits, though likely not for the conditions it was marketed for. While you don't get lycopenes, you do get capsaicin or whatever, and that might have some effects on things like pain.

  Now, if all else fails, you add alcohol to the mixture. That will certainly give some immediate effects to make the customers feel like it is working.

  Then we get into the placebo discussion we had earlier, where nearly anything (except deadly poison) that is used with a firm belief it works may give a positive outcome, at least initially. That reminds me of a battle where the soldiers were sure to lose and the captain asked the bugler to play the tune for "Retreat." The kid didn't know how to play the tune for that, so he played "Charge." The troops felt emboldened and empowered since they were led to believe that reinforcements were coming. That was not the case, but they fought the hardest they ever fought and won the battle. To me, that is how the placebo effect works. You take this "medicine," even if it is fake, and you have this firm belief that you are going to get better since you took the medicine. Then you relax, your immune system improves, and natural healing improves. There may also be a spirit-soul connection here and possible body energy fields, but I'll skip that, for now, to help avoid confusion and adding too many variables.

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  • masterofballs@wolfballs.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago

    Pretty sure the Rockefellers got their start selling literal snake oil. Then used the money to buy farms from struggling farmers. Land always increases in value .

    Then they convinced the world to only allow drugs make with oil and not natural drugs like cannabis.

    They poisoned the whole world with their chemical oil products.

    Tried to get the middle east to give up goat fat for plant fat but they wouldn't do it thankfully.

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    • Spotted_Lady@wolfballs.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago

      Yeah, and others doing similar didn't help. Like William Hearst wanting to monopolize the printing industry. He entered into an exclusive contract with a chemical company. This used chemicals to pulp out the wood to make paper. Hemp was the only thing that could compete with that. So something had to be done. His nephew wanted to get into politics and Hearst pulled strings to help start a new federal agency and get his nephew into it. The agency was the Bureau of Dangerous Drugs or something, nowadays known as the DEA. The term "yellow journalism" came out of this time period, either due to the lies/propaganda that was printed, or what the chemically-produced paper did as it aged.

      There are many bad things in terms of health that the government allowed or rubber-stamped. A shortlist includes Aspartame/NutraSweet, GMOs, specific vaccines (Polio, MMR, and COVID), chemically-manipulated fats/oils, etc.

      I remember the story about a brave woman who was an FDA director. She was under pressure to approve a drug that was said to prevent morning sickness, among other possible benefits. She did something that the company didn't want, and that was to read the actual research. She was disturbed by the animal studies, where newborn animals were born without legs or other body parts. So she refused to allow the drug (Thalidomide) to be approved. The manufacturer was determined to get their drug approved, so they played politics and had her removed from her position. However, by the time they were about ready to get approval in the US, the news was exploding in the UK with heartwrenching stories of deformed babies and how the company used their influence to try to silence the press about the issue. So that killed off any chance of approval in the US. So had the FDA director not stood her ground, this nightmare would have happened in the US too. She didn't exactly stop them, but she delayed them until places that had already approved the drug were showing problems. At that point, they stopped pushing for approval because they were already being sued over the drug. That FDA director eventually was given the Civilian Medal of Honor or whatever it was called, which is the highest-ranking medal that the government gives to civilians.

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• squashkin@wolfballs.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago

  the car salesman meme comes to mind

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