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Originally Posted by Street Pharmacist
The issue is bigger and much more nuanced than just an inability to communicate properly. It's more than science we are seeing this with, though it's the easiest example.
1) I don't have the quote anymore, but I believe it was Orwell that said something to the effect of fearing not that good information would be hard to find, just that too much bad information is confusing the search for good.
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I agree, however at the same time it is how information is marketed to the masses, if you don't make the good information easy to find and comprehend it doesn't matter how much good information there is, it will get lost in the haze of misinformation. We as a school and education system do a very poor job of getting people to think critically, rather we are more interested in getting people to recite information.
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Originally Posted by Street Pharmacist
2) As has been said many times, come up with a viewpoint and I'll find research to defend it. People research to validate their stance rather than research to find one.
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Agreed, then how does the scientific community encourage people to challenge their viewpoint? Can the scientific community encourage people to challenge their viewpoint?
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Originally Posted by Street Pharmacist
3) Scientific understanding of complex issues, especially regarding health are just that: Complex. It cannot be boiled down to simple emotional arguments. There is no two word phrase to argue against "Big Pharma". It takes more than three words to argue with someone saying "Vaccines contain formaldehyde".
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A picture of a kid with measles with the head line, didn't immunize. A radio spot of a kid wheezing and struggling for breath with pertussis for 20 seconds, with the radio announcer after saying, this is the sound of not immunizing your child. Simple, effective, to the point and accurate. They don't need to address the big phama arguments, they need to address the, this is what will happen. Have a video of a kid struggling to breath placed in daytime television. Then put the healthlink information up. Have a poster that has someone with polio and have it say, only a plane ride away.
It will offend people I am sure, but it will get people seeing what the costs are. We suck at that as healthcare providers, people don't know the consequences because they don't see the consequences. Hell have a poster that outlines birth defects in babies born t women who haven't been immunized against measles and who get the disease. People aren't aware of the risks.
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Originally Posted by Street Pharmacist
4) Celebrities credibility is based on loosely obtained roles/performances and not intelligence or understanding in a particular field. Tom Cruise and mental health, McCarthy and Autism, Oprah and dieting.
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Agreed 100%. That being said, people listen to them for some unknown reason.
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Originally Posted by Street Pharmacist
5) There's simply more money in peddling false hope. What does it say when an intelligent respected heart surgeon makes hundreds of times more turning to selling his credibility by touting miracle weight loss products in Women's Weekly?
Sadly, it's not a war that will be won easily IMO
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That is the sad truth, but one has to start battles somewhere and that is in my opinion in areas such as the internet, on message boards, social media and the like, because that is where people get their information from.