• 3 Posts
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Joined 9 months ago
Cake day: July 14th, 2025
  • some_kind_of_guy@lemmy.worldtoNews@lemmy.world•Fluoride in drinking water has no effect on IQ or brain function, long-term study shows
    3·
    2 days ago

    The decision to fluoridate is with the municipality afaik, but there are probably federal guidelines. Some places have never fluoridated, and if you want it you need to use tablets. There are also loads of people on well water where that’s supported by the local geology - it’s super common in my area. Well water may or may not contain naturally-occurring fluoride, and usually not at the level of a municipal source.

    But that makes it even more amazing IMO, that a consensus was reached and implemented in a decentralized fashion in most places, to the point where it’s normalized. The only other collective action I can recall, which might surpass it in scope and impressiveness, also backed by scientific insight, was the Montreal Protocol.

  • some_kind_of_guy@lemmy.worldtoNews@lemmy.world•Fluoride in drinking water has no effect on IQ or brain function, long-term study shows
    262·
    3 days ago

    When crunchy lefties were first spouting off about this, they at least had an explanation. It was a nonsense explanation rooted in woo-woo pseudoscience and mysticism, but it was at least an explanation. Also, most people were inoculated against that kind of bullshit, we knew they were slightly crazy and wrong, and it was a view that was relatively harmless and allowed to exist. Most places it was “go ahead, you do you - drink your fluoride-free water and let your teeth rot, but you have to source your water yourself - this municipality fluoridates for the public good, it’s backed by science and dental experts, etc.”

    These new crazy people, most of them don’t even have an explanation. (some of them are actually the same people, just moved down the alt-right pipeline after a couple decades of propaganda). If you were to ask them why they think fluoride is bad you could get responses ranging from blank stares to actual physical attacks. Transmission of conspiracy theories is so supercharged in this environment - all you have to do is jump on a bandwagon, and your buddies in the same club as you will give you the approval you desperately need just for wearing that opinion on your sleeve - no critical thought required, just base monkey instinct. This is such an irresistible way of belonging to some group and getting that special feeling that it’s becoming a real problem for most of us.

    A small minority of these folks are (small L) libertarians or anti-authoritarians who believe in bodily sovereignty. That’s a rational thought process that I can actually sympathize with, so they get a minimum amount of points for having a comprehensible, defensible position. They just shouldn’t be able to force their choice on everyone else. (That would seem to contradict their own philosophy anyway). The public good of fluoridation, backed by science and experts, should vastly outweigh even that position. As before with the crunchy hippies, fine, it’s your right to choose what goes into your body - along with that comes the responsibility to take care of that for yourself, in line with your own stated ideals.

  • some_kind_of_guy@lemmy.worldtoLemmy Shitpost@lemmy.world•type shit
    5·
    3 days ago

    It may have started that way, but nowadays it’s normalized to the point where it’s something most people just automatically do. Any harm to the person undergoing this is waved away and rationalized as “it will hurt for just a second and they won’t remember it anyway”.

    After my brother-in-law had his boy, he proudly announced they were taking him to be circumcized. Taken aback, I asked him why - he’s one of the most non-religious people I’ve ever known. I was just met by an empty stare, as if I were the weird one for asking. Sadly, at this point it might be more popular than the essential vaccines which are supposed to be administered at birth.