I feel like Canadians are weirdly receptive to homeopathic/naturopathic bullshit.
I think BC and QC have concetrated communities of anti-science individuals, which makes the ignorance seem more prevalent than it actually is. Then again, the number of people I know who recognize naturopathy is bullshit but then routinely see a chiropractor is WAY too high
Never been to a chiro, and vaguely understand they’re under-regulated quacks. But, I don’t know, if someone can comfortably afford it and they perceive some benefit, is it a bad thing? Part of me wonders if things like chiro are popular because people get human touch in that setting and maybe it fills some psychological need? Evangelists of any sort are annoying, any anyone who tells me to go to a chiropractor I kind of, am suspicious of. But science evangelists too can miss the point. Carl Sagan communicated so many powerful ideas so eloquently, and spoke so scathingly of what he saw as pseudoscience. But if someone quietly reads a horoscope or goes for a tarot card reading & it helps them to see something in a different & constructive way, I kind of want to say, y’know, fill your boots.
I’m also a bit of a defeatist when it comes to magical thinking. I’m not sure that people who are prone to that kind of thing can actually be talked out of it by reason and good arguments.
Chiropractic is sneaky bullshit. At the root of it is a belief that all kinds of ailments can be cured by chiropractic “adjustments” - and we’re not talking back aches and sore joints here. It’s woo along the same lines as homeopathy and acupuncture.
But many/most chiropractors hide that bs, and seem to stick to back/joint issues. But in that case, are they really as qualified as a physiotherapist, osteopath, RMT or actual doctor? I mean, if their schools are teaching that you can cure, say, autism with a back adjustment, do you really want them treating you???Sure, I get that. I hear a story occasionally where, I don’t know, someone’s ankle is fucked up or something, and they went to a chiropractor, and it got better. Would it have gotten better if that person took no action at all? Maybe, I think probably. I don’t really contemplate chiropractics more than that.
There’s a deeper story here about the availability of healthcare that’s way more concerning to my mind. In any city in this country, you can probably find and walk into a chiropractor office this afternoon and be seen immediately (maybe I’m wrong?). While the waitlists for specialist medical doctors are absolutely insane, and bordering on immoral that people are forced to wait for months or years in pain.
I can walk into a fortune teller’s office and be seen immediately. Skilled medical professionals are both in high demand, and limited supply. It’s a problem, but we don’t learn anything by comparing them to people who don’t have those constraints. I do agree with you that there will one day be a reckoning that putting people on long wait lists without fixing the problems for decades amounted to something immoral.
For sure, & I didn’t intend to appear as though I was equivocating real medical specialists with chiropractors. Just observing that their popularity might be less about a population filled with woo ideas, and more about a deficit of real doctors & a bogged down & underfunded healthcare system. I agree, those chickens will come home to roost.
