Technically not snake oil.
this post was submitted on 05 Mar 2025
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Lol and yet, simultaneously, it is snake oil, at least figuratively.
Drinking snake oil would be crazy
Drink cod oil instead
So this is fun: actual snake oil (the type made by Chinese railway workers) probably had some medicinal benefits. However, white "doctors" co-opted this for their medicine shows; it contained no snake and was just mineral oil, so this is where the term has its origins.
Maintenance Phase podcast did a great episode on medicine shows.
I believe cod liver oil does have some benefits too. My understanding is that historically one of the primary uses was to stave off rickets, a childhood disease. This actually worked because the oil is high in vitamin D, the thing these kids actually needed.
Why will people try anything besides real medicine :(
I don't think the answer is as simple as memes would like to believe. Personally I suspect the issue, in part, has to do with the cost of healthcare in the US.
Much like Republican voters have a need to pretend the GOP is actually helping them, I think holistic medicine rubes and anti-vaxxers have a need to discount the efficacy of unaffordable healthcare. They don't need to worry about the price being a multiple of their income anymore, because they just now decided every doctor is a quack and a conman.
I think what also plays into it is apathetic doctors. People go to the doctor for help, if they have a doctor that doesn't actually care about helping them and only spends a couple minutes with them before getting shooed out the door, this causes people to seek alternative forms of medicine. Another thing that happens is the doctor comes up with a treatment plan and insurance denies it. So once again, this is something that would cause people to seek alternative medicine. They get desperate for a fix for whatever problem ails them and the snake oil salesmen are right there ready and waiting for them on TikTok/Instagram/Facebook.
So between apathetic doctors and rising medical costs along with fear mongering on social media about medications being "poison" and natural cures being better, oh and let's also add in there easily gullible idiots, you get where we're at today.
That’s good point. It’s sad but true
probably when real healthcare is affordable
Vaccines are almost always free.
So now they'll still have the measles but also be spewing out of both ends nonstop... Lovely.
they might as well drink a whole bottle of ipecac. they are going to get so dehydrated too(i once got dehydrated from food poisoning, from spewing out both ends)
I guess it's better than drinking Borax or injecting bleach...
probably going to consuming essential oils. all these homeopathic, antivaxxers are all in on the essential oils.
You guys, we are going to need to make a whole new country to get away from this madness.
God, that actually sounds kind of nice.
Leeches and blood letting. I mean at this point why not?
Stop spreading misinformation.
You need warm pigeon blood, followed by a strict diet of roasted onions and three hail Marys.
From the "we take everything except real medicin"-department.
You see, they don't trust Big Pharma and multi-billion dollar corporations, that's why they do their "research" using only small artisanal free range websites like Facebook, Twitter and TikTok...
Dead people can't get autism from vaccines! Winning!
Omega 3 aside, it’s not even effective in improving cholesterol levels. It does have a laxative effect though.
Where’s the ground zero for this misinformation? RFK?
pseudoscience doesnt use much evidence.
So why are vaccines a "personal choice" (according to RFK Jr.) but abortions aren't?
Years of propaganda showing fetuses as fully developed babies with like, wives and families at home waiting for them to be born. This is why they're trying to crush science and reason, because it points out flaws in their emotional arguments. Emotional arguments that were spawned by people manipulating them for decades, the original purpose long since forgotten, so that now it's just "culture" among conservatives to view other people's pregnancies this way.
The wildest glimpse into our human failings of reason is on full display with the right though, because they have ZERO qualms about getting their own abortions. When they do it, it's different. It's a clump of cells or an unthinking organism when it's them.
Your body, your choice (sometimes)
Because vaccines aren’t “killing another person”, even though the lack of them DOES kill people, children especially.
Aaaand we just found another contradiction lmfao
So why are vaccines a "personal choice" (according to RFK Jr.)
Oh don't worry, they'll get rid of that choice in due time too
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I mean, it's not the worst thing in the world. In Norway it's a pretty normal supplement, I've taken one tablespoon every(ish) morning in the months with a R in them, but that's mostly because we don't really see the sun.... so fatty fish is one of the few natural sources of vitamin D we have.
That would be a legitimate medical use vs the complete nonsense of using it for measles.
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So glad we have whole departments of #doctors and #scientists who will give us the truth and the science to help protect our #health.... Oh, sorry... that was last year.
This year, the heroin addict in charge of the health department says drink some oil, it will make the imaginary #measles go away.
A cod liver isn’t a snake. It can’t be that bad.
/s
It is amazing the hoops people will jump through to avoid actual proven medical treatments. "So rubbing this toad on my face and turning 5 times will protect me? Hell yah, beats the toxic vaccine!"
Guess someone at the cod liver oil factory was successful at starting a rumour.
But more likely it was some crackpot theory that got amplified.
First person to combine this with crypto will make bank.
$CodCoin here we gooooo!
Technically the vitamin d content would be good for you, but something conservative, holistic, and witch doctor enthusiasts seem to lack is any belief in or understanding of any micro-organism which absolutely won't lose to your body just because you drank some extra calories.
I'm going out on a limb here and say that Texans generally have no need for supplementary Vitamin D...
Hmm. There is a small amount of truth to this, it seems, in that it can help the immune system, especially if you had a deficiency to start with.
Also some pretty nasty side effects, particularly if you have too much over a prolonged period of time.
You will be able to see who the anti-vaxxers are by the diarrhea shooting out of them.
Somebody has been playing too much We Happy Few
Man my mother had us take cod liver oil with the usual multivitamin as kids. It tasted kinda bad, but otherwise meh. You know what it wasn't though? A substitute for fucking vaccines. I just wish they'd had the chicken pox vaccine back then. That shit sucked.
Skill Issues
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