I agree with you, I personally wouldn’t say “informed enough” here because that could be read as meaning that you need to have done a lot of research from reliable sources first before you can sense bullshit. I think that practically it’s more common to just have a developed social media literacy skillset, and then the bullshit becomes obvious even in areas where you have no specific knowledge. Most of the social media BS takes on a very specific and recognizable form: “Trusted Authority X says that Y is difficult, but actually it is very easy if you just do One Neat Trick Z!” Once you are primed to look out for this pattern, you’re going to spot most of the BS right away.
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Wait till you hear what a scam the eyeglasses racket is!
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Just go for a walk and use your eyes better.
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I love the fact that this is already out there and I had a link readily available:
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What is your ballpark of of the percent causation that seed oils have on the increase in childhood obesity? In other words, if seed oils were banned but all other societal factors were held constant, what would you expect to see the rate drop to 10 years out?
Don’t you think sugar is a bigger factor than whichever oil you’re talking about?
Glasses are (were anyway) kind of a racket though. A cheap pair used to be like $120. I think my last pair on Zenni were $18.
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The glasses industry may have been a racket, but the science behind vision correction wasn’t. YouTubers bitching about all frames being made by 3 companies and costing ridiculous amounts of money for anything attractive is valid criticism of capitalism. Someone saying that touching grass and a juice cleanse will “cure” your vision isn’t. Alex is proposing paying more attention to internet “experts” than to those in the government, which unfortunately may be necessary in a few years but isn’t the case today.
The manufacturing side of glasses being a racket thanks to Luxottica is different from it being a conspiracy to convince people they need them to see.
Freakonomics had a good two part pod on it this summer: Why Do Your Eyeglasses Cost $1,000? - Freakonomics
I have a great pair of Warby prescription sunglasses that were very reasonable. Although my most recent experience has been quite poor…rather than derail, I’ll put that in the rant thread.
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It was kind of a joke. (I mean it was true, but not meant to be about willing your vision to be good or whatever). It i don’t know if it’s even true. Maybe Zenni is just cheap because they have 5 year old slaves grinding the lenses.
YouTube is awesome though. And it’s a great place for experts, like if you’re talking about lifting or bro-science that Mike Israetel and Jeff Nippard are always showing the studies, right @simplicitus ? And what was the alternative people were comparing it to? The food pyramid?
Several researchers have said that food and agricultural associations exert undue political power on the USDA.[34][35] Food industries, such as milk companies, have been accused of influencing the United States Department of Agriculture into making the colored spots on the newly created food pyramid larger for their particular product.
That food pyramid?
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The problem is dueling experts and making the right choice between teams. There being no correlation between production value and truth also makes it harder for the layperson to figure out who to trust. Particularly with food stuff since so many things work for so many people but nothing seems to work for every person anecdata is all over place.
Sure - YouTube can be a great source. I watch tons of Isratel and Nippard and appreciate that they show their work. However, there is just tons of junk on YouTube and it can be hard to tell the difference. Even the junk guys will quote a study or two (they just misrepresent the study or ignore that there are tons of studies going the other way).
The rapeseed/canola oil stuff is one of them. There are a few studies that show it might be bad, but the overwhelming consensus of data/nutritionists/scientists is that it’s one of the more healthy oils. You then add that rapeseed oil was used as a lubricant before it was modified to improve taste and health characteristics (and then it’s name changed to Canola oil for obvious reasons), add in that it became popular around the same time childhood obesity was increasing (just ignore all the other factors there) and you’ve got a great 10 minute YouTube pushing this conspiracy theory.
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I’m sure sugar is a huge factor too, but if you look at the sugar consumption graph in the USA, the big spike is in the early 1900s, before obesity took off.
I’m just talking out of my ass here - as are most people, as is the FDA (cf The Food Pyramid) - but I could see it being responsible for 20% of obesity levels.
Ok. The sarcastic comment about the “completely unrelated and purely coincidental chart” implied to me that you felt the causation was very strong.
I mean obviously there are many factors. 20% seems like a lot to me.
Oh interesting I’m sure that obesity increases are super focused to the USA because of the food pyramid and not part of a worldwide trend
“Modified” is doing a lot of work. 
I believe that rapeseed oil is good for you, but I still feel a little icky buying it at the store.
YouTube is a massively inefficient way of transmitting information that doesn’t require visuals, it’s explicitly designed to send you down a rabbit hole of confirmation bias and it’s saturated with grifters and morons. At least with a podcast you can listen to it while commuting or working out.