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The latest Super Foods. Remember when coconut and especially coconut oil was called a super food and was all the hype, yet coconut oil is full of saturated fats (higher than in butter) and actually raises cholesterol levels when consumed regularly.
Agile Coaches.
It’s like having a cadre of political officers in your team.
Anything sold by Gwyneth Paltrow in her online shop, which I will not name here so as not to promote it. In the best case, goods sold there will be harmless and entirely useless. In the worst case, they will cause serious harm.
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I’ve seen this sentiment before, but I’m waiting to switch until I learn how to add the microphone and camera quick toggles included in GrapheneOS to LineageOS. Is there a project for that?
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So if I understand you correctly, Graphene OS does everything it says it does but overhypes its differences with other forks. That doesn’t sound like snakeoil, only effective marketing.
Why shouldn’t I use it over the other forks then, particularly because useful features like hardened_malloc are only avalible on Graphene despite being widely ported to linux distros?
They also do not shill for Big Tech or Google/Apple.
What’s the story behind this? I’m genuinely curious.
I will say I strongly dislike how the developer has handled criticism, but that seems to be more a failing of the dev then a problem with the OS.
“Social” “networking”
The new age environment comes to mind, with everything from colonic washes to crystals.
What’s wrong babe? 😥 You haven’t done your bi-weekly coffee enema yet
I have a couple from the hip actually, because America has grifting baked into it’s soul. In no particular order:
- MMS (Drinkin’ bleach)
- Crystal healing (most sellers)
- WitchTok kits (TikTok influencers selling expensive spices)
- Brain pills
- Any product peddled by a megachurch (see the Baker bucket for a great example)
As more of these come to me, I’ll try to expand the list.
Baker Bucket is a good name for a gravity bong setup.
Idk about prevagen but my opthomologist definitely said any generic of preservation is very good, and artificial tears with flax seed oil will definitely relieve dry, itchy “sandy eye” feel. Idk if he really believes that or not but I thought I’d give some drops a try. Last time I tried artificial tears, it burned like soap so I hope it’s not a waste of money.
Oh I looked it up, there may (study funded by the industry) be a basis for that. Medical News Today
I would say that a lot of stuff being peddled through tiktok and Instagram are scams. Those anti-5g dongles come to mind.
Tin foil hats are much better anti5g solution.
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Anti-5g dongles? That’s new for me, but I consume a lot of these grifts secondhand through a few podcasts I listen to. I might be behind.
Sounds like the bones of a good scam are there though, assuming the anti-5G conspiracy still gets traction and clicks.
Edit: Do you know if someone like bigclive got one? He takes those sorts of devices apart a lot to explain them and I’d love to see what’s inside. I just don’t want to pay the money for one to fund the grift.
There is a good few videos on them, it has died down significantly since the whole 5g panic went away. Some of them were just some clear USB keys, some were just stickers. Mr. Whosetheboss did a video on them.
baked into its* soul
Any product peddled by a megachurch (see the Baker bucket for a great example)
Some megachurches have sold freeze-dried prepper food. It’s not a grift per se, because it’s perfectly edible freeze dried food, but it’s overpriced for what you’re getting.
You’re right, but I was thinking of the buckets that are basically terrible quality slop that’s borderline inedible.
I might still call it a grift because they’re asking for payment as “donations” to skirt paying taxes on them. That, and like you said, it’s not a great value for what you get. Maybe not pure snake oil, but there’s definitely still enough dishonesty involved imo that I’d be comfortable calling it a grift.
Chiropractic.
Everything in Holland and Barrett.
Holland and Barrett sell supplements. Some people do need to take a vitamin d tablet a day. I do but I’ve got a prescription for a vitamin d and calcium tablet because I’ve been low for years.
I take vitamin D about 5 months out of the year. Stupid fall back daylight saving time is part of it. Makes me furious my already battered mental health has to get worse from changing the clocks.
I work 3rd shift, so I take Vitamin D because the sun is my nemesis.
Be careful with vitamin D though. That is one of the very very few vitamins that you can actually take too much of because it’s fat soluble, not water soluble, so excessive vitamin D will build up in your fat cells rather than just getting peed out. It’s called vitamin D toxicity (VDT) and it can have some unpleasant neurological effects among other things.
So it’s probably a good idea to get your levels checked anyways just to make sure you’re taking the right amount if you need it.
I used to see a lot of threads on reddit about people who got injuries from cheap chiropractors.
As a medical device engineer working in spine - absolutely chiropractors.
A chiropractor 💯 fixed my throwing arm that I had been dealing with for over 10 years. Made me an absolute believer. That said, I’ve been to two different chiropractors and they were wildly different in everything they did. Dr Lopeig in Great Falls, Virginia is an absolute wizard.
What about osteopaths?
DO are real doctors. Rarer than MDs because there are less schools but totally real docs. My Mom with 30 years nursing experience says their training is basically identical, but DOs are generally nicer.
I was not familiar with this term and had to look it up. From my brief search, it also seems like snake oil, and I don’t know why someone would not go to a real physical therapist instead.
Not saying anything about the source, but https://www.webmd.com/pain-management/osteopathic-medicine
I absolutely had a PT after a car accident that used spinal manipulation and it seemed to help. She also had me using elastic bands for stretching and hydrotherapy, so there’s that
Fair, I do have a number of MD DO consultants. The initial look I had was not within the DO licensing.
It depends on the country. Everywhere but the US, I believe, osteopaths are witch doctors on the same level as chiropractors. In the US, they were originally like that, but their professional organization basically pushed it into being a real medical degree.
Now they go to the same length schooling as MD’s, and take the same exams as far as I know.
The core of the whole discipline, osteopathy, is a pseudoscience, though. While they are usually competent doctors they still have that core of pseudoscience. They like to market themselves as more “holistic”, but that’s usually a good dogwhistle term to let you know information not supported by science is going to follow. They bring up that they are the same as MDs, but with additional training in osteopathy, but that can’t be true because the schooling is the same length, so to fit in the pseudoscience, they get less science.
The real reason why we have DO’s is that we don’t have capacity in our country to educate enough MDs, so we have this weird parallel system.
Osteopaths (who have a Doctorate of Osteopathy and are often referred to as DOs) go to medical school and receive training that’s almost exactly the same as an MD.
the difference (so i’m told) is that DOs are trained to take a more holistic, full-body approach to diagnostics and treatment rather than only focusing on one set of symptoms/treatment. They also do their residencies and internships alongside MDs.
Yes, I’ve heard some people say that they trust DOs more because they’re more deliberately trained to look at a larger picture of a person’s health. I don’t have my own opinion since I’ve never met with a DO.
My PCP is a DO. It works for me as my body is still relatively young. (late 30’s) I also don’t have many issues that would require more intensive/specialized treatment that I don’t already have a specialist for.
I sometimes come across influencers pushing chrio “treatments” on pets or newborns, saying it makes them “breathe better” or be “more energetic”
It’s infuriating
its a bit more than infuriating, thats straight up dangerous.
I’ve told this story before, but newborn chiropractors are a thing, and many new parents will take their BABIES to get their neck and back snapped around. It’s frankly fucking disgusting.
Problem is, people go to chiropractor when they don’t have access to real doctor, problem either the money or/and most doctors in your city/state can’t/refuse do anything about your problem, desperation is one hell of a stimulus
I can somewhat understand this. I have IBS, and most people with a bowel issue will tell you that IBS is basically your doctor saying ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Instead of getting help from your doctor, you go online and you hear about people finding relief through taking weird supplements, or eating only rice, or taking pre and probiotics of varying types. None of it has any proof, but it’s better to try something than to struggle - and sometimes you’re lucky or you find some short-lived relief.
The difference is that there often isn’t evidence for these things working, whereas there is plenty of evidence out there that says that chiropractors are doing legitimately dangerous practices to your body. The difference is that someone is trying to make a profit from this lack of knowledge.
I’ve had loads of advice like that for IBS, but no amount of FODMAP or probiotics actually makes a difference, because my IBS is stress-triggered. My doctor helped by advising me to avoid stressful situations, which is hard when you move to another country.
most doctors in your city/state can’t/refuse do anything about your problem
There’s almost nothing a chiropractor can do if doctors aren’t treating you. Except lie and steal your money.
The thing is, placebos can actually be pretty effective. Hell, they’re effective even if you know they’re a placebo. And the more elaborate and similar to what you think would be involved in curing you, the more effective. So people going to chiropractors might actually be getting real results even if the things they’re doing are junk.
Shampoo and conditioner with vitamins in it.
Your hair is dead. It can’t metabolize anything.
PH numbers in any hair washing/conditioning product that gets rinsed out.
You end up with the PH of the water, people.
I don’t know anything about how it works, but I assumed it was absorbed by the skin on your head not the actual hair.
I still doubt that putting vitamin whatever on your head everyday will actually make a difference
This is correct. It’s about a healthy scalp. Like lotion for your head.
Vitamins yeah that’s no good.
Things like fruit, honey, or flowers must be good though right?
I mean, my wife’s honey pomegranate and hybiscus body scrub must be amazing with all that fruity yummy stuff.
Yeah but you gotta remember “vitamins” is just a dumbed down term to refer to fats and compounds. It’s not actually like food or anything nourishing for the hair. Like a lot of haircare stuff has vitamin e in it, which is supposed to help protect hair from hot blow drying damage and also make it shiny. A lot of the stuff is also moisturizers for your scalp.
I always thought the point was for the vitamins to be absorbed by your skin. Human skin absorbs all kinds of stuff so as long as the vitamins make contact it sort of makes sense?
Though I suppose for most people it won’t have much of an impact unless you have a severe vitamin deficiency.
I didn’t know that. I am definitely going to keep this in mind now.
Homeopathics, though sometimes even a placebo can have beneficial effects.
This is a common misconception of the placebo effect. The placebo effect is a measurement issue, not an actual benefit.
Tests are corrupted by using the reposnes and judgement of humans. People will say they had some sort of benefit because of expectations, poor recollection and politeness. It doesn’t mean a benefit was gained. A placebo group allows researchers to quantify how much the placebo effect has on the data they gathered, they can then see if the experiment they did had any effect. Placebo is literally our definition of zero effect.
Anyone telling you placebo is a good thing is wrong, misinformed or deliberately misleading you. In many countries it is illegal for doctors to prescribe ‘placebo treatments’. They will still recommend such things to their patients - not because they work but because they get the patient out the door and less likely to come bother them again.
The thing is, placebos can work even if the patient knows it’s a placebo. Which I think is crazy and amazing.
But it doesn’t look good for homeopathic grifters.
The problem is thinking anything cures the cold or flu. Once you have it, you have it until it runs its course. The only way to cire either would be to completely eliminate them or how they function in the body with medicine that doesn’t currently exist.
There are a number of antiviral medicines, some of which work against influenza A and B. I’m pretty sure these are prescription medications in Canada.
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Definitely this one, the products are sometimes placed right next to legitimate ones and worse:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/marketplace-homeopathic-products-1.6254025
Hidden camera reveals some pharmacists recommend homeopathic products to treat kids’ cold and flu
Not really “modern day” snake oil when it was invented in the 1700’s lol.
Standing desks - stationary standing is just as bad as stationary sitting.
Blue light filter stuff - it’s my understanding that there’s no evidence that blue light causes eye strain.
Yeah if your desk is stuck just in one position that’s obviously going to be bad. Most ‘standing’ desks are actually height adjustable. You can spend some time standing some time sitting. But maybe even more important, you can adjust the desk to the right height rather than just adjusting your chair.
You can at least move a bit more when standing at the desk. Also, my past boss was recommended one due to back issues by his doctor at one point
Standing alternating with sitting doing desk work does alleviate some tension and probably thrombosis. I won’t say a lot, but it does help.
I called my standing desk a dancing desk. Didn’t just stand there. I don’t have one now we are back in the office though, some people do but they are all short - I’m taller and it seems too odd to be looking into everyone’s workspace.
But how else can you easily assert dominance over the peasants?
Blue light filters may not help with eye strain, but I’ve definitely benefited from them for circadian rhythm reasons.
I always thought the point of standing desks was, that you could periodically switch between standing and sitting. That should be at least somewhat beneficial right?
No, the main point of standing desk is that whoever has one talks about them all day, every day. At least, that was my experience 10-15 years ago, which was the last time I spent in an office.
It really isn’t that much better, instead we should be periodically stretching or exercising
The blue light filters are hilarious because most devices already support night mode
They are not the same thing
Night mode kind of differs. I think there was one piece of software that did it way before operating systems got night mode, and with the help of some measuring device they found out that most competitors turned the screen red but did not actually lower the amount of blue light much, negating the whole point (as the theory behind this stuff is that blue light messes with your sleep schedule). Your screen turning reddish yellow does very little if the effect is achieved by turning on more red and green pixels.
Sounds impossible. The way they turn the screen red is by reducing the blue light transmitted through the LCD panel. You cant turn the screen red and keep the blue light at the same time.
Unless its an oled screen. Then it is a stupid implementation. You could just reduce the blue light then.
I remember a long blog post about it on f.lux comparing it a bunch of competitors with actual measurements rather than pure RGB values.
Of course LCD doesn’t turn on any pixels, it just stops blocking the white light from behind the panel, but the result isn’t any different.
Unfortunately I can’t find the link right now, I must’ve read it a decade ago. Perhaps it’s been lost to time.
The end conclusion was that a bunch of free apps/cheap software thought they could get in on the blue light fad and turned the screen redder without significantly reducing the amount of blue light transmitted. At the time, there were one of two kits of software that actually showed a significant drop in blue light because their colour mixing algorithm/colour profile adjustments were done correctly whereas the competition just implemented it wrong.
The software you’re probably thinking of is f.lux
Blue light doesn’t damage the eyes unless there is a burning amount of it (or a burning amount of UV), but people with bad eye focus may find it more straining to read things in blue due to the greater light scatter of the color. The solution is wear your reading glasses, I guess.
What really strains the eyes is focusing on close up objects for hours on end. American eye doctors everywhere have the 30/30/30 rule (every 30 minutes, look at something 30ft away for 30 seconds) as a “let your eye muscles relax for a bit” exercise for those of you always working on something up close.
That said, night filters are good just to help with your circadian rhythm, since the brain looks for a persistent abundance of a particular chunk of blue wavelength to determine “daytime”.
I’ve definitely noticed reduced eye strain with using blue light filters.
Blue light filters can still be nice at night right? As the blue light can keep you awake.
I find it easier on my eyes when its 3am and i am still scrolling.
Same. I’ve the twilight app on my phone because my phones filter is shite. Same thing with f.lux on pc and my Lenovo tablet which only came out last year doesn’t even have a filter. It just dims or turns things black and white which is fucking useless if I’m looking to read a comic or something.
“Sun crystals”. They’re made of glass, which is NOT long range ordered
Apple products
I don’t think you understand what “snake oil” means.
Finance courses promoted by various youtubers.
Upward mobility
