On Facebook, fear of parasites push people to post feces, pursue dangerous cures | Hacker News Reader

On Facebook, fear of parasites push people to post feces, pursue dangerous cures

nbcnews.com

5 pointsmkane8484 comments

The best book I had to read in college was called "Madumo: A Man Bewitched". It's by an anthropologist who befriended a man in South Africa named Madumo. Madumo was a young man from a very poor family living in Suweto and he was working on going to college when the author met him.

At some point Madumo became "cursed" according to a local shaman and all of this misfortune started to befall him. All of his friends and family believed that the curse was real. He believed that the curse was real. A series of shamans took his money and prescribed him increasingly outrageous cures for the curse, not unlike the treatments described in this article.

The author's main question was, is the magic real? Isn't it real if everyone believes in it, and if everybody's actions are constrained by it? How can we honestly call something like that "not real"?

My question is, do we really believe that we in the west are immune to this kind of behavior? Have we really escaped the clutches of witch magic and shamanism just because we have high-technology things like the internet, particle colliders, atom bombs?

Maybe this is a part of human nature that will never go away. Maybe people will always snort rhinocerous horns for stronger erections and drink essential oils to get rid of their cancer. We think we're super modern but is it true? No matter how much "science education" spread by the likes of Niell DeGrasse Tyson and Bill Nye, is it possibly that we will we always find ourselves possessed by curses, demons, aliens, parasites?

If you're interested in this kind of thing I also recommend the book "Techgnosis" by Erik Davis, which brilliantly explores techno-magic and shamanism.

1. Human beings can be host to parasitic worms. Here: https://www.healthline.com/health/worms-in-humans#types-of-w...

2. That in the modern western world, we don’t encounter them is due to our relative affluence. It’s not uncommon for people to walk barefoot and not have clean water in some parts of the world.

3. People dealt with and killed off parasites before pharmaceuticals..and so some of of the remedies are valid.

I'm not sure what you are talking about as I didn't dispute that parasites exist. The article is about people who irrationally believe that their bodies are full of parasites, posting pictures of their poop on facebook groups. And other people, who are not doctors, are telling them to fix the "problem" by doing dangerous things like drinking turpentine

But how do you know that? From that article? 1. That they are Irrational 2. What is wrong with posting poop pictures in a group? The internet is full of private groups that post pictures of all kinds of stuff..poop is relatively benign. 3. Those without degrees can heal non chronic and non life threatening issues with the body.

Having said that, drinking turpentine is questionable but it sounds clickbaity for inviting outrage to me. Ymmv.

Further, assuming these are a group of people paranoid and delusional, people still have the right to congregate and talk amongst themselves and share their thoughts. It’s called freedom of speech. There is no coercion.

Finally, the reason people seek out others to discuss health issues is because patients are discounted by doctors and physicians. The art of listening is challenged when your HMO allots 12 minutes for patients and doctors to converse..just enough time to prescribe medicines and order diagnostics.

Sick people like to talk. And they must be heard. It’s the same with old people. Especially because older people tend to be sicker than healthy young adults. If the medical profession needs to learn something new, it’s listening. And listening without judgement.

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