851
We're so back
(mander.xyz)
A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.

Rules
This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.
My parents legitimately believe ivermectin is a cure all and are stockpiling it. They take it for just about anything. They also believe plenty of other wacky things like viruses don't exist and cancer is just a fungal infection.
My dad last year nearly lost his foot after it got infected. They let it fester for months and only treated it with like essential oils or some other pseudoscience. He eventually had to go to the emergency room and stay at the hospital and receive antibiotics. 🙄
My dad literally will not talk to me because I refused to say that ivermectin is a miracle cure. He’s angry at me for some study or article that he thinks I am obsessed with (I honestly have no idea what he’s talking about), and insists I retract my belief in it or we can’t have a relationship. Since I haven’t the first clue what he’s even on about, he made his choice..
Can’t wait for the next round of crackpot email forwards. Hopefully he sticks to his word and won’t contact me anymore.
Edit - the last time I spoke with him was at my step mom’s funeral, where she had just died of cancer, which they treated with….I’ll give you one guess.
We aren’t dealing with rational people.
I have a similar experience with my own father after he started using TikTok and Instagram, though it's not about ivermectin (spoiler: he thinks I'm a "commie"). I think old people are just not equipped to survive on the internet. It's like they lack the instincts to known when they're being scammed.
It gives me a tiny bit of hope for the future, because even though gen alpha aren't exactly the brightest generation so far, they're at least all fully attuned to the internet and (hopefully) better equipped to navigate its many perils.
I think its people in general
During lock down when people were at home and having to amuse themselves some made bread and did arts and crafts, whilst others ended up jumping off a cliff into conspiracy theories and right wing bollocks
One guy I know of suggested ivermectin and dog dewormers to treat my bf's cancer because 'cancer is caused by parasites.... there's plenty of information on the internet.... you can do your own research...etc etc'
I used to think the average person was mostly decent and sensible, but not anymore
Never underestimate the strength of small town loyalty, where obviously everyone knows better than a century-spanning corpus of medical research