The Chemical Lobby: Priestcraft Masquerading as Science‏

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

Science and religion appear to be at loggerheads with scientists inquiring into topics that the minions of the material Creator claim as their own domain. On the other hand, there are people who profess to advocate science, but who approach it as if it were a religion. Roman despots are not nearly as detrimental to the pursuit of inquiry as are "scientists" with an economic interest in their pet theories. The latter class of people form a caste of priests who jealously guard the magic formulas for their chemical communion wafers. Scientific inquiry that threatens their monopoly is rejected out of hand and tarred with the label of a Hollywood cult.

Imagine a group of people with little knowledge of electronics. As they investigate the operation of a computer, they discover that interfering with the circuitry causes a malfunction. They establish a "scientific" theory that all malfunctions stem from circuit failures. They find ways to "treat" a faulty machine by inducing a secondary fault that does not fix the machine, but makes the primary fault less striking. The machine malfunctions, but the "treatment" of inducing a secondary fault causes the machine to malfunction in a more graceful manner.

Another group of people approach the machine using a different tack. Rather than trying to determine its failures, they seek to determine its capabilities. These people want to know how to use the computer for higher purposes than as consumers of fault injection methods. They work with it to find ways of improving its use. They modify its programming to have it perform miraculously. Naturally, their successes are sneered at by the fault injection specialists. Improvement in capability can only occur as a result of circuit failure. These highly performing machines are to be treated with fault injections to make them more "normal."

There is more to a computer than electronic circuitry. Likewise, there is more to the nervous system than neurons. This may seem obvious to lay people who espouse the notion of a magical entity that will outlast the decay of the neurons, but it seems counter-intuitive to people who have been indoctrinated into bio-chemical dogma. Of course, there is a third group of people who buy into neither magical craft. These people are faithless in the eyes of the former and unscientific in the eyes of the latter. Some even think of them as followers of L. Ron Hubbard despite a lack of any logical connection.

The pill bottle priesthood is a powerful lobby in the halls of governance. They have ties to the military and to law enforcement as well. Do you have experience with any chemical communion?

Comments

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

Some even think of them as followers of L. Ron Hubbard despite a lack of any logical connection.

[rick-day.livejournal.com]

Lock me up, please. I agree with everything he said.

[fizzyland.livejournal.com]

Add something or move on.

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

I noticed that his observations are based on the history of psychiatry, not on his involvement in Scientology. Perhaps the latter led to the former, but that is not always the case. There are people who have studied psychiatry without any involvement with Scientology whatsoever.

The interviewer recognizes that there are abuses of pharmaceuticals, but attempts to base his defense of the profession of psychiatry on the anecdotal evidence of those cases that could not be considered abuses. That is like saying that the Nazis were okay because some people found them to be helpful.

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

You must have slept through his intro -- he credits his study of the history of psychiatry to his involvement in Scientology. Largely prompted, of course, by Scientology's known animus to modern psychiatry.

That is like saying that the Nazis were okay because some people found them to be helpful.


A field of modern clinical practice being, of course, totally comparable to a genocidal philosophy of governance dedicated to total control of all people under its sway.

Psychiatry, like any such field, is not perfect, and it will never be perfect. Like many medical fields, new discoveries are often greeted with too much enthusiasm for what they can do at the expense of fully considering their limitations.

To take those aspects which honest practitioners are fully aware of (i.e. most practitioners) and to spin them into the enormous and sinisterly described pseudo-conspiracies that you and Mr. Cruise do is pure and unadulterated bull plop. Mr. Cruise does so because his snake oil cult of a religion is lock, stock and barrel married to the notion that only its practices can provide people with full access to their mental faculties. Your motivation is known only to you.

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

My motivation is that I work with the victims of psychiatry. Some of my closest relatives and friends are victims of psychiatry. The analogy with Nazism may seem hyperbolic to people who appreciate the practice, but it is not far off the mark for people who suffer from brain damage due to psychiatric intervention.

I did not sleep through the intro. He does not draw a direct connection in the intro. He merely lays out a timeline.

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

When he says he began studying after becoming involved with Scientology, he was clearly saying his "knowledge" was prompted by becoming involved. It totally tracks with Scientology's core beliefs.

I won't doubt that you know people who have been victimized by poor practices -- there are poor practitioners in every field, and there are legitimate critiques of current pharmacology.

None of them amount to comparisons to the Nazi regime or to your description of them as another brick on the Wall of Caesar.

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

You portray me as adding to Caesar's wall rather than undermining it.

I know that there are good psychiatrists. I have even read a number of books published by one of them. There were also good people who participated in the Nazi regime.

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

No, I portray you as calling the entire field of psychiatry as a "brick in the wall". What you think you are doing to said wall is another matter.

There were also good people who participated in the Nazi regime.

Oh good, I'd hate to think we WEREN'T doubling down on the offensive and outrageous comparisons.

[meus-ovatio.livejournal.com]

You misunderstand. For instance, she has no problem with informed decisions and taking pills. Just like how she would then, logically by transition according to the equivalence to Nazism, would have no problem with people being informed Nazis. It's not that she's disparaging psychiatry because it's like Nazis, it's just that they're woefully uninformed Nazis. You know what is worse than a Nazi? An uninformed one.

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

A better analogy would be to say that I have nothing against Zyklon-B as long as patients are informed about its detrimental side effects.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

You know what is worse than a Nazi? An uninformed one

Quote of the day nomination ;)

[rimpala.livejournal.com]

Sorry but there is no logical way to measure the "badness" of Nazi Germany to the pharmaceutical industry, to do so would be to attempt to apply logic to the emotional topics of ethics and morality.

Perhaps this guy can explain this concept better:

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

The analogy is closer than you might think. There were people in Nazi Germany who were just as oblivious of the atrocities of their government as you are of the atrocities committed by psychiatry.

[rimpala.livejournal.com]

The analogy falls apart at the intentions of why people become psychiatrists vs Germans becoming soldiers in WW2. Hitler was going to actual war with people, expanding his empire physically. He did this by actually murdering people, and not by accident either. Soldiers go to war expecting to kill people and die for their country, the ones that expect to heal other soldiers are medics.

I don't expect to convince you otherwise though, but the problem with most conspiracies is that they seem more effort then they're worth. For example it would cost far less to just sent someone to the moon then to fake a moon landing and then spend the rest of eternity trying to cover it up.

So like hell, why is everyone keeping so many secrets? If you're in the Illuminati just tell me, what am I going to do about it? Tell someone else in the Illuminati? I don't know anyone else in the Illuminati!

[kardashev.livejournal.com]

"The analogy with Nazism may seem hyperbolic to people who appreciate the practice, but it is not far off the mark for people who suffer from brain damage due to psychiatric intervention."

I'm sorry, Sophia. But until I see members of the American Psychiatric Association call for the mass murder of jews and gypsies, I'm going to have to join the others in Godwin-ing this thread.

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

Your pattern analysis skills need a bit more polish. There was more to Nazism than racism.

[kardashev.livejournal.com]

Yes...like mass murder.

Let me explain how Godwin's Law works. Any group can be compared to Nazis because all organizations have bad apples in them, among other things in common with the Nazis. If I really wanted to reach hard, I could probably even find some way to make an analogy between the Nazis and the Girl Scouts, e.g. they can both be pushy when they come calling at your house. But this is still nothing more than an appeal to emotion, specifically reductio ad hitlerum. But if you really want to make a good genuine Nazi analogy with whatever group you want to demonize, said group needs to at lest advocate mass murder of one or more ethnic groups.

This is why people like underlankers(for one example) can sometimes get around Godwin. 'lankers has mad Nazi analogies before but he chooses them very carefully. Chief among them being his comparison between the United States Cavalry and settlers over what they did to the native americans with the holocaust. He gets away with it because there was a systematic attempt to wipe the natives out.

I hope this explains things.

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

It is not my intent to "demonize" psychiatry, merely to shed light on its shortfalls. The documentation of its atrocities resides elsewhere. One of the big differences between Nazis and psychiatry is that the former dispatched their victims with great haste but the latter like to keep their victims alive as long as possible to milk them for the insurance money.

I hope this helps.

[kardashev.livejournal.com]

"One of the big differences between Nazis and psychiatry is that the former dispatched their victims with great haste but the latter like to keep their victims alive as long as possible to milk them for the insurance money."

Even if true, this still doesn't make psychiatrists into mass murderers who base their depredations on ethnicity, kick in the doors of jews and forcibly round them up, etc. In fact, unless a person demonstrates behavior indicative that they are a clear and present danger to himself or others, the hands of psychiatrists are pretty much tied thanks to the ACLU. In such a case, treatment must be voluntary.

There was nothing voluntary about the holocaust.

I'm sorry but your attempt at a corollary isn't working. Godwin reigns over this thread, sophia.

[rimpala.livejournal.com]

*Thinks about it for a second*

Nope, I think only saying that the Nazis were okay because some people found them to be helpful is like saying that. I agree that malpractice happens of course and that people abuse medicine for recreational purposes.

However I can't say I know too many hospitals with gas chambers. I think it's worth noting that medical doctors are more inclined towards aiding the disabled then destroying them. Medicine as a whole is meant to cure people, not murder them. Zyklon B itself is more in the realm of pest control before it's infamous use in the camps.

tl;dr: Godwins Law

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

What you ignore are the abuses of medication for purposes of profit and behavior control. Yes, there are physicians who get into the field for altruistic reasons. Once there, though, they can find themselves in a situation that puts the interests of gain above the interests of the patient. Even altruistic doctors can be put into the bind of doing bad medicine for fear of losing a license or of a malpractice suit.

[rimpala.livejournal.com]

If the interests of gain truly went before the interests of the patient, why even attempt to cure illness in the first place. Sure whatever conspiracy you have cooked up is far more an effort then just plan old loot and plunder.

If you want to take money from people, all you have to do is point a gun in their face and demand it.

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

Psychiatry does not attempt to cure illness. It attempts to treat disorders many of which are assumed to be incurable.

As for the taking money by the gun vs. the pill bottle, the former runs the risk of violent resistance. Social ostracism of the latter might soon outpace that of the former.