5 ms·

I refuse to read shock media as a rule. Anyone qualified care to comment on the quality of the article? Also worth mentioning this was lifted and edited off an

• korroziya 4y ago
  It's as bad as you think: pompous and reads like we're all idiots and the author is that one guy at the high school party who was fixated on being the "smartest guy" in the room. Edit: Dead blog link.
• indymike 4y ago
  More on Epstein-Barr virus.
• nequo 4y ago
  It mentions HSV-1 (and neurodegenerative diseases), EBV (and mono), Toxoplasma gondii (and excessive risk taking or anxiety), Trich (and infertility), cytomegalovirus and Heliobacter Pylori (and anxiety), the Borna virus (and apparent bipolar disorder), and Vitamin D (which supposedly reduces these effects). It links to published studies on each of these links.
  • searchableguy 4y ago
    Many viruses have been linked to singular inflammatory diseases, making it hard to attribute any one virus to a specific disease. Coxsackievirus B4, Herpesvirus 6, Enteroviruses, and Cytomegalovirus have all been linked to type 1 diabetes and pancreatic failure. EBV, however, has been identified as a strong precursor for MS. Due to difficulty in conducting studies on viruses, research in this area has been limited, but recent interest in auto-immune disorders caused by COVID has led to renewed funding. mRNA-based vaccines are also being tested for auto-immune diseases thought to have viral causes.
  • collyw 4y ago
    HSV 1 is neurodegnerative? First I heard of that, and considering that it affects the majority of the population whether they know it or not, I find this to be quite unlikely to be a serious problem.
    • nequo 4y ago
      Look at the “Alzheimer’s disease” section of the Wikipedia article on HSV-1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herpes_simplex_virus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herpes_simplex_virus
    • jamal-kumar 4y ago
      You have to understand that this virus lays dormant in your spine before re-emerging up to years later as another outbreak in the skin. It's the same with herpes zoster (chickenpox) re-emerging years later when your immune system has its guard down in middle to old age as shingles. Its most severe central neurological manifestation is herpes encephalitis.
• canadiantim 4y ago
  > Also worth mentioning this was lifted and edited off another blog that has since gone down. How do you know this article was lifted off another blog?
  • haswell 4y ago
    Because the article states that it is copied/edited from a blog at the bottom, and links to the blog it was taken from. That blog, in turn, generates a warning because it is presenting a ghost.io certificate.
    • aritmo 4y ago
      The author is Riva Tez (https://twitter.com/rivatez https://twitter.com/rivatez). She first posted this on her blog, hosted on ghost.io, but she abandoned that personal blog. She then contributed her article on this new website that collects such articles. The new website does not show the author's name when you read an article. You have to look into the article index to view the her name as the author of the article. The author name appears here https://return.life/category/views/page/5/ https://return.life/category/views/page/5/
      • haswell 4y ago
        The author’s name is shown at the top of the article as well.
• haswell 4y ago
  I didn’t find this to be “shock media”, and the culmination of the article isn’t “you’re all wrong”, but “we should start a foundation to examine this in more detail”. Basically: “here’s my idea that might sound crazy, but there might be some reasons to explore it in more depth”. The attitude that “it goes against the grain so I won’t even consider it” seems problematic though when the subject is one that we still know very little about.
  • AmericanChopper 4y ago
    Step 1. Be afraid Step 2. Give me money A tale as old as time…
    • haswell 4y ago
      Assuming for a moment that there’s something worth exploring here, how would you reframe the content? Apply this response to a group raising concerns about the safety of asbestos and seeking funding for research to validate or debunk those concerns. People fear disease because of its impact on wellbeing and life expectancy. Not all fear is warranted or healthy, but fear also drives action and is an evolutionary advantage. There’s a good reason to stop smoking, because one hopes to avoid a painful death via lung cancer. “Lock your doors, or risk invasion and bodily harm by local street gangs” is an appeal to fear, and sound advice depending on your neighborhood. Fear can obviously be weaponized/misused, but not all fear-based arguments are inherently so. With all of that said, I didn’t really see fear mongering in this article. Instead, potentially sobering thoughts.
      • AmericanChopper 4y ago
        > I didn’t really see fear mongering in this article The article starts with: > Endemic Pathogens are Making You Crazy and Then Killing You. Nobody warned you about them, but they’re destroying your mind and they’re everywhere. Maybe we have significantly different perspectives on fear mongering, but that’s archetypal fear mongering in my book. The article then goes on to summarise a number of fringe scientific theories that are not substantially supported by evidence, including linking autism to vaccines. The article then concludes with a call to action to help philanthropically fund the industry in which the author works as a venture capitalist (and don’t see any disclosure about this conflict of interest in the article). If the article left you feeling soberly thoughtful, then perhaps you could make a donation to the author’s next funding round. But from my perspective “be afraid, give me money” seems like a perfectly reasonable summary.
• st-keller 4y ago
  Never heard of this term. What is „shock media“? I also fail to see what part of this blogpost qualifies as „fear mongering“. What am I missing? Is „You will die“ a shocking message, or does induce fear? I thought it is just true.
  • Supermancho 4y ago
    > What is „shock media“ Sensationalizing fear by presenting existing niche knowledge as an elevated concern for day to day living. This is why it's sometimes referred to as fear-mongering. eg: Did you know how lethal drinking water can be? Simply drinking water has killed plenty of people in modern times. Click here to know more. Shock media, like most phrases, is an amalgamation of ideas. In this case, "Shock Jock" and Media. The implication is that it's not purely click-bait and the point of the media is not purely informational.
• tsol 4y ago
  Don't forget that often titles are chosen by editors that value shock over content-- but that doesn't reflect on the actual writing itself