My Little Stand Against Dark Ages II

[_Robert_Participant]

I know a few folks who sport big bellies and weak core muscles and sure, they experience spinal alignment issues. If you look like the letter ‘S’ from the side, that has to hurt…This one buddy swears by the chiropractic manipulation but he never really gets better.

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

Chiropractors are dangerous.  Some people do feel better after a visit but that is just the placebo effect.  But as Robert says very few of them get better. They just keep returning for their regular sessions.  Those that do improve do so despite or in spite of the “treatment”. The rest stay ill or recover only with real medical treatment. In fact chiropractors are bullshit.

One of my clients is a hospital that specializes in bone related injuries – hip replacements, broken arm,legs  etc. They detest chiropractors because of the damage they have seen them do and “get away with doing”. This is because chiropractors have a veneer of authenticity. Just like TCM has in China.

We can call them “alternative medicines” but a more accurate title would be “alternative to medicine”.  We don’t need to replace it with anything as we already have something better. It is called science based medicine.

 

 

[jakelafortParticipant]

Chiropractic medicine is a good grift. It is not as bad as the priesthood though. But both rely on bullshit and ask their customers to believe. Evidence? Fugettaboutit. According to Forbes in 2017 average salary of 86k and in R I 148k. Not bad. And i am sure some of the better priests of back cracking are F’ing their patients-some consensually and others not. The hands on and temporary relief are a natural social lubricant.

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

But what do you want to replace religion with then????

You could try reality for a few months but if that doesn’t work we will see if we can find something else for you.

I have used that line on several occasions 🙂

When we get rid of a wart we don’t look to replacing it with something. We just need it gone.

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

Jake,

If chiropractors are exaggerating claims of injury or referring to a Subluxation injury that can’t be verified by X-Rays or other medical devices, then they are indeed encouraging patients to adapt a victim mentality and to milk accident, worker’s comp, and S.S.I. Disability into a very comfortable lifestyle…at all of our expense.

You are doing very good and well to stay away from chiropractors and other practitioners of Voodoo and Woo-Doo.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 2 months ago by  TheEncogitationer. Reason: Punctual adding of punctuation

[jakelafortParticipant]

Enco, consider the world as it is versus the world as we perceive it.

Whether it is a chiropractor or a respected orthopedic surgeon the medical opinion will be set aside if it is not consistent with the diagnostic tests. Adjusters examine medical reports, medical notes and radiology reports carefully. In the ordinary course of events after a P.I. Claim or comp claim the injured party treats until reaching medical endpoint. At that point they are examined by the treating physician who gives an opinion whether there is any permanent partial disability as a result of the subject claim/accident. A chiropractor who assigns a 15 percent disability of the blank body part is no better than an ortho who opines 5 percent disability to same body part. In other words the hyperbole of the chiro is not enhancing the claim. Adjusters are ultra hip to the chiros. And for cases that go to trial the defense attorneys for the insurers paint up the town with the chiro’s deficiencies as a medical professional.

In comp claims there is a commissioner for claims that are not resolved by agreement. You can’t bs the commissioners with chiro jive. And as aforementioned the adjusters are hip to chiros. In SSD claims which is what i think you probably intended when you wrote SSI the claimant really has to prove inability to work full time as a result of a medical condition. Most of the claimants of Social Security Disability are denied first try. All of the medical documentation has to be solid to prevail. Chiros are not getting cases approved that would not otherwise be approved. And by the way there are very few claims that are not meritorious that ultimately prevail.

The part you wrote about victim mentality and comfortable lifestyle is not how things goes. Such a result as you envision is an exception or anomaly. Comp law is intended to give workers some kind of recourse and benefit when they have been injured in the course of their employment WITHOUT PAYING EXORBITANT CLAIMS. Employers and their insurers are given a limitation of liability while the employee is given some compensation for injuries sustained during work. Essentially there are weekly payments while an employee is laid up injured and incapable of returning to work. So it is a replacement (not full replacement of the worker’s salary) for what is lost in job income caused by job accident. Additionally if the employee has a permanent disability at the end of medical treatment there is an easy to apply formula resulting in a lump sum for the employee. It won’t be like hitting the lottery. And in cases of SSD the recipient is entitled to a minimal income from employment after which SSD is eliminated or reduced. The monthly payments vary in SSD but it is hardly the life of Reilly or the comfortable lifestyle you reference.

In the case of social security the employee has withdrawals that fund the social security system. So if we live long enough we collect on what we pay or Zeus forbid we get some mind blowing illness and we collect modest monthly disability payments. Employers pay the insurance for comp coverage but in so doing are exempt from liability or exposure to their employees for work related accidents (with understandable exceptions)

[jakelafortParticipant]

Back to the topic of monarchies in the present.

Again it is not the most significant issue but in an ideal world we would have no vestige of monarchy in today’s government. Even as figureheads monarchies are an affirmation of a system of government that caused so much suffering and enforced social norms of unspeakable inequality. In fact in many ways it is not the racism that is the problem but classism. This is particularly true in English history. If you read English history or literature from before the second world war it is filled with classism. I think we are all hip to discrimination against races and against sexual orientation or gender but less so to classism. Sure, we tend to think of India in terms of pernicious classism but it is true in England and Europe as well. That all starts with monarchies.

And then of course monarchies are the source of arbitrary and capricious and self serving abuses of power. I mentioned the famous star chamber of England. Consider the French monarchy with its Lettre de cachet. The sun king does not like the cut of your jib and a letter gets you arrested-just one of many complaints against the monarchy during the french revolution. And how many times did Jews get expelled from Spain, France and England at the whim of the monarch. An entire people just get the fuck out. And of course the monarchs conspired with the papacy to commit all kinds of atrocities. I don’t feel like writing a treatise. i hate nostalgia for a past that never existed.

In the US there is controversy over confederate statues and confederate flags. But we don’t actually integrate the confederacy the way English integrate or continue the monarchy. I think it makes good sense to get any vestige of government and confederacy separated although i would prefer that statues are not knocked down or eliminated but rather a legitimate historical essay is included with the statue. As to monarchy the hell with it. It is a true anachronism and symbol of social hierarchy that is based on fiction and inures to the detriment of the masses in a big fucking way. But i guess it helps sell tabloids. The sickening tendency of the mindless masses to lionize a leader ought not be encouraged.

[DavisModerator]

There was actually a very good article on the CBC today about the difficulties in replacing the monarchy in Canada. First is whether or not to have an elected governor general role which would be difficult because if they did try to use their rare veto more frequently there would be nothing we could do about it and Canadians definitely do NOT want a Prime Minister and an elected Governor General competing with one another (one elected person fighting against another elected legislature). But also it would require a constitutional change which hasn’t’ happened in 40 years because every province has to agree (including two provincial referendums). It seems, at least for the very distant future…virtually no one thinks this is an important priority. The possible benefits simply aren’t worth the potential losses, national unity, constitutional headaches, opening other constitutional issues and dedicating time and resources to it (especially during a pandemic). The interview certainly raised a lot of eyebrows in Canada but it seems almost nobody considers it in their top 10 priorities.

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

Jake,

You gave a very detailed and informative presentation of these kinds of cases.

Still, though, woo such as chiropractory should not take up one minute of an adjuster’s time or one mark of stenography.  A rational system of justice should reject woo out of hand prima facie, ipso facto, a priori, for all the same reasons that the U.S. Patent Office automatically rejects Patent Applications for so-called “perpetual motion machines” and other devices making oxymoronic, supernatural claims.

Just like bad money drives out good money, every bit of time and energy a legal system devotes to woo drives out time and energy that could be devoted to legitimate claims for justice.

[jakelafortParticipant]

Enco., i am with you on woo and on all forms of pontificating, lying, self-serving tripe. We ought not tolerate it. But the majority of humans are no better than monkeys in discriminating between what is valid/real and what is not. The free marketplace of ideas is failing us. It always has. But now we have large numbers of humans who get their bad ideas from echo chambers created by algorithms of AI and social media. It used to be monopolies created by churches-still is in some places. We know how that goes. The current dynamic monopolizing the marketplace of ideas has very quickly escalated the consequences of being easily led and easily fooled.

Are you cool with your principles even though they are failing and circumstances promise to get worse? Are those principles worth retaining in the face of so much evidence that those principles are nice-sounding, good feeling but chimerical? In essence aren’t you being just like the people we worry about?

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

We ought not tolerate it. But the majority of humans are no better than monkeys in discriminating between what is valid/real and what is not.

Exactly. Most humans cannot grasp that we are hardwired for magical thinking and spirituality (whatever the latter is).

[_Robert_Participant]

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:

We ought not tolerate it. But the majority of humans are no better than monkeys in discriminating between what is valid/real and what is not. Exactly. Most humans cannot grasp that we are hardwired for magical thinking and spirituality (whatever the latter is).

I do pine for some of the attitudinal benefits when I was a magical thinker. There was always an excellent possibility of some supernatural intervention that would help me or my family no matter how bleak the situation. I can’t go back now. I do have to guard against the negativity that seems inherent in realism.

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

I do have to guard against the negativity that seems inherent in realism.

I can echo that sentiment Robert. I have enough self awareness to notice when I think “What is the point of it all” even though I am generally very contented with my lot in life.  In the “grand scheme of things”, at least in the long run and on a personal level, it is pointless.  I have no problem with that being the case and I think that gives me a sense of positivity in living my day to day life. There is a freedom to be had from thinking like that. I am almost always happy and not bothered by much. I like the perspective I gain from it.

I had a new cult arrive to my house this week. They were ultra-Catholics. Seriously deluded individuals, more than any Mormon or Born Again that I have ever met. When they asked me what happens to me when I die I replied “Nothing other than I start to decompose” to which one of them said “Hey dude, you need to get real and let Jesus in”.

Yes, the delusion of magically thinking strike again. I hope they don’t come back with a marmot!

[jakelafortParticipant]

Simon says we got the drive to thrive.

Beliefs or the lack will not hinder that drive. Ain’t enough to simply be alive. We aint livin. We is alive!
Slap me five for my gibber jabber jive.

[_Robert_Participant]

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:

When they asked me what happens to me when I die I replied “Nothing other than I start to decompose”

That reminds me of that joke “what’s Beethoven been doing for the past 200 years?”

[Author]

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