A Rant About False Comparisons
or: I don't ask for much but I do ask for a bit of integrity
There are two arguments I hear often, one which comes from a certain tendency on the left, one which comes from a certain tendency on the right. Both which seem sensible on their face but are equally disingenuous in that they fail to take material reality into account.
I’ve been stewing on these for a while now but both of them just popped up again on my social media feed within hours of each other, so I’m going to go after them now as I’m feeling feisty1.
The one from the left is an anti-fluoride2 argument, which points out that most European countries don’t fluoridate their water supplies and therefore there is no reason why the US should do so and those who think that it’s necessary are misinformed and/or “brainwashed by Big Pharma3”.
The one from the right is an anti-choice argument, which points out that most European countries limit abortions to between 12 and 14 weeks, therefore there is no reason why the US can’t/shouldn’t do the same.
Both of these arguments piss the hell out of me, and not just because I’m both pro-fluoride and pro-abortion4. They piss the hell out of me because both of them ignore an identical and crucial factor which is easily overlooked if you’re coming at these issues from a place of emotion as opposed to logic, which unfortunately far too many people do.
And that factor is *drumroll*…. ACCESS.
Yep, the water here in France isn’t fluoridated. And we are fine without it because of this little thing called universal health care. When everyone can go to the dentist, even the poorest children living in the banlieues5, fluoridated water isn’t all that necessary. In the US in the other hand, studies have made it abundantly clear that removing fluoride from the water supply will have a disproportionately negative impact on the poor and/or uninsured, especially children, who far too often do not have access to regular dental cleanings.
This is something that I have experienced personally, which is one reason why I feel as strongly about it as I do. When my uninsured twentysomething ass moved from NYC to Eugene, Oregon in 2007, I was not aware at first that Eugene’s water supply was unfluoridated. And within three years, I started having dental problems despite having gone nearly a decade living in NYC with no issues despite not having access to regular cleanings. And nothing else had changed - my diet was similar, I brushed regularly, the only difference was the water.
And being as poor as I was, of course I waited until it was unbearable before I finally went to the dentist, where I then received an estimate for around $2500 in dental work, which I then had to finance through CareCredit6. I am quite confident that this would not have been the case had the water supply been fluoridated, something that my dentist at the time confirmed when he asked me where I was from upon learning how long it had been since the last time I had been to the dentist.
But even if I hadn’t had this experience, common sense should prevail here. One of the reasons why fluoridated water is such a crucial public health measure in the US is because it functions as a safety net for those who do not have access to dental care. And in an ideal world where everyone in the US had access to such care, I would be fine with removing fluoride from the water. But that’s not the world we live in, therefore using the “but Europe…” argument is a false comparison.
Which brings us to the restricting abortion argument. Yes, in many European countries, abortions are limited to 12 weeks. But once again, there’s this little thing called universal health care, which in most countries covers abortions 100%. Not only are abortions free here in France, but one also has access to guaranteed paid sick leave if they need to access one, and one would never have to travel more than a few hours to do so.
Compare that to the US, where even before the reversal of Roe one would often have to travel many hours to access an abortion, have to take unpaid time off work to do so, and would have to fork up several hundred dollars for the procedure. Which creates a situation where many who need an abortion have to plan several weeks in advance both in terms of money and transportation, planning which will often take one beyond the first trimester. And then of course the mandatory waiting periods that existed in many states. It’s also worth considering that a lack of universal health care often means that it takes longer for one to learn that they’re pregnant in the first place. Here if you have a doubt, you go to the doctor who confirms it for you, which costs next to nothing for most and absolutely nothing if you’re low-income7.
My view on this follows the same trajectory as my view on fluoride. If the US was a country where anyone could confirm a pregnancy easily and without cost, and anyone who needed an abortion could access it close to home, free of charge, without a waiting period, and with paid time off, 12 weeks would potentially be a reasonable limit for the most part8. But that’s not the world we live in and therefore, just like the fluoride argument, such a comparison is disingenuous.
And what bothers me most is that I’m pretty sure that a significant percentage of those who make these arguments aren’t even aware of these nuances. They’re simply repeating what they’ve been told or what they heard elsewhere. They are not invested in the truth, they are not invested in confirming what they’ve heard before spreading it. The argument conforms with their worldview and helps their side, so they embrace it.
But these arguments originated from somewhere, and I suspect that those who birthed them know full well why they’re disingenuous, why they don’t hold up once you hold a lens to them. And they didn’t care, because for far too many, the ends justify the means.
Fuck all of that. And fuck all of those who engage in it.
And frankly, apart from making themselves the target of my rage, those who engage in this sort of misinformation are truly only shooting themselves in the foot. For at least when it comes to the fluoride issue, while I’m pretty firm in my position, I do think that there’s a legitimate conversation to be had regarding potential long-term health effects. But those on the other side who honorably hold those concerns tend to be drowned out by those alongside them who are constantly going on about communist plots or their third eye9 or whatever. And personally, I judge one by the company that one chooses to keep.
We talk and hear a lot about “fake news” but in reality there’s a much wider umbrella of information intended to deceive us that’s best described as “misinformation” or “disinformation”, of which actual fake news is one of many subcategories that shelters underneath. There are countless ways in which we are consistently manipulated by the information that is put in front of us, and while outright lies are the most egregious example, I would argue that overall they are an outlier compared to the kind of manipulative arguments that I detailed above.
And all sides are guilty of such manipulation, the tendency to repeat something because it is in agreement with your position on any given issue knows no specific political tendency. For every bullshit meme put out by Turning Point10, there’s an equally bullshit meme put out by Occupy Democrats11. And while I may sympathize more with the intent of the latter, having the ethical high ground does not excuse misinformation and I do and will call it out when I see it no matter where it’s coming from.
I come at this as someone who holds pretty firm political positions on countless issues, including the two detailed above, but whose beliefs have significantly shifted over the past three decades and are still always open to further re-examination12. And what caused those past belief shifts were honest, factual, to-the-point arguments that caused me to question my worldview and subsequently adjust accordingly. Manipulative arguments on the other have the opposite effect. Once I realize you’re trying to manipulate me, I’m even more liable to dismiss any other information you have which might have actual substance.
The bottom line is that if you can’t make your argument without resorting to manipulation, your stance probably doesn’t hold much merit. And if you can make your argument without resorting to manipulation but you do so anyway, again, fuck you for contributing to a serious problem that is affecting us on a worldwide scale.
Misinformation is a significant part of the reason why the current global dumpster fire is what it is. Please don’t make it any worse, thanks.
Also because I admittedly feel the need to talk about something that has nothing to do with Charlie Kirk.
Why can’t I ever fucking spell that word right? Literally EVERY SINGLE TIME that I go to type it, I write “flouride” and then I have to correct it. Drives me nuts.
In case it isn’t crystal clear, water fluoridation has nothing to do whatsoever with “Big Pharma”. In fact, if we followed that logic to its inevitable capitalist conclusion, the medical industry should theoretically be in favor of removing fluoride from the water supply, as to do so would mean much higher profits for everyone involved in the dental industry. It costs next to nothing to fluoridate the water. Cavities, root canals, and dental implants on the other hand are big business.
I’m saying this as a matter of transparency, but to be clear, my point here should stand no matter what side of the argument you’re on when it comes to either fluoride or abortion. You should be able to make your argument without relying on false equivalencies.
The banlieue in France is the equivalent of the inner city in the US when it comes to where the poor in any given city are concentrated. It doesn’t always translate well because Google will tell you that banlieue means “suburb”, but that’s because historically speaking the poor in France have been pushed out to the city limits as opposed to in the US where “inner city” is both a geographic and socioeconomic descriptor. This often becomes interesting when people ask me where I’m from, and I can’t really say the “NYC suburbs” in French without providing a lot of necessary context to make clear that I grew up in a middle-class environment.
Which is a miserable fucking scam and I can only hope that there’s a specific circle of hell for those making money off it. That $2500 worth of dental work ended up costing me twice that by the time I was done paying it off. Only to then lose the teeth five years later.
Under the French health care system, the state covers 70% of the price of a doctor’s visit and the other 30% either is covered by a secondary health care plan (which you pay for) or is paid out of pocket. But for low-income folks, that other 30% is also covered by the state which makes a doctor’s appointment 100% covered.
It should be noted that even in the 12-week European countries, exceptions are generally made in regards to the health of the mother, and mental health is included in that determination.
I will never be able to get over the number of otherwise intelligent people that I knew in Eugene who supported keeping fluoride out of the water supply due to some absurd nonsense about the “calcification” of their pineal gland affecting their “third eye”.
Ah fuck, in the end I couldn’t avoid talking about that asshole after all. Fail.
PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF THE GODS STOP SHARING MEMES FROM OCCUPY DEMOCRATS.
For those who don’t know, once upon a time I was an overzealous teenage libertarian. A belief system which fell away piece by piece upon being consistently confronted with facts and realities that those beliefs couldn’t stand up to.
I really appreciated this one, especially as someone who went from anti-flouride (gimme a break, I was living in Portland) to pro-flouride (after a lot of dental work).
The fun footnotes were a great bonus lol.