You made a blanket, generalized statement about "alternative medicine."
Whether or not YOU believe that things like acupuncture BELONG in that category or not, the fact is that acupuncture is considered to be alternative medicine by just about anybody you ask in america, which is the country we are talking about in this thread.
Using that definition of alternative medicine, which is the standard, generally understood definition, acupuncture falls under the category of "alternative medicine."
Now, if you apply the statement that "alternative medicine is only things that either are not proved to work, or are proved to not work" to acupuncture, it would be wrong. Thats wat I THOUGHT you were saying when you said that alternative medicine is garbage, because here, acupuncture is considered alternative medicine.
basicaly, This is a simple misunderstanding. You are assuming that everybody uses YOUR personally created definition of alternative medicine, meaning 'anything that has no evidence of effectiveness, or is proved to be totally ineffective" which would mean that things like midwifery, acupuncture, chiropractors, and so on, are NOT alternative. But here, alternative simply means "not done by an MD", basically, so all those things ARE 'alternative'. We got 2 very different meanings of alternative medicine here, which caused the confusion.
Like I said, your definition aint the definition Im using. I am using the standard, generally recognized definition of alternative medicine, which is "any medicine not practiced by MD's, not licensed by a federally recognized group, that one does not need to attend medical school to practice."
YOU believe that anything that "works" should not be considered "alternative" because it works.
In america, that aint how it goes. Here, things that DO work, but are not licensed by the FDA or any type of standardized board of approval, and are not directly in line with the standard, traditional MD-style medicine, are considered "alternative medicine."
Your entire problem with my post comes from your uncommon defition of wat alternative medicine really is. It has nothing to do with me bein "smug" or any of the other shit youre saying, and everything to do with a misunderstanding of the term alternative medicine. You made up your own definition of it, based on wat you believe is fair. And I agree--I DONT think that things that do work, that have evidence of them working, should be considered "alternative". But , unfortunately, they are.
You are gettin all worked up over nothing. Like i said, its a misunderstanding of the term alternative medicine. To sum it up for you: Under your definition, acupuncture and other proven methods, are not included as alternative. Under the definition everybody else uses, they are. Your negative statement about alternative medicine includes acupuncture if we assume you are using the standard definition of it. It does not include acupuncture if we use the "DJ 303's personal definition" of alternative medicine.
The misunderstanding comes from your assumption that everyboy else uses your personal definition of alternative medicine. You assume that I just KNEW that you dont consider acupuncture to fall into that category, but theres no way I would know that, since in America, to the majority of people, it does.
I agree with your thoughts that things that do work, sholdnt be considered alternative, but becuz of the way things work here with the FDA and all that, tons of shit that works is considered alternative and dismissed as crap. So, while you might feel like alternative should ONLY be a word for "shit that dont work", that aint the case here, and thats the reason for this entire discussion between you and me.
morning mate.
apologies for unecessary rudeness and aggression yesterday.
i'd been out supporting Sasha and DJing here in Osaka Japan,
I was online, coming down from the mountains of Ching flying around the V.I.P room, and I was a bit tetchy.
not an acceptable excuse you may say, but nonetheless
Im sorry i took it out on you,
It is an old dogma of BL that we should attack ideas not people, and I should've stuck to that.
Ultimately this is a misunderstanding yes.
It is a difference of opinion, reference, and culture.
And I was bang out of order.
However I will say this if I may sir,
the tone of your posting is occasionally rather confrontational, unecessarily personal, and a little condescending. though I was entirely guilty of this yesterday and I offer you a virtual pint as a peace offering.
We ought to strive for respect, accuracy, wisdom and fair-mindedness with regards to the individual if we want BL to be an informative and pleasant place to be. Though of course the nature of the concept is open to freedom of expression in all it's colourful diversity.
Do please accept my apology, thought at the same time understand that I am not an illogical and ignorant man, who has launched an attack made-up of his own selfish and subjective definition of this topic.
You fail to give me credit and doubt my integrity here.
I am in fact well read and versed upon this topic, and am an officially published writer and journalist, with articles and essays that appear in one particular academically accredited university Journal.
i think it's clear here that there are obviously some rather glaring differences, between America and the U.K. Not only with regards to public opinion, but also with regards to education, politics, law, welfare and medical services.
You are entirely right when you said the OP is actually about America, and therefore I should have been sensitive to that, found out more about the system and been careful to explain exactly where my opinion lies, and to specify my sources and reasons. I understand how due to the nature of your system, there are different factors to take into account, as actually you are paying for either the service of one business or another, few of which will have the patients best interest at heart. that sucks! i pity you guys!
Accepted definitions and terminology appear to be quite different in some key areas, and thus i see the nature of our misunderstanding. My uncle for example is a very well-reputed General Practioner, public speaker, and acupuncturist working for our National Health Service and practises in London's top hospital and research department. He is not considered a practitioner of alternative medicine, but trained in effective supplementary medicine.
actually there are disputes and discepancies all over the place here. It seems that the American system accepts non-evidential, or repeatedly disproved techniques as alternative medicines, AS WELLl as those that are merely unconventional, like acupuncture.
the British medical Association doesn't though. They say that as soon as technique is tried tested and accepted it becomes medicine. the definition of alternative medicine being "all treatments that have not been proven effective using scientific methods."
ANyway fuck it mate, i can't be bothered with this topic anymore, because ironically enough, we are actually entirely in agreement with each other when it comes to what we believe to be valid, valuable and acceptable in medical practise.
I wholeheartedly believe that new and fresh, or unconventional forms of treatment should be perfectly avaialble and widely used, just so long as their is evidence to substantiate their worth.
SHall we just agree that we misunderstood one another's viewpoint and background here, couldve been politer and more accommodating/respectful and just be excellent to each other instead?
Once again.
sorry for being a bugger.
have a lovely day, and lets hope we don't need any medical attention in the near future.
peace