User:Tracychess

I'm assuming that content on RationalWiki is 'not copyrighted work', and therefore take the liberty of copying some that I enjoyed reading here:

I am the visitor
=========== tracy

RW has a visitor with a some unconventional ideas about health. Any medically-inclined visitors are encouranged to engage them. It's a pity PaulMD is not around any more.--ZooGuard (talk) 19:13, 3 September 2012 (UTC) I'll see. Typically, the best way to confront these people is to ask for a mechanism of action (like, how does acupuncture improve health?).--"Shut up, Brx."19:41, 3 September 2012 (UTC) Nevermind, that isn't his schtick. I'll read more of his stuff and make an assessment, assuming I know enough about the subject and won't wander off before learning anything--"Shut up, Brx." 19:49, 3 September 2012 (UTC) Okay, after reading one of his blog posts and glancing at others, it seems this guy is very into semantics, and he enjoys resorting to citing the dictionary to make his point. He is very concerned about the perceived difference between health and medicine, which reeks of holistic woo. To his credit, I haven't seen any instances of him promoting any quackery. Also, a major tenet of his point of view is "healthicine," a buzzword of his creation meant to denote the "science of health" (not medicine). He created his own taxonomy of healthicine, where he includes study of community and spirit as necessary aspects of healthicine (community might fly, since cultural practices and geography may impact your health in a number of ways). His healthicine is based on anatomy 101 breakdown of life, albeit with some unnecessary steps (if you're going to include nutrition, wouldn't it go before genetics?). So far, he's just a harmless crank. Just don't let him touch mainspace.--"Shut up, Brx." 20:02, 3 September 2012 (UTC) Promoting healthy lifestyle isn't exactly harmful, but that is the worst argumentum ad dictionarium going. Dictionary editors are historians of usage, not legislators of language. bomination 01:26, 4 September 2012 (UTC) Ya, fairly common mistake though. Even in English, the very existence of games like Scrabble depends on instilling dictionaries with an authority they didn't ask for and can't ever deserve. Not understanding how natural languages really work leads to goofs like 1984's Newspeak (Orwell also wrote similarly misinformed non-fiction rants...) or the stupid ending of the otherwise interesting Embassytown by China Miéville. It also results in futile Canute-like behaviour from entities set up to "protect" natural languages like French or Japanese.82.69.171.94 (talk) 09:58, 4 September 2012 (UTC) I always made the assumption that Orwell knew Newspeak was bollocks. One of the most common tropes of dystopian fiction is an over-the-top mechanism of population control - Panem has The Hunger Games, the Tetragrammaton Council has prozium, and Oceania has Newspeak. bomination 10:13, 4 September 2012 (UTC)