Thanks for the heads-up CurtC.
I have found in the past that pseudoscience (which this seems to fit) usually has a motive behind it. Religious, as in the case of Intelligent Design or Cellular Cosmogeny, or money, as in the case of structure altered waters. Vaccination deniers seem to peddle vitamin suppliments, quote scripture and sell diet materials. Etc.
In fact, ideology or money are generally the motivating factors. Can they be applied here?
I'll deal with common motives at the bottom of this post.
Either way, there are a lot of claims made in the film. PEople just telling me that 'it's wrong' doesn't really give me much to go on.
This is a tricky one - the medical explanation for this is (I imagine) quite tricky for a lay-person to understand. I myself am such a lay-person, and if any of the medici who grace this board are able to give a summary of the explanation I would be grateful, although I don't know how much of it I'd understand.
/me ponders to himself...should he have checked the links given by other members before making that request...?
But thats no reason not to trust the information given here. I understand for example (unless I'm very much mistaken) that AIDS is not a specific disease but the symptoms a person has when they have a severely damaged immune system. Given that we know what the HIV does - it destroys a type of T cell that is required for a properly functioning immune system - it isn't hard to make the link between the two.
HIV destroys necessary cells in the immune system ------> AIDS is the manifestation of a poorly (or barely) functioning immune system.
Please, if anybody can correct me on anything I've said, do so! Wouldn't want to spread incorrect information.
Another thing to look at (while more indirect) is the survival rate pre- and post-antiretroviral medication. In the 80s people infected with HIV were given essentially a death sentence. Now, with better treatment, lifespan has increased in HIV/AIDS sufferers, and more than that the
quality of life has greatly improved.
I imagine that this conspriracy would be quite alluring to many young people, due to its endorsement by Dave Grohl. I don't know
what his reasoning is, but I imagine there are a lot of people falling for this because of him.
In terms of motives and whatnot, here are a few of the most common:
- Christian Fundamentalists often promote this conspiracy theory, stating that HIV and AIDS are not linked, and that AIDS is God's punishment on the sodomites and sinners. This one lost steam when infection rates rose outside of the homosexual and drug using population, but it still crops up from time to time.
- Thabo Mbeki supported the AIDS denialist movement in RZA, though to what end I can't be sure. Perhaps it was part of his backlash at percieved racism in the interpretation of the high HIV infection rates in Africa and especially in RZA - Check the end of the first paragraph under the "Race and Conspiracy" subheading. Perhaps he was worried about the logistics of implementing a large scale treatment plan. We can only speculate. He was however overridden by his cabinet on these issues, so the issue has somewhat faded into the background again.
- There are a group of people who believe the government is infecting people because...um...it's the government. Stock standard conspiracy theorists who if you got ten of them in a room together you'd get eleven different government motives, and they'd still all agree with eachother.
Those are the most common ones I can think of, though as with any conspiracy theory I'm sure there are more out there. Perhaps "The Jews" are behind it in someone's mind, and in another person's mind it's the aliens (under the control of the polar bears) infecting the human race. "Who knows," is really the only true answer I could give you if you asked me, "How many variants of this conspiracy theory are there?"
Are you all part of the conspiracy or what?
Yep. Don't tell anybody though.
