Alan Levinovitz

Really fun and interesting chat with @alanlevinovitz.bsky.social about teaching religion in a university setting.

Japan has:
< economic inequality
> education system
> walkable cities
> public transportation
< guns & gun violence
< obesity
> healthcare

And, yes, many of its own probs...

👇 MAHA as sophisticted as a grade school science project.

via @alanlevinovitz.bsky.social

A snippet of text from "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens. It reads: "It was not in impenetrable shadow, as the other objects in the yard were, but had a dismal light about it, like a bad lobster in a dark cellar."

A photo of cut up shrimp in a silver tray, perhaps part of a buffet table or a stockpile of ingredients at a restaurant. They have an eerie, faint blue glow due to bioluminescent bacteria. Image sourced from: https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/ct8rzq/some_these_shrimp_are_glowing_because_they_ate/

In A Christmas Carol, Dickens describes Marley's face having a dismal light "like a bad lobster in a dark cellar."

Huh?

He was likely referring to the glow of bioluminescent bacteria that can grow in/on crustaceans, presumably a more common observation at the time.

📷 tinyurl.com/6cj6knjw

Feeling despair? So did this guy in 1875, who couldn't believe there were STILL anti-vaxxers:

"One might suppose that the popular prejudice against vaccination had died out by this time, considering that it has been practiced for nearly a century"

The preprint also also mentions by favourite spoof paper:

"What's the Deal with Birds" by @evornithology.bsky.social. The abstract is fantastic ....

My kingdom for a community where we can — somehow, incredibly! — condemn the egregious abuse of our most vulnerable, call out the horrific insurance industrial complex, abs also…heartily condemn murder!

Can we not fucking rationalize/equivocate about murder? Is it too fucking much to ask for a space where, when someone is murdered, it isn’t seen as an opportunity to score political points?

Bluesky, paragon of civilized discourse.

My God it’s all broken.

FBI Director nominee. Sigh.

HT @alanlevinovitz.bsky.social

Just saw this.

“For every Galileo there are 1000 idiots.” The recent Fifth Column podcast with
@alanlevinovitz.bsky.social was an invigorating listen. Reclaiming and reframing science via honest, practical no bullshit discussions like this are vital.

Thanks Alan.

I don’t normally cross post, but this thread from @alanlevinovitz.bsky.social is so insightful and novel (as in I haven’t heard a lot of these ideas articulated so clearly before) that I can’t help myself. x.com/AlanLevinovi...

Image of a post by Alan Levinovitz. It says: "Why don't people turn against the charlatans that fleece them? After all, when a physician harms or kills a patient, typically people get upset. They sue. "But when a charlatan harms you, it doesn't work like that. That's because when you buy into a charlatan's bullshit, you've made a choice, as an individual, to trust them. "The medical establishment demands your trust, so when they betray it, you can be angry. But you GIVE your trust to the charlatan. "If you admit the charlatan betrayed you? Well, that means you are admitting you betrayed yourself."

Especially this part, for me.

I really hope this thread helps people understand the perspective I take on food and health.

I think it's important, and I believe that if we were able to recognize the truths that emerge from an honest look at this history, we could work together more effectively towards a healthier future.

You don't need Huberman or Wim Hof or ice baths or carnivore diets or veganism or Bulletproof Coffee or avocado oil...or whatever they will be trying to sell you in 10, 20, 100, 1000 years.

All you need is the knowledge of the history I've laid out here.

The truth is that there is no easy answer. As Michael Pollan put it, "eat food, not too much, mostly plants," is a pretty good start — but honestly, even that is too specific. I think you could probably be fine eating a fair amount of meat!

So when the next monk or Horace Fletcher comes along, mailing envelopes & drinking Bulletproof coffee and flexing his/her muscles and telling you they've got the secret, just remember my motto, which swaps a synonym for thinking in for mastication:

Nature Will Castigate Those Who Don't Cogitate.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news.

There is no "one easy trick" that the establishment doesn't want you to know.

Everyone's shit stinks, even Horace Fletcher's, and some of those ancient Chinese monks went bald, despite their super-secret dietary principles.

It can't be that they're all right. Instead, it is because they are all tapping into a deep need that humans feel, and providing novel resolutions of that need.

There is, in my opinion, no other explanation for the parade of healers, gurus, and influencers who are all selling the Secret, secrets that often directly contradict each other, but somehow receive the endorsement of entire generations of people.

But it's not because they have discovered some kind of secret. It's not because the wugu are killing you, or Nature Is Castigating Those Who Don't Masticate, or seed oils are the devil.

It's b/c humans need hope and change, and one of the easiest ways to provide it is in the form of dietary ritual.

And sometimes, believing them gives us the motivation we need to change our lives. The hope that finally gets us out of bed and clears up our brain fog.

In addition, we find it difficult to live healthfully. To eat well, to exercise, to break bad habits. To feel hopeful and motivated about our lives.

And so people come along who promise us answers. The ancient monks. Horace Fletcher. We believe them.

The answer, as far as I'm concerned, is pretty straightforward. Humans have ever and always been seeking simple dietary answers to the frightening fragility of the human condition.

We die. We get sick. We age.

Which raises the question: If there are hundreds upon hundreds of secret health solutions that They Don't Want You To Know, and all of them have thousands of people testifying to how effective they are, and the gurus are mailing people envelopes full of shit...

What explains all of that?

They're always beating college athletes (or the equivalent). They're charismatic. Anti-establishment. Confident.

And there's always people testifying that until they tried [INSERT SECRET], they were sick and miserable, and then [INSERT SECRET] changed their lives instantly and effortlessly.

Between "Nature Will Castigate Those Who Don't Masticate," and ancient Daoist monks telling you to eat only wild-gathered foods, there are endless examples of the same thing.

People promising they know the secret. It's always a different secret. Carnivores. Vegans. Masticators. Foragers.

And yet...there were still people getting sick, and health influencers promising that they knew the One Trick for never being sick again (or bald — haha humans, always insecure).

There was no glyphosate or pesticide or seed oil.

These grains that were supposedly making everyone sick? They were heirloom grains. Organic grains. The best grains you can imagine. The most natural grains.

IT'S THE GLUTEN ALAN IT'S THE GLUTEN

And that's when I have to tell them that the five grains typically weren't gluten containing grains. (The monks weren't super consistent about this.)

Needless to say, this was 2000 years ago, so these weren't genetically modified grains.

Spoiler alert: The ancient Daoists were not on the carnivore diet. They were not anti-seed-oil. And they did not participate in Fletcherism.

They avoided the "wu gu," aka "the five grains."

I bet you can guess what people say when I tell them about the monks and the evil five grains...