#and unethical cause he doesn't have a medical license

[spacedkey]

ok i’m loving this man’s unethical (?) and Wrong medicine

[trekwiz]

And don't forget, there are "gateway issues" that make you accept small anti-science concepts to plant the seeds for bigger ones.

You care about the environment, so you buy organic food because it's "sustainable" and "doesn't use pesticides". But you don't dig deeper to learn that they're using harsher pesticides in greater quantities (and then get sued for lying about how their crops don't have pesticide residues), and still engaging in specific factory farming practices that are bad for the environment. You don't notice that feeding the world on organic food would require destroying significant amounts of forest because of their lower yields.

And when they're given credit for environmentally friendly practices, you don't look into it and see it's a small subset of organic farms, and that a subset of conventional farming uses those practices, too. Nor do you notice the organic industry fights even harder against labor protections than conventional farmers do. They've built exemptions to force vulnerable workers to keep stooping, despite associated injuries.

This opens you up to propaganda about how much healthier organic food is. It's not--organic and conventional have equal nutrition. And while organic uses harsher pesticides, all farms use less than the amount that would be dangerous to you. You're now primed to accept false health information.

You're exposed to the idea that acupuncture is an ancient practice that can cure many things that "Western Medicine" is weak at. You start accepting the idea that different cultures can have different medical treatments because "well, our bodies are really very different." You discard all of the studies that show it's completely ineffective; that performing it incorrectly, by people who aren't trained in its use, provides equal results as a real practitioner performing it.

You start thinking that data which shows partaking in fake treatments like acupuncture delays real treatment, causing it to be more expensive and less successful so late in the development of your illness. You believe anecdotes about it working, and consider that if it really didn't, it would be illegal, and certainly not supported by insurance companies. You assume it's safe because authorities won't act; and are then conditioned to distrust those authorities because they're trying to "discredit" this practice because "it affects industry profits."

After accepting that, it's not hard to fall for anti-vax rhetoric. That distrust of medical authorities now opens one to accept that maybe Wakefield didn't lose his license for unethical, painful studies on autistic children, that he used to fake data for the goal of selling his own vaccine; that he was actually onto something and is being suppressed by the medical establishment. Which leads you to assume there are sinister motives behind vaccine requirements.

It takes many little steps to reach being an anti-vaxxer and anti-masker. Almost no one starts out wanting to be anti-science; they get there by their inability to judge credible sources or to sort "experts" from experts, while suspending critical analysis over time. Many believe debunked information and still claim to be pro-science because they're so strongly swayed by false information.

You need to do more than researching claims. You need to understand what resources will give you true information, and which are building on lies. Natural News, Infowars, and a fairly robust set of YouTube "experts" have such a deep level of self-feeding propaganda that too many people accept their scam as credible information. They succeed by hooking you with the small things you're likely to accept, then railroad you into the larger, more dangerous falsehoods.

[scripttorture]

Hi! So I know this isn't LEGALLY torture, but I think it’s ok here? Sorry if it's not! But my MC is kidnapped by a really fucked up former doctor who has previously lost his medical license for unethical treatment. This guy considers himself a researcher who is being "held back" by bureaucracy, and is "experimenting" on MC (in his basement) with things like solitary confinement, starvation, etc. He doesn't really care if MC dies, he just wants to ‘observe’ what happens. (cont)

(ex doctor ask part 2) so that's background, my story is actually set after this and is focused on MC's journey through rehabilitation. An important aspect of my story is that he sustained significant brain injury, and now has to navigate having intellectual disability in addition to the psychological effects (he does have a great support system in place, but it only helps so much). But I was wondering if you could suggest anything that could feasibly cause this in this sort of scenario? (cont.)(ex doctor ask 3) I don’t know/care if he caused brain injury on purpose or not, so either way is fine. I just want to make sure it’s realistic. Finally, do you think this would be appropriate as long as I do my research? I want my story to not be about the time where MC was tortured, but the struggle and permanence of the aftermath, and also on the small victories (finding a new communication system, re-learning how to walk, etc). Thank you so much for your time and all your effort on this blog

I take a lot ofquestions that aren’t legally torture. :)

 I think that when itcomes to how brain damage works, the effects it has and how it’s clinicallytreated you need to talk to ScriptMedic. I also think it’s worth trying to finda sensitivity checker with a similar disability because I don’t have a braininjury and I’m not sure how someone with a brain injury would like theircondition to be portrayed.

 Everything else aboutthe ask I can help with.

 I don’t have an easyanswer to what is ‘appropriate’. My personal opinion is that it depends on thestory as well as the identity of the author. I think that as writers we have tobe sensitive towards the groups we’re writing about. I also think that failingto do the research is a cardinal sin.

 Nothing in your summaryis ringing any alarm bells for me. It sounds as though you’re committed toshowing this character sensitively and realistically. That’s a great start buta lot depends on the finished piece. I really think you’ll need disabled sensitivitycheckers for a project like this.

 Now you’ve probablyseen my Masterpostson solitary confinement andstarvation, but I’m going to leave the links here in case.

 Neither of thesetechniques cause the sort of brain damage you’re referring to. O’Mara arguesthat they cause brain damage in the sense that torture causes structures in thebrain to change. This is the physical damage behind torture’s lastingpsychological symptoms.

 There are two broadthings that I can think of that would cause the sort of brain damage you want.I think. I know these are both things that cause brain damage but I’m not 100%sure what that brain damage looks like. As I said I don’t know much about braindamage and it’s possible that these routes would cause different sorts ofeffects, so you might want to do some research on the medical-side to see ifone suits your story better than the other.

 The first general routeis starving the brain of oxygen. This can cause extensive damage very veryquickly indeed and there are multiple tortures that could produce this eitherintentionally or by accident.

 Any choking torturewhether it uses a liquid or not could do this. So strangling, a plastic bagover the head, waterboarding, other forms of near drowning, etc.

 With a trulysophisticated set up (ie probably outside your doctor’s budget unless he’skeeping this guy in an old animal testing facility) this could also be done byreducing the oxygen content in the room itself. Note that that’s not a torturemethod I have ever seen used in real life and could arguably fall within thescope of high-tech torture. It would require either cylinders of nitrogen gas(this would not be painful) or a large quantity of carbon dioxide pellets (thiswould be painful and would also affect the temperature of the room makingeverything freezing cold).

 Mock-hanging could alsoproduce this effect as could anything that involves putting a cord around theneck. This could be accidental or purposeful.

 Another thing thatcould restrict his breathing is restraints or corsetry. I know that soundsbizarre but hear me out. Anything that is tight around the torso canpotentially restrict the ability to breathe if it’s tied too tightly. Mostpeople would remove an item like a corset well before they passed out but ifsomeone does not have that option it could act in the same way asnear-drowning, starving the brain of oxygen.

 A more ‘likely’ devicethen a corset is something like a straightjacket. It’s not a common torture butI have seen a few cases where victims were forced into wet straightjackets thatwere tied too tightly and then tightened further as the jacket dried.

 That sort of torturewould probably also cause nausea (and likely vomiting) and could cause brokenribs.

 The other main route Ican think of is direct injury to the head.

 In the context oftorture that usually means beatings. Hard objects especially cause this sort ofdamage but a ‘coward’s punch’ or anything else that causes a standing victim tofall unconscious can have the same effect. Essentially if someone fallsunconscious while standing they can’t protect their head as they fall. As aresult the fall can be fatal or cause serious brain injuries.

 Electrical tortureusing Tasers and stun guns is notorious for causing deaths in this way.

 Something I would notusually suggest (because it has not to my knowledge been used to torture) butmight fit your scenario is intentionally causing a brain injury.

 I suspect the reasonthis isn’t generally used to torture (today or historically) is because there’sa ridiculously high chance it would just kill the victim. From everythingyou’ve said I think that fits your scenario.

 The simplest way to dosomething like this would be an old fashioned lobotomy with an ‘ice pick’.Essentially this is a long, pointed metal rod that went into the skull andbrain through the eye socket at the corner of the eye nearest the nose. Itdidn’t go very deeply into the brain and sofar as I know the death rates were low.

 My knowledge isn’t verydeep here though and if you wanted to use something similar I’d suggestresearching the history of mental health and lobotomies in particular. I didsee a study a while ago that used MRI to take a look at the brains of peoplewho had had lobotomies and compared the damage to a stroke.

 The instrumentationcould be used in ways that are not entirely analogous to what lobotomies wereactually like, going deeper into the brain tissue and causing more wide rangingdamage or breaking through the skull at a different point and causing damage ina different area.

 A trepanning-liketechnique could also be used to open up the skull at multiple different points,allowing tissue to be damage or excised. Again I’m not sure what this wouldactually do and you’d need to check with someone who knows more about braindamage specifically.

 But hopefully I’vegiven you a useful list of options to consider and an idea of some of the mainrisk factors involved with the different techniques, plus how difficult they’dbe to actually physically do.

 Good luck with yourstory. :)

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