Vent: That one guy at the hardware store who swore fluoride was a mind control drug

I was at Ace Hardware in Greenville picking up tree spikes when this older dude in the paint aisle cornered me and started ranting about how water fluoridation was a government plot to dumb down the population. He pointed at a bucket of pool chlorine and said it was basically the same chemical, just in different doses. How do you even respond to something like that without starting a 3 hour argument?

3 comments

3 Comments

king.eric1mo ago

I mean, to be fair, there's a kernel of truth in there but he's got it twisted. Pool chlorine and the fluoride in water are different compounds, not just different doses of the same thing. The fluoride used in drinking water is usually hydrofluorosilicic acid or sodium fluoride, which is not remotely the same as the calcium hypochlorite you drop in a pool. Idk, it's frustrating when someone latches onto one vague similarity and builds a whole conspiracy theory out of it.

sage_moore371mo ago

I mean, to be fair, there's a kernel of truth in there" - are we really doing this? The guy was ranting about pool chlorine and mind control drugs. That's not a kernel of truth, that's a whole rotten ear of corn. You're trying to find logic in someone who probably also thinks birds are government drones. Sometimes people are just wrong and you don't have to entertain it. Best move is to nod, say "huh, interesting" and walk away to find your tree spikes. Not everything needs a debate.

annajenkins1mo ago

That "kernel of truth" thing is exactly how my uncle tries to justify his whole "5G causes everything" spiel. He'll be like "well, cell towers do emit radio waves" and I'm just standing there thinking yeah, and so do microwaves but that doesn't mean my leftovers are gonna give me cancer. @sage_moore37, you're right that it's not worth the debate, but I think the bigger issue is how people confuse a tiny piece of a fact with the whole picture. It's like saying since water is wet, we should be worried about drinking it. You end up having to explain chemistry or physics to someone who's already made up their mind, and they just cherry-pick the one detail that sounds right to them.