Curious where they draw the line - are chlorine treatments to disinfect water okay? Both have a clear public health benefit with comparatively minimal downsides.
AStonesThrow · 1h ago
Well, the Public Health Benefit derived from flouridation is not what they say it is; rather, it is the psychiatric effects of fluoride as a drug. Otherwise it’s as ridiculous as shampooing your hair with Preparation H.
Fluoride is amazing if you need to pacify and subdue a large populus; just ask the British how and why they like their tea, or Doktor Mengele how he liked things, or how we all got started on Fluoxetine Hydrochloride for “depression”. Spoiler alert: it’s fluoride.
Anyway, chlorine is gross and smelly and disgusting, but it is rather a necessary evil, because it does dispatch microbes with aplomb. I hate swimming in pools due to the disgusting chemical cocktails necessary in there, and I hate showering in a haze of chlorinated fluoride, but I do enjoy not having dysentery or cholera when drinking or cooking. That is certainly a #firstworldproblem.
Gen_Ripper · 47m ago
Do you realise that fluoridation - is the most monstrously-conceived and dangerous Communist plot we have ever had to face?
throwawayk7h · 23m ago
Genuinely curious, can you explain?
dpe82 · 13m ago
Go watch Stanley Kubrick's "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb".
dslohiltswaltb · 15m ago
They are after our precious bodily fluids
slater · 32m ago
It's not.
mattgrice · 1h ago
Sure this is bad but what about states where they don't have universal free dental care with bi-yearly topical fluoride?
Ancalagon · 21m ago
I hear there are quite a few leopards in those states.
Not sure what to think about this, but often (as in the linked discussion) it always starts out with the very fair "everyone should get to choose, you can use supplements", and then they start banning supplements:
Which makes me just feel like these debates are always hard to have anymore because you never know what debate you're having.
jaoane · 37m ago
They have banned tablets and drops, which are absolutely useless. Fluoride only works when it’s applied directly on the teeth. I thought HN was against snake oil?
BLKNSLVR · 1h ago
What they need to do is gather statistics on dental health. It could take a decade or two, and ideally they've been recording the statistics for a good decade beforehand, for comparison.
But I doubt those making the rules care much for actual data, and only care about the result that makes them feel better about themselves.
add-sub-mul-div · 1h ago
It sounds like you do know what to think, that they don't argue in good faith. Not everything is more complicated than it looks.
Fluoride is amazing if you need to pacify and subdue a large populus; just ask the British how and why they like their tea, or Doktor Mengele how he liked things, or how we all got started on Fluoxetine Hydrochloride for “depression”. Spoiler alert: it’s fluoride.
Anyway, chlorine is gross and smelly and disgusting, but it is rather a necessary evil, because it does dispatch microbes with aplomb. I hate swimming in pools due to the disgusting chemical cocktails necessary in there, and I hate showering in a haze of chlorinated fluoride, but I do enjoy not having dysentery or cholera when drinking or cooking. That is certainly a #firstworldproblem.
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https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/13/health/fluoride-supplement-ba...
Which makes me just feel like these debates are always hard to have anymore because you never know what debate you're having.
But I doubt those making the rules care much for actual data, and only care about the result that makes them feel better about themselves.