By David Futrelle
One of Reddit’s Men Going Their Own Way, a gentleman known as Donald-Hump-Jr, has convinced himself that zinc is the magical coronavirus cure-all, and that everyone who doesn’t have enough of the magical mineral in their system will likely die from the virus.
This last bit, evidently, makes Mr. Hump happy.
If Coronavirus is really hurting those with Zinc deficiency (old people, high carb diets, Soy Boys, possibly vegan), wouldn’t it be hilarious if all those who eat red meat (high levels of Zinc absorption/retention) remained at the end?
I am no expert at this, but would it be a great male reset if all this virus was due to poor eating habits that created a generation of pussified men?
Yes, what better punishment for eating a lot of vegetables than horrific death?
Setting aside Mr.. Hump’s inhumanity for a moment, his zinc fetish isn’t borne out by the scientific evidence. It’s true that one of the results of zinc deficiency is a weakened immune system, which could leave those without enough zinc especially susceptible to pneumonia. But zinc deficiency is relatively rare in the developed world — in which Mr. Hump presumably lives — and can be remedied with supplements and relatively small changes in diet. If zinc deficiency does indeed make getting the coronavirus a bigger risk, the people it’s going to hurt aren’t western “soy boys” but poor people in the developing world, where zinc deficiency is much more common.
Also, “soy boys” aren’t really a thing; memes aside, there really isn’t a subculture of “pussified men” whose pussification is due to the excessive intake of soy. Meanwhile, vegans, who do run the risk of zinc deficiency, don’t need to start eating red meat; they can instead add things like sprouts, baked beans and wholegrain bread to their diet, if they don’t eat them already. (Soybeans are actually high in zinc; it just doesn’t absorb well.)
And if Mr. Hump really thinks that high doses of zinc are some sort of coronavirus cure — as he seems to suggest — he should think again. While zinc can help to shorten the length of a cold, it doesn’t help with flu, and too much zinc can cause an assortment of health problems and potential drug interactions.
So, no, there won’t be a “great male reset,” and drinking a soy latte won’t mark you for death.
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@ romaine
There’s been some interesting research that suggest the Black Death may have caused selection pressure for the mutation that confers immunity to HIV.
https://jmg.bmj.com/content/42/3/205
@Romaine-la-Prophétesse
In historical contexts, I can see the logic of blaming outgroups for diseases. If you don’t know what causes a disease, you’ll start spitballing and anything can happen, particularly if you already blame a certain group for everything else.
But in this day an age, it’s just disingenuous to blame refugees for Covid-19, especially since all the the things I’ve heard anti-immigration peeps say about closing borders is just about keeping out the refugees and non-white people. As far as I know, nothing they’ve campaigned for would have prevented Finns from travelling abroad and coming back, or even immigration of professionals from “acceptable countries” like Sweden of the UK (provided they’d be white enough).
@Masse_Mysteria
I don’t know about elsewhere, but in America there are quite a few conservatives who stock up on guns with the very-thinly-veiled implication that they are just waiting to kill the people they don’t like.
Of course it is, but it already was in 1918. Those people imagine the bodies of the outgroup either als inherently more dirty and diseased as their own “strong and healthy” ones. Or if they are against biological racism but open to that allmost liberal-paternalistic racism, see the other as just not on the same “cilicational level” – ehere they could be hygenic. In both lines of thinking disease in refugee camps is not because of the horrific conditions there, but inherently the fault of the refugees and will inevitable be spread in white countries if those people are allowed to enter.
@Naglfar:
not only in the US. Last year a small group, that included policemen and even ex members of the militarys anti-terror special forces where arrested in germany. They had stockpiled weapons and drawn up kill lists of left-leaning politicians ans activists that they wanted to murder in the event of some kind of state of emergency.
It’s the main reason, why I’ve heard US-anarchists and Marxist talking about arming themselfes to be able to protect vulnerable communities in such an event.
“I absolutely despise the guy, but as someone who has gone through respiratory distress herself (but mine was a embolism in both lungs) I wouldn’t wish that suffering on anyone.”
That’s the problem with the left today. Just haven’t got that killer instinct.
Sing it with me now, boys and girls.
NANANANA-NANANANA
HEY-EY-EY
GOODBYE!
OT: my cousin died of alcohol poisoning last night
Yutolia, I’m so sorry.
Zinc, come back!
https://youtu.be/U1iCZpFMYd0
Thanks, Vicki. I’m kind of calming down now, but this is going to be hard. She was 24. My family can’t admit that it is incredibly dysfunctional and this didn’t just come out of nowhere.
@Yutolia the Laissez-Fairy Pronoun Boner
I’m so sorry.
@Yutolia
Sorry about your cousin.
@Ooglyboggles, Naglfar:
Thank you
@Bojo_dumbcorpse
You first.
Seriously, piss off.
@Fishy Goat
Too bad he chose that name; I enjoyed BoJack Horseman (though I certainly do not like Boris Johnson).
@Bojo_corpseman
That isn’t something to be proud of. Besides: aren’t your ilk always waffling on about how so called “bleeding heart liberals” are also at the same time “violent communist anarchists” or some nonsense?
Than again: I don’t expect logical, rational or moral consistency from political right wingers, at least not on average as an aggregate body.
@Yutolia, that’s awful, I’m so sorry for you and your family. And the current context makes everything even more difficult.
@Big Titty Demon (haha, I love that nym)
You’re absolutely right of course – and it’s interesting that people who do actually know stuff are usually the first to admit the limits of that knowledge, whereas manospherians…
Also, sorry for the double post, but speaking of poor remedies for illness as we kind of are in this thread…
You’ve all seen Trump pushing that chloroquine treatment for COVID-19 lately, despite the clear dangers?
I saw a report via Twitter that one of his donors is linked to a company that makes it, and there’s been some pushing from their direction. Literally huge if true 🙁
(this may already be old news for you all, in which case consider me embarrassed in advance, lol)
I think people confuse concepts of herd immunity with what happens with diseases that were not virgin field epidemics.
I’m old enough to have had measles. When I had it my parents had had it a decade or two before, so they could take care of me. With a virgin field epidemic they might have been sick at the same time and unable to care for me.
I think diseases like measles would “burn themselves out” until a large enough group of children was born to allow it to spread again.
@Mish : and I am ashamed my country (France) did not arrest the wanker behind that rumor. I am not surprised that Trump continue to push his interest before anything else.
@Yutolia : that’s sad and indeed I hope your family will take the hint.
@Bojo_corpseman : nobody actually need to be aggressive. A lot of people confuse being aggressive and being strong, which is why the righter tend to be so comically ineffective, since they aren’t strong enough to get shit done and are aggressive enough to kill each other.
> Yutolia the Laissez-Fairy Pronoun Boner
Condolences.
@Yutolia
So sorry about your cousin. Hope you and yours all the best.
@Romaine-la-Prophétesse
Thanks for reminding me about the hygiene angle. I hadn’t thought of it that way. I didn’t think the blaming the outgroup thing applied with the comment I mentioned earlier, since Covid’s spread has been so well documented, but of course you can’t expect bigots to care about reality.
@Bojo_corpseman
And the problem with you is that you think empathy is weakness. Seems like recipe for a miserable life.
@Yutolia, I’m very sorry, that’s awful. I hope you are all right.
@Mish, what a surprise that would be!!!! /s
@bojo, piss off.
@ Yutolia
My condolences on your loss.
I don’t know how close you were to her, but I have some measure of understanding of the level of loss when a cousin dies. In 2004 my cousin was in a terrible car accident, we thought he was dead but he recovered for the terrible injuries. For a few days I felt like the world had ended, my pain of grief and what my poor, poor surviving cousin, my aunt and uncle must have been feeling. I wouldn’t wish that pain on anyone, not even Boris Johnson. I am so so sorry your family couldn’t see how dysfunctional they are, and for the pain you must be dealing with now.
@Masse_mysteria
That belief seems to be very common among the far right as a component of toxic masculinity. In this particular instance, though, I think Bojo here is probably a dirtbag leftist, seeing as dirtbag leftists also hate compassion and empathy.
@Naglfar : he did said he though it was a leftist problem, so I vote for MRA.
Not that it’s terribly important. He is one of thoses people who will never get anything done, and will just spread toxicity wherever.