Jul 10, 2023
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Cutting Through the Crap
by Celik Kayalar
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'Also a painter, Kayalar sees the BS problem visually. image: C. KayalarBS DETECTORS, EVERYONE NEEDS A
good one. Mine works overtime. It starts beeping and getting louder and louder if what I’m reading or hearing is bullshit.
If it’s not, it quiets down… usually after I look into it further by some careful fact-checking and research.
I’m sure it happens to you too. But, it looks like it does not happen to everyone: maybe their BS BS Detector is not functioning. I hate to think that they do not have one.
Examples that trigger and make my BS Detector beep quite often are: politicians, especially some of the Republicans (Rep-reps is the term I coined for reprehensible Republicans); Trump-defenders in general; anti-vaxxers; race hustlers; some Evangelical Christians and other religious zealots; global-warming deniers; and Fox News for the loads of BS they broadcast.
Here, I’d like to elaborate on a specific but lesser-known case: The allegation of sexism in breast cancer funding by certain feminists. I don’t mean to pick on feminists—I am a staunch feminist myself—just to show how they, too, can overreach, sometimes. And, they end up misleading others and deluding themselves in the process.
Some years ago, I was watching Sheryl Crow (a revered musician and one of my favorites) on TV, talking about her battle with breast cancer. Felt very sorry for the lady, of course.
Among many relevant and true points, she also made this one: breast cancer would be better funded by the government (and Congress), if it wasn’t a predominantly women’s disease.
Therefore, according to her thinking, there was obvious sexism against women, perpetuated by men who populated the medical funding institutes such as NIH and NCI (and, the Congress).
I remember nodding in agreement as I listened to her. Yet, I suddently started hearing in my head, my BS Detector beeping and getting louder and louder. Hence, I had to do my own research and fact-checking on what she was alleging in regard to this funding bias.
I though a good starting-point would be to compare the funding level of breast cancer to that of an exclusively men’s disease: prostate cancer.
I discovered (very easily, from the public records) that the facts were not on Ms. Crow’s side. Breast cancer was more generously funded than prostate cancer by all the relevant Government agencies despite the fact that more men died of prostate cancer than women of breast cancer— every year, on a consistent basis.
Let’s fast forward to September 18th, 2019. The highly educated, accomplished and no-doubt, well-meaning journalist Ms. Linda Ellerbee made basically the same “sexism against women by men” claim on CNN, upon the death from breast cancer of her close friend and colleague, Ms. Cokie Roberts.
"Cokie Roberts is gone and I'm angry as hell,” (source here)
This time, I called Ms. Ellerbee on her false claim of “sexism” in my Facebook outlet “The Traffick”, on September 24, 2019. I cited the following facts which were one simple google-search away from anyone’s reach:
A) National Cancer Institute spends twice as much money on breast cancer than on prostate cancer, on a consistent basis. B) National Institutes of Health spends almost three times more research-money on breast cancer than prostate cancer.
Sexism in funding? Maybe, but it is in the opposite directions these ladies, Ms. Crow and Ms.Ellerbee (feminist icons in their own right) have been claiming.
It’s psychologically hard to even be skeptical about the claims of such admirable women, let alone to go ahead and do the research and the fact-checking on their claims. Yet, if you happen to have a good BS Detector, and an honest interest in the truth (not in political correctness), you just might do it. And, everyone will be better off for it.
Because truth matters!
For further clarification, my point here is not to argue that the Federal funding should not be more for cancer research. On the contrary, I’d personally prefer to spend more money on medical research of any kind, including breast cancer. And, perhaps less on “defense” via Pentagon and on building weapons.
I’m simply pointing out the falsehood that’s believed in and promoted by some that there is sexism against women in the funding of medical research by the government agencies such as NIH and NCI (as approved by the US Congress).
How about the BS Generators? Some well-known individuals who possess great BS Generators are Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani, Laura Ingraham (Fox News), and Marjorie Taylor Green (Republican Congresswoman) among many other—watch out for them!
Thank you for your interest and please continue to listen to your BS Detector in good health.
Celik Kayalar is a PhD. bioscientist as well as filmmaker, painter and educator, who runs Film Acting Bay Area in Berkeley, California. You can learn more about him here or reach him .
Posted on Nov 10, 2021 - 06:17 PM
by Celik Kayalar
Please support our stories by liking articles—thanks!
'Also a painter, Kayalar sees the BS problem visually. image: C. Kayalargood one. Mine works overtime. It starts beeping and getting louder and louder if what I’m reading or hearing is bullshit.
If it’s not, it quiets down… usually after I look into it further by some careful fact-checking and research.
I’m sure it happens to you too. But, it looks like it does not happen to everyone: maybe their BS BS Detector is not functioning. I hate to think that they do not have one.
Examples that trigger and make my BS Detector beep quite often are: politicians, especially some of the Republicans (Rep-reps is the term I coined for reprehensible Republicans); Trump-defenders in general; anti-vaxxers; race hustlers; some Evangelical Christians and other religious zealots; global-warming deniers; and Fox News for the loads of BS they broadcast.
Here, I’d like to elaborate on a specific but lesser-known case: The allegation of sexism in breast cancer funding by certain feminists. I don’t mean to pick on feminists—I am a staunch feminist myself—just to show how they, too, can overreach, sometimes. And, they end up misleading others and deluding themselves in the process.
Some years ago, I was watching Sheryl Crow (a revered musician and one of my favorites) on TV, talking about her battle with breast cancer. Felt very sorry for the lady, of course.
Among many relevant and true points, she also made this one: breast cancer would be better funded by the government (and Congress), if it wasn’t a predominantly women’s disease.
Therefore, according to her thinking, there was obvious sexism against women, perpetuated by men who populated the medical funding institutes such as NIH and NCI (and, the Congress).
I remember nodding in agreement as I listened to her. Yet, I suddently started hearing in my head, my BS Detector beeping and getting louder and louder. Hence, I had to do my own research and fact-checking on what she was alleging in regard to this funding bias.
I though a good starting-point would be to compare the funding level of breast cancer to that of an exclusively men’s disease: prostate cancer.
I discovered (very easily, from the public records) that the facts were not on Ms. Crow’s side. Breast cancer was more generously funded than prostate cancer by all the relevant Government agencies despite the fact that more men died of prostate cancer than women of breast cancer— every year, on a consistent basis.
Let’s fast forward to September 18th, 2019. The highly educated, accomplished and no-doubt, well-meaning journalist Ms. Linda Ellerbee made basically the same “sexism against women by men” claim on CNN, upon the death from breast cancer of her close friend and colleague, Ms. Cokie Roberts.
"Cokie Roberts is gone and I'm angry as hell,” (source here)
This time, I called Ms. Ellerbee on her false claim of “sexism” in my Facebook outlet “The Traffick”, on September 24, 2019. I cited the following facts which were one simple google-search away from anyone’s reach:
A) National Cancer Institute spends twice as much money on breast cancer than on prostate cancer, on a consistent basis. B) National Institutes of Health spends almost three times more research-money on breast cancer than prostate cancer.
Sexism in funding? Maybe, but it is in the opposite directions these ladies, Ms. Crow and Ms.Ellerbee (feminist icons in their own right) have been claiming.
It’s psychologically hard to even be skeptical about the claims of such admirable women, let alone to go ahead and do the research and the fact-checking on their claims. Yet, if you happen to have a good BS Detector, and an honest interest in the truth (not in political correctness), you just might do it. And, everyone will be better off for it.
Because truth matters!
For further clarification, my point here is not to argue that the Federal funding should not be more for cancer research. On the contrary, I’d personally prefer to spend more money on medical research of any kind, including breast cancer. And, perhaps less on “defense” via Pentagon and on building weapons.
I’m simply pointing out the falsehood that’s believed in and promoted by some that there is sexism against women in the funding of medical research by the government agencies such as NIH and NCI (as approved by the US Congress).
How about the BS Generators? Some well-known individuals who possess great BS Generators are Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani, Laura Ingraham (Fox News), and Marjorie Taylor Green (Republican Congresswoman) among many other—watch out for them!
Thank you for your interest and please continue to listen to your BS Detector in good health.
Celik Kayalar is a PhD. bioscientist as well as filmmaker, painter and educator, who runs Film Acting Bay Area in Berkeley, California. You can learn more about him here or reach him .
Posted on Nov 10, 2021 - 06:17 PM
