Debate: That 'miracle cure' video from a farmers market in Ohio is getting shared everywhere

I was at the North Market in Columbus last weekend and saw a vendor selling a $40 bottle of 'detox tea' claiming it cures everything from headaches to diabetes. A crowd of people were recording him and now the clip has 2 million views on Facebook. Is this just harmless snake oil or should we be flagging stuff like this harder before it goes viral?

3 comments

3 Comments

hunt.quinn19d agoTop Commenter

and it's not just that one video, it's the whole way we've started treating any random person with a camera like they're a doctor or a scientist or whatever. i see it all the time at the hardware store too, customers will come in and tell me about some "simple trick" they saw online to fix their concrete driveway and it's always some dangerous hack that'll crack in a month. the problem is people are more likely to believe a viral video from a stranger than they are a professional who's been doing this for 20 years. it's like we've lost trust in experts completely and replaced it with trust in whoever yells loudest on facebook. that farmer's market guy is just a symptom of a bigger thing where everyone thinks they're an expert because they can film themselves talking.

finleyh8919d ago

Yeah totally, saw a guy on TikTok telling people to fix their car with duct tape.

the_hayden12d ago

Hunt.quinn nailed it. People trust a loud stranger over someone who actually knows what they're doing. Same thing happened to me with a "miracle wood filler" video last year. Dude swore you could fix a rotted deck post with some baking soda and super glue. Tried it on a small job for a buddy. Lasted about two weeks before it crumbled to dust. Wasted time, wasted materials, had to redo the whole thing for free. That farmer's market tea is the same deal but with people's health instead of a porch. Flagging the video helps but the real fix is people remembering that experts got their knowledge from experience, not views.