Talk:Aspartame
Why the safety section is not "a ponderous list of unrelated ailments" (as stated by SPIKE).
A large portion of the list comes from the actual beliefs of the anti-aspartame group. These beliefs are not based on facts, but rather an old e-mail hoax that has never completely died. The hoax goes into a semi-rational-sounding dialogue discussing how harmful aspartame is.
This list was primarily compiled from that source (as insulting to the word 'source' as that may be). Other ailments were completely made up for three purposes: 1. To be utterly irrational for the purpose of satire (e.g. rabies), 2. To poke fun at the conspiracy theorist types of people who would believe such a hoax (e.g. Communism), 3. To make the list longer to further exaggerate the already lengthy list of supposed ailments.
The following list will show how much of this list is not made up (by me anyway). All bolded ailments are actual purported conditions that are: 1. Caused by aspartame, 2. Ailments that aspartame toxicity mimics and are supposedly misdiagnosed, 3. Are not caused, but are made worse by aspartame.
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As can be seen, 54% of this list is what aspartame adversaries really believe. What makes this point of fact worse, is that there are even more ailments listed by the hoax that were excluded from this list (for various reasons).
◄► Tephra ◄► 07:33, July 29, 2014 (UTC)
- I certainly did not evaluate the validity of your argument, but the comedy value of the article. The above list appears to tell the same joke 40 times. The argument you have made above is that it is good at making its point: that the critics of aspartame are fools. That is, instead of you writing original comedy, you are showing how your adversaries bring their own comedy with them. That is advocacy; using this website not for original comedy writing but to document funny stuff (stupid stuff) happening elsewhere. Bizarre disease claims is a valid topic for humor, but that is easily done in prose rather than with a 40-item list. Spıke Ѧ 12:44 29-Jul-14
- Long lists of ailments is what these types of people like to do, I find it completely fitting to have one if this article is at all intended to be a reflection of what an article written by someone who believes this kind of stuff would include. If the list was the only thing in this article, I might agree with your points, but it is only one section and at the end of the article. In my opinion, it would be detrimental to not have a list.
◄► Tephra ◄► 18:17, July 29, 2014 (UTC)- At least your list is properly formatted. I will let is stand. --
RomArtus*Imperator ITRA (Orate) ® 07:43, September 29, 2017 (UTC)
- At least your list is properly formatted. I will let is stand. --
- Long lists of ailments is what these types of people like to do, I find it completely fitting to have one if this article is at all intended to be a reflection of what an article written by someone who believes this kind of stuff would include. If the list was the only thing in this article, I might agree with your points, but it is only one section and at the end of the article. In my opinion, it would be detrimental to not have a list.
