Ellsworth

When I was a child, right around 1970, Fluoride was a hot topic in my home.

My grandmother was a nurse, my grandfather worked in government.
That informed the lens of the families discussion.

My family discussed every theory, from conspiracy to scientific.
Because just a few decades prior it was even more hotly debated.

The fastest way to agitate a crowd/population of humans is to use something that once worked before, but has largely been forgotten.
Get the timing and delivery right and it's like a wave's second crest (except possibly larger than the first crest).
Presto, conflict magic happens, hard social separation develops between pro/con cohorts, emotions run high in part because it involves childhood development.
Fluoride is a childhood development issue, this a political hot potato for some cohorts.

The unarguable fact is that Fluoride dramatically reduced pain, suffering, individual medical costs and societal medical costs.
It increased overall life satisfaction. Taking the big picture from discovery until today.

Yet it is still a very easy to push, political wedge issue.
In fact, Gen X, Baby Boomers and the Silent Generation are the primed pump that have the brain/body memory 'of the original aftershock of the debate / argument / fight' over Fluoridation from 50+ years ago.

With the modern internet, AI, deep fakes, domestic and foreign political actors, the 'meme produced agitation' has the potential to grow large.
At the very least, it has the potential to identify and target 'hard believers' online, and drive targeted content to those eyeballs / brains -- which is highly likely to produce an outsized online and offline reaction.

I could dump facts, figures and studies on this post, but rather than that it's just going to contain the warning above and links about two people.

1) Israel 2014, one member, of one political party is credited for the removal of fluoride from tap water.
Health Minister Yael German of the Yesh Atid political party.

I do not make fun of people's names as personal policy. It's worth mentioning because one should consider how influence occurs and spurs action.
For influence and action, name association can make a huge impact.

Clearly German made a huge impact for her political party in Israel. Ensuring the Party's name and hers were in the news in a way that was very appealing to a strongly motivated faction of the country's population.

A person named German in Israel, that's a walking emotional trigger to those who encounter it.
Used properly, that's power. And it would also be a hard name to live with.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel...-of-tap-water/

2) Dr. Jonathan Shenkin, 50, died by suicide after being removed from the board of the Maine Dental Association.
The time was Covid and the war over vaccine mandates.

The blend of political / health judgment was that vaccine mandates should be required in the dental field. Dr Shenkin, a state dental board member, was made aware of the potential for loss of dental staff due to the mandate and thus the potential for a large reduction in service. Doctor Shenkin brought the issue up from a non-partisan perspective and was quickly voted off the State Dental Board.

He surely knew the damage that would result for the patients if service was interrupted -- how it might break already tenuous good habits of those with dental issues / needs.
He surely understood the behavior and shame cycles that would develop and how hard they would be to break / avoid / mitigate the consequences.
And I would guess he understood that Maine contained a larger than average at-risk population in regards to dental health.

I suggest checking dental health statistics for the population of Maine, compared to other states.
Then try again with isolated statistics from rural Maine (that's 61% of Maine's population).
Compared to Native American Reservations.
Compared to third world countries that have exposure to the modern corporate / commercial, processed food diet.
It could offer some perspective regarding the seriousness of an inability to serve dental needs within the state of Maine during Covid.
And read about Dr Shenkin's professional history, the man was a rocket within his profession.
https://www.sunjournal.com/2021/12/1...o-his-suicide/

When I was a kid, one strong argument was that Fluoride makes the population meek and peaceful. Primed for being controlled and taken over.
Well after 50+ years of personal experience, observing society... I can vouch that claim seems 100% false.
(Wait a second, maybe America is in that state... but you can't prove it was caused by Fluoride! That's a tongue in cheek joke)

Fluoride controversy USA 2024: manufactured, manipulating, political B.S. move.

Fluoride! Internet meme, mass media fodder.
Did you know Fluoride is used for tanning hides? What does that even mean?!

Tip to those who are tempted to care about this issue...
I suggest you ought to care MORE about the way / mechanisms / ease at which it will be used as an online topic/tool of mass, political, social manipulation.
How the keywords and clicks enable cohort targeting and social/media manipulation.
If Social Distortion (the band) was forming in this decade, they might have selected a different name: "Social Putty."

Edited to add: Afterthought, not a primary / core aspect of this issue.

This is a logical thought experiment.
At THIS moment in time, there is massive dental consolidation taking place in America.
Soon, it will likely mirror the Veterinary field, where a few large companies each own 1000 to 3000 practices (Mars Co! Google it, Dough!)

What impact on CORPORATE PROFIT will removing Fluoride from drinking water have, in that freshly consolidated industry?

Edited to add:
I said 2 links, but here is a third.
https://civicscience.com/forty-seven...-h2o-insights/

Originally Posted by article

That said, how much water are Americans actually drinking? The latest CivicScience polling shows that close to half (47%) of U.S. adults consume far below the recommended amount at less than three 16-oz. glasses of water per day, while nearly 40% drink between four to seven glasses and just 13% drink more than eight glasses.

The irony, when Fluoride was first introduced, most Americans drank a lot more water and thus were exposed to a lot more Fluoride.

The water that many Americans do drink in our modern time is NOT tap water, but rather bottled water. Bottled water sales are huge.
Bottled water typically contains NO Fluoride.

If you use a water filtration system in your home, most of those also remove the Fluoride. Only straight tap water has the Fluoride!

Now it's a political issue again, when most people hardly touch water.... and it's likely that the vast majority of those that do drink a lot of water obtain it from Fluoride free sources (bottled or filtered).

The numbers suggest it's not about the effect of the Fluoride in the water, but rather the effect of the Fluoride on the political landscape.