Dear lemmy, someone very close to my heart is starting to fall into conspiracy theories. It’s heartbreaking. Among other things, he has now told me that soy beans are not supposed to be consumed by human beings and is convinced that despite the literal centuries of human soy bean cultivation and consumption, we shouldn’t eat it or anything derived from it for this reason (ie tofu, soy sauce, etc…evidence that soy is present in other common foods doesn’t seem to register with him).
I don’t even know where he got this information from and can’t find a single source to back it up (even disingenuously). I’ve tried explaining to him that sure, in its original state it’s not edible, but undergoes processing (LIKE MANY OTHER FOODS) to become edible. And that this has gone on since at least the 11th century, so it’s not like Big Soy is trying to poison the little people.
He’s normally a very reasonable and intelligent person, and I don’t know how to reach him. I thought it might be helpful to show him where these myths have come from with hard data sources to prove it. He seems open to the possibility, so I don’t think he’s a lost cause yet!
Help?
I’d wager its also got something to do with how prevalent soy is used in various Asian cuisines, so like anything even remotely tangentially related to China is also a commie plot to take over The West™ in addition to the whole “soy mimics estrogen” thing.
Just tell them how many Good White Americans™ living in flyover country make a living farming soybeans and watch their head explode.
They dont care. As far as theyre concerned, these farmers arent farming good old murican crops and deserve to fail.
Yeah it would blow his mind knowing that China is the biggest importer of pureblooded American soy beans.
Oh yes, I’m quite familiar, the first university I went to was surrounded by corn and soybean fields.
Nobody’s head is going to explode. Most conservatives are well aware that soybeans are an American croup and are even proud of the fact. They just think that the soybeans should be served to cows.
Vilifying people you don’t like is no way to establish understanding or communication.
This itself is a conspiracy theory. I’ve known a lot of right-wing people, and none of them made a connection between Soy and Asian cuisine. They don’t like tofu, in particular, because they didn’t grow up with it and see it as some weird, hippy thing.