Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller for December 02, 2020

My niece went to the store for me today. She called to confirm a product. She told me that TP has a limit of how many packages you can buy… and there was only one kind. Most pain relief was missing. A cat food… she was spooked – she over stocked!!! Christmas Lockdown is looking like the same all over again – Drained Shelves!!!

40 years ago, I used to see ads for placebos in adult magazines.

I’ll be waiting to read the comments about who’s buying them.

I’ll wager one of my children that there’s a huge number of people who are nescient about the word nescience.

nescient (adjective): lacking knowledge; ignorant

Placebos these days is called homeopathy. Take an item that is not related to what it supposedly treats, dilute that item entirely out of existence, and then claim that diluting it even further somehow makes it more powerful. But somehow, homeopathy remains a multi-billion dollar market, annually.

Until I looked it up, I was nescient about the word “nescient.”

Excellent.

Not every day I learn a new word from the comics. Though Wiley is among the more likely to cause that.

(ne: Non; scient: knowledge)

Hey, which extra-strength placebo does QAnon recommend?

Nescience is bliss.

They should be sending their money to Trump instead of buying placebos.

These days, maybe it should be pronounced nay – science.

There was a serious medical study done on placebos as pain relievers. Half the group were given a “sugar pill” and the other half nothing. The placebo was effective in many people in reducing the pain they felt, but had no impact on range of motion. Makes you think.

Nescience definition, lack of knowledge; ignorance……. I was uncertain too.

“Forgive them, Lord, for they know not what they do”.

I love how a long press on the word nescient brings a popup and “google” is a choice. Ya gotta love android sometimes.

Our concept of the market for this doesn’t have to be limited to the clueless. There’s research out there that shows that placebos work even when people know they are placebos.

Double daily discounts if you show your Parler Card.

Yeah, just try getting real pain relievers. I’ve heard this story from others, but know it from my wife. She has a couple chronic conditions and will have pain the rest of her life. Was getting prescriptions that had opioids. She didn’t abuse them, for more than ten years. We moved. New doctors are afraid to prescribe pain medication that’s effective for fear she’ll abuse it and tell her she has to live with pain because they won’t help chronically suffering patients. Its the Hippocratic Oath, guys, not the Hypocritic Oath. (Stories I’ve heard include 89 year old woman in wheelchair with worse pain than my wife’s, but they won’t prescribe effective pain medicine for fear it will shorten her life.) … Sorry for the rant.

And now you know the secret of Trump’s success – he’s tapped into the nation’s inexhaustible supply of ignorance.

One can assume those who had to lookup “nescient” fit right into that hugely group.

I remember an interview Diane Ream did, with an author whos name I forget, where she asked him if he though his use of “big” words might seem condescending to those less literate. His answer, “not at all, it would be condescending for me to assume my audience ignorant”.

It’s also the market that fuels Trump’s hopes and dreams.

“Nescience”? Eschew obfuscation.

Well, it certainly explains the result of the election.

Sigh….’tis true.

I use the word “nescient” all the time. I are smart.

I’ll see your nescient and raise you an indignorance.

I wish I had a dime for everyone who has to Google “nescient”.

Captain Eddie won the pharmacy’s supplier subcontract on his boat’s name alone.

I have learned a new word.

As a wise man once said, Life ain’t no easy gig. You gotta find your beat

When the placebos wear off and users find the situation has not changed, perhaps they will realize there is only one resolution to a mental funk. Stand up, step up, and get on with life. Possibilities still exist. Find something, anything to get your mind and body in action, work on it until it is complete, then find something else. Yes, I know it isn’t easy, but it is an answer to gloom. Been the answer for generations, still is.

A useful distinction is sometimes made between “nescience” (happening not to know something a person in your position really couldn’t be expected to know) and “ignorance” (culpably not knowing something a person in your position really ought to know, or ought to have taken the responsibility to find out). Arguably Wiley ought to have used the word “ignorance” here, but then we wouldn’t all have had so much fun undoing our nescience about “nescience”!

No nous is bad news.

That’s also the aisle where they keep the masks…

Oh, I dunno …

Wiley teaching new words.

Once called a Junior-High Gym teacher an incipient troglodyte and got a gentle smile and nod. Still don’t know if he understood the implication.

You could apply that to the News stand as well.

“Anecdotally tested”

I had to look it up.

Love all the comments Wiley elicited here!!

The OTC drug section has been a prime source of placebos. These days the herbal section seems to have taken over. Have you been to Whole Foods?

Where’s the section for homeopathic placebos? 8-)

I was nescient concerning nescience, but no longer.

I need the gluten free.

Have you got any gluten-free, free-range placebos?

Hospital nurses are frustrated because many patients refuse to believe that they have Covid. Up until their dying moment they believe Covid is fake and they are sick with something else.

As usual your right on Wiley. Thank you, love your cartoon.

There’s a pill for that!

A lifetime as a writer and editor and I never ran across that word. Thanks!

Ignorant- someone that is uniformed. Stupid- someone that is informed but just can’t comprehend. It is amazing how many knowledgable and sophisticated people are stupid.

The “organic, non-GMO placebos” are three times the price of the other placebos.

I’ll betcha Mr. Miller has a thesaurus on his desk.

Here is a thought. I stumbled across this article:

https://theweek.com/articles/951759/parents-warned-internet-break-brains-broke-theirs-instead?utm_source=pocket-newtab

… and copied out this quote:

“There is so much content on the internet, and so much of it is bad. It is blasting in your face relentlessly. To navigate it well — to discern truth and lies, to parse one’s own emotional and reflexive responses, to summon the mental energy to pay attention to credibility and incentives and the small, almost indescribable cues that might indicate whether a piece of content is to be trusted — is very difficult.”

… which makes ultimate sense to me. It might be worth the while to go read the entire thing yourself.

Ah, the homeopathic section.

Nescient? He was one of the Monkees, the guy with the wool hat.

I am the mother of two certified “highly gifted” young men; one is a field biologist and the other a nuclear engineer. My elder brother is a pediatric neurologist, my younger brother a PhD cognitive psychologist, working in AI with computers. I spent over 20 years in education, 19 as a teacher of gifted students… I had to look up “NESCIENT”; I’ve never seen it before!

Don’t forget the market for Niche products like Jade Egg placebos.

There’s the motet “Nesciens mater virgo virum”: “The virgin mother, not knowing of man…” (or “virus”)