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A comment on No Evidence of Aloe Vera Found in the Aloe Vera at Wal-Mart, CVS. Parent comment

Re:No Evidence of Aloe Vera Found in the Aloe Vera at Wal-Ma... by semi-extrinsic on Tuesday November 22, 2016 @05:38PM (#13018319)
> we've (society) been purchasing tons and tons of a product for who knows how long that has been inauthentic, without any idea that it was the case

Also, whenever this happens, one should stop and consider:

"Why are we buying aloe vera products in the first place, when millions of people using the product for years are unable to detect that it's fake?"

If this happened with something tangible, say replacing all regular coke with diet coke without changing the labels, it would be noticed immediately.

Whenever people buy something which they are completely unable to differentiate from a fake, are they really being defrauded when someone sells them the fake?

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Re:No Evidence of Aloe Vera Found in the Aloe Vera at Wal-Ma... by klagermkii on Tuesday November 22, 2016 @06:51PM (#13018733)
> Whenever people buy something which they are completely unable to differentiate from a fake, are they really being defrauded when someone sells them the fake?

Yes.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:No Evidence of Aloe Vera Found in the Aloe Vera at Wal-Ma... by mzw_mzw on Tuesday November 22, 2016 @08:09PM (#13019113)
I think the point was that the real thing is just as much (or as little) of a fraud as the fake is.
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Re:No Evidence of Aloe Vera Found in the Aloe Vera at Wal-Ma... by aarongolliver on Tuesday November 22, 2016 @11:41PM (#13020091)
Especially because, if someone's been buying fakes all their life, how could they possibly know what real Aloe is like?
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Re:No Evidence of Aloe Vera Found in the Aloe Vera at Wal-Ma... by albedoa on Wednesday November 23, 2016 @03:54AM (#13021181)
Whenever people buy something which they are completely unable to differentiate from a fake, are they really being defrauded when someone sells them the fake?

You are seriously confusing the placebo effect with ignorance of the expected effect.

It is fraud not because the user perceives the expected effect but because the user has been told that the perceived effect is the expected one.

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Re:No Evidence of Aloe Vera Found in the Aloe Vera at Wal-Ma... by burkaman on Tuesday November 22, 2016 @11:28PM (#13020015)
What if it was something like soap? How could you possibly tell if you were buying fake soap? If you get sick, do you immediately suspect that your soap supplier has defrauded you?
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Re:No Evidence of Aloe Vera Found in the Aloe Vera at Wal-Ma... by semi-extrinsic on Wednesday November 23, 2016 @01:34AM (#13020575)
There is a difference between fake and dangerous.
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Re:No Evidence of Aloe Vera Found in the Aloe Vera at Wal-Ma... by kcanini on Wednesday November 23, 2016 @09:22AM (#13022800)
> Whenever people buy something which they are completely unable to differentiate from a fake, are they really being defrauded when someone sells them the fake?

Yes.

[ Parent | on HN ]