It's behind a hard paywall but Robert_Kennedy_Jr found the article - https://hexbear.net/comment/7361718
For posting all the anonymous reactionary bullshit that you can't post anywhere else.
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This is actually fascinating because I did a bit of research on this for my work ages ago. Basically through all human history it's been so common to use a walking stick or staff for all people of all classes, age and sex. This is because hey there was a lot more congenital injuries, post infective injuries like polio, chronic injury that couldn't be fixed (no ACL repair etc). Plus you couldn't easily take ibuprofen and put on a ice pack on an acute injury.
It's only really in the baby boomers that walking sticks sharply drop off. With boomers (and gen-xers) basically refusing to use them because they don't want to be perceived as getting old.
When there's so much evidence that a single point stick or SPS helps reduce pain, improve mobility and generally help reduce lifetime morbidity (basically you can walk more with one and walking is great). They're also cheaper and safer than medication or various surgeries.
It's actually really cool that millennials and zoomers are using them again.
I've been using nordic pole walking sticks ever since covid made my backpain permanently worse and with them I can still do long hikes without any pain medication.
This whole thing is so disgusting. God forbit that people who need mobility aids try to make them look nice and not produce a traditional suffering person image for these ghouls. I have so many young clients with terribly painful conditions like fibro with whom I have to fight tooth and nail to even get them a mobility aid from healthcare. The aid is there so people can participate even a little, not to do whatever this monster is on about.
I would also like to add that walking sticks were probably one of the earliest tools invented by humans and there is still reason to use them to this day, even if healthy, as our bodies are still evolving to our upright posture. Same goes for squatting to take a shit, sitting the way we do at the height of a toilet is actually not ideal for our intestines when emptying our bowels.
Nice that's really cool to learn, on a few hikes I've done I used a walking stick just for the hell of it and it's just really comfortable to use one
Yeah walking sticks rule as @Johnny_Arson@hexbear.net said there's a reason humans have used them for so long. Also very handy on uneven terrain.
Your off-the-cuff comment is 100 times better than her shitpost-level article she got paid to write.
Stock's place in the media is the intellectual equivalent of a farmer collecting subsidies to keep cultivated land fallow, expressly for maintaining profitable food prices
Thank you!
Plus it looks cool to be a wizard
it really does!