No Stupid Questions

"Soy boy" is commonly used by MAGAs as a derogatory term to mean a feminine man. There was some rumor about how soy could mimic estrogen in the body (not really true) and so they believe that eating soy products makes men feminine. This is obviously bullshit, but maybe it's somehow spiraled from "real men shouldn't eat soy" into "no one should eat soy"

Here's my (fallible) understanding of the nugget of truth behind the soy nonsense.

Plants contain something called phytoestrogen. It has a similar shape and function in plants to estrogen in humans. Soy contains a lot of it.

However, since it is made of different chemicals to estrogen it does not act like estrogen in humans.

Still, because it has the word "estrogen" in it, a lot of idiots think it will cause you to become weak and grow tits if you eat soy. You know, like a woman. Hence the "soyboy" memes and the use of the term as an insult, mostly by woman-hating alt-right goons.

It's possible your friend is covertly falling for the fallacy, or perhaps their concern is several times removed; i.e. they fell for someone's lie based on a lie based on a lie based on bigotry.

If harvested while young, soybeans can be eaten in their original state as edamane. (You can just steam the beans and eat) They have to be processed for human consumption when left to fully mature.

Edamame is extremely tasty sprinkled with a little salt, or drizzled with a little sesame oil and chili powders.

Scientific illiteracy. People think phytoestrogen is the same as human estrogen.

As a farmer who's family has grown probably 2M+ bushes of soybeans since they became popular in the 70s. I can truly say that the worst part is spending night after night with little needles injecting the Republican poison into the fattest beans.

/s - do I really need this here? Oh hell yeah!

Some might be from the cyberpunk genre. It's crazy how many cyberpunk worlds are filled with soy-based everything and corporate conspiracy is a staple of the genre. Could easily put the two together so you have some soy-based conspiracies.

If it's conspiracy theories in general, and not just the soy thing, then I think you might be taking the wrong approach. Just trying to debunk the soy thing might prove impossible because there is some underlying cause that is making him want to believe it.

Your friend might be being radicalised. By a person he trusts, a community he is a part of, or simply by the algorithm of a website he is spending his time on. In which case, getting him to let go of the conspiracies is going to be extremely difficult, because to do so would lose him those connections.

It doesn't sound like he's too far gone though. Maybe reasserting healthy connections will help, and if you can try breaking his media habits.

While I'm not entirely sure about this reasoning, it might be related to the status of soy as a meat and milk substitute. Omnivores claiming that "soy is not meant for human consumption in the same way that milk and meat are" must have eventually been shortened along the way as "soy is not meant for human consumption".

I wonder if soy taking over as farmable crop has anything to do with it. Pissed some conservative farmers off and they started rumors.

Anecdotally I am intelligent and reasonable, but when I was younger around when 9/11 happened I couldn't wrap my head around why someone would do what they did, it was to me incomprehensible, irrational, my world view couldn't account for what happened. In that null space conspiracy theories created plausible explanations for my young and impressionable mind to latch onto.

I soon began questioning authority in general, the nationalized narratives provided were clearly propagandized, and in that wake of dissonance real conspiracies, like the war on drugs, started to add credibility to other outlandish ones. It is intelligent to question, and even entertain that which is irrational from time to time, if not just to test the waters, so to speak.

Soy makes a good target for a conspiracy theory, because it’s in everything.

This ubiquity heightens its danger: your kids are eating it, you’re eating it, the ink on your cereal box is soy, the glue in your shoes is soy… it’s all around us, man!

Secondly, being everywhere gives the appearance of an elaborate, omnipresent plot. Like Bill Gates and his microchips, the cabal wants to get their soy into you one way or another!

They eat this kind of shit up.

The fact that hippies are associated with soy milk strikes the right notes for hating soy.

The belief that soy acts like estrogen in the body and will feminize men - that hits all the right notes for hating soy.

Americans don’t give a shit that Asians have been eating and even living on soy for centuries, because they denigrate those cultures, seeing them as hive minds without individuality. That makes soy even more hatable.

So if you’re going to fall down a rabbit hole at all, this seems like a deep one.

The only possible saving grace for soy is that there are a hell of a lot of soy farmers in America. And we know conspiracy nuts live down-home regular folk like farmers. Long as they ain’t organic or nuthin.

The false belief that soy contains estrogen capable of making men less manly is one of the things that I read. It's absolutely fake. Plants have their own chemical compounds, but they do not impact on human cells. Now you know why they keep shouting "soyboy". Ironically, tue amount of ormones present in modern Red meat can instead impact on that. But they don't know. So if you like your manliness you should avoid the excess of red meat, which they seem to love.

Humans have been cultivating soybeans for an estimated 9000 years. To think that a food staple in so many cultures worldwide is not healthy is completely xenophobic. Maybe don't tell him that, but the framing of different cultures might be helpful. If it wasn't healthy humans wouldn't have thrived spending resources to grow it.

Crazy conspiracies have to start somewhere, he just hasn't published his findings yet.

Not sure about soy beans specifically, but has your friend started listening to Joe Rogan recently?

I once had a co-worker who passionately believed that soy was full of feminising chemicals and it was being promoted by Western civilisation's satanic overlords to reduce our ability to resist them. He also believed that Christians are persecuted, Chinese people are cannibals and demons come from the planet Nebiru. Once he warned me that we're supposed to believe that people who go to faith healings collapse on stage in the ecstasy of communion with the Lord - but it's actually just the fake faith healer pushing them down with his psychic powers.

This doesn't answer your question, does it? At least we can find solidarity in our misery.

Not defending your friend, but I think part of it is the association with highly processed foods.

I developed a soy allergy, and I was shocked to learn how much it's restricted my diet. In two years I've found one brand of hot dog buns I can eat. If you you look at almost any fast food restaurants allergen menu you will see soy in almost every single item. Mayo is a effectively whipped soybean oil.

I don't think it's a conspiracy, but it's a cheap additive and seems to have some preservative quality, and a good indication that you're food is highly processed. I eat much healthier now, largely against my will.

A fair amount is just racism.

Suspect it is racism. People associate soy with Asia, despite the fact that it is grown and eaten worldwide, and then extrapolate from there.