I was trying to highlight that these words and the definitions you choose do a lot of lifting there. What's "we", or rather you or I, are you only your conscious mind which 'knows' something, or are you also the subconscious that doesn't know that at all? I'm certainly more we than I but I say I because it's easier and doesn't require tons of explanations. Recently I discovered that I've gotten a slight needlephobia. I'm perfectly fine with needles. I'm willing to give you my blood or get my shot, I don't have a problem with needles. But if you come close to me with a needle and I'm aware of it and believe that you'll stick it into me, I'll just shut down my conscious mind. But I obviously don't. But I absolutely do. Which one of those am I? Which one 'knows' something about placebos? Which one is affected by illnesses and medication the most?
And what do you actually 'know' there? Do you know it doesn't contain any medication? Do you know that it usually still has a good chance of helping you? How is it fake if it has an effect? Do you 'know' that you don't 'know' how or why it works exactly? But does that make it fake, or does that make it surprising that it works? I know how basically nothing about how anything works, but it still works, and that's not surprising to me.
But I'm lazy (all of me) and I didn't want to write all of that, so I apologize for having abbreviated my thoughts to that sentence that I agree doesn't really say much and could be applied to anything.
No sarcasm, I made too many assumptions about the shared context, and I got it wrong. My initial sentence would've been fine if this would've come up with a friend because we share the context and he would've understood what I meant. But with "the world at large", not only do I not share that specific context necessarily, I'm not even sharing the cultural context most of the time, and without those it's just something that's neither here not there and could be commented on pretty much any thread with other words from the title.
And what do you actually 'know' there? Do you know it doesn't contain any medication? Do you know that it usually still has a good chance of helping you? How is it fake if it has an effect? Do you 'know' that you don't 'know' how or why it works exactly? But does that make it fake, or does that make it surprising that it works? I know how basically nothing about how anything works, but it still works, and that's not surprising to me.
But I'm lazy (all of me) and I didn't want to write all of that, so I apologize for having abbreviated my thoughts to that sentence that I agree doesn't really say much and could be applied to anything.