Have you ever seen a commie drink a glass of water?
Mandrake:
Well, no I... I can't say I have, Jack.
Ripper:
Vodka. That's what they drink, isn't it? Never water?
Mandrake:
Well I... I believe that's what they drink, Jack. Yes.
Ripper:
On no account will a commie ever drink water, and not without good reason.
Mandrake:
Oh, ah, yes. I don't quite.. see what you're getting at, Jack.
Ripper:
Water. That's what I'm getting at. Water. Mandrake, water is the source of all life. Seven tenths of this earth's surface is water. Why, you realize that.. seventy percent of you is water.
Mandrake:
Uhhh God...
Ripper:
And as human beings, you and I need fresh, pure water to replenish our precious bodily fluids.
Mandrake:
Yes. chuckles nervously
Ripper:
You beginning to understand?
Mandrake:
Yes. chuckles. begins laughing/crying quietly
Ripper:
Mandrake. Mandrake, have you never wondered why I drink only distilled water, or rain water, and only pure grain alcohol?
Mandrake:
Well it did occur to me, Jack, yes.
Ripper:
Have you ever heard of a thing called fluoridation? Fluoridation of water?
Mandrake:
Ah, yes, I have heard of that, Jack. Yes.
Ripper:
Well do you now what it is?
Mandrake:
No. No, I don't know what it is. No.
Ripper:
Do you realize that fluoridation is the most monstrously conceived and dangerous communist plot we have ever had to face?
(...)
Ripper:
Mandrake, do you realize that in addition to fluoridated water, why, there are studies underway to fluoridate salt, flour, fruit juices, soup, sugar, milk, ice cream? Ice cream, Mandrake. Children's ice cream?
Mandrake:
Good Lord.
Ripper:
You know when fluoridation first began?
Mandrake:
No. No, I don't, Jack. No.
Ripper:
Nineteen hundred and forty six. Nineteen fortysix, Mandrake. How does that coincide with your postwar commie conspiracy, huh? It's incredibly obvious, isn't it? A foreign substance is introduced into our precious bodily fluids without the knowledge of the individual, and certainly without any choice. That's the way your hard core commie works.
Mandrake:
Jack... Jack, listen, tell me, ah... when did you first become, well, develop this theory.
Ripper:
Well, I ah, I I first became aware of it, Mandrake, during the physical act of love.
Mandrake:
sighs fearfully
Ripper:
Yes a profound sense of fatigue, a feeling of emptiness followed. Luckily I was able to interpret these feelings correctly: loss of essence.
Mandrake:
Yes...
Ripper:
I can assure you it has not recurred, Mandrake. Women... women sense my power, and they seek the life essence. I do not avoid women, Mandrake, but I do deny them my essence.
— From Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove: or, How I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb.
I am utterly convinced that this scene alone is the singular source of the anti-fluoridation movement, even if many of the adherents haven't seen it. With as many dipshits that take fiction as reality, you know this is how it started, and momentum has carried it through!
It's the same as the belief that Kubrick faked the moon landing.
Anti-fluoridation had been a thing since fluoridation was introduced in the forties, and by the fifties prominent conspiracy nutjobs were claiming it was a communist plot.
Kubrick was just parodying them with Ripper, as by 1964 most people already considered the communist conspiracy argument an example of irrational fear and paranoia.
The interesting thing about fluoride and dental health stats, is that in most urban areas fluoride added to water accounts for something like less than 10% of cavity prevention.
But in poor towns and more rural areas, it can account for about 40% of cavity prevention.
Basically, higher income results in better dental care outcomes. Who knew, right?