TMR's New Writer - JOSEPH NIGRO - On CAM

"I think the biggest victory scored by the promoters of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) was the name itself. Fifty years ago what passes today as CAM was snake oil, fraud, folk medicine, and quackery. The promoters of dubious health claims were charlatans, quacks, and con artists. Somehow they managed to pull off the greatest con of all - a culture change in which fraud became a legitimate alternative to scientific medicine, the line between science and pseudoscience was deliberate blurred, regulations designed to protect the public from quackery were weakened or eliminated, and it became politically incorrect to defend scientific standards in medicine.
 
Add to this a general anti-establishment movement beginning in the 1960s. CAM proponents were successful in portraying scientific medicine as the Establishment - something that needed to be taken down."

-- Steven Novella, close to pulling it in (but also close to dropping the rope) for the esteemed "skeptologists" on the Skepticblog.

The 1960’s anti-establish movement isn’t a side-car to the CAM mentality; it’s the tree from which CAM branches. And that tree is the contrarian, “gas lighting” mind game that is NewAge.

It is the ultimate temper tantrum, an immature control tactic and an “I’ll show you you’re not so smart” arrogance subliminally directed at disappointing parents, but acted out against anything where enough confusion and chaos can be generated to guarantee on-going, albeit dishonest, debate.
 
For some, the smug motive is to feel superior to those who actually had the fortitude to get educated in a difficult or demanding field, and mock them out of envy.

What bigger insult is there then to dismiss an achievement that took years and replace it with their own delusions, spit up while sitting in a circle of rocks in front of a blinking crystal.

Instant parity and accomplishment without exertion. An offshoot of the self-esteem movement.
 
Others are con artists and opportunists, who don’t believe anything in particular, but see a way to make a buck, elicit worship or obedience, get laid or flirt with fame. Without much disciplined effort, responsibility or daily chores.

It’s a free-wheeling life that claims the rewards of those who do the real work.

“You poor dummies that actually work to prove something” is an implied taunt.
 
The third head of this monster are the more regular people, including those who earned degrees in medicine and science and then turned scared or lazy, plodding away, grasping at anything to set themselves apart and create a little drama in their lives, dodging any notion that they are not the victims of their lives but the architects.

“The devil made me do it”, “The universe didn’t want me to”, “The stars weren’t aligned right”, “My palm reader said no”.

These are the folks pointed to by the intellectual crowd when dismissing NewAge as harmless.

Unfortunately, there are ex-spouses, warped children, shafted business partners and emptied bank accounts that beg differently.

These are the easy marks for the con artists.
 
 As the “down with The Man” culture dates back to the 1960’s, it should be no surprise that now, being older, they have infiltrated government agencies, medical communities and other fields, but haven’t matured a bit.

The baby has tied up the babysitter, and the baby is as determined as ever to replace organized thinking with the garbage they use to feed their own broken egos.
 
One ego-defense used by theses disordered fools is a root of Politically Correct.

It is a control tactic. “How dare you notice I’m wearing soiled underwear on my head”.

Now anything goes, and any notice or criticism is deflected by wide-spread anxiety about mentioning reality… it might upset somebody.

It is an insidious conditioning that promotes disorder as a virtue.
 
And why bother to develop any virtues and values when it’s easier and more fun to force others into pretending they have them, without any evidence (or more accurately, with evidence to the contrary).
 
The goal of NewAge/CAM is not to prove water has memory or any other such claim.

The goal is to jerk around the “Establishment”, to watch with glee as sincere people give some bizarre crud enough credibility to actually look into it, to keep the confusion alive and to hide behind it snickering.

“Look what I made them do”.

This is what happened to the Main Stream Media.
 
It’s a big, ugly tree, and it’s nothing more than a practical joke grown by cons.

They should be dismissed, brushed off with a laugh, told they’re stupid, and shown we’re not playing anymore.