Bear biologist analyzes Grizzly Man - "There's audio recording of him dying. My advisor listened to it. I've never listened to it, but it's 15 minutes of him being dismantled by a bear. You can hear his arm being separated from his body in it. It's the worst possible way to go."
Well, I guess it's true - if you live long enough, you see everything. Including all your NewAge predictions coming true! For instance, TMR's old friends in the Reiki cult are finally getting their due from Slate, in a Brian Palmer article that suggests:
Of course, TMR was saying it seven years ago, when that position was considered "crazy". (What does that make my critics now?)And, that whole time - just like with Republicans, now, on race - I had to withstand the slings and arrows of those with no feeling for reality. It's rough.
So why'd it take so long for "mainstream" Slate to catch on? They've got an article on another of my pet peeves - Yoga - that explains it:
So there's my beef - just like with politics - so far ahead of the curve, no one can see me. (I covered therapeutic touch as well, back-in-the-day, so there.) There's "no constituency" for far-seeing truth. The media want to print hype, and then, whatever happens,...happens.
Salon has a new column on measles returning because of anti-vaxxers, that features a photo of Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carey. TMR gave you several posts ON Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carey.
It never ends (Don't forget I told you supplements were crap, too.) I usually say I'm about 5 years ahead of most people on the NewAge subjects I'm interested in but, looking at these dates, I'm at least seven or eight years ahead. Not too shabby. Now I want to test it. Anybody heard anything out of Arianna Huffington lately?
Opening a religion post with "Though you haven't heard of it,...." cracks me up. It's now the story of my life and - while Emily Yoffe may not have heard of it - feminist NewAge is definitely THE "fundamentalist church" where "fishing" has always been real, too, so ♪shut-up♬.
As far as I know, whites will only really stand up to Oprah on two topics - cattle futures and race - when they curiously, but proudly, love to point out how rich she's gotten with their full support:
You know, selling dangerous, bogus, NewAge occult "remedies" and the gurus and beliefs that go with 'em,...
I watched this with a friend, yesterday, who was trying "help". There was something about the words "$8 billion" that seemed to have an effect on him. He got quiet, and then started shaking his head, before gradually snapping and becoming normal.
After over 30 years of publication, Mothering Magazine is leaving the shelves. Mothering will continue as a web-only organization, but the magazine has printed its last issue.
Mothering has long catered to hippie mamas, featuring stories on attachment parenting, cosleeping, natural foods and creative play. The magazine, and more recently the message boards, have been a home base for parents with an alternative viewpoint for generations.
Yeah, "hippie mamas" and "an alternative viewpoint". That means, as you can see above, whether or not you should get your child vaccinated was up for debate, even if there was nothing - absolutely nothing - to support not getting it done. And look at this issue:
Yes, blurb #4 is for reflexology, probably one of the stupidest scam "treatments" in the "alternative" medicine canon - and seriously, considering how stupid a lot of them are, that's saying something!
Unfortunately, Mothering isn't disappearing entirely, and they'll still be around to spread misinformation online. As one commenter cried:
I paid for a year long subscription about a month ago and they took my money. I love the magazine, but that sucks!
Hey, lady - when it comes to scam artists - you gets what you pay for, Dearie, you gets what you pay for.
The Big Con appears to always be in play these days:
"A confidence trick or confidence game (also known as a bunko, con, flim flam, gaffle, grift, hustle, scam, scheme, swindle or bamboozle) is an attempt to defraud a person or group by gaining their confidence. The victim is known as the mark, the trickster is called a confidence man, con man, confidence trickster, or con artist, and any accomplices are known as shills. Confidence men or women exploit human characteristics such as greed and dishonesty, and have victimized individuals from all walks of life.
The first known usage of the term 'confidence man' in English was in 1849; it was used by American press during the United States trial of William Thompson. Thompson chatted with strangers until he asked if they had the confidence to lend him their watches, whereupon he would walk off with the watch; he was captured when a victim recognized him on the street.
Confidence tricks exploit typical human qualities such as greed, dishonesty, vanity, honesty, compassion, credulity, irresponsibility and naïveté. The common factor is that the mark relies on the good faith of the con artist.
Just as there is no typical profile for swindlers, neither is there one for their victims. Virtually anyone can fall prey to fraudulent crimes. ... Certainly victims of high-yield investment frauds may possess a level of greed which exceeds their caution as well as a willingness to believe what they want to believe. However, not all fraud victims are greedy, risk-taking, self-deceptive individuals looking to make a quick dollar. Nor are all fraud victims naïve, uneducated, or elderly.
A greedy or dishonest mark may attempt to out-cheat the con artist, only to discover that he or she has been manipulated into losing from the very beginning. This is such a general principle in confidence tricks that there is a saying among con men that 'you can't cheat an honest man.'
Shills, also known as accomplices, help manipulate the mark into accepting the con man's plan. In a traditional confidence trick, the mark is led to believe that he will be able to win money or some other prize by doing some task. The accomplices may pretend to be strangers who have benefited from performing the task in the past."
Whether in politics or religion, our society runs on scams - especially NewAge or "spiritual" cons - I hear it all the time, in large and small ways:
Classic BS. "A fairly open person"? Try more like Madonna in heat. With an equal amount of brains:
"The term ‘pseudoscience’ refers to statements, beliefs or practices that are presented as being based in science when in reality they are not. Plainly stated, the word pseudoscience means ‘fake science.’ Magic healing crystals, spirit channeling, and homeopathy are all types of pseudoscience - they are all fake science."
As that "aromatherapy" quote shows, the shills (who are usually not too bright) are the worst, since they give themselves credit for being wrong. Once they realize they, too, have been taken, they are usually so embarrassed (about the magnitude of what they've done - my money! - and what's been revealed about themselves - I'm an idiot!) you can forget about a confession, to having been used, ever emerging - which leaves the door open for the con to continue elsewhere, to take in some other poor sap who doesn't know the difference between "knowing" and "believing" or "watching and seeing".
"I don't care what they say: that's the way I feel about it." (Jenny McCarthy's breasts have trained this one well. The power they held over Jim Carrey was amazing - though, admittedly, he was in closer proximity). Oh, if only they could harness their feelings for good.
Yea, yea, I know - but now you're thinking and not believing - NewAgers need something they can feel that can also work against them:
"The Secret is filled [with] the same sort of ignorant, harmful and racist teachings that Esther-Hicks promotes and it is supported by media personalities and spiritual teachers."
Using one kind of NewAge con to fight another is good but the race thing is played out, and I think to focus on more specific, easily definable, and familiar forms of fraud would work better.
"To this day, many people on Wall Street make their living as 'technical analysts,' even though their methods have no more merit than homeopathy or astrology."
O.K., for instance: I think if we eliminated everything with a relationship - in any way - to homeopathy and astrology, we'd probably put an end to most of the flim flam artists and also a massive amount of related fraud-based crime. I suspect even the collapse of the Left, as a whole, once they're rooted out. At the very least, it would set the Left on the run (even more) which would be doing our nation a great service.
This mixture of NewAge fraud and politics has gone much too far already - and I haven't seen much that says I'm wrong about that, PTSD or no.
