"The Coddling Of The American Mind" Began Before 2015 (And Jonathan Haidt)

With alternative therapists, when you point out a problem with the evidence, people don't engage with you about it, or read and reference your work. They get into a huff. They refuse to answer calls or email queries. They wave their hands and mutter sciencey words such as "quantum" and "nano". They accuse you of being a paid plant from some big pharma conspiracy. They threaten to sue you. They shout, "What about thalidomide, science boy?", they cry, they call you names, they hold lectures at their trade fairs about how you are a dangerous doctor, they contact and harass your employer, they try to dig up dirt from your personal life, or they actually threaten you with violence (this has all happened to me, and I'm compiling a great collection of stories for a nice documentary, so do keep it coming).

That was written 13 years ago, in the post-Clinton era - after Bill and Hill unleashed fake "medicines" (and their charlatan practitioners) on the world and NewAgers got to work - already exhibiting behavior Clinton supporters now blame on the Trump era: violent, an anti-science agenda, whataboutism, conspiracy-minded, attacking scientists, threatening, pseudoscientific, etc.

America should've recognized how far it's gone down the rabbit hole, when Obama ran with Oprah - a woman who worships at the feet of Shirley MacLaine - and no one screamed "Fraud!"

 

Homeopathy: Another Boring Topic With Women

We haven't blogged about Homeopathy in a long time, because - like environmentalism - it's boring, and just too trying to accept that anyone could fall for the whole "water is medicine" scam. But fall for it they do - and in the most expensive ways possible. Let's have Ben Goldacre explain what Homeopathy is, in case the cup in that woman's hand, above, isn't a good hint:

To recap: homeopathy pills don't work better than placebo dummy pills in trials. They are made by taking one drop of the original substance and diluting it in 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 drops of water, then taking one drop of that solution, which is now just water, and shaking it near some pills, which you then buy to treat an illness.

Got that? Good, because now you can guffaw along with the rest of us as we tell you:


San Francisco has erected a cathedral to it.

Why would anyone do that? We don't know (the people who are doing it can't even explain it,...)

But there's a newspaper in New Zealand that's suggesting selling water will be a great career path.

Unless you want to be regarded as an expert, then you get no love.

But don't lose heart:

The solutions to life's problems are so simple when one believes that homeopathy can fix everything. Apparently, homeopathy claims it can prevent life-altering problems like unemployment, homelessness (i thought homeopathic housing was homelessness!), addiction, rape, child sexual abuse, malnutrition (erm, don't they instead mean dehydration?) and it can even function as bulletproof armour. My mind boggles.

And so does ours, my friend, so does ours,...

Socially Awkward & Mocking Morons (Us Too!)

Picking Up On The Obvious (And Putting It Down)

"When talking on issues that he most deeply cares about, [Professor Ben] Goldacre is exceptionally engaging. He talked of his outrage over the Wakefield MMR [anti-vaccine] scandal, not only because of the dodgy scientific methods involved, but also because of the mistreatment of some of the children upon whom Wakefield tested. Similarly his libel battle with Matthias Rath (the vitamin supplement entrepreneur who sued following Goldacre's criticism of Rath's selling of vitamin supplements to AIDS sufferers, it is claimed, as an alternative to anti-retroviral medication) was touched upon, but again Goldacre's concern seems to be primarily focussed on the devastating and unnecessary loss of life from such ignorance."

-- Hector Keate, on the one thing the "alternative" medicine clowns don't want promoted - the people they hurt or kill - that skeptics stay focused upon, in Oxford University's Cherwell.

Oh - We've Got It: Nothing About The World Of NewAge Will Ever Look The Same After That!!!

"For the most part we’ve been interested in the intellectual and cultural consequences of bad science, the made-up facts in national newspapers, dubious academic practices in universities, some foolish pill-peddling, and so on. But what happens if we take these sleights of hand, these pill-marketing techniques, and transplant them out of our decadent Western context into a situation where things really matter?"

-- Ben Goldacre, who sounds like he's about to tell of TMR's own experience with NewAge murder, but (instead of talking about "Dr." Robert Wohlfahrt) Goldacre goes on and on about the totally unimportant story of his lawsuit with a European quack in Africa who was spreading AIDS to millions of equally unimportant black people - or something - but all using really Bad Science.

They Look All Innocent But They'll Hurt You

"There's a horror story sitting on my desk. It's right in the middle of Ben Goldacre's updated version of Bad Science.

On the front cover, there's a quote from the Observer newspaper, which calls this the book of the year and adds: 'You'll laugh your head off, then throw all those expensive health foods in the bin.'

But Bad Science is not funny. Yes, the doctor, writer and broadcaster lambasts detox treatments, ear candles, nutritionists, homeopathy, brain gym, a fish-oil 'trial', bad statistics and the anti- vaccination movement. He does it in a cheeky and challenging way - but keep reading. By the time you get to Chapter 10, titled The Doctor Will Sue You Now, you won't be chuckling. Highly likely, you'll be chilled and even outraged to learn how and why the Aids epidemic occurred in South Africa. This chapter didn't appear in the first version of the book because Goldacre and The Guardian, which he writes a column for, were fighting a libel suit from vitamin- pill entrepreneur Matthias Rath.

Goldacre feels so strongly about this story he's put the entire chapter on the internet, telling people to share it, copy it and repost it, all for free. Click here to view online."

-- Virginia Winder, who better get back to appreciating NewAge mumbo-jumbo before somebody finds out and she winds up divorced, or sued, or fired and Stuff.

So I Guess It's Back To The Old Drawing Board For You - But Wait: You Can't Even Draw!!!

"We already know that poorer quality studies are more likely to produce positive results - for drugs, for homeopathy, for anything - and 70% of,...studies,...reviewed were of poor quality."

-- Ben Goldacre, reporting on all that wonderful "science" homeopaths and other NewAgers love to spout off about, which (hopefully) never pass muster at The Guardian.

Be Careful: You're Playing With The Big Boys

"I trust that this episode will act as a very strong cautionary note to the more vicious UK figures from the very corporate $50bn food supplement industry some of whom have used bullying, smears, and legal threats in their desperate bid to prevent people from examining their ideas: this goes to the very top of the industry, you should know by now that it will not work, and unless you change tack rapidly, some of you will have some very interesting surprises to come. Play nicely now, they’re only ideas."

-- Ben Goldacre, after prevailing over another fraud selling vitamin supplements, on Bad Science