THE RISE OF THE CHARLATANS

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    Nate Beeler / Columbus Dispatch

    By Tina Dupuy

    At the birth of every conspiracy theory is the question, “Who profits?”

    In the dark reaches of anonymous Internet forums, the answer is always Big Government, Big Pharma, Big Farm-a and occasionally Satan, aliens, the Illuminati, the Knights Templar, or the Pentavirate—some omnipotent all-powerful force that enviously pulls off vast nefarious synchronization perfectly.

    And this assumption of divine coordination—an attempt to make sense of a chaotic indifferent world—is very bipartisan. It’s not just one party taking to the Internet or broadcast television to wrap themselves in cozy half-baked hyperbole—denying science and doubling down on baloney—it’s at the far reaches of both sides of the spectrum.

    Republicans will tend to see the threat as anti-Christian or Big Government tyranny (Sharia law and “gubmint coming fir yer guns”). Democrats tend to see the threat as anti-alternative medicine and anti-nature (i.e., animal protein causes cancer and there are chemicals in everything!).

    Distrust, disinformation and a wide range of discussion boards have primed the American public for leaders who can give them reassurance. Figureheads who can tell them what they need to know, what no one else will tell them, what some don’t want them to know. You know, the “truth.”

    So in this land of the emboldened science illiterate, I pose the question, “Who profits?”

    The answer? Charlatans. Pseudoscience salesmen. Quacks and swindlers ready to feed off human misery with overly simplistic (and probably expensive) solutions.

    The herbal supplements market, for example, is a $100 billion business globally. A study released this week from the New York State attorney general’s office found major retailers like Target, Walmart, GNC and Walgreens are selling what for all intents and purposes is snake oil. Herbal supplements with fillers in lieu of herbs. An entire aisle of the placebo effect estimated in the billions.

    But if you think Big Pharma is trying to scam you, it’s priceless.

    The History Channel, a joint venture between Hearst and Disney, has fed into this fevered fetish with their programming: “Ancient Aliens,” “UFO Hunters,” “Decoded,” “The Bible Code,” “Cities of the Underworld,” “Mystery Quest,” “Nostradamus Effect,” “Armageddon.” We effectively have an ahistorical History Channel.

    This is something no one else will tell you … unless you turn on Disney-owned cable television.

    Speaking of television charlatans—”Dr.” Oz. Not only has he let psychics come on his show to chat with the dead, he’s a proponent of the widely debunked “detox” craze and was recently called out by Congress for hawking fake weight loss pills on his show. Quacks like a duck, must be a quack.

    But like “Dr.” Oz, “Dr.” Rand Paul also gains from his fans’ beliefs rooted in junk science and disproved claims. Paul caused a stir this week by parroting the universally (and frequently) debunked claim that vaccines cause autism. He’s also involved with a phony science organization called the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons. “Its periodical, Journal of the American Physicians and Surgeons, has published reports suggesting a link between abortions and higher rates of breast cancer,” reports The New York Times. “A tie rejected by an expert panel of the National Cancer Institute. Another report contended that illegal immigrants brought disease into this country and benefited if their babies were born with disabilities.”

    This is a doctors’ association? First do no harm…unless they’re illegals.

    Then private-jet-baller, Governor Chris Christie, hoping to split the anti-vax vote opted to feed into people’s fears too. “Parents need to have some measure of choice in things as well, so that’s the balance that the government has to decide,” he said to a reporter this week. Christie is suddenly and shockingly pro-choice when it comes to public health. Unlike when he was pro-mandatory quarantine…like in October.

    Charlatans are indicative of simple economics: supply and demand. As long as we demand manure, someone will step up to shovel it. And business appears to be good.

    © Copyright 2015 TinaDupuy.com, distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate.Tina Dupuy is a nationally syndicated op-ed columnist, investigative journalist, award-winning writer, stand-up comic, on-air commentator and wedge issue fan.

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    Copyright 2015 City County Observer. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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    18 COMMENTS

    1. I find Christians bitching about Sharia law to be hilarious. They essentially want the same thing.

      • I find your ignorance to be hilarious, but you have to be just trolling for attention. Nobody can be as ignorant as your posts imply without trying. I imagine it’s the only way someone who refers to themselves as the ghost of an unrepentant murderer will ever have an audience.
        I usually don’t reply to your drivel, but it’s so funny how you always try to be the first poster and use such combative language to be noticed. When you get in high school, though, the cool kids will shun you.

        • dissaffected, Ghost promised to move away when he found a job. Unfortunately, he’s still here and may be so for a long time.

    2. The placebo affect/false positive/fallacy of affirming the consequent rears its ugly head in our public policy everywhere.

      Its seen in our gun laws, in medicine, in our schools, in the global warming “debate” and many, other public policy issues.

      If A then B does not necessarily mean cause and affect ie washing your car does not cause it to rain.

      Then of course there is the scapegoating syndrome legalizing LGBT rights does not cause hurricanes.

      Maybe its my own skewed POV, or my own confirmation bias, but anti-intellectualism seems rampant in the US and only in the US, at least in the developed world.

      On the other hand there is evidence I am correct. Our science literacy rate is lower than most of the developed world, with Slovenia and the Czech Republic ahead of us!

      We have THE LOWEST rate of acceptance for evolution, global warming, and big bang theory in the developed world.

      Sociologists now go the former Confederate states to study the non acceptance of science like we were some backwards isolated third world country.

      Here in the US the propaganda machine of the entrenched money men spews out garbage science, and smoke screens to muddy the waters, and buy our politicians to keep the status quo in place. Our science spokespeople get caught up in nitty details and murky predictions, eg tornado and hurricane frequency and power rather than just plain stating the obvious, greenhouse gases trap heat, period.
      In short, science is losing the media/propaganda war, badly.

      This is not sustainable as the walls of reality will soon come crashing down upon us, and the consequences will be harsh, very harsh.

      • I blame the media and their controllers which are the money people you spoke of. Good science gets trumped by bad media all the time. Ever heard the term Mad as a Hatter or mad scientist?

        And you are right about the general population being under educated when it comes to science. Not every one can handle Chemistry and Physic even in High School.

        Then throw in a cute playboy bunny who tells anyone that will listen that the mercury preservatives in the vaccine given to her kid caused her son to be autistic and not his genetic makeup or the environment that he lived in and you get what we have today.

        Not all medicines are perfect. But Doctors are trained to measure the good vs the bad and make the best decision for treatment. Life not perfect and ever breath we take is precious. We are mortal and we all die eventually.

        I personally think that all kids should be vaccinated to protect them and US from mumps and measles and Rubella. Maybe they should make single doses so that they can get ride of the Thimerosal preservative to reduce the mercury content in the vaccines.

        The earth is not flat and you won’t sail off the edge. You just go round and round sort of like this argument.

        Brains you are so right about the big money people hiring some rogue scientist to mess up the discussion on real science. And you are right on about not getting bogged down in the details. Increased amounts of CO2 gases in the Earth’s atmosphere and the green house effect is real.

        • Modern science has harmed itself by its naturalistic creation prerequisite and having been hijacked by modern atheist who have seen the purpose of science as disproving the existence of any god. In many ways science has lost its objectivity. Not allowing the questioning of ex-nihilo creation or even global warning turns science into a closed system of assumptions rather than an open system for discovery.

        • Move, Who are those “big money people” ? Mike Bloomberg, George Soros or maybe Tom Steyer ?

    4. “If A then B does not necessarily mean cause and affect ie washing your car does not cause it to rain.” Everyone knows Tuesdays cause rain. Just like Christianity caused the dumbing down of America.

      • I purposefully left out religion, churches etc from my post, yet you felt the need to inject it into the thread.

        Hmmmmm feel guilty? Are you a closeted anti-intellectual?

        • Sorry, I guess there weren’t any inferences to religion in evolution or southern states. But if you had to purposely leave out references to religion, then I wonder just who is feeling guilt?

          Never the less, if you truly are attempting to turn over a new leaf that is more moderate towards religion in general and Christianity imparticular, then I commend and support your effort and will attempt to moderate my responses to you. I can actually listen and learn from you when your finger is not poking me in the eye.

        • Also, within my sphere of christianity I endeavor to encourage others to increase their intellectuality. Skeptics often have good and valid questions that deserve reasonable answers. Being able to give reasonable responses to difficult questions increases one’s knowledge and convictions.

    5. ““gubmint coming fir yer guns” How is it that tina has no clever colloquialisms for democrats? And it’s comen not coming.

      • Luongo checks all the boxes, goes out of his way in fact to do so, to self-identify as a third tier conman. By his picture it is very difficult to not notice the resemblance between him and Anton LaVey. There are plenty of suckers out there, and in here, that lap the crap he spews right up. The start and finish of their knowledge of climate change and its disasterous effects on the earth can be stated in two words. Al and Gore.

        • Yeah, the (real) science is recorded and quantified as facts every minute of everyday. Our group is involved in tracking the real science. For a start, One has to know the truth to qualify yours or any bodies working solutions. Political flat Earth types thrive on such nonsense as Luongo’s hogwash drippings .
          Its ok, Darwin had a theory relating to that ignorant straight BS. Time and the changing planet will eventually float their gene pool into oblivion PDQ. So……

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