The Tactics of Social Control by the Skeptics

Posted on April 27, 2017 by septicskeptics
 By  Dubius Anonymuus
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Friends of Science in Medicine get together  (L-R) Dr Ken Harvey, Loretta Marron OAM, Prof Alistair MacLennan AO, Dr Sue Ieraci, Prof Marcello Costa, Jo Benhamu RN, Prof Rob Morrison OAM, Prof John Dwyer AO 

 

  It is helpful to look at the extent to which the “Friends of Science in Medicine” and their allies will go to dominate the conversation, scare off opponents, and give the impression that there is a groundswell of opinion in their direction. Friends of Science In Medicine pretend to be a group supporting skepticism and science but they are always highly partisan in the approach they take. They fail to take in to account the huge problem in science created by the lack of replicability of most science and the massive distortions created by industry influence.  Additionally the targets of FOSM and allied  groups such as Australian Skeptics and facebook hate group SAVN ( Stop the Australian Vaccination Network)  are  ALWAYS consistently attacking treatments which are low cost, have demonstrated low risk, and may take market share away from the major pharmaceutical groups and medical interest groups. In this setting we should all remind ourselves that the third largest cause of death in the USA is medical misadventure.

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There is substantial evidence that pharmaceutical groups actually directly pay people (often from overseas call centres) to make repeated comments on message boards and skew the public conversation and make their opponents look stupid. The question of paid astroturfing is complex enough to require a post of its own, so this post will focus on tactics used.
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Skeptic and pro vaccine troll Dr David Gorski

These two posts were taken by a US pro choice group, from a discussion thread that started in April 2012 on Dr David Gorski’s blog “Respectful insolence” Dr. David Gorski is a Skeptic and  pro-vaccine oncologist with ties to the Barbara Anne Karmanos Cancer Institute, notorious for experimental cancer treatments and drugs that have been fast-tracked by the FDA. I have personally sighted the original but it took a good deal of work to trawl through the thread to find the original comments, and it was like wading through a sewer.  The comments clearly illustrate unethical tactics that we have all seen employed by the pro-vaccine lobby in the months since Pauline Hanson’s statement about parents doing their own research.
Note the contempt for the intelligence of their perceived opponents: 
This is from an article entitled ” Pro vax trolls are impersonating disease injured families on comment boards” 
Poe2go @ 12 is right on target: post that kind of schizophrenic word-salad on the anti-vax sites in large quantities, under various pseudonyms, and clog up the sites with it until it appears that a large fraction of the members are downright wacko. This will seriously turn off undecideds who check out those sites.  
Poe2go’s comment is an excellent template for this tactic, but you can easily make up your own by inserting random words into sentences and then going on digressive riffs about the random words. Be sure to Capitalize occasional Nouns and Verbs as well.Really: listen up folks, the way to fight this crap is NOT by “patiently explaining” to people who are already way past being persuaded that the Earth isn’t flat. You may as well be talking to rocks (healing crystals?:-). The way to fight it is by sabotaging the anti-vaxers with crazy stuff that drives away undecideds. The way to fight it is with emotional narratives that undermine the ones that the anti-vaxers are pushing.And some editorial comment from the owners of the site  “The Refusers”
MB Comment: Message boards on the virulently pro-vax web site ORAC Respectful Insolence (Gorski) advocate fraudulently impersonating disease-injured families and insane people on the comment sections of vaccine injury and vaccine freedom websites such as Age of Autism, Mothering Magazine and Amazon.

These pro-vax maniacs’ purpose in life is to discredit anything that casts doubt on vaccines, which is their pseudo-scientific religion.

The next time you see comments saying: ‘My unvaccinated child has autism’ or ‘My immune-compromised child can’t take vaccines – it is your duty to immunize your child so my child doesn’t get sick’ or ‘My sister got measles and died’  etc. – please be aware that these may be totally fabricated lies concocted by vaccine fanatics to intimidate and discredit vaccine freedom and awareness websites and facebook pages. They also advocate setting up phony email accounts and IDs so that their dishonest comments cannot be traced back to the source.

This despicable behavior makes it impossible to believe the veracity of any pro-vax comments you may read on news articles, Amazon forums, Mothering Magazine, etc., where these slimebag commentators lurk.

If you needed any further proof that vaccine zealots will stoop to any level to deceive and intimidate parents who are looking for truthful vaccine information, read on.

 So the question becomes one of what to do about this. Firstly recognise the nature of the problem we are dealing with, the comments on Dr Gorski’s blog are clearly unethical, and as blog owner he has a responsibility for them. He has probably said them himself somewhere, but I believe there is good reason for the conduct of his blog to be reported to the local medical board, and to let them decide.

Secondly manage and contain the problem. All blog holders need to be aware of this and to moderate comments wherever possible. In the case of Facebook Communities, unacceptable posts need to be swiftly deleted and repeat offenders excluded.

Thirdly, the provaccine/ anti complementary medicine groups will be posting widely elsewhere, aiming to influence public opinion. The best answer to that is to link to this article every time you see a post that appears to be made by a confused, semiliterate “antivaccine” person.
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Dr John Dwyer and Dr Ken Harvey have guilt by association for being aligned with the Skeptics 

Given the dangers of guilt by association, the members of FOSM such as Dr John Dwyer and Skeptic  Dr Ken Harvey need to be aware of the murky depths and unacceptable tactics of the “skeptic” movement. We all also need to be aware that as C.S. Lewis said, in this secular age many people show the same sort of unthinking obedience to “science” as they would have to their tribal shaman, or to the priest who sold them indulgences. In this day and age, calling anything “scientific” is a great way to pull the wool over people’s eyes. The members of the FOSM must also remain mindful of the poor replicability of the “science” underpinning much of medicine ( as detailed in my recent article “Trust Me, I’m a doctor”, and has been supported by the recent collapse of the saturated fat/ heart disease hypothesis) 
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8 Responses to The Tactics of Social Control by the Skeptics

  1. Steve Trueblue says:
    April 27, 2017 at 9:20 am

    Oh YES ! Natural meds can’t be patented and if it works, the public buys less drugs ! Shock horror ! Patented drugs have very high profit margins. Which are aggressively defended via teams of pskeps etc. A good example of a safe working medicine is Coconut Oil that reverses Dementia. Conventional medicine still has nothing comparable. This should be on TV. And should be in every aged care home. But its NOT, of course. It could save us millions. Tell just ONE PERSON about this.
    Dementia Reversal with Coconut oil – in an 85yr old at 35 days.

    I sometimes get pseudoskeptics trying to discredit coconut oil. They are blocked and deleted
    with great pleasure. Though most are so feeble minded I pity them, and I believe they would be happier if they tried coconut oil. As it calms people down, reduces anger, but provides more
    physical and mental energy.The last skeptic was such a “science fanatic” he couldn’t try coconut oil as he feared terribly the dreaded placebo effect. LOL I suspect it would improve his Asperger condition.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • Ginny Webb says:
      March 4, 2018 at 6:18 am

      That’s hilarious! Imagine being SO religiously entrenched in a viewpoint, that you’d even reject placebo BENEFITS! 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
      • Steve Trueblue says:
        March 4, 2018 at 10:15 am

        Ginny you are a lot smarter than the skeps because you have a sense of humour. Skeps don’t seem to have the intellect to appreciate humour at all. They are locked into literalism which makes them humour blind. Have never met a funny skeptic. Yet this last one was accidentally funny signalling his morbid fear of feeling better. So funny but tragic.

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  2. Steve Trueblue says:
    April 27, 2017 at 9:35 am

    This little discovery of an unpatentable curing medicine leaves vaccines far behind in insidiousness and iatrogenic death toll. Comparable to the tobacco lobby.. Its about 3.5 million people dying 20 yrs early killed by diabetes. Annually. YES a holocaust. Its kept a commercial secret. The profits annually are 240 Billion. That’s why the cheap medicine Benfotiamine is a commercial secret. Always absent from vitamin tables. And NOT in any medical text book. And unknown to any conventional doctor. Video here explaining it all.

    Commercial Secret Killing Millions of diabetics- Benfotiamine unknown

    The viewer is invited to join the many evidence dots in the links below this video. 3.5 million people die annually from diabetic neuropathy and its entirely preventable, but kept a commericial secret to make vast profits- 100 plus studies on Pubmed Then the viewer is invited to DO SOMETHING to make a difference
    http://www.truebluehealer.com/Benfo3…. Free Downloads

    Playlist https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43yH3…
    And it doesnt get a mention here on Pfizers own website in Australia
    https://www.morethanmedication.com.au…
    Australian prescription listing http://www.nps.org.au/publications/he…
    Canada http://www.gwpharm.com/neuropathic-pa…
    New York times has no idea and spreads the ignorance. .
    http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/20/hea…
    Australian prescription catalogue one drug only from Pfizer
    http://www.australiandoctor.com.au/ne…
    UK off label anti-convulsants and anti epilepsy drugs that don’t work.Millions die of diabetic neuropathy in the UK http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Peripher…
    Pfizers false definition of diabetic nerve pain, to maximise income from pain medications
    https://www.morethanmedication.com.au…
    Doctors report for doctors
    https://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2007/…
    Do YOU have beriberi ? https://www.lewrockwell.com/2011/12/b…

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    Reply
  3. Steve Trueblue says:
    April 27, 2017 at 9:50 am

    I often ponder the odd lop sided psychology of vaccine fanatic pseudoskeptics motivated to push vaccines onto everybody even by force if necessary. Hold them down and inject them in the neck seems to be their mindset. YET there is no skeptic compulsion at all to force everyone to take their antibiotics.Completely lacking is that. So they clearly don’t care about peoples well being. So what are they doing exactly? Whats their motivation? It seems to be the element of punishment– needle sticking– by force that appeals to the very angry Asperger pseudoskeptics. Its cowardly skeptics getting people stuck -jabbed by proxies. Microstabbing them as punishment for daring to have a dissenting opinion. Many angry young male online gamers are furious because someone disagreed with them and stalk them for months making abrasive abusive videos. Its an immaturity. I think the skeptics whose brains never completely mature suffer this problem of rage at disagreement.

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  5. quemalpuedehacerelpataescepticismo says:
    May 6, 2017 at 9:14 am

    “They fail to take in to account the huge problem in science created by the lack of replicability of most science and the massive distortions created by industry influence.”

    Wrong link: void.

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