The War Against Supplements Continues to Revel in Harmful Pseudoscience

Instead of asking the ethical question of “Does orthomolecular vitamin B supplementation result in an increase in patient well being?” a pseudo scientist with an agenda will simply recite irrelevant or outrageous unsupported claims such as “Vitamin C injections fail to cure cancer” or “Most people in the industrialized world should be able to get whatever vitamins and minerals they need from a typical western diet.” The habits of avoiding asking the right question under the scientific method, and then issuing grandiose unsupported claims of finality – stand as key indicators of fraud, pseudoscience and oligarch industry subversion at play.
The simple fact is that supplements serve to reduce doctor visits and prescription purchases, as well as reduce the amount of excess caloric content a consumer must purchase each day. Even the much hailed one-liner ‘doesn’t prevent cancer’ claim among fake skeptics is proving to be false under diligent science. The oligarchs want this lost revenue back. And they are making it clear that they are willing to put your life and well being at risk in order to get what is theirs.
Their skeptic mafia is here to make sure that you stay silent about it as well.

the simple fact is that we need supplementationObesity is a result of toxicity induced body system dysfunction and malnutrition; it is not a moral flaw. It is a collapse of auto-immune and biome infrastructure confounded by malnutrition induced by poor decisions made inside our medical and agricultural industries – and bad advice from our fake health professional pseudo-skeptics. If you tend to carry extra weight, as do I, then you are familiar with dietary guidance promulgated us by the ‘science’ based (but we really haven’t looked much) medical industry: Being overweight can be managed through portion control, a balanced diet and regular exercise. Or put another way “You gorge yourself at meals, on just your favorite foods, and you sit on your ass all day.”  So, if you are like me and you speak frequently, own businesses and must present a semi-public image in order to promote your businesses and ideals, or just want to look your best at all times, then you daily and habitually reduce your caloric intake at each meal, eat a variety of food pyramid foods in the correct balance, and exercise four to six times per week. I choose to do martial arts, run 2 to 4 miles, do 15 minutes of stretching and calisthenics and lift with elastic equivalent weights. I have followed this habit for the last 14 years faithfully, unless injured or sick. At the same time I have for years maintained a detailed log of my consumption and well-being patterns to show my doctor.

But what you will find is that the ‘science based-but we really haven’t looked much’ medical industry relies upon the likelihood that you will not actually test these claims about diet on their part, in your own life. They know that you will fall back on your rear and in resignation, accept this doctrine, blaming yourself for all your weight and health maladies. 

The pharmaceutical and food industries absolutely thrive in profits from this little mental trick they have played on you; courtesy of the familiar cast of propaganda specialists cited in referenced sources (SBM 1 – USAT 1) below.

If you actually test these claims, are faithful in portion control, eat a variety of foods, monitor your well-being and health, and exercise faithfully for more than half the week, in sufficient magnitude to avoid being overweight or obese when you have a body tendency to head toward such direction, what you will find is that you run into the following obstacles of well-being:

Symptoms of Medical-Diet Industry Induced Malnutrition

Carbohydrate Starving – extreme hunger, foggy headedness or lightheadedness, attention deficiency and agitation
Minor Protein Starving – peripheral anxiety (looking left and right feeling of unease), malaise, anxiety, weakness, depression, muscle loss
Vitamin B Starving – pernicious anemia (feeling about to faint while conducting glucose burning activities, but ironically OK during heavy caloric burning activity)
Micro-Nutrient Starving – lack of vigor, hair and facial pigment color saturation, subdued mood, underlying anxiety, muscle mass and tone loss
Vitamin Starving – a variety of intestinal, digestive and skin conditions, depression, visual acuity loss, endocrine insufficiency
Salt Insufficiency – low blood pressure, lack of digestive chlorides, dysbiosis, IBS and puss filled sores on the face and scalp (often confused with rosacea)
Omega 6/Omega 3 Imbalance – skin inflammation, hair dimming
pH Imbalance – facial redness, skin inflammation, dysbiosis, IBS, sweating
Sugar/Carbohydrate Substitution – your body will habituate to responding positively to excessive intake of carbs and sugar in lieu of adequate nutrient.

In other words, you will eventually find that you are suffering from malnutrition. And you will be overweight still. Blaming yourself still. You will hopefully, eventually observe that the propaganda about diet from the pharmaceutical and agricultural industries (see the shills in the recitations who pretend to be competent to issue ‘evidence based’ medical wisdom) constitutes utter and complete, non-scientifically derived bunk. Our foods are depleted of nutrition. Therefore, contrary to the false message issued by the pretenders of science, the stark realization about health in our modern pharmaceutical and agribusiness depleted diet/enhanced profit industry is

Nutrient diluted food tends to sell more in quantity/packaging,
Nutrient diluted food-crops afford cost-efficiency based predatory Mega-Agrimarket domination,
Nutrient deprived humans tend to require more medical services and  pharmaceuticals from chronic illnesses,
All this activity can be concealed through data inclusion/exclusion criteria,
Alternative medical approaches which can tamper with this process are being eliminated by false medical skeptics, and
therefore…
Supplementation is Absolutely Essential to Well Being.

Business Equation: Dilute Nutrients and People Must Consume More Food in Order to Feel Good

The Best Foods and Still OvereatWhich serves as a segue to broach the very topic of this blog, B-Vitamin supplementation. In the chart to the right are the thresholds of supplementation that I have faithfully measured in my lifestyle and diet tracker logs over the last 5 years; levels which have served to attain for me a feeling of well being with respect to B-Vitamin starvation avoidance. Since I eat a low intake diet in order to keep my weight down, this is a persistent challenge. In this nutrition deficient diet food-environment which is offered us, we have to consume a large amount of food in order to get the necessary B-Vitamin intake which we need in order to obtain a healthy well being.  Notice that, in a normal diet, one can achieve 100% of the US Recommended Daily Allowance of each B-Vitamin, inside the context of a reasonable 2700 calorie a day diet. This makes sense.

(notes: there are at least 70 other nutrients I have not addressed in this 2700 calorie tally. I might require even more food in order to address those nutrients as well. But for now let’s just constrain this calculation to B-Vitamins for benefit of this discussion. The ‘group overlap’ is a conservative measure of mutual vitamin-overlap between different foods, calculated by taking the ratio of the next highest level of B-Vitamin to the primary one being measured. This results in an unrealistically high group overlap ratio, however such high ratios are suitably conservative for the estimation of calories to B-Vitamin measures. Any error imbued would result in an even a more dire underpinning of support for this case point.)

The problem is, that one has to eat the BEST – the absolute highest B-vitamin containing foods, of each food, in order to attain this perfect balance of caloric and nutrient intake at 100% US RDA

But I have to consume over 5,000 calories of the best B-Vitamin food each and every day, just to maintain an adequate level of B-Vitamin related well being, 

And indeed this is my diet each day for the last 14 years. Veggies, nuts, eggs, poultry, green leaf vegetables, seeds, root vegetables, legumes, fish, fruit, rice. Yummy, these foods are what I crave. I do not eat junk foods or unhealthy foods. My personal daily research and diet logs have proved to me beyond a shadow of a doubt that

I still do not feel good at a 100% US RDA intake of B-Vitamins,

I cannot consume a 2700 calories per day diet and still stay trim,

I only begin to feel better at 200 – 300%+ US RDA levels of methylated, co-enzymated and cobalimated B-Vitamin intake, and

Synthetic B-Vitamins provide absolutely no benefit or effectiveness in this challenge at all.

Why? Why do I suffer symptoms of B-Vitamin starvation malnutrition at a food intake profile that should have me thriving like a Biblical Samson with his hair intact – according to our government? Instead I gain weight, and I don’t feel good in my workouts. These are the questions with which I challenge my doctor. My doctor looks for my appointments a couple days in advance, and knows to prepare for me. The simple fact is that our food is deficient in the very nutrition it claims to possess, AND … and the realistic intake numbers we need as humans (in particular B-Vitamins, but I suspect other nutrients as well) are much higher than the US RDA has had set. Disease does not ‘just happen,’ as anti-supplement pseudo scientists would like you to infer. No, I have not gotten cancer, but if you use cancer statistics to attempt to statistically vet this topic (B-Vitamin intake), you have no clue what you are doing.

In order for me to feel a sufficient well being, in terms of the B-Vitamin starvation symptoms I experience, I have to take in on average 200% or higher of the US RDA (see chart) for each B-Vitamin – this is where I begin to feel human again, and fully functional in my work.  In addition, the B-Vitamins MUST be in orthomolecular form. Store bought synthetic vitamins do absolute shit in terms of making me feel better. Only methylated, cobalimated and co-enzymated B-Vitamins work. As you can see in the chart above, the problem resides in the fact that for me to attain this B-Vitamin intake level (which I obtain now through orthomolecular B-Vitamin supplements) I would have to consume 5,670 calories per day in these healthy foods.

At this level of caloric intake, I would gain 53 pounds in one year – or alternatively have to work out for 2 full hours each and every single day.  Right now I consume a maximum of 2400 calories per day and work out for around 40 minutes each day. So I have discovered in my own body, what integrative medical professionals have been saying for decades. The reality is that I supplement much more than 200% US RDA – really only feeling totally energy sufficient at near 1000% US RDA on select B-Vitamins. In particular B1, B2, B6, B5, B3, and B12 – interestingly enough, the Kreb’s Energy Cycle vitamins. Moreover, I must take methylated B9 (folate) and not the toxic synthetic waste product they dump into our food to supposedly make up for what we lost through our over-focus on efficiency cartel/oligarch-seeking industrialization.

The simple truth I have learned is, that the anti-supplement voices (TSD 1) are maliciously wrong.

Supplementation, and in particular Orthomolecular Supplementation, is Absolutely Essential to Well Being

The Hired Guns: Skeptic Mafia Provides Enforcement – Imparts No Liability Risk

Fat, sick and stupid is no way to go through life son.

obesity rises but overweight does notWatch over time and closely how the Pharmaceutical Industry pretend science (pseudoscience) regularly tirades against supplements, and the sales revenue reducing and profit cutting/competitive function supplements introduce into the market. The simple fact is that supplements serve to reduce doctor visits and prescription purchases, as well as reduce the amount of food a person must consume each day. Supplements can help to ward off or mitigate the obesity epidemic we are suffering.

Obesity is not simply an extreme version of being overweight. As you can see in the graphic to the right, our nation has never had a growing problem with people being calorie-based ‘overweight.’

Obesity has appeared as a discrete, patterned, constrained and distinct signal inside health data. It has followed the heuristic of an environmental contributor. Something that in any normal context would prompt a skilled ethical epidemiological scientist to raise alarm.

Unfortunately our social stigma around weight, and our false social wisdom skeptics defending 80 year old science, have worked to blind us to this effect.

But people and medical science are ignorant to all of this, precisely because of this group of idiots below. The oligarchy shills which promote this health crime follow habitual patterns of lazy research/analysis and employ common and outdated sources and shared fallacies. They are circular in nature and of propaganda in essence (see the plagiarism example, TSD 4 and USAT 1). These pseudo scientific activists typically employ four primary types of fallacy and fraud-based misrepresentations of science in their propaganda:

Non Rectum Agitur Fallacy

/philosophy : fallacy : pseudoscience : persuasion abuse/ : a purposeful abrogation of the scientific method through the framing and asking of the wrong, ill prepared, unit biased or invalid question, conducted as a pretense of executing the scientific method on the part of a biased participant.

Instead of asking:  “Does orthomolecular vitamin B supplementation result in an increase in patient quality of life?” – There are objective measures for such a study; however, when has this type of study ever been done?

They ask instead, the non-scientific question, “Do vitamin injections cure or reduce cancer?” Yawn. For example, this most-oft misapplied resource for such pundits: Fortmann, SP; Burda, BU; Senger, CA; Lin, JS; Whitlock, EP (12 Nov 2013). “Vitamin and Mineral Supplements in the Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease and Cancer: An Updated Systematic Evidence Review for the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force”; Annals of Internal Medicine; 159 (12): 824–34. doi:10.7326/0003-4819-159-12-201312170-00729. PMID 24217421. Use of this study constitutes a ridiculous straw man of what vitamin therapy indeed is in actuality.

note: actually the study did find three things:  a reduction in cancer among those who took supplements when studied over 10 years or more – which did not replicate among 6-year average observation timeframe studies, an association with taking the industrial waste ‘folic acid’ with prostate cancer (notice not actual vitamin B9 or methylfolate), as well as some associated negative impacts of calcium supplementation. I find it interesting that the study could not confirm the well established link between calcification, and heart disease and stroke – an interesting commentary on the efficacy of the data pooling, pairing and stratification methodology employed.

Although it should also be noted, the only actual reductive scientific method question which the study did address was concluded in the following study statement: “Our 5 included studies showed no consistent pattern of harms from nutritional dosages of multivitamins…”

This is a scientific question regarding supplements? Cardiovascular Disease and Cancer among older adults?: two issues of primary human mortality and reality among older adults, which have little to indirect linkages to vitamin function in the first place? No it is not. This is not anything near to a scientific question about supplements – yet this question is contained in nearly every fake scientific article published by this group (SBM 1 – USAT 1 below). This is not even a valid scientific question regarding cancer and heart disease, much less supplementation. It is maleduction – a false form of straw man science.

The correct question under the scientific method (after the question of safety addressed by the above study) is

Does a diet cohort, which features consistent daily consumption of 2700 calories plant based organic matter which has been depleted of or bears a shortfall in nutrient, exhibit an increase in the incidence of, or early occurrence of, the three major causes of death (cancer, heart disease, diabetes), versus a study control exhibiting the same caloric consumption/burn patterns, yet obtaining adequate nutrient, as observed over a 25 year or longer period?

Now that is a scientific question. The study above addresses a political question, raised and financed not by doctors, rather by Ph.D.’s in social policy, national medical insurance policy and finance (examine the study authors and this is exactly what you will find, incompetent PhD degree projection).

Maleduction

/philosophy : pseudoscience : fraud/ : an argument must be reduced before it can be approached by induction or deduction – failure to reduce an argument or verify that the next appropriate question under the scientific method is being indeed addressed, is a sign of pseudoscience at play. The non rectum agitur fallacy of attempting to proceed under or derive conclusions from science when the question being addressed is agenda driven, non-reductive or misleading in its formulation or sequencing.

If I were presented this as an argument in a lab, under a study of supplements – my jaw would simply gape, that I had been this poor in training my associates the methods of hypothesis reduction. This is scientific ineptness. Malevolence which does not bear any form of scientific competency.

The propaganda artist will attack supplements in general by means of a script, which is used in the anti-supplement business. The script will typically feature

  • 85 – 95% of the articles will mention that studies show Vitamin C does not cure cancer or heart disease. Therefore vitamin supplementation is ineffective in healthy people. (SBM 1 – USAT 1)
  • 70 – 80% of the articles will mention Linus C. Pauling, in an effort to appear that they conducted background research (SBM 1 – USAT 1)
  • None of the articles will include or examine any modern science regarding nutrition, auto-immunity, micro-biome and disease.
  • Virtually 100% of the articles will mention some form of “Supplements Cause Cancer” claim based on scant few studies showing a slight elevated risk of cancer with excessive intake of some supplements.¹ (Typically featuring no exclusion criteria or signal compensation, things even third year tech’s do with their data, for patients and families who got healthy and supplemented specifically BECAUSE they or loved one’s had undergone cancer treatment).
  • References to QuackWatch, which sound authoritative but actually contain very little really condemning information, and are crafted to appear intimidating.

And let’s be clear here – telling people that they can and should get their nutrition solely from industrial food is making diagnosis and recommending treatment. It is quackery.

Praedicate Evidentia

/philosophy : argument : organic untruth/ : any of several forms of exaggeration or avoidance in qualifying a lack of evidence, logical calculus or soundness inside an argument. A form of preemptive false-inference, which is usually issued in the form of a circular reasoning along the lines of ‘it should not be studied, because study will prove that it is false, therefore it should not be studied’.​

Praedicate Evidentia – hyperbole in extrapolating or overestimating the gravitas of evidence supporting a specific claim, when only one examination of merit has been conducted, insufficient hypothesis reduction has been performed on the topic, a plurality of data exists but few questions have been asked, few dissenting or negative studies have been published, or few or no such studies have indeed been conducted at all.

Praedicate Evidentia Modus Ponens – any form of argument which claims a proposition consequent ‘Q’, which also features a lack of qualifying modus ponens, ‘If P then’ premise in its expression – rather, implying ‘If P then’ as its qualifying antecedent. This as a means of surreptitiously avoiding a lack of soundness or lack of logical calculus inside that argument; and moreover, enforcing only its conclusion ‘Q’ instead. A ‘There is not evidence for…’ claim made inside a condition of little study or full absence of any study whatsoever.

Instead of asking:  “Has a consilience or statistically significant or horizon representative set of studies of supplementation been completed by science?” – When has this type of study ever been done?

They claim instead “Most people in the industrialized world should be able to get whatever vitamins and minerals they need from food.” (TSD 3)

What? Where in the world did we derive this extraordinary and fantastically comprehensive claim? The naturalistic fallacy – if it is the natural way, it is proved sufficient, good or better. The naturalistic fallacy is only valid if it supports a shill position, but it constitutes useless pseudoscience if used by integrative medicine.  This too is scientific ineptness. Malevolence which does not bear any form of scientific competency.

Rhetoric

/philosophy : argument : bias : inverse logic : sleight of hand/ : appearing to be focused on a given topic or a given case example, when a slightly different or less acceptable somewhat related position is actually being surreptitiously promoted. Enacted through opportunistic measures, desperate for an avenue of entry through any means of persuasion and locution – a form of such extreme commitment to a conclusion that it bears not the ethics and honesty of straightforwardness, science, transparency or poetry. An answer seeking a question which then targets a victim – a disliked topic or person.

the simple fact is that we need supplementationExamine this small sampling of rhetoric from our most infamous supplement debunking pharmaceutical company activists:

“Vitamins are magic.” (SBM 1)

  • Falsely Framed Context: Rhetoric/Celeber Cavilla/Red Herring/Associative Condemnation: Vitamin C injections fail as a cure for cancer.
  • Actual Point Made in Article: All Vitamin Supplements are useless and deadly.

“…there is no credible evidence to suggest that routine vitamin infusions are necessary or offer any meaningful health benefit.” (SBM 2)

“Instead of getting caught up in genetic screening by alternative practitioners, patients should simply eat well, exercise and not smoke.” (Forbes 1)

  • Falsely Framed Context: Praedicate Evidentia/Red Herring/Associative Condemnation: Vitamin B injections fail in curing heart disease and aging.
  • Actual Point Made in Article: All Vitamin Supplements are useless and deadly.
  • Pseudo Science: The incorrect and evidence-less claim that today’s mass industry food provides everything you need in order to prevent disease.

“Vitamin infusions are a marketing creation, giving the illusion you’re doing something for your health, but lacking any demonstrable efficacy.” (SBM 3)

  • Falsely Framed Context: Praedicate Evidentia/Associative Condemnation: Conclusive science has been done on supplements and it proves they do nothing.
  • Actual Point Made: All Vitamin Supplements are useless and only crafted by a market to make money.
  • Actually this is false propaganda. It is wishful thinking which is being shown falsified by real scientific study. Supplemental vitamins have been shown in studies to modulate rates of cancer, while a scientifically significant association has been demonstrated between cancer and shortfalls in thiamine. (see Lu’o’ng KV, Nguyen LT. The role of thiamine in cancer: possible genetic and cellular signaling mechanisms. Cancer Genomics Proteomics, 2013, 10 (4): 169-85.)

“…fake diseases naturopaths have invented, like “adrenal fatigue” and “chronic yeast overgrowth.” It also sells dietary supplements…” (SBM 4)

  • Falsely Framed Context: Rhetoric/Celeber Cavilla/Red Herring/Associative Condemnation: Naturopath support of Michigan House Bill 4531 and unfairness when compared to physicians’ ethical constraints.
  • Actual Point Made: Illness causing, degenerative and chronic diseases are a figment of the public’s imagination. It’s all homeopathy. Injections should only be made by licensed physicians in a doctor’s office. Only licensed physicians should be able to order medical tests. All Vitamin Supplements are useless and only crafted by a illegitimate competing market to make money. There is no legitimate medicine practice which seeks to prevent disease. This all should be done at home in silence and in private or on a black market. Only licensed physicians should be allowed to address preventative health measures.

“However, “orthomolecular/nutritional therapy’ is, in the words of Dr. David Gorski, ‘a parody of nutritional science.” (TSD 1)

  • Falsely Framed Context: Amphibology/Polemic/Praedicate Evidentia/Associative Condemnation: Conclusive science has been done on orthomolecular science and it proves to be the same as traditional vitamin supplementation.
  • Actual Point Made: All Vitamin Supplements are useless and only crafted by quacks to make money.

“The belief in diet and supplementation as the cause and cure of diseases [note: ‘such as cancer’ is inserted here, but noted as red herring rhetoric] continues to be believed by many people, though the evidence for this belief is next to nil.” (TSD 2)

  • Falsely Framed Context: Rhetoric/False Representation/Amphibology/Red Herring/Associative Condemnation: Vitamin injections fail as a cure for cancer.
  • Actual Point Made in Article: All Vitamin Supplements are useless and deadly.

“What we’ve found time and again is that the supplements are not working… we don’t need to go on studying them forever….most of the 53% of U.S. consumers who use supplements are wasting money, to the tune of $28 billion a year.” (TSD 4)

  • Falsely Framed Context: Rhetoric/False Representation/Amphibology/Red Herring/Associative Condemnation: Vitamin injections fail as a cure for cancer.
  • Actual Point Made in Article: All Vitamin Supplements are useless and deadly and absorb revenue which is legitimately the property of pharmaceutical and agricultural clients of mine.
  • Actual Point Made in Article: No more science should be conducted.

and please note that the line above in The Skeptic’s Dictionary was plagiarized from the following article in USA Today:

“What we’ve found time and again is that the supplements are not working… we don’t need to go on studying them forever,” said editorial writer Eliseo Guallar of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, in a telephone interview.” (USAT 1)

  • Falsely Framed Context: Rhetoric/False Representation/Amphibology/Red Herring/Associative Condemnation: Vitamin injections fail as a cure for cancer.
  • Actual Point Made in Article: All Vitamin Supplements are useless and deadly.
  • Actual Point Made in Article: No more science should be conducted.

Notice the last rhetorical point in the last two recitations. This is a common conclusion of a fake-science appeal to authority: No more study is needed. Malevolence and incompetence.  Supplementation is not working for what? What scientifically measurable objective? Curing cancer? What a false pretense of conducting science. When you want to hide an effect, select a large S population and craft irrelevant, fantastical and ridiculously insurmountable ‘hypothesis tests.’ Run one test, bally-hoo it, and declare that no more testing is warranted. This is not just pseudoscience, it is fraud.

These guys’ articles all exhibit these common faults/traits:

  • quoting and citing each other or each other’s work, circularly
  • there is never any research deconstruction or analytical work use as example, calling into question the ability of the authors to actually perform such analysis
  • supplements are treated as this one large evil group of snake oil
  • making money is somehow evil – you should sit in a university office and do fake science
  • regurgitating the same subject matter history about Linus C Pauling & ’emergency room visits’ sourced from each other and NOT researched by the author them self at all
  • citing the same scant study from 40+ years ago
  • overblowing mild signals in old, exclusion compromised and scant study as terror threats about the ‘dangers and deaths’
  • making the same red herring points about injections and cancer
  • using the same rhetoric structure occulting the implication or statement that ‘supplements are useless’
  • publishing in the same opinion forums and outlets
  • citing and reinforcing each other as authorities
  • pretending that pharmacists are unbiased expert resources on health
  • oblivious to the fact that telling person that a nutrient will not work – is giving medical diagnosis and treatment.

In other words. This is a movement of utter, pseudo scientific garbage. The harm and social cost defended by these persons is absolutely historic in magnitude.

epoché vanguards gnosis


(SBM 1)  “Vitamins are magic.” Science Based Medicine: A closer look at vitamin injections https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/a-closer-look-at-vitamin-injections/

(SBM 2)  “…there is no credible evidence to suggest that routine vitamin infusions are necessary or offer any meaningful health benefit.” Science Based Medicine: A closer look at vitamin injections https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/a-closer-look-at-vitamin-injections/

(SBM 3)  “Vitamin infusions are a marketing creation, giving the illusion you’re doing something for your health, but lacking any demonstrable efficacy.” Science Based Medicine: A closer look at vitamin injections https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/a-closer-look-at-vitamin-injections/

(SBM 4)  “…fake diseases naturopaths have invented, like “adrenal fatigue” and “chronic yeast overgrowth.” It also sells dietary supplements…” Society for Science Based Medicine: Dietary supplement company funds Michigan naturopaths’ licensing bill https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/naturopathy-vs-science-fake-diseases/

(TSD 1)  “However, “orthomolecular/nutritional therapy’ is, in the words of Dr. David Gorski, ‘a parody of nutritional science.’” The Skeptic’s Dictionary: Orthomolecular Vitamin Benefits http://skepdic.com/orthomolecular.html

(TSD 2)  “The belief in diet and supplementation as the cause and cure of diseases [note: ‘such as cancer’ is inserted here, but noted as red herring rhetoric] continues to be believed by many people, though the evidence for this belief is next to nil.” The Skeptic’s Dictionary: Orthomolecular Vitamin Benefits http://skepdic.com/orthomolecular.html

(TSD 3)  “Most people in the industrialized world should be able to get whatever vitamins and minerals they need from food.” The Skeptic’s Dictionary: Orthomolecular Vitamin Benefits http://skepdic.com/orthomolecular.html

(TSD 4)  “[Most] supplements [do not prevent chronic disease or death], their use is not justified, and they should be avoided…. After years of study and mostly disappointing results, enough is enough. What we’ve found time and again is that the supplements are not working… we don’t need to go on studying them forever….most of the 53% of U.S. consumers who use supplements are wasting money, to the tune of $28 billion a year.” The Skeptic’s Dictionary: Orthomolecular Vitamin Benefits http://skepdic.com/orthomolecular.html

and please note that the line above in The Skeptic’s Dictionary was plagiarized from the following Eliseo Guallar quote (then was amended at a later date to hide the infraction and include the actual quote, yet still not allude fully to the recitation credit individual who originated the statement – that ill intended shenanigan is shown to the right here, extracted from SkepDic at a later date):

Please note: The reason they believe they can get a way with this type of dishonesty, is the knowledge that no one will hold them accountable for anything they say and do. Cuz’ they are ‘skeptics’ – they can sick the hounds of justice/retribution on you at any given time. Jackboot Consensus.

(USAT 1) “”What we’ve found time and again is that the supplements are not working… we don’t need to go on studying them forever,” said editorial writer Eliseo Guallar of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, in a telephone interview.”  USA Today:  Medical journal: ‘Case closed’ against vitamin pills http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/12/16/vitamin-supplements-research/4042037/

(Forbes 1)  “Instead of getting caught up in genetic screening by alternative practitioners, patients should simply eat well, exercise and not smoke.” Forbes: How Your Genetic Sequence Can Be Exploited By The Supplement Industry; Britt Marie Hermes, 11/14/2016; http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:NVLjYm9I3ucJ:www.forbes.com/sites/brittmariehermes/2016/11/14/genetic-sequence-exploited-supplement-industry/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

¹  Science Based Medicine Vitamins and Cancer Risk; Steven Novella, May 6, 2015;  https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/vitamins-and-cancer-risk/.

The Art of Rhetoric

Rhetoric is an opportunist, desperate for an avenue of entry through any means of persuasion and locution – a form of such extreme commitment to a conclusion that it bears not the ethics and honesty of poetry. An answer seeking a question which then targets a victim – a disliked topic or person.
Don’t be fooled. Rhetoric always defends an answer – always targets a victim. It is the opposite of poetry. It is the opposite of the process of sound science.

The Art of Rhetoric is the process by which dogmatic truths are enforced through the impugning of an antithetical idea or person. It consists of two components: Opportunistic Persuasion and Opportunistic Locution. These two elements are the subjects of the last two blog posts in The Ethical Skeptic:

How You Persuade Makes All the Differencethe ethical skeptic button

How You Say It Makes All the Differencethe ethical skeptic button

unmitigated bullshit - CopyWhen we sequence the two activity sets together, we educe a process which is in its essence, the reverse of science. Rhetoric is a method of convincing a dilettante audience, and even a scientifically trained audience to submit to consensus on an idea – which holds potentially questionable empirical merit. Neil deGrasse Tyson cites that scientific literacy is what empowers one to spot when someone else is full of bullshit. That might be partly true; however, to Neil’s discredit the vast majority of our scientists, even less Social Skeptics, are not well trained enough in philosophy to understand the tenets of what constitutes bullshit in the form and nature of rhetoric. One cannot conduct the process of science in typical social discourse, nor is holding a set of prescribed answers which were handed to you, indeed science. Thus I am skeptical that Dr. Tyson’s one liner is correct. Spotting rhetoric however, is a useful skill; the ability to spot those arguments which seek to take the place of sound methods of science. Rhetoric is designed to trick smart people into consensus through sleight-of-hand persuasion and locution. It is the container ship which docks at the port of bullshit. Similar to Methodical Cynicism being a martial art, Rhetoric is an Art – a rogue doctrine among the humanities.

An Answer Looking for a Question Looking for a Victim

Rhetoric

/philosophy : argument : bias : inverse logic : sleight of hand/ : appearing to be focused on a given topic or a given case example, when a slightly different or less acceptable somewhat related position is actually being surreptitiously promoted. Enacted through opportunistic measures, desperate for an avenue of entry through any means of persuasion and locution – a form of such extreme commitment to a conclusion that it bears not the ethics and honesty of straightforwardness, science, transparency or poetry. An answer seeking a question which then targets a victim – a disliked topic or person.

rhet destroyIt is not simply science after all which equips a person with the tools necessary in detecting bullshit. It is the quality and rigor of one’s philosophy inside their discipline. That is why it is called a Doctorate in Philosophy, a PhD. Facts are peppered about by all sides in most debates. Facts do not necessarily lend deontological knowledge (truth). It is the structure and nature of argument which reveals both the credibility of the arguer, as well as potentially the soundness of their argument. A seasoned philosopher can discern the difference between a dogmatic shallow skepticolyte, and an authentic lay or professional scientific researcher. Take the current blog series among Social Skeptics demonstrating rhetoric about one of their favorite topics of obsession (why they obsess over this I have no idea):

Answer (truism): Ancient and cultural folklore is an unsound basis from which to make a claim that any folk-legend-monster exists or ever existed.

Question (rhetoric): Do “cryptids” exist, or are they simply figments of social archetypal folklore and imaginations?

Victim (target): Therefore, since it is most likely that the answer substantiates the question (apparent coherency), there is, quod erat demonstrandum, no substantiating evidence supporting any crypto-zoological being like Bigfoot.

The Ethical Skeptic does not believe in Bigfoot. But he also does not believe in bad science either.

Backward science is one of Social Skepticism’s primary means of enforcing consensus. Notice that, as always, no actual science is employed in the above process of rhetoric. If we pepper the process above (and in the below exhibit) with ‘facts,’ it renders the process no less an Art of Trickery than it already is in its essence. This is the chief craft of the most senior of Social Skeptics. It is pseudoscience.

The Art of Rhetoric - Copy

An Example of Rhetoric in Journalistic Propaganda

diabetes - Copy - CopyThe following example is pulled from today’s INQUISITR. It consists of a short prejudicial propaganda article by Shelley Hazen, published September 9th, one day after a diabetes study summarized on September 8 2015, outlined how diabetes has grown in 24 short years, to affect half the American population. In an effort to head off public unrest over the idea that something might have caused this precipitous upsurge in disease, social epistemology outlets such as INQUISITR were instructed to head off unauthorized ideas, via push articles for immediate promulgation. This is a regular observable, repeatable and measurable occurrence of Social Skepticism. Some key features to note, which delineate rhetoric based propaganda:

The Ten Features of Rhetoric Based Propaganda
  1.   It is fast in its retort (often right on the heels of the release of disliked information)
  2.   It employs the worst of pathos based persuasion (polemic, apologetic, obdurate, philippic, coercion)
  3.   It protects a single buried Answer (with a capital A)
  4.   It is promulgated through the same, very familiar media channels
  5.   It is written by low-experience, dilettante journalists – compliance minded B students who don’t know any better
  6.   It is fraught with semantic and locution breaches
  7.   It is written in simple to construct, imprecise and non-scientific phraseology
  8.   It lacks technical competency on the subject being discussed
  9.   It falsely spins scientific and research principles into totally different understanding
  10.   It assumes an unmerited position of authority.

Well, as you can see below, the article is a case study in rhetoric. It bears all the elements of opportunistic persuasion, in this case in the form of an obdurate to apologetic. It cannot be a polemic or disputation because it offers no hint of any opposing viewpoint or substantiation of its “Answer” buried as lede inside the prejudicially framed text. Second, it follows through on the persuasion by taking the question raised (Has diabetes risen with obesity since 1988?), and feeding that via a disconcertingly large series (read that as – this person would not last five minutes in one of my labs or firms) of locution foibles into a

prescribed Answer: Type 2 [diabetes] is caused by poor eating, lack of exercise, and being obese.

assumptions they they want to slip by:

  1. poor eating and lack of exercise increased as a precursor to this 20 year period of diabetes increase. When in fact, this is not the case at all.²
  2. poor eating and lack of exercise are the source of the obesity epidemic. When in fact, it is gut flora which is being identified by science as the culprit. Gut flora being altered by a substance we are ingesting on a regular basis.³

The Targeted Victim:  The idea that diabetes causes obesity. The idea that something introduced into the American diet since 1988, has precipitated a dramatic rise in pre-diabetes, and that obesity and pancreatic failure are the later symptoms and not the disease or cause itself. This is the antithetical idea which is targeted by Social Skeptics. Shelley Hazen’s medical pseudo-authority might be even palatable, if there were not at least 11 other maladies which have also skyrocketed in the last two decades (pancreatic cancer, rosacea, skin disorders, childhood diabetes, autoimmune disorders, thyroid disease, IBS/InfBS/Crohn’s, liver distress, kidney disorders, etc.).

click on image to enlarge

example of rhetoric 2 - Copy

Such is the nature of journalistic propaganda from push-media outlets. Such is the nature of apparent coherency spun by social epistemologists for your consumption and consensus. Such is the nature of Social Skepticism. A lie in so many words. An answer looking for a victim.

Such is the nature of rhetoric.


¹  Hazen, Shelley, INQUISITR: Do Half of American Adults Have Diabetes? The Numbers May Not be That Clear Cut; http://www.inquisitr.com/2404697/do-half-of-american-adults-have-diabetes-the-numbers-may-not-be-that-clear-cut/

²  “Physical Activity Statistics: No Leisure-Time Physical Activity Trends | DNPAO | CDC”. WHO. Retrieved Sep 9, 2015.

³  Science Daily: VIB – Intestinal flora determines health of obese people, Aug 28, 2013; http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/08/130828131932.htm

Toxic Diet Pushes US to Higher Diet Related Mortality Rate than Peer Countries

A recently released report on US Health as compared to our 16 peer industrialized nations does not offer a comforting glimpse into the direction our food producers have taken us:

“U.S. Health in International Perspective: Shorter Lives, Poorer Health” http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=13497; National Academy Press,  ISBN-13: 978-0-309-26813-4.

Gmo_acreage_world_2009One of my alltime favorite Imperious Institutional Doctrines defended by SSkeptics is the media propaganda that excessive caloric intake, sugar and sedentary lifestyles are the leading impetus inside the overall decline in the health of the average US Citizen, as well as the leading contributor to our increasing incidence of obesity as compared to our peer industrialized nations.  Now keep in mind that all these nations are beginning to adopt US caloric intake levels, yet they are not inheriting the diet related diseases which we exhibit.  Why?  The US continues to lead the world in endocrine, diabetes and heart disease related deaths despite our focus on health.

This graph on the right shows the level of employment of GM Crops worldwide.  Keep in mind that many of the non-US countries in this graphic are NOT using GM Crops for food, only the US is employing GM Food

Perhaps this is not due to caloric intake.  Here we see another example of an instance where the science needs to be conducted, but rather than hold food institutions accountable, we allow SSkeptics to stand as activists blocking study of this issue by science.  We would rather blame the victims and accuse them of overeating and lethargy.

Indeed however, the statistics from the National Academy Press indicate that it is food toxicity which is the highest contributing factor in US Diet Related Death rates, which are all growing faster than our 16 industrialized peer nations for the same diet related maladies. I have developed below a histography contrasting the two factors of toxicity and caloric intake, and the associated death rates from specific related maladies, from this same data.

Food toxicity effects result in poor health, skewed death rates, caloric intake imbalances, and sedentary responses. The victims are not the perpetrators.

And how are we different?  We are the only nation employing genetically modified and Hybridized/Hormone/Antibiotic saturated foodstocks on a broad scale.

But heavens, we don’t need to do the actual science because we already know the truth: We must protect our corporate sponsors. The purpose of SSkepticism is to keep the status quo and blame the victims. SSkeptics and Science Based Medicine act as our enforcement mechanism blocking science.  We must refuse to skeptically challenge the baseless and outlandish claims that our large scale food alterations are all ‘safe.’  Go debunk Bigfoot and scream about Creationism, but stay away from this arena as SSkeptics are not allowed to be skeptical here.