Abuse of the Dunning-Kruger Effect

When does a Dunning-Kruger misapplication flag the circumstance of ad hominem attack by a claimant who sees them self as superior minded? When you observe it being applied in situations and domains inside of which the study authors, Kruger and Dunning, never intended. It behooves the ethical skeptic to actually read the studies which are purported at face value to back habitual social skeptic condemnation tactics. Knowing how to not commit a Dunning-Kruger Effect error in application, ironically is a key indicator as to one’s competency under a Dunning-Kruger perspective in the first place.

A saying is attributed to Thomas Jefferson about the wisdom of self-knowledge, and goes as such “He who knows best, best knows how little he knows.” This quote is actually highlighted inside a celebrated study by Cornell University Psychologists, Justin Kruger and David Dunning; commonly referred to as the ‘Dunning-Kruger Effect’ study. Indeed this principle elicited by Jefferson is embodied inside two of the Eight Tropes of Ethical Skepticism:

I.    There is critically more we do not know, than we do know.

II.   We do not know, what we do not know. Only a sub-critical component of mankind effectively grasps this.

Dunning KrugerOne wonders if Thomas Jefferson, in recognizing this human foible would have been the wiser to not attempt his bold assertions inside of “A Declaration by the Representatives of The United States of America, In General Congress Assembled.”¹ This haughty document, certainly venturing into an arena in which Jefferson himself had no personal degree or particular expertise, represented a projection into a subject about which he could not possibly have known competency.  Surely this is a case of Dunning-Kruger ‘fallacy’ if ever one was observed. An enormous boast of unseemly levels of claim to knowledge (ones which make socialist and social skeptics uncomfortable to this very day):

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with inherent and certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, & the pursuit of happiness: that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, & to institute new government, laying it’s foundation on such principles, & organizing it’s powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety & happiness.¹

But wait, how possibly can ‘the people’ abolish and institute when they are overestimating their competence (Dunning-Kruger) inside the subject of government? Surely they must be ‘anti-government’. Indeed, the Eight Tropes of Ethical Skepticism continue with a focus outlining that the necessity of knowledge, even in absence of knowledge, is to observe and correct when a party (even government or science) seeks to control by means of ignorance, provisional knowledge, methodical cynicism and authority alone (the three basic elements of Social Skepticism). It holds our common service to each other and love for our fellow man and his plight, to underpin with utmost importance our qualification to observe and direct the processes of knowledge. In this instance, regarding Jefferson and those who crafted our first ideas of what a government was to be, courage, risk and personal gumption outweighed calls for caution – specifically because of the particular need, benefit or danger entailed. Dunning-Kruger indeed did not apply because the situation dictated actions of character on the part of an agent of change (see #12 below). This is most often the circumstance which we as ethical skeptics face today.

Dunning-Kruger awareness does not apply as a fallacy of disqualification in such circumstances. This awareness about both the limits of knowledge, as well as when a Dunning-Kruger Effect does and does not apply, relate directly to the Seven Tropes of Ethical Skepticism. Several species/errors in application arise under a logical calculus which seeks to survey the landscape of the Dunning-Kruger Effect:

Dunning-Kruger Abuse (ad hominem)

/philosophy : pseudo-science : fascism/ : a form of ad hominem attack. Inappropriate application of the Dunning-Kruger fallacy in circumstances where it should not apply; instances where every person has a right, responsibility or qualification as a stakeholder at risk to make their voice heard, despite not being deemed a degree, competency or title holding expert in that field.

Example of an incompetent use of ‘Dunning-Kruger’ to condemn all kinds of thought from wine preferences to politics:  What’s Behind the Confidence of the Incompetent? This Suddenly Popular Psychological Phenomenon

This circumstance of employment standing in stark contrast with legitimate circumstances where the Dunning-Kruger Effect does indeed apply. Including those circumstances where ironically, a fake skeptic is not competent enough to identify a broader circumstance of Dunning-Kruger in themselves and their favored peers (several species below).

Dunning-Kruger Effect

/philosophy : misconception : bias/ : an effect in which incompetent people fail to realize they are incompetent because they lack the skill or maturity to distinguish between competence and incompetence among their peers

A principle which serves to introduce the ironic forms of Dunning-Kruger Effect employed skillfully by Social Skepticism today:

Dunning-Kruger Denial

/philosophy : pseudo-science : false skepticism : social manipulation/ : the manipulation of public sentiment and perceptions of science, and/or condemnation of persons through skillful exploitation of the Dunning-Kruger Effect. This occurs in five speciated forms:

Dunning-Kruger Exploitation

/philosophy : pseudo-science : fascism/ : the manipulation of unconsciously incompetent persons or laypersons into believing that a source of authority expresses certain opinions, when in fact the persons can neither understand the principles underpinning the opinions, nor critically address the recitation of authority imposed upon them. This includes the circumstance where those incompetent persons are then included in the ‘approved’ club solely because of their adherence to proper and rational approved ideas.

Dunning-Kruger Milieu

/philosophy : pseudo-science : fascism/ : a circumstance wherein either errant information or fake-hoaxing exists in such quantity under a Dunning-Kruger Exploitation circumstance, or a critical mass of Dunning-Kruger Effect population is present, such that core truths observations, principles and effects surrounding a topic cannot be readily communicated or discerned, as distinct from misinformation, propaganda and bunk.

Dunning-Kruger Projection (aka Plaiting)

/philosophy : misconception : bias/ : the condition in which an expert, scientist or PhD in one discipline over-confidently or ignorantly fails to realize that they are not competent to speak in another discipline, or attempts to pass authority ‘as a scientist’ inside an expertise set to which they are only mildly competent at best. Any attempt to use the identity of ‘scientist’ to underpin authority, bully, seek worship or conduct self-deception regarding an array of subjects inside of which they in actuality know very little.

Non-Equivalence of Competence

/philosophy : deception : bias or method/ : I don’t have to competent on a subject, in order to ascertain that you are incompetent on that subject.

Dunning-Kruger Skepticism

/philosophy : misconception : bias/ : an effect in which incompetent people making claim under ‘skepticism,’ fail to realize they are incompetent both as a skeptic and as well inside the subject matter at hand. Consequently they will fall easily for an argument of social denial/promotion because they

1.  lack the skill or maturity to distinguish between competence and incompetence among their skeptic peers and/or are

2.  unduly influenced by a condition of Dunning-Kruger Exploitation or Milieu, and/or are

3.  misled by false promotions of what is indeed skepticism, or possess a deep seated need to be accepted under a Negare Attentio Effect.

Dunning-Kruger Denial is a chief objective of social skepticism. So it was not surprising that social skepticism recognized this overall malady first; as exploiting its ad hominem potential, is one of the principal tactics of fake skepticism.

Nonetheless, back to the principal context of this blog, with regard to fair contextual application of actual underlying Dunning-Kruger principles, and framed in a more simple and condensed expression:

One does not possess the right, to dismiss the rights of others – by means of a Dunning-Kruger Effect accusation.

What the Kruger and Dunning Study Did Say

Dunning-Kruger ExhibitThe famously heralded study, one by Justin Kruger and David Dunning inside the Department of Psychology of Cornell University in 1999, implied the importance of recognizing when one has outlasted their competency in a given field versus their peers in that field – and the importance of keeping mute/inactive in circumstances where this could serve to embarrass or endanger. A study which would have certainly been embraced by the Royalist or Tory in the day of Thomas Jefferson.  More specifically the study outlined four pitfalls which were observed among 60 – 90 Cornell University undergraduate first year students (below).

(Note: This certainly a Dunning-Kruger commentary in itself as to Kruger and Dunning’s ability to develop unbiased inclusion criteria which would or would not serve to amplify desired effect. Have you ever known an undergraduate freshman who did not overestimate their success in an upcoming exam or evaluation? This is the definition of freshman.

Scientific parsimony would have been applicable here, especially from the perspective of selecting a source-S sample pool of silver-spooned Ivy-Leaguers who have been told their entire lives that they are the smartest person in the room/building. This is like observing if fights will break out when two people hit each other, by conducting surveys inside a drunken London mosh pit full of Manchester United and Arsenal Football Clubbers. It is stupidity dressed up in lab coats. An epistemologically shallow if not elegant convenience of social skeptic tradecraft. A common produit-decélèbre on their part – especially among psychology PhD’s.

What they observed in fact, was the unique nutrient solution of psychology and social pressure which serves to cultivate our brood of social skeptics. These test subjects and their indoctrinated peers will be sure to never step out of line, or speak up when they might be afraid, ever again. See # 11 below.)

Given this skewed inclusive criteria group, one with which Kruger and Dunning were very familiar and inside of which they had already bore an intuitive estimation of positive result, four predictions from the surveys were developed and confirmed:

Prediction 1. Incompetent individuals, compared with their more competent peers, will dramatically overestimate their ability and performance relative to objective criteria.

Prediction 2. Incompetent individuals will suffer from deficient metacognitive skills, in that they will be less able than their more competent peers to recognize competence when they see it–be it their own or anyone else’s.

Prediction 3. Incompetent individuals will be less able than their more competent peers to gain insight into their true level of performance by means of social comparison information. In particular, because of their difficulty recognizing competence in others, incompetent individuals will be unable to use information about the choices and performances of others to form more accurate impressions of their own ability.

Prediction 4. The incompetent can gain insight about their shortcomings, but this comes (paradoxically) by making them more competent, thus providing them the metacognitive skills necessary to be able to realize that they have performed poorly.²

None of the cautions above and below herein of course, serve to invalidate the effect Kruger and Dunning (and others since) have cited in the referenced study. These cautions simply function as a sentinel, flagging conditions wherein such a study might be abused for social ends. To that end, let us discuss some of those circumstances where a social skeptic might abuse such a study as a means of demanding conformance through social ridicule, on issues they are seeking to promote.

When Dunning-Kruger Effect Does Not Apply

A reasonable man would suppose that underestimating one’s ability to adeptly handle the intricate subtleties of a Dunning-Kruger accusation, stands as a form of Dunning-Kruger fallacy in itself. But that does not inhibit our self-appointed elite, the social skeptic from slinging around the accusation with all the adeptness of a demolitions expert in a porcelain factory. The sad reality is that the majority of instances in which I have seen the accusation foisted, have been instances of invalid usage. In other words, as the social skeptic interprets this study and instructs their sycophants as to its employment, they and their disciples are now scientifically justified (remember they represent science) in making the following accusations.

How the four findings of the Dunning-Kruger study are abused in the anosognosia vulnerable mind:

  1. People whom I do not like, do stupid things.
  2. People whom I do not like, fail to recognize how smart I am.
  3. People whom I do not like, fail to recognize how stupid they are.
  4. It is simply a matter of me training the stupid, because as they become more informed like me, they will be come less stupid and recognize stupidity in others.

Do you see the sales cycle evolving here? This is a religious pitch used by fundamentalist Christianity. They could print this up in a tract and hand it out inside airport bathrooms. In other words what the Dunning-Kruger misapplication has introduced is an act of social anosognosia (a deficit of self awareness) on the part of those who see themselves as superior minded. This relates to the more complex comparatives between Intelligence and Rationality, a perception on the part of social skeptics which we addressed in an earlier blog.

Intelligence is smart people who do or think unauthorized things. Rationality is smart people who do or think correct things. Social Skepticism is about knowing the difference.

Ethical Skepticism says ‘Bullshit’ to this line of reasoning.

Which introduces the final point set of this blog, circumstances where the Dunning-Kruger Effect does not bear applicability. Instances where the sociopathology of the anosognosiac have crossed the line into abuse of both the Dunning-Kruger Effect and more importantly, those around them:

Specific instances in which the Dunning-Kruger Effect does not apply include:

1.  In matters of Public Policy.

e.g. ∈ You have the right to speak up about contaminants in your food, you do not have to be a chemist or agricultural scientist.

2.  In matters of Voting, Political Voice and Will.

e.g. ∈ You have the right to speak up about foreign trade policy and jobs, you do not have to be a degree holding economist.

3.  In situations where professionals and non-professionals are involved. Dunning-Kruger is speaking about continuous scale comparatives between peers, not discrete breakouts between groups, as in the case of professionals and various tiers of non-professionals (from layman to dilettante) in a given discipline. From the ‘notes/discussion’ section of the Kruger and Dunning study itself:

“There is no categorical bright line that separates “competent” individuals from “incompetent” ones. Thus, when we speak of “incompetent” individuals we mean people who are less competent than their peers.”²

e.g. ∈ You have the right to speak up about where NASA’s space programs are headed, you do not have to be an astrophysicist or on NASA’s advisory board.

4.  When the speaker is a victim of corporate, governmental, mafia, criminal, supposed or real expert actions or fraud.

e.g. ∈ You have the right to speak up about your vaccine injured child, you do not have to be an epidemiologist or medical doctor.

5.  In matters where there is more unknown than is known, or where science has studied very little.

e.g. ∈ Einstein bore the right to speak up about Special Relativity while simply an entry level patent engineer, he was not disqualified by a previous academic C-average, nor by his not holding a PhD.

6.  In matters where competency in reality only comprises simply a few memorized facts, procedure or trivia concerning the subject.

e.g. ∈ You have the right to speak up about water contamination in your community, you do not have to be involved in constructing assay sheets at your local processing plant.

7.  In matters where social conformance is conflated with competency (i.e. social skeptic ‘rationality’).

e.g. ∈ You have the right to speak up about science ignoring an important issue observed in your local community, you do not have to be a degree holding scientist in that arena.

8.  In matters of personal financial and household management.

e.g. ∈ You have the right to organize community to refuse a tax levied on your home for unfair reasons, you do not have to be a career politician or expert in the subject which is funded by the tax itself.

9.  In matters of personal health, disease prevention and health management.

e.g. ∈ You have the right to speak up about things harming your family’s health, you do not have to be a member of Science Based Medicine.

10.  In matters of personal religious practice or choice of faith.

e.g. ∈ You have the right to say that you observed something extraordinary or miraculous from a spiritual perspective, you do not have to be a priest or scientist.

11.  In any matter or circumstance where the Dunning-Kruger Effect is employed to intimidate or create compliance by means of fear/ridicule.

e.g. ∈ You have the right to speak up about unbridled immigration and population dumping, this does not make you a racist. You have the freedom and right to identify such things as acts of war.

12.  When courage, risk and personal gumption override calls for caution because the need, benefit or danger entailed dictate actions of character on the part of an agent of change.

e.g. ∈ You have the right to speak up about VINDA Autism, you do not have to be a Centers for Disease Control professional, in order to demand third party review of ‘settled science.’

The study authors, had they been following the protocols of science, should have included points such as these in their commentary and counter-point acknowledgement sections. This is what ethical skeptics and scientists for that matter, do; they remain aware of and allow-for counter-point arguments. They regard them as matters of importance. Unfortunately, save for number 3. above (and only in part even for that one), Kruger and Dunning did not bear such circumspection about their own findings in their work. Another shortfall in scientific method.

Knowing how to not use a weapon is the supreme qualification for a user of that weapon. Knowing how to not commit a Dunning-Kruger Effect error in its application, ironically is a key indicator as to one’s competency under a Dunning-Kruger perspective in the first place.

epoché vanguards gnosis


¹  The Works of Thomas Jefferson: A DECLARATION BY THE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, IN GENERAL CONGRESS ASSEMBLED; http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/800#Jefferson_0054-01_104

²  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology: American Psychological Association, December 1999 Vol. 77, No. 6, 1121-1134; Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One’s Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments; Justin Kruger and David Dunning, Department of Psychology, Cornell University. A series study conducted by survey of a series of Cornell University undergraduates about competency and self perception, meta-cognition and projection. (http://gagne.homedns.org/~tgagne/contrib/unskilled.html).

The Rising Age of the Cartel: Your Freedoms Were Simply an Experiment

To the SSkepticism Cabal, the US Constitution was simply a grand experiment which failed, and now we as science should usher our common good back into the 600 year old failed royalty elite-Let them Eat Cake-socialism of the past. Socialism, under the moniker of ‘consensus,’ is moral and is based on scientifically proved principles; which by chance just happen to support specific socioeconomic goals. It is this purposeful emasculation of public rights as being ‘anti-science’ based on their dissent, concern, or unapproved ideas, which we as a nation feared most in our inception – because unlike in the Thomas Paine scenario, it does not just hurt the one who precludes and denies. Unfortunately the Cabal has adopted this take on our free expression, free enterprise and economic rights as a nation. Examine the industry verticals, corporate clusters, and rates of inflation inside of such, wherein they spend the preponderance of their time in advocacy, and you will begin to glean a bit about the goals entailed.

‘Anti-Science!’ – The modern version of being accused of Witchcraft.

I have always strenuously supported the right of every man to his own opinion, however different that opinion might be to mine. He who denies to another this right, makes a slave of himself to his present opinion, because he precludes himself the right of changing it.

~ Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason

Professional Skeptics, The Cartel Big Boys, are Here to Peer Review Your Supposed “Rights” Experiment as a Nation

Hyena method government was experiment - CopyThomas Paine understates the underhanded nature of censorship, in that the one who precludes himself of the right to change his mind is the least harmed by censorship. Even today, against Americans’ knowledge, their speech, their emails, their websites, their ideas – if they run counter to the Cabal, are being censored and muted by those in the Cabal who are seeking to circumvent the US Constitution and enact their own Utopia of Morality and Truth. Further, this control of ideas lends to a greater reality in which Social Skepticism is seeking to promote the dominance of a specific set of socioeconomic goals, commensurate with the rise of the socialist cartel, all in the name of ‘science.’ No better example elicits this current cartel/trust activity than the issue of the current ABCD seed monopoly and the ensuing related GMO propaganda being foisted by skeptics employed to defend the cartel.

The Public is Anti-Science!

“What happens when your political or ideological views are contradicted by the consensus of scientific opinion regarding the evidence (TES note: referring to the “safety” red herring, as opposed to necessity based validity of genetic modifications targeting simply anti-competitive profits by means food technology)? It appears that a common reaction (depending on how strongly held the ideological views are) is to reject science. Not only do people reject the science specific to their issue, they reject science itself.”

     ~ Steven Novella, Neurologica: Politics vs Science, Nov 17 2014; http://theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php/politics-vs-science/

“It appears…” a furtive, lazy and loaded claim to broadscale knowledge. One bearing no evidence and backing only by a echochamber effect from a couple of news articles from familiar crony organizations (see chart below), tendering this same manipulated and extraordinary claim.

Steven whips out his regular ergo sum scientia fallacy – then purposely misconstrues in the above context, vis-à-vis the ‘safety of GMO’s’ strawman and red herring, the principal arguments entailed so they falsely appear to focus on the relative trivia surrounding nucleotide substitutions – yawn – rather than the economic and human rights questions entailed (below). The genetic modification of organisms is a future reality – the public is not against this science. Steven purposely occludes this core argument in favor of his preferred red herring:  By raising objection at all people are therefore, inside the above logic, at war against science …and quod erat demonstrandum their rights should be removed. Only the big boys of self-proclaimed science are qualified to formulate public policy. They are skeptical that your input is necessary.

just a word to the wise - Copy - CopyWhat indeed however is being discussed with respect to GMO food under the constitution is the right of a single corporation and/or 90+% dominant cluster of companies to employ such technology in skirting US Anti-Trust laws; simply to create channel domination profits and promote a single proprietary pesticide, all in the process of construction of a Cartel. In this case the ABCD (Archer Daniels Midland, Bungee, Cargill, Louis-Dreyfus) seed-to-table/glyphosate Cartel being defended by indirectly compensated non-expert Social Skeptics (see graphic of how a cartel functions below). Such a practice is corporate tyranny, rising well above the definition of ‘monopoly.’ It in no way constitutes an argument of safety and science, as Steven (a non-expert ‘skeptic’ in this industry) falsely contends.

In a country where its citizens cannot even call for more in-depth science on the pesticides, genes, growth promoters, hormones, antibiotics and chemicals it is FORCED to consume multiple times every day – because such science and legislation is blocked by so called ‘skeptics’ and legal/electoral threats are issued to wayward representatives,

Is this a constituency which is ‘anti-science?’

Is this a constituency who has constitutional input to its legislative representatives?

In a country where endocrine and immune diseases have gone last-20-year pandemic and cause enormous suffering, and the constituency can do NOTHING about it because ignorant ‘skeptics’ say it is all in our heads, and instead obsess over ghosts, UFO’s, bigfoot, gods, psychics and regulating supplements,

Is this skepticism which is focused on real science or scientific issues of gravitas?

Is all this indicative of a nation which is free?

The answer is a resounding ‘No

Fake Skepticism’s Role in the Rise of the Socialist Cartel

The Structure and Nature of a Cartel - CopyOn March 22, 1966, General Motors President James Roche was forced by the United States Senate to appear before a subcommittee, and further at the end of session to apologize to Ralph Nader for the company’s campaign of harassment and intimidation over his book Unsafe at Any Speed. Nader later successfully sued GM for excessive invasion of privacy. It was the money from this case that allowed him to lobby for consumer rights, leading to the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Clean Air Act, among other things.‡

Nader was successful in his lawsuit because he and his lawyers were able to demonstrate a track record of GM response to his criticism of the Corvair, through trying to destroy Nader’s image and to silence him. General Motors more specifically retained corporate insiders and directly compensated third parties, wherein GM

  1. conducted a series of interviews with acquaintances of the plaintiff, ‘questioning them about, and casting aspersions upon [his] political, social, racial and religious views; his integrity; his sexual proclivities and inclinations; and his personal habits’
  2. kept him under surveillance in public places for an unreasonable length of time;
  3. caused him to be accosted by girls for the purpose of entrapping him into illicit relationships;
  4. made threatening, harassing and obnoxious telephone calls to him;
  5. tapped his telephone and eavesdropped, by means of mechanical and electronic equipment, on his private conversations with others; and
  6. conducted a ‘continuing’ and harassing investigation of him.”‡

The Ralph Nader/General Motors case, more than any single event with the exception of the Big Tobacco obfuscation-skepticism, precipitated the introduction of the modern era of Social Skepticism. The General Motors Corvair case elicited the importance of establishing a non-corporate, non-third party, credible but untouchable group of fanatic activists to act on behalf of corporate interests. A mafia sans the pinstripe suits. A non-liability bearing risk-mitigation group, committed to their social understanding of the science handed to them, who would be willing with or without full awareness, to pursue the enemies of the cartel with fervent and damaging passion. All in the name of science.

Activists so sure of their correctness, that any means of social shaming, career damage, or personal defamation could be justified in the destruction of enemies of truth (cartel enemies). Activists of sufficient academic intelligence to be able to understand some science, develop an argument and publish in journal or media channels, but not smart enough to observe a game of counter intelligence and their role therein.

This prostituting of smart-but-dumb players is a common tradecraft in intelligence circles. It is the essence of modern skepticism.

From the history of the American Medical Association versus the Chiropractic industry: “in 1975 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the case of Goldfarb vs. The Virginia State Bar, that learned professions are not exempt form antitrust suites. In 1982 the Court ruled that the FTC can enforce antitrust laws against medical societies. These two suites paved the way in 1976 for five chiropractors to file an anti-trust suite against the AMA and several other heath care agencies and societies in Federal District Court (known as the Wilkes Case). Similar suites were filed in New York and Pennsylvania in 1979. The pressure of these law suites forced the AMA even before these suites went to court to propose a modification of their Medical Code of Ethics which prohibited M.D.s from associating with chiropractors. But, it was not until 1980 that the Ethics Code was changed to reflect that each individual doctor may decide for themselves whether to accept a patient from or refer a patient to a chiropractor or other limited practitioner.”∈

These two cases more than anything else, established the need for a separate-on-the-surface activism group which was immune to anti-trust, defamation, business tampering and tortious interference laws. Cartels needed a way around the law – and inside Skepticism they found this way.

All this is introduced in the mind of the Social Skeptic under the guise of ‘science.’ Science handed to them by their corporate sponsors. Science which cannot be questioned because Social Skeptics block threatening research before it can even be developed. If you don’t accept the wholesale imposition of their politics or corporate activism, and since they and their political cronies all joined a club self-entitled ‘science,’ you are now therefore anti-science if you disagree in the least with their politics, religion, agenda and professional constraints.. In the particular instance above, Steven is contending that science justifies sets of political action which serve solely to remove human rights. The imposition of privately manipulated food stocks, property which formerly fell inside the public domain, solely for oligarch anti-competitiveness – putting small farms out of business so large socialist cartels can displace formerly free economic mechanisms – and force all of us to consume 1000 times per year, only that which they and their cronies have personally approved. This constitutes simply one small example of the goal of a socioeconomic structure dominated by cartel; cartels which feature:¹

Features of a Cartel Based Industry Vertical

enslavement of nihilismContrary to the mis-definitions of the term cartel by non-professional media sources, cartels are not ‘price fixing rings’ or ‘drug dealing corporations.’  A cartel is simply a tacit agreement inside and outside an industry vertical (one with the remaining few oligarchs) to exclude competition and entry to that market. A cartel does not have to price fix (even though by default position, a cartel is already price fixing whether the players intend to or not), nor does a cartel actually even need be profitable. All that is needed for the formation of a cartel, is the illegal vertical control of a market – enabled by partnership with government regulators, banks suppliers and M1 Financiers, across international borders, such that only grey and black markets can exist aside from its dominion.

Investopedia defines a cartel as ‘An organization created from a formal agreement between a group of producers of a good or service, to regulate supply in an effort to regulate or manipulate prices. A cartel is a collection of businesses or countries that act together as a single producer and agree to influence prices for certain goods and services by controlling production and marketing.’²

This is incorrect. Under this permissive definition, even OPEC is not considered a cartel. First there need not be a formal agreement, rather simply an industry standard set of practices. To sell crude oil, one must hold an OPEC Standard Assay Report on the lot of oil and schedule a Lifting Slot at a pier, assigned to a specific ship with a specific authorized Sail Plan. Otherwise, any oil commerce outside this practice is considered “piracy.” Push article propaganda regularly circulates citing the rise in ‘piracy,’ hoping that the American public confuses this action on the part of an excluded market with ‘Captain Phillips’ – and therefore will support increased regulatory spending. These practices are not enforced by OPEC, rather American and European banks, who will not issue MT series documents to finance any transaction which runs afoul of participation in this cartel practice set. Can I cite a reference on this? No, of course not. These are unpublished corporate policies; sets of relative privation. No one is going to publish a document entitled “Here is How Our Cartel is Run.” One only learns this by actually assisting developing nations in attempting to set up exports for their oil.

Interestingly enough, grey market oil trades are allowed, it is just they are only allowed for certain politicians and highly powerful and influential individuals …ones who could never afford to be seen taking a pay-off. Ones who mysteriously make hundreds of millions of dollars prior to an important election, through ‘smart business practices.’

Second, there need not be any price gouging in a cartel. With the intervention of free money from outside sources, the objective is not price gouging and profitability – rather simply learning how to completely control entry into a given market vertical. There is plenty of money to go around and everything can be made to appear as if it were ‘non-profitable’ (wink wink, all skeptical tongues should be held at this moment). The US Healthcare system is a fine example, of a cartel wherein costs have risen by a very conservative Standard & Poor’s definition with an embedded rate of inflation of 48% every 10 years. Yet still, no one seems to be making blockbuster profits from price gouging. Well, imagine that. There exists an entire network of compensated ‘skeptics’ who are appointed to defend that industry from any unwanted competition.† They have not published a set of practices in this. They just do it. “Anti-Science!!” “Deadly, Toxic, Placebo!!” are the bully weapon words employed in that shill argument. All the while conflating the British and American definitions of Homeopathy, which are wholly different, because the British definition affords them more bandwagon one-liners. The result is the Cartel targeting of preventative health philosophies and supplements, which have absolutely nothing at all to do with homeopathy in the first place.

Skeptic tweets, blogs and articles inevitably come out during the work day (most on Monday and Tuesday from 10am to 3pm), over monitored corporate networks. Their claims to have spotted fraud, poorly researched opinion sets, unwarranted and non-supported attacks on people, businesses and institutions are never met with reprisal or word of caution by their employers.  An odd exception in an industry wherein corporate image and professional standards of conduct in communication are constantly touted to be of utmost importance?

Third, it is not simply the goods themselves which are constrained in terms of access to a cartel dominion, rather, the money, agencies, supply channels, remote cost effective labor, cost efficiencies themselves, political agreements, exclusivities, contracts, shippers, consolidators, capital, licenses to operate and import, regulatory agencies, wholesalers, raw materials, etc. It is the limitation of access to these enabling market features which defines a cartel. More specifically this includes the following features:

1.  A fictitious supply of money, exercised through exclusive access placement and paper trading mechanisms which enrich the hidden royal elite of socialism – affording them unique financial access to mineral rights, international trade, materials supply, capital funding, the most highly leveraged manufacturing, channels of supply and political influence.

2. Banks which limit the volume and access, based on overhead and risk, allowed in bond and capital flows; such that only those authorized to do so, can capitalize the large scale formation of international business. These bank policies are constructed outside political boundaries so as to elude anti-trust legal jurisdiction.

3.  Corporations which bear the sole and unilateral right to modify the supply of or monopolize/cartel-ize an industry vertical, without review by or consent from the public. Anti-competitive practices which skirt anti-trust laws by operating principally offshore and through the establishment of multi-national supply monopolies of the materials, manufacturing and shipping resources necessary to establish and operate business.

4.  Corporations which bear the sole and unilateral right to construct shill and small authorized cottage capital businesses, limited in scope and size, bound by non-compete compliance agreements, which serve as barriers to entry and displace legitimate competing free enterprise inside a cartel dominated industry vertical.

5.  Corporations which bear the sole and unilateral right to take public domain property, modify it slightly, and then force this new intellectual property to displace all old public domain assets, in order to create a monopoly/cartel which previously could not legally exist, without review by or consent from the public. (All we have to do is call it ‘science’).

6.  Corporations which bear the sole and unilateral right to power of intellectual property, no longer needing patents or to attain the 3 litmus tests of patent-ability (novel, not obvious, teachable) in order to leverage domination of an industry. Intellectual property can now be forced on the public in an unqualified and non-expiring tyranny of elite ownership. (All we have to do is call it ‘property’).

7.  Corporations which bear the unilateral right to sole access to commissions and governmental agencies by means of communications, legislation, lobbying, mutual employment/inter-breeding and oversight – abrogating their accountability to the public at large. (All we have to do is simply ignore this).

8.  Barriers to Entry which are iron clad and promote economic dependence and elimination of a powerful upper and middle class, free information and press mechanisms – the enemies of socialist cartels.

9.  The comprehensive and complete control of an industry set of transactions such that select sets of those transactions can be allotted as compensation for political favors, election influence, ministry corruption, and rewards to key/royalty participants; thereby avoiding detectable illegal pay-offs. The exercise of such transactions simply keeping the appearance of business as usual for the otherwise inaccessible industry vertical.

10.  Foundations and Activist organizations which are funded by elite fictitious money, seeking to promote the dominance of socialist cartels, undue government influence, elimination of a free press, filtering and control of the internet and information, in displacement of public rights – and themselves fund money to promote compromised educational, media and ‘skepticism’ social groups.

It Starts with the Social Skepticism’s Blocking of Public Access to Rights, Self Determination, Regulation and Information

consensus - Copy

And in the end, with respect to our curiously highly motivated ‘skeptics,’ who publish most of their skeptic work right in the middle of the compensated work-day; all this is justified, no mandated, by those claiming falsely that somehow ‘science’ trumps human rights. The Phil Plaitt’s, Steven Novella’s and Michael Shermer’s of the world spit in the face of the public at large, the Bill of Rights, and insult our collective intelligence by framing the strawman, that somehow – any exercise of rights on the part of the public is irrational, vile and socially deplorable. All deployed behind the smokescreen of accusing people of being “anti-science” for the simple act of defending their rights lost in the above points.

Phil Plaitt decries the exercise of human rights over the manipulation of those rights by figures making the claim to represent science – by equivocally framing this human rights suppression as “investigation, creative progress, science.” Moreover comparing its means of constitutional jurisdiction on the part of the American People to be equivalent to Soviet tyranny and Lysenkoism:

When a society’s government (in the United States: the public) starts dictating what can and cannot be investigated, scientific and creative progress stalls. Lysenko’s work, advocated by Stalin, led to the USSR falling almost irretrievably behind other, more progressive countries; ones like the United States.

~ Phil Plaitt, Bad Astronomy: Why is Our Government Attacking Science? May 1, 2013; http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2013/05/01/attacks_on_science_government_antiscience_on_the_rise.html

This is spin and a great example of Godwin’s Gaffe, practicing exactly what Social Skeptics decry as inevitable and invalid, Godwin’s Law: their being compared to Nazi’s and Communists. The public is not dictating what can and cannot be “investigated” (save for the necessity to manage federal funding deficits and putting a cap on what is considered to be entitled money) – they are objecting to the wholesale imposition of policy, the removal of human rights and right to free enterprise, through the simple act of declaring one’s self to represent ‘science’ or specious claims of ‘scientific consensus.’ Defending one’s rights inside a constitutional jurisdiction does not in any way resemble the actions of old Bolsheviks and Lysenkoists. The designation of the defense of human rights as Lysenkoism, is the attempt to remove the right to self determination by a people, at the hands of those who are not qualified, much less appointed, to make such unilateral decisions.

The USSR fell apart because precisely because they denied public human, governmental and economic rights, not because they squelched the ideas of those who called themselves ‘scientists.’ The alternative Godwin’s Gaffe foisted above is a clueless re-invention of history. Ironically, it was the Soviet Union who delved more deeply into subjects which were and still are, forbidden and disdained by Social Skeptics in the United States.

rise of oligarchy - CopyThe result of this is a dramatic shift of wealth back into the same socialist hands which served to precipitate World War I and II (see graphic from the Economist, to the right). We are well underway back to the establishment of this same form of socioeconomic practice, once again.

Our best and our brightest, too stupid, skeptical and compliant to spot when they have been manipulated into serving institutions which only promote royalty, and serve to enslave and create conflict.

To the SSkepticism Cabal, in their superior educated wisdom, the US Constitution was simply a grand experiment which failed, and now we should step back into the 600 year old failed royalty-Let them Eat Cake-socialism of the past. Because socialism is moral and based on scientifically proved principle, my principles, human rights are an unnecessary if they get in the way of cartel power and the intentions of those who declare themselves to be ‘science.’ It is this purposeful targeting of persons based on their ideas, which we as a nation feared most in our inception – because unlike in the Thomas Paine scenario, it does not just hurt the one who precludes and denies.

This principle, the concept that it is experimentally moral to change government solely for reasons of increased control, and begin to remove and filter ideas based on their ‘truth and reason’ content is no better expressed than by Michael Shermer himself; grand master of social morality and truth enforcement on the populace.  A product of religion himself, now spinning his new religion with a blood-thirst by which even Jerry Falwell would be awed.

If you want different results [government], change the variables. “The founders often spoke of the new nation as an ‘experiment,’” Ferris writes. “Procedurally, it involved deliberations about how to facilitate both liberty and order…” As Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1804: “No experiment can be more interesting than that we are now trying, and which we trust will end in establishing the fact, that man may be governed by reason and truth.” ³

~ Michael Shermer, The Work of Michael Shermer, Scientific American, Sept 2010.

  • Your freedom of speech, was just an experiment
  • Your rights to assemble and communicate, were just an experiment
  • Your right to unfiltered information, was just an experiment
  • A free press, was just an experiment
  • A free capital economy, was just an experiment
  • Your right to bear arms, was just an experiment
  • Your right to life liberty and pursuit of happiness, was just an experiment
  • Your right to thrive, was just an experiment
  • Your right to freedom from totalitarian corporations acting in lieu of the public trust and right to self-determination, was just an experiment

And since We Are The Science, only We, the Cabal, are authorized to issue Peer Review on this experiment.

We will note with the Cabal that, the only thing which will not be an experiment, is their power. That is absolute and unquestionable. They have made this very clear.


¹  Appleyard, Field, Cobb, “In the Real World: The Effects of International Cartels,” International Economics (Seventh Edition), pp 139 – 150.

²  Investopeidia, “Cartel;”   http://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/cartel.asp

³  “Democracy’s Laboratory,” The Work of Michael Shermer, September 2010; Scientific American; http://www.michaelshermer.com/2010/09/democracys-laboratory/

†  Social Skeptic Organizations Directly Compensated by Pharmaceutical Companies:

‡  Unsafe at Any Speed: Industry Response, Wikipedia; extracted 21 Sep 2015:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unsafe_at_Any_Speed.