Con-spiracies

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“Healthy, wealthy, and lies” (Anti-GMO seminar)

MONSANTO

I strolled past the signs near the entrance proudly proclaiming that gluten-free food was available within. The store’s names stressed that the food was natural, leaving an unstated assumption that this was necessarily good. There was a detox section, although no one in it was receiving a liver transplant. There was also a sizable aromatherapy section and I was here for an anti-GMO presentation, so I figured I was deep in enemy territory. The organic dog food removed all doubt.

I was one of about a dozen attendees and presumably the only one doing undercover skeptic blogger work. I expected a one-sided presentation, but figured the speaker (a 67-year-old naturopath) would at least be aware of pro-GMO points in order to try and counter them. However, she had never heard of Golden Rice until I mentioned it. This is rice that is infused with Vitamin A, with a goal of preventing blindness in Third World children. Her retort was that Vitamin A should be distributed in other forms, without specifying this form, or how it would be paid for, transported, and delivered.

I thought we might have a chance at some evenhandedness when she described a GMO as “an organism which has been altered.” Anti-GMO types frequently prefer phrases like “manipulated into an unnatural state.” However, that hope vanished when she told us, “In the original Omen series, the antichrist was the CEO of a company thinly veiled on Monsanto. That is fitting, and they knew something.”

She touched on foreign policy as well. “Russia has totally banned GMO foods. They won’t have to launch a war, they will just be able to walk in and take our country because people here will just be zombies from eating that stuff.” I know the undead has been a saturated pop culture topic lately, but burned-out Commies vs. capitalist zombies, I think we’ve got a ratings winner there.

By the end she was explaining “how to avoid these Frankenfoods.” She also regretted that GMO opposition in the United States hasn’t mirrored what has happened in France, where she says the citizenry has ripped up cobblestones and dumped farm animal excrement in the streets. Indeed, the drive home was the one part of my seminar attendance that was without bullshit.

The Omen and Frankenfood references nicely mirrored the naturopath’s own horror tales. These included how 70 percent of U.S. foods are genetically modified and that these products cause liver malfunction and heart failure. And we are washing these GM foods down with aspartame-riddled drinks, which causes Multiple Sclerosis, Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s. Yet we were somehow all alive and spry enough to be hearing this. The other attendees presumably douse themselves in patchouli oil before heading out to buy organic pears and honey lemon shampoo, but that wouldn’t explain why I’m still healthy.

There was frequent praise of organic produce. “Does it cost a little more? Up front, yeah. But do you know how much it costs to be in a nursing home’s Alzheimer’s unit?” This was asked without offering evidence that this is the inevitable destination for the GMO corn-fed amongst us. It also glossed over the fact that Alzheimer’s substantially predates the appearance of GMOs .

She repeated the usual ad populum associated with anti-GMO talk. She pointed out that 26 nations have banned GMOs, with “Europe” being one of the countries she listed. In truth, most of the countries she cited only ban portions of the GMO process. I was unable to get a definite picture, but I could only verify that Zambia and Zimbabwe have truly banned GMOs, meaning they outlaw their cultivation, import, and sale.

“There can be contamination in organic produce, but there’s a difference between 90 percent clean organic produce and 100 percent bad for you regular food.” What is 100 percent bad for your diet is no food, as some Zambians and Zimbabweans can attest.

In any case, the number of countries that have banned it has nothing to do with whether they are safe. Governments can and do pass bad laws based on bad information.

She described GMOs as “Round Up Ready,” which is only true occasionally. Most Round Up ready crops are GMOs, but not all GMOs are Round Up Ready. She used this introduce the idea that glysophate is a danger. Indeed, it can be, but like all chemicals, toxicity is determined by dosage.

I raised this point, asking, “Since the dose makes the poison, what is a safe amount of glysophate? For instance, if you had two acres, how much glysophate could safely be spread?” She answered, “There’s no safe level of glysophate, just none.” I decided to fact check this and came across the National Pesticide Information Center at Oregon State University. Its information about glysophate shows potential danger in certain conditions and doses, but it is far from the death sentence our neighborhood naturopath had guaranteed.

We were shown photos of severely bloated rats that supposedly had been fed GM soy. I’ll give the benefit of the doubt and assume that these rats were bloated for this reason. But if so, the studies test for such dangers, and when proven unsafe, the food is not allowed to be sold.

She made no mention of the 1,783 studies that indicate GMO safety, other than to say such studies are pushed through by wickedly wealthy Monsanto executives and a compliant government. Not all studies are industry-funded, though many are, and with good reason. Most automobile safety tests are funded by the industry, in part because they are liable if they sell a defective product. The same is true with those who sell genetically modified organisms.

Next, the naturopath offered, again without evidence, that industry and government elites “who push all this junk on us, you better believe they’re eating high-quality organic food.”

Between what she said and audience members chimed in with, here were some other memorable quotes from the day:

BEST POST HOC REASONING: “I have a friend whose adult daughter was struggling with infertility. She asked what she could do, and I said, ‘Get her off soy and tell her to eat organic.’ Now she’s pregnant with her second child.”

BEST POLITICAL BIPARTISANSHIP: “It doesn’t matter if it’s Republicans or Democrats. GMO stuff is Obama, and aspartame was Bush and Rumsfeld.”

BEST GRAMPA SIMPSON IMPERSONATION: “These people that are 20 and 30 years younger than I am are idiots and zombies, out there eating all this stuff. It effects the way you think, the way you reason, and your reaction time. In places where they don’t have GMOs, people are bright, they’re engaged, they’re energetic.” Or in the case of Zimbabweans, they are starving because President Mugabe won’t accept GM corn for drought victims.

As mentioned earlier, the only countries I could determine that have banned the cultivation, import, and sale of GMOs are Zimbabwe and Zambia. So unless the naturopath is vacationing exclusively in the Victoria Falls vicinity, at least some of the peoples she’s encountering on her travels are consuming GMOs. Attributing all pleasant character traits to a GMO-free diet, and all negatives traits to consuming GMOs, was part of the presentation’s continual post hoc reasoning.

BEST NON-GMO TERROR CITED: “Fluoride reduces people’s IQ by 10 percent.”

BEST OMINOUS, HUSHED, REPEATED USE OF THE WORD “THEY”: “They created the Zika disaster and then they say we’ve got a vaccine to treat it. They do that again and again.”

BEST REFERENCE WITH WORLD WAR I OVERTONES: “It’s mustard gas when you take a shower because the chlorine heats up the water and turns the water into it.”

 The naturopath closed with what she said was a true tale about a Greek nun.

 “She never kept more than a day’s supply of food. She ate what anyone offered her and she never got sick. Then she had a girl who came to stay with her who tried the same approach, and she got deathly sick the first day. The difference was that before the nun ate anything, she prayed over it, and the young girl didn’t.”

It seems, then, that the naturopath and her kind can dump their anti-GMO food campaign in exchange for praying before consuming it. I can live with that compromise.

 

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“Adjusted development” (Climate change denial)

HEAD

In a Phil Plait column on climate change this week, one reader posted a contrarian response. When asked to provide evidence of his claims, the reader told those he was arguing with to find it themselves. I sometimes encounter persons who erroneously shift the burden of proof, but this was a rare instance of someone adding the preposterous stipulation that their opponent provide the point they were arguing against.

For good measure, the reader added that any evidence on climate change doesn’t count if it comes from the NOAA, NASA, the International Panel on Climate Change, or skepticalscience.com, a website dedicated to the topic. Hey, it’s called climate change denial for a reason.

A couple of weeks prior to this, I read a column by Jay Taylor at the Liberty Alliance that also espoused the denialist position. To this, I posted my boilerplate response to such assertions:

“The central question of this issue is whether deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels contributes to more CO2 and other greenhouse gases, thus driving up average global temperature.

“99.8 percent of articles published in peer-reviewed journals over the past 25 years have concluded the answer is yes. If Taylor has evidence to the contrary, he is encouraged to submit his findings, methods, data sets, etc., to Science, Nature, or some similar publication. Instead, he bypasses peer review and takes his message straight to a sympathetic audience; doing so is the number one sign of pseudoscience.”

A reader responded to this by warning the government will use the issue to try and regulate businesses and power companies. This is the argument of consequences fallacy, and it bypasses the central point of whether the planet is warming and what’s causing it.

Later, the reader wrote that volcanoes are more responsible for rising temperatures than humans are. In truth, volcanoes cool the temperature. Volcano eruptions pump aerosols into the stratosphere, and these aerosols increase the reflection of radiation from the sun back into space. As to the carbon dioxide that volcanoes release, a 2010 study by climate scientist Pierre Friedlingstein showed that human activity normally releases about 35 gigatons of CO2 into the air each year, compared to about one-quarter of one gigaton from volcanoes.

I have yet to respond to the reader, but I assume his take on Friedlingstein’s data would be the same as his view of other scientists and their publications. He wrote, “The peer reviewed claim is a joke. Environmentalism is a religion to the left. It is defended as boldly as Allah by a Muslim. Both produce the same result. Misery for all who don’t subscribe to their point of view.”

Actually, I have yet to see a climate change denier stoned to death. But even if climate science were a religion with bold defenders, that would say nothing about the validity of the claims that are being made or denied. And dismissing peer review as being 5,000 climate scientists fabricating data in order to enrich themselves and provide the government cover to launch a Marxist-style takeover of the oil, gas, and coal industries is the definition of denial.

Making the scenario even more implausible is government hostility to the climate change position. Sen. James Inhofe has been the most conspicuous climate change denier in Washington, D.C., but he is danger of being usurped by Rep. Lamar Smith. In fact, it was Smith’s accusation that scientists are producing fraudulent data that Plait addressed in his latest column.

One of the deniers’ favorite talking points is that warming has slowed. This only works if you use 1998 as your starting point because there was an unusually strong el Niño season that year. Using any other year as the starting point shows a warming trend. However, this weak point for deniers became even more hobbled when NOAA published recalibrated data that showed the slowing since 1998 was less than had been thought.

Smith described this scientific recalibrating of data as an altering of the truth in order to push a nefarious agenda. However, let’s look at what really happened when past climate change data was recalibrated. First, the NOAA set up 114 pristine temperature stations. These stations include three temperature sensors that measure every two seconds and automatically send in data though a satellite uplink.

A frequent denialist argument is that urban heat sources can give contaminated data – and they are right. And these are the types of mitigating factors that are accounted for in the recalibration that Smith is describing as fraudulent and conspiratorial.

Scientists have been recording weather station measurements worldwide for 150 years. This data is used to determine Earth’s average temperature. However, over this century and a half, stations have moved, instruments have changed from mercury thermometers to electronic sensors, the time of day the temperature is taken has changed, and cities have sprouted around the stations. All of this opens the possibility of the temperature record being unreliable. To find out how much temperatures have really changed, scientists have to consider how the measurements were taken and under what conditions, then adjust accordingly.

As mentioned earlier, the adjusted data shows the slowing trend since 1998 is less pronounced than what scientists had thought. However, it also shows that the overall warming trend in the last 150 years is slightly less than thought. This finding is inconsistent with the theory that scientists are being paid to fabricate data to falsely make it appear things are heating up.

There was very little adjustment made for the period 2004 to 2015, consistent with improvements in equipment and methods over the years. Lead author Zeke Hausfather explained, “Over the last decade there are plenty of issues with the raw data, but they tend to roughly cancel out in their trend effects.”

NOAA’s adjustments account for faults in raw data and ensures temperature change is more accurately reflected. It works, even producing one result that deniers would like. Of course, this only further illustrates the evil shrewdness of the conspirators. Smith said the NOAA “conveniently issued its news release that promotes this report just as the administration announced its extensive climate change regulations.”

Sounds like he needs an attitude adjustment.

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“The ploys from Brazil” (Zika conspiracies)

mosquito

Since the outbreak of the mosquito-spread Zika virus in eastern Brazil nine months ago, the same region has seen an increase is the congenital defect microcephaly. A connection is suspected, but not confirmed.

But online conspiracy theorists would never become such if they bothered waiting for confirmation or even suspicion. Instead, within minutes, you can let your minions and cohorts know that Zika is being spread by genetically modified mosquitoes as part of a population control plot. Regarding the population control part, the theorists are right.  The  biotech corporation Oxitec began breeding specialized mosquitoes as a means to limit the flying insects’ numbers.

From Christie Wilcox at Discover, we learn these mosquitoes were genetically engineered to need a certain antibiotic to survive in the wild. Then when a wild female mosquito breeds with a male Oxitec one, it is a death sentence for the offspring. Wilcox explained, “If you release enough such males in an area, then the females won’t have a choice but to mate with them. There will be few to no successful offspring in the next generation, and the population is controlled.”

Now, what does all this have to do with a human birth defect that results in a small brain? The theorists’ main argument is the mistaken belief that the Zika outbreak began in the same time and place as the first Oxitec mosquito release. However, the virus epicenter is on the Brazilian coast, hundreds of miles from where the mosquitoes were released. And again, these mosquitoes are unlikely to be able to reproduce and there is no evidence they are carrying the virus.

A competing conspiracy theory concedes the genetically modified mosquitoes are not carrying the virus, but only because it does not exist. It is a ruse to further enrich Big Pharma with a new vaccine, which the government will use to further increase peoples’ blind obedience to it. This plot would had to have been hatched it least as early as 1947, when the virus was first identified (or fabricated, if you’re a conspiracy theorist).

Yet another evidence-free option to choose from is the claim that the virus is caused by the Tdap vaccine. Anti-vaxxers point out that the same year the virus began spreading, pregnant Brazilians began receiving the anti-pertussis vaccine in the third trimester. 

However, obstetrician and skeptic blogger, Dr. Amy Tutuer, noted that third-trimester Tdap vaccines are common worldwide, while the microcephaly outbreak is limited to coastal Brazil. Moreover, she said, “Microcephaly is a defect that originates in the early weeks of pregnancy when the brain is forming,” meaning an event in the third trimester would have no impact on a process that was completed months earlier.

If unable to decide which of these baseless assertions is most attractive, theorists can watch an Alex Jones video that, at various times, describes the virus as either nonexistent, the result of vaccination, or a Bill Gates plot to foment genocide. What skeptics would see as inconsistency, theorists see as sensationally supple and awesomely ambiguous.

 

 

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“Goode grief” (Truth11.org)

NAZIMARS

I spend enough time in critical thinking circles and examining anti-science and conspiracy claims that I have developed a sensitive Poe-meter. The satires are getting better and the ideas they ridicule are becoming more unhinged, so distinguishing between the two is getting tougher, but I can usually tell. But I failed when I came across truth11.org.

The site hawks plenty of generic conspiracies, along the lines of “Monsanto and the Rockefellers pulled off the Boston Marathon false flag in order to cause autism in the monkeys which the Bilderberger aliens used to start the AIDS virus,” or theories to that effect.

But my meter misfired when I saw my first headline from the site: “German secret societies and U.S. corporations nuked subterranean Martians and built slave colonies.”

I clicked on it, expecting to enjoy a good Poe, but ended up finding the real thing, which is usually better. The website goes beyond the normal conspiracy. The idea of Bush minions pulling off 9/11 with explosives is ever so trite. From truth11.org, we learn that instead lasers and mysterious orbs did the trick. The apparent airplanes being actually holograms coordinated to arrive at the precise time as the weapons of light. 

Truth11.org frequently features the happenings of secret societies – secret societies the website always know everything about. The articles provide no substantiating evidence beyond the words of someone calling himself Corey Goode. This man claims to have been a member of a number of projects and organizations that are far more clandestine than the societies he aims to expose.

With regard to Mars, he relates that the reason U.S. corporations conspired with a German Skull & Bones variant to eliminate the planet’s reptilians and insectoids was to access precious metals. This necessitated first exterminating the indigenous aliens, followed by the building of an advanced infrastructure on the red planet. This means it has been under construction for 70 years without so much as a cement truck spotted in one of the craters.

The appeal to ancient authority happens even when dealing with aeronautics, for Goode describes the spacecraft used as being based on BCE Hindu technology. Just to be safe, he had the reverse engineering take place at Area 51.

This website uses extreme post hoc reasoning in lieu of evidence. For instance, it cites a federal law that stipulates if any U.S. corporation ever mines in space, it would not be subject to government oversight. And this law is used as proof that Americans and Germans cooperated on a Martian genocide.

This eradication of Marvin and his underground cronies was followed by the enslavement of engineers and business executives, who were lulled to Mars by being told they would live in a futuristic utopia they would help build. They certainly made for the most affluent and learned chattel in history.   

Whether a theory is as unbelievable as this one, or is one that is more mainstream among conspiracy theorists, the hook is the same: The listener, owing to his shrewdness and independent thinking, is privy to a fantastic secret. This is all leading to the glorious day of revelation that takes place in an Eternal Tomorrow. It is always so close to happening, but never quite arrives. The website reports, “Goode remains confident that his disclosures are a prelude to massive document dump by a secret space program alliance that will finally confirm the truth.”

While waiting for this verification of alien extermination committed by Nazi leftovers, we can learn about giants sleeping in chambers that arrest the aging process. Goode again reaches into the ancient angle grab bag to explain the chambers were constructed by an unspecified lost civilization using undefined crystal technologies. This created a time warp in which 30,000 Earth years speed by while the slumbering behemoths age just 30 minutes.

And while it’s been going on for these tens of thousands of years, the payoff is again taking place in the Eternal Tomorrow: “Goode believes the beings are still alive, and in the process of being revived.”

Goode never explains where the giants came from, what they are, why they are super hibernating, who oversees this, or if it’s good, bad, or neutral. But he does relate that Abraham Lincoln claims to have seen them, so that says something for the honest nature of these accounts.

When the giants wake up, they will learn that Mankind has developed a manner of space travel using the sun as a portal. Goode said this mode of transportation employs “a form of hyper-dimensional mathematics based on sacred geometry.”

And this is just the first of many galactic airport layovers: “This model links all the stars in our galaxy,” allowing astronauts to travel anywhere in the Milky Way. These travel nodes also exist in places such as the Bermuda Triangle and open and close without warning. When activated, these nodes transport unwilling ship captains and airplane pilots anywhere in the galaxy.

Back on Earth, Goode is captivated by a humanoid robot statue at the Grove Hotel in Watford, England. Specifically, he ponders what this means for our future physiology. The Bilderbergers met at Grove in 2013, so Goode deduces that was an endorsement of the statue, and by extension, transforming people into Avatar warriors. This same hotel also hosted a Google event, and the company’s director of engineering is someone Goode describes as a transhumanism proponent.

Transhumans will largely resemble people but will have immense intelligence, strength, and durability. Not quite Superman, but at least Underdog. Goode said the Google executive “must have felt a kindred spirit with the metallic humanoid sculptures. This will lead to a new arms race that will force our society into a transhuman future.”

Or maybe they could just use the weapons they used to nuke the Martians.

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“Weather or not” (Chemtrails)

FEAR

Moline became the focus of chemtrail warriors last week when they learned WQAD meteorologist Eric Sorenson was addressing the issue using science. Sorenson posted a video explaining that contrails were merely hot jet engine condensation. He also ruminated that the government would be reducing its funding pool were it to engage in a taxpayer genocide.

The meteorologist related what happened next: “My video was shared on a geo-engineering page with a call for people to “Go get him.” Within minutes, the comments turned hateful and angry. One poster wished that my family be poisoned and that a brick be thrown through my head. There are dozens of people who believe I am paid by the government, and a surprising number of people wish me some sort of harm.”

One of the attacking posters seethed, “Anyone denying geo-engineering is in fear of losing their job. When you and your family are so full of aluminum you can’t remember each other, you might realize there is a huge scale weather modification going on.” This is a good example of how a conspiratorial obsession warps a person’s thought process. For in the first sentence, the poster calls Sorenson a liar. In the second sentence, the poster calls Sorenson the one being lied to.

The Sorenson story flittered away after a few days, but the chemtrail saga will endure. Posters such as the one who fantasizes about weathermen offspring being pumped with toxins have raised many questions about contrails over the years. Contrailscience.com does phenomenal job of cataloging these inquires and also answers them, on the outside chance that the questioner is genuinely seeking a scientific explanation.

The website features extensive interaction between the contrails and chemtrails camps, and provides good insight into the mindset of each. As one example, a chemtrailer ties together three unrelated items: A Guardian article about Great Britain supposedly being exposed to bacteria spraying during World War II; geo-engineering weapons previously proposed; and the lingering white lines he sees overhead today. A reader calling himself Uncinus pointed out the items having nothing to do with each other, then added, “None of the geo-engineering proposals would produce a trail that looks like a chemtrail.”

That brought this response from the chemtrailer: “The truth is eminent (think he means imminent). It will be revealed soon. Uncinus will disappear as if he never existed and there will be no one for all of his foolish followers to hold accountable for it. Then it will suddenly become so obvious to you, and you will ask yourself over and over, how could I have been so stupid!” The chemtrail warrior posted this is 2010, so I’m unsure what his definition of soon is. But he does provide a nutshell of conspiracy think. He provides no science, just some name calling accompanied by a warning about something that is perpetually nigh, yet never arrives.

The general idea he and his kind promote is that contrails are filled with dangerous amounts of chemicals – usually aluminum or barium – and the U.S. government sprays them on its citizens, intending to either kill them or engage in mind control. Countering this theory are the fact that its proponents are alive and able to think in a way contrary to their overlords’ wishes.

Many of them claim that yesteryear’s contrails were visible for no longer than auto exhaust is today. Short of unearthing a heretofore unknown database of contrail duration, we can rely on contrailscience.com, which documents non-hysterical references to contrails dating to before World War I. The website has also assembled hundreds of photos taken from books, photo albums, and newspapers that all point to lingering contrails having been with us for decades.

This is because contrails sometimes persist and spread, depending on the weather at the moment of dispersal. Contrails are the consequence of surrounding air and ice crystals from exhaust. They vanish when the ice turns to water vapor. They disappear more quickly in dry, warm air and linger in cold, humid conditions. In frigid enough temperatures, even automobiles can produce contrails. Depending on one’s viewpoint, this is further evidence of contrail innocuousness, or a frightening realization that there are millions more chemtrail disbursing agents amongst us.

Many chemtrail sites include links to an Arkansas television station’s story that allegedly uncovered dangerous amounts of barium that were said to be caused by airplane exhaust. The reporter was mistaken, and when the errors were brought to his attention, he altered his position. Full details on this case are here. But the point I want to make is that, to the theorist, the original story is irrefutable evidence of chemtrail danger, while every other mainstream article and newscast on the subject is wrong or part of the coverup.

Similarly, believers claim the government confirmed the existence of deadly chemtrails in HR 2977. In actuality, this bill bans space weapons, and commercial airliners are neither spacecraft nor weapons (excepting 9/11). But, again, the larger point is that this government “admission” is touted as unassailable truth, yet anything else the government tells us about chemtrails is a lie.

Another common line is that some patterns prove they are not mere contrails. But X’s, grids, and similar shapes are the result of air traffic, wind, and the weather, not the CIA pumping aerosol weapons at us. If the agency is trying to poison us, it is stunning evidence of government incompetence. For starters, they are turning chemical weapons on themselves with hundreds of daily flights into and out of D.C. Further, if aerosol is being spewed from an airplane, it would fall one foot per second, meaning it would take eight hours to reach its intended victims from 30,000 feet. This also means it would be spread over thousands of miles and thus be far too diluted to do damage by the time it reached Eric Sorenson’s nostrils.

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“Don’t bank on it” (Electronic banking conspiracy)

BANK

Most post hoc reasoning is immediate, as in, “I drank a kale smoothie and it worked because my backache went away.” Or, “The gypsy told me good fortune was coming and I won $100 the next day.” But with the Electronic Banking Conspiracy Theory, the consequences arise 25 lifetimes after the triggering event. This theory posits that the introduction of paper money 600 years ago is why my daughter is buying Tap Fish 2 for her iPad today (a purchase that is being tracked by the Illuminati, by the way). What’s more, both the appearance of paper lira and the electronic game purchase are paving the way for the enslavement on Mankind.

There are five phases on this route from shekels to shackles. We are currently in the final phase. I have looked at dozens of conspiracy theories and have yet to find one where the culminating event is 100 or 1,000 years away. Nor does it take place today. For the theorist to get his thrill, dystopia has to be just beyond a tantalizing horizon, always almost here but never quite arriving. This allows them to bravely face this frightening future and cleverly expose the plot.

The first stage was the introduction of paper currency and a banking system. The plotters were extremely patient, as the cabal waited 500 years for stage two, the introduction of credit cards. Next came electronic commerce over the Internet. This was followed by the concentration of wealth by an “international banking conspiracy,” which is the most one can bend over backwards without actually saying ‘Jews.’ The first three stages have clearly happened, and theorists assert the fourth has as well. That sets us up for the final stage, a worldwide electric blackout that will be coupled by the draining of all electronic money accounts by the conspirators.

This is not a terribly widespread theory, and seems to be promulgated mainly by the American Patriot Friends Network, which sounds like a combination survivalist group/day care. Its website’s headlines this week were about the confirmation of alien spacecraft by a Krakow bicyclist, a David Bowie obituary focusing on his promotion of Satan, and a yummy stir fry recipe (touted as a quick and easy food to make in the wilderness).

Members demonstrate extreme acrobatics in their conclusion-leaping. Just a few sentences after complaining about bank annoyance like ATM fees, a writer explains that this means, “The FEMA camps are already in place, global position devices are tracking our every move, and implantable microchips have been nearly perfected.” He then warns about the imminent return of legal slavery, which is the conspirators’ ultimate goal.

Like many conspiracy theories, this one takes elements of truths or half-truths and assembles them in a hodgepodge fashion. It is akin to someone announcing they’ve completed a jigsaw puzzle despite several missing pieces and the person assuming  other pieces the artist never painted. For instance, while the Renaissance introduced paper money to Europe, there is no connection between that and the device you are using to read this. Nor is there a connection between that device and your impeding bondage. This theory assumes that the New World Order’s 16th Century forbearers anticipated credit cards and computers. It is also premised on impossibly evil, impossibly powerful men having the means and will to implement world domination for half a millennium, yet never doing it, a stagnation that would be contradictory.

This final stage will be ushered in when the plotters use advanced technology to drain our bank accounts. I’m giving believers the benefit of the doubt and assume this theory includes a dictate that paper money somehow be made worthless by the plotters; otherwise, the electronic liquidation would fail to put all the money is the elites’ hands. But I could not find this claim on their website. Another huge plot hole is that banks are supposedly a crucial player in this plot, yet the plan would require them to agree to mass suicide since they would go under once the ruling elite emptied the accounts.

These theories are always unclear on how many “they” there are, but believers usually hint at there being just a few dozen of them. This theory fails to explain how people this few in number would control billions of others, or how they would manage to keep their slaves clothed, fed, and housed.

Believers are fond of the fact that Lincoln, Garfield, and Kennedy challenged the banking industry and were all assassinated. Tying these events together is lazy even by post hoc reasoning standards. Although if true, one would have to admire the plotters’ suppleness in working with a Confederate sympathizer, an anarchist, and a communist to accomplish these hit jobs of Leaders of the Free World.

 In this theory, wars are not fought over territory, ideology, or oil, but are meant only to disrupt the economy and gradually gain more control over it. Disruptions will become more frequent and debilitating until society and financial institutions collapse, and all but a select few become slaves. I for one welcome our new reptilian overlords.

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“Your daze are numbered” (Numbers Stations)

NUMBERS

Numbers Stations are shortwave radio stations that sporadically broadcast an eclectic mix of seeming gibberish. This includes impossibly coded messages, occasional blips of classical music, and a screeching sound reminiscent of a modem desperately trying to connect during the dial up days. The voices appear to be machine-generated and created by speech synthesis and are almost always female, a Siri without any personality.

These stations have proven to be an effective method for government spy agencies to communicate with their overseas employees. This had long been suspected, and was confirmed in David Wise’s 1988 Book, “The Spy Who Got Away,” about a CIA defector. Further proof came in 2001 when the United States tried five defendants who had spied for Cuba using this technology. The best-known Numbers Station was the Lincolnshire Poacher, which the British Intelligence Service ran from Cyprus.

In Wise’s book, the CIA turncoat explained how it worked:

“A transmitter is set up in Germany or Langley, and the agent knows that at certain times on certain nights you will transmit to him. He is given a one-time pad, which the sender has the only other copy of. The pages of a the pad consist of random five-digit groups that are used to encipher messages with the aid of a matrix or number grid. Each page is destroyed after use.”

All this presents a sizable obstacle to the hardened conspiracy theorist. Most of the population, even the skeptic blogger portion, have concluded there were secret messages broadcast in a spooky voice, that the CIA and KGB were involved, and that there was government denial of something that was clearly going on. Normally, revealed secrets and government cover up would be conspiracy theorist gold. But the theorist compliments himself on being iconoclastic and able to shrewdly navigate false narratives, and that doesn’t work if there’s nothing to expose.

But theorists did not become so by meekly acquiescing to Occam’s Razor. Consider someone with the handle Reef75 at abovetopsecret.com. He writes, “The official and common ‘explanation’ for this phenomenon is that it is some sort of spy communication.”

In truth, there is no official position for this or most other topics. Official, when used in conjunction with the government, refers to entities like agency seals, foreign policy positions, and the nation’s borders. A statement from a government official, or the media’s reporting of it, are not “official,” and this merely serves as a handy pejorative for the theorist to wield.

A British record company released a five-CD collection of these shortwave recordings. Reef75 concludes that this “was part of the cover-up,” without offering reasoning or evidence of this, or even clarifying what was being covered up, or how releasing the sounds was consistent with suppressing them.

While he initially mocks the espionage theory, Reef seems to completely contradict this by writing, “The spy communication theory is probably correct.” But he then quickly does a U-turn back to his version of reality. “But the real question is, who are the spies? And how many are ‘They’?” They, capitalized in mid-sentence and in quotes. Nice ominous touch there, Reef, you’re quite skilled at this.

When conspiracy theorists pose questions, they are not normally seeking answers. For example, when they ask how World Trade Center towers could collapse when jet fuel doesn’t burn hot enough to melt steel, it is pointed out that the beams need only to burn hot enough to melt the steel, which is how blacksmithing works. Anyone genuinely asking this question would be satisfied with that explanation. But having no interest in getting an answer, the theorist moves the goalposts or in some other way deflects the response.

Reef next asserts that no country has ever tried to find out what’s going on with these Numbers Stations. Buoyed by this unsupported premise, he surmises this is because, “All countries are in on it together.” The United States and Iran, North and South Korea, Israel and Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Greece, India and Pakistan, all involved in this lovefest centered on cryptic messages and snippets of Swan Lake.

If accepting the spy premise, the idea that sending and receiving locations are forever changing would seem routine. But if determined to see more, this is thrilling evidence of malfeasance, and Reef excitedly chases the real truth down the rabbit hole. Once there, he concludes:

“These signals in fact confirm that there is a part of the human race that isn’t like the rest of us. I call them ‘The Others.’ If they are 10 or 50 percent of us, I do not know. But my feeling is that they are many. Does anyone have another explanation that fits the scenario with logic?”

Yes, you’re a nut case. But I don’t care for the personal attack, so my “official position” is to defer to the spy scenario, as documented by the Cuban Five case, the CIA defector book, and the Lincolnshire Poacher.

As to why “The Others” are doing this, Reef writes, “The only thing I could think of is that these signals are used as mind control on all of us.” That a human being could come up with these conclusions does seem to support the idea that our minds are being screwed with.

Reef was the only guy I could find online who offered a sizable conspiracy theory manifesto about the numbers station. But there were others who gave terse explanations. One suggested it was the dead trying to contact us – by using impossibly coded messages in a medium available to about two percent of the population, on stations that one must know precisely when and where to tune in. A rather arduous way of letting your nephews know where you left the fishing scrapbook  they are looking for.

A Bing search also revealed a URL that advertised itself as dedicated to exposing the New World Order and Illuminati. With regard to the Numbers Stations, it revealed that, “Trapped in an alternate dimension somewhere in the Bermuda Triangle, children survivors are attempting to communicate through shortwave radio stations.” Alas, when I clicked for further information, the link was broken. The Men In Black and reptilians must have got them.

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“I say tomato, you say genocide” (Anti-GMO movement)

KILLERTOMATO

In my skeptic blogger persona, I am OK with seeking an audience rather than having it come looking for me. I attend the annual Quad Cities Psychic and Paranormal Fair to engage clairvoyants, ghost hunters, and Shamanic healers. I have exchanged e-mails with the head of the Quad Cities Creation Science Association, though I’ve yet to elicit from him an explanation of how creationism works using the Scientific Method. Then there is the Facebook friend who presumably has never heard of Germ Theory and who thinks disease is the result of vaccines, not viruses. Not that diseases are any big deal, mind you, since honey-drenched lemons and a coconut water chaser will cure them all.

There have been some memorable conversations while trying to plant skeptic seeds. I had this online exchange with a 9/11 truther. While less profane, another truther insisted no evidence was needed that the government committed this evil deed because the government commits evil deeds, an especially literal example of circular reasoning.

While I have yet to score a full-blown convert, I plug away through the labyrinth of scientific stupidity, cognitive dissonance, and paranoia. Even in this arena, standing out as among the most unhinged is the anti-GMO throng. Extremists have burned testing fields, vandalized tractors, and attacked farmers. Mike Adams, the pinnacle of anti-science lunacy, even encouraged the murder of those expressing positive opinions about genetic modification.

In one of the more unfortunate cases, University of Florida professor Kevin Folta withdrew from public life because of unrelenting harassment. Folta had held regular podcasts and seminar presentations outlining the science of GMOs. This explication of biotechnology earned him the wrath of the anti-GMO militia, who hammered him with Freedom of Information requests for e-mails on his work computer. FOIA is valuable government accountability tool, but here the act was abused, and Folta was subject to it since he worked at a public university.

As anti-GMO activists had intended, Folta’s work was hampered him having to reply to the unending wave of requests. This was also a fishing expedition in which searchers were hoping to find evidence Folta was a biotechnology industry insider. One e-mail indicated that one of the seminars he spoke at was co-sponsored by Monsanto, although Folta was not paid by the company. This innocuous fact was absurdly presented as proof that he was being funded by Monsanto, he was called the company’s whore, and GMO Free USA is leading a campaign to have him fired.

Folta’s ordeal is unsurprising to me. In my dealings with anti-GMO types, I have never had one of them make an attempt at science. When pro-GMO activists point out that 1,783 studies suggest GMOs are safe, and that no studies reach the opposite conclusion, a common response is that the speaker is a Monsanto employee. Even if this were true, it would be an ad hominem that has nothing to do with the accuracy of the claim.

Opponents of biotechnology unknowingly making public proclamations of their ignorance when they dress as Crazy Corn Men, post memes of apples taking bites out of little boys, and carry signs with images of syringes being injected into wheat. Let’s take a closer look at the reality of genetically modified organisms, or as their opponents call them, Frankenfood.

Food has been modified and improved for millennium through artificial selection. GMO technology allows scientists and farmers to be more precise with these modifications and accomplish in a year what might have taken centuries. From Popular Science: “Scientists extract a bit of DNA from an organism, modify or make copies of it, and incorporate it into the genome of the same species or a different one. They repeat the experiment until they get a genome with the right information in the right place.”

This has yielded multiple benefits, including golden rice, which is infused with Vitamin A and could therefore help prevent blindness and infant mortality in the Third World. While it astounds me that anyone could be opposed a technology that prevents babies from going blind or dying, I know these people exist, so I searched them out and found Greenpeace. The organization wrote, “It is irresponsible to impose golden rice on people if it goes against their religious beliefs and cultural heritage.”Greenpeace, however, cited no examples of Sri Lankan and Angolan preschoolers being force fed golden rice. Then there’s the matter of expressing more concern for a hypothetical cultural insensitivity than preventable toddler deaths.

I’m unsure how diabetic Greenpeace members square their position on genetic modification with their health condition, as insulin is a GMO. Another triumph of genetic modification was saving the Hawaiian papaya. Additionally, some GMOs have developed drought tolerance and this biotechnology can be used to remove allergens from food. Genetic modification may even someday allow those with peanut allergies to enjoy one of life’s simple pleasures, the PB and J sandwich.

Most anti-GMO types think they prefer natural foods. Yet the food we eat today is wonderfully unnatural, having been modified for millennium. For instance, the original banana was tiny, green, and full of large, hard seeds. Even nature has produced a GMO, as the sweet potato developed when soil bacteria entered the plant and modified it. All this was clearly unknown to one online poster, who was mortified to learn that there was a hybrid of two broccoli plants out there. She wrote, “No, no no. Real food, please.” At least she said please. But what she has in manners she lacks in agrarian history acumen. For broccoli is a consequence of the selective breeding of wild cabbage plants over the last 2,500 years. What’s more, cauliflower, kale, kohlrabi, and Brussels sprouts were all bred from the same cabbage that is the great-grandpappy of today’s broccoli.

A frequent false claim is that GMOs, through the Round Up that is often sprayed on them, indirectly lead to super weeds. But this cannot be blamed on GMOs. Weeds do attempt, and succeed, at becoming resistant to Round Up and all other herbicides because that’s what weeds do. If not, there would be no more weeds.

Yet another fabrication is that Europe has banned GMOs. This is true in only two of 51 countries, and even if accurate, would be the ad populum fallacy that wouldn’t provide any evidence of GMO danger.

The anti-GMO crowd also confuses correlation and causation by saying that the increase in genetic modification is to blame for the increase in food allergies. But testing is required when genetic modification is attempted on foods known to cause allergies, primarily milk, eggs, nuts, soy, wheat, fish and shellfish. Biotech developers work with the FDA to ensure that any new GMO foods do not produce new allergens. This highlights the key point that, not only is there GMO testing, but  if there ever were a danger, it would be to a specific GMO, so demonizing the entire technology is unfounded.

Perhaps the most misinformed idea about genetic modification is thinking that almost everything about a GMO has been altered. This is why you get clowns driving around with tomato-fishes on their cars. In truth, only one to four genes are affected with genetic modification, while up to 300,000 genes are impacted when using traditional breeding.

It would be stating the obvious to note that there never has been a tomato fish. Less known is that there was never even a commercial tomato with fish genes inserted, and that this was another victory for GMO testing. Frost will inhibit tomato growth and one possible solution considered was to copy an antifreeze gene from flounder and transfer it to tomatoes. The resultant fruit was shown to be ineffective in trials and was never used since it would have been of no use to farmers. Nor would it be beneficial for farmers to grow, handle, and consume dangerous crops, poison their soil, and increase their use of carcinogenic herbicides and pesticides, all of which they would be doing if what anti-GMO types are saying was true.

 

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“Zany night in Georgia” (Guidestones)

EVILGEORGE

NOTE: The Georgia Guidestones were destroyed in a terrorist attack on July 6, 2022

In almost every conspiracy theory, adherents suggest a narrative that differs from a more-accepted version. For instance, henchmen of George W. Bush, not Osama bin Laden, engineered 9/11. Or Jade Helm was an Obama plot to lock up southern gun owners, as opposed to a military Special Forces exercise.

But with the Georgia Guidestones, there is no Warren Commission Report or Air Force Roswell explanation to try and refute. No one knows the Guidestones’ purpose, and the only person who knows the identity of the man who financed them promised the moneybags that he would never reveal his name. Conspiracy theorists, therefore, have filled the Guidestones vacuum with various heinous storylines. Not that theorists require an information vacuum to operate; they just suck out any evidence that works against them.

Conspiracy theorists and skeptics agree on this much: The guidestones are 19-foot tall granite monuments erected in 1980 in Elbert County, Georgia.  On them are inscribed 10 guidelines, in eight languages. There is also a brief message at the top that is chiseled in four ancient tongues. They are arranged as five slabs with a capstone on top.

Unlike most conspiracy theories, this one contains an element of genuine mystery. In June 1979, a man going by the pseudonym R.C. Christian solicited Elberton Granite Finishing Company to build the structure. His identity and incentive remain unknown. He was estimated to be in his mid-60s when he commissioned the structure, so he is presumed to be deceased.

The guidelines are as follows:

  1. Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature.
  2. Guide reproduction wisely — improving fitness and diversity.
  3. Unite humanity with a living new language.
  4. Rule passion — faith — tradition — and all things with tempered reason.
  5. Protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts.
  6. Let all nations rule internally resolving external disputes in a world court.
  7. Avoid petty laws and useless officials.
  8. Balance personal rights with social duties.
  9. Prize truth — beauty — love — seeking harmony with the infinite.
  10. Be not a cancer on the earth — Leave room for nature — Leave room for nature.

Yoko Ono called them “a stirring call to rational thinking”, while wired.com reports that some opponents consider them to be the “Ten Commandments of the Antichrist.”

Concurring with the latter interpretation is Mark Dice, who declared them to be of “deep Satanic origin,” and who feels they should be “smashed into a million pieces.” While they still stand, the guidestones have been subject to vandalism by those who consider them to be demonic or part of the New World Order plot.

These Ideas are not new. At their unveiling, local minster James Travenstead inadvertently noted their versatility, saying the guidestones were “for sun worshipers, cult worship and devil worship.” He also warned that the Guidestone would someday see “a human sacrifice take place here.” Sort of like Cavalry, I guess.

Then we have conspiracy theorist Van Smith, who attempts to bring computer analysis to his ideas. Smith said that the guidestones dimensions portended those of the Buri Khalifa in the United Arab Emirates, which was built 30 years later. It was the tallest building in the world, and therefore, the Guidestones were meant to be an endorsement of the Tower of Babel.

The type of granite used was pyramid blue, which thrilled some theorists since it suggested some sort of ancient alien Egyptian association. Additionally, when viewed from overhead, the Guidestones form an X, which UFO Report notes for an ideal alien landing site.

The inclusion of Hebrew, meanwhile, suggested to some that Zionists were behind the Guidestones. This was less than consistent thinking, however, since the messages were also in English and no one has seen Queen Elizabeth behind it. Unexplained is how the erection of a cryptic monument in rural Georgia furthers the Zionist goal. It is also unclear why the genocide architects would announce their plans, albeit cryptically. But Dice had an ad hoc explanation for this: “This is a way for the elite to get a laugh at the expense of the uninformed masses, as their agenda stands as clear as day and the zombies don’t even notice it.”

Though the inscribed ideas are esoteric, a majority who have studied them think they are intended to be advice to survivors of an apocalypse, although this would require that the stones hold up during any doomsday. The commissioning came during the year of the Three Mile Island meltdown, and nuclear arms fears were a regular feature of life then. Also, it is known that the financier had expressed fears about Armageddon, so this hypothesis seems the most likely.

Some of the 10 guidelines can seem a little unnerving. Recommending the population be kept at what was one-tenth the of the world’s population in 1980 seems macabre. So does the eugenics overtone that rings through another guideline. The idea of one language and one court, meanwhile, could upset those who fear an impending New World Order. An alternate, equally unsettling, interpretation was that it referenced the warning in Revelation about a common tongue and a one-world government. As an aside, I never understood evangelicals freaking out about Revelation prophecy seemingly being fulfilled. They think it’s inevitable, so why fight it?

When the mystery donor met the granite company president, they agreed that banker Wyatt Martin would receive the funds at various times from different locales, then forward them to the business. Martin agreed only is the donor would reveal his identity, which he did after Martin agreed to take this secret to his grave.

Some suspect the donor was influenced by Rosicrucian thought. Rosicrucians were a secret society in the 17th Century known as “the brotherhood of R.C.,” and the donor’s pseudonym initials were R.C. Further, the guidelines emphasize the use of reason, and Thomas Paine was a Rosicrucian who wrote “Age of Reason.”

While these are two very weak pieces of evidence, the idea is not particularly preposterous. At least it wasn’t until Jay Weinder got ahold of it. One of the country’s busier conspiracy theorists, Weidner agrees that the guidestones are meant for the eyes of those who survive a near-extinction. But this will not be the result of a nuclear war, but rather a homo sapien genocide. Weinder warns, “The shadowy organization behind the Guidestones is now orchestrating a planetary chaos that will result in major disruptions of oil and food supplies, mass riots, and ethnic wars worldwide.” Sounds frightening, until one realizes Weinder had predicted that this would all take place by 2012.

While there have been various ideas as to the guidestones’ meaning, the most creative comes from a beforeitsnews contributor, who laid out a plot involving Free Masons, the devil, and a borderline anthropomorphic primate.

The writer goes through a lengthy, meandering explanation of how he pieced together that the builders were hinting at the date Oct. 3, 2014. Naturally, this can only mean that, “It likely has everything to do with the start of the New World Order plan as laid out on the Guidestones. This is driven by dark forces and one of the things they need to do for their events to become rituals is reveal them in advance.”

When theorists deduce such dates, it is seldom 100 or 1,000 years in the future. Rather, it is an impending date. This speaks to the incentive of the theorist, as they are excited to think that this will be occurring in their lifetime. While they are portending doom, it in nonetheless thrilling to think they will witness it, plus they get to congratulate themselves for sniffing it out.

Our sleuthy scribe included a video of a replacement stone being put in place at the monument. Holding a piece of the broken stone that was being replaced, the worker asks, “Who wants a chip?” Our writer concludes that this alludes to implantable microchips that will be part of the plot.

He also figures out that MM on the monument means not the year 2000, but rather Master Mason. And there’s more, so much more malevolence: “He is also kneeling on his left knee, an unnatural position for someone who is right-handed and has the stone he is chiseling in front of his foot. However, this is the exact position an entered apprentice has when taking the Masonic oath.” All this was being done in order to reject the cornerstone, which symbolizes Jesus, and replace it with a capstone, representing Satan.

The author predicted a cataclysmic event would occur on Oct. 3, 2014. Continuing with his idiosyncratic genius, only he was able to note this when it happened. For that was the day we learned of the United States’ first confirmed Ebola case. It was only one victim, but the systematic slaughter of six billion people has to start somewhere.

While the author had vaguely predicted this event, he points out that Matt Groening and James Brooks has specifically prognosticated it in 1997. A Simpsons episode from that year featured a book, “Curious George and the Ebola Virus.” Even more delicious, the program aired on Sept. 11 of that year.

Just to be clear, Simpsons creators, along with their NWO counterparts, knew that hijacked kamikaze airliners and a deadly virus were on their way to the USA. Our writer concluded this by connecting the dots, or at least rearranging, mangling, creating, destroying, and cramming them in as necessary.

Continuing his ascension into apophenia overdrive, the writer highlights more clues he has deciphered: “Just like the Ebola virus, Curious George was taken from Africa to the USA. His name, George, could hint to the Georgia Guidestones. In the last of the original series of books, George ends up in the hospital, just like the first Ebola victim. If George represents the virus (which possibly originated from monkeys), then the Man the Yellow Hat represents the carrier, Thomas Eric Duncan. His initials spell TED, and in the 2006 Curious George film, the formerly anonymous Man in the Yellow Hat is named Ted.”

I was able to figure out two more that he missed. “Sweet Georgia Brown” references George’s color, while Ted’s complexion is about the same as a a Georgia peach. You know, I was trying ridicule the guy’s mindset, but think I came up short. My parody is less humorous than his sincerity.

 

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“Positively mistaken” (HIV denial)

Medical Claim REJECTED

Today, HIV denial is a garden variety conspiracy theory. A scapegoat is pegged, the establishment is accused of a coverup, and evidence is cherry picked. Logical fallacies and ad hominem are sprinkled liberally and when backed into a counterpoint corner, proponents move the goalposts.

But in its early days of 1984, HIV denial might not have seemed all that crazy. For some, identifying HIV as the cause of AIDS was just too convenient to have happened in a presidential election year. Specifically, a reelection year for a conservative darling whose administration had been criticized for doing so little to combat the disease. Coming not long after Vietnam and Watergate, it’s easy to see how a person could have doubted it when government scientists announced this major breakthrough.

One classmate during my sophomore year of high school wondered what the big deal was, since AIDS was primarily killing homosexuals and drug users. While this extreme position was not a consensus opinion even in small-town 1983, AIDS was a peripheral concern among many considering how serious it should have been taken by all. It was primarily impacting some of society’s most scorned populations, so questioning whether the solution had even been sought could have seemed legitimate. 

However, once the science was explained and repeatedly demonstrated, the doubt turned into denial, and it cost some people their lives. This was most true in South Africa, where Thabo Mbeki’s terms as vice president and president were marred by his pushing of sham treatments for HIV positive persons. He championed the use of virodene, which contains dimethylformamide. Unlike those cited by the Food Babe, this chemical is dangerous to ingest, as it can lead to irreversible and even fatal liver damage. Mbeki considered other treatments to be a fraud meant to enrich pharmaceutical companies. He also embraced a homemade remedy of Africa potato, olive green leaves, and grapefruit seeds.

In what would be comical sideshows were the issue less serious, other denial camps claimed HIV was the result of voodoo, or that it was a western plot to undermine communism. Alas, the issue was of utmost seriousness. Denial caused some to reject medication until it was too late. Mbeki’s shameless denial and promotion of bogus cures led a third of a million South Africans to die without seeking legitimate treatment. And one of the saddest ironies of the denialist movement was when some of its main proponents, the editors at Continuum magazine, all perished from AIDS.

Another poignant case was that of Christine Maggiore, who promoted HIV denial while HIV positive and pregnant. She and her baby both died from AIDS-related illnesses. With these deaths, the HIV denial movement largely collapsed. Today, it would likely gain momentum, as the Maggiores’ deaths would be followed by immediate, baseless claims that they had been murdered by government agents and Big Pharma thugs. Of course, there are still pockets of deniers, just like there are those who think super-evolved reptilians and lording over a Flat Earth.

HIV denial fails to address the fact that AIDS is successfully treated with anti-HIV medication, and that almost anyone with HIV develops AIDS if untreated. The counterarguments are flimsy. Maggiore, for instance, pointed out that other factors could lead to symptoms experienced by HIV positive persons. That would be like arguing that fatal crashes can be caused by texting or whiteout conditions, so therefore, no one has died from drunk driving.

Meanwhile, Cal-Berkeley professor Peter Duesberg thinks it a crucial point that AIDS can stay latent for five years, whereas other viruses attack the host within days. This is irrelevant since latency is unrelated to causation.

When CDC epidemiologists searched for the cause, one of the earliest clues was the mode of transmission. People with AIDS had been exposed to bodily fluids of others with the disease. Another key realization centered on hemophiliacs. Though the blood they received was filtered, they still became ill, and only viruses were able to bypass these filters. During CDC research, HIV was found to be present in all AIDS-afflicted persons, while no other agent was present in every patient.

This leads us to the Koch Postulates. These are the four criteria that must be met to establish a causative relationship between a microbe and a disease. All are met when trying to tie AIDS to HIV: The microorganism is found in all organisms suffering from the disease; the microorganism has been isolated from a diseased organism and grown in a culture; the cultured microorganism should cause disease when introduced into a healthy organism; and the microorganism must be re-isolated from the inoculated, diseased experimental host, then identified as being identical to the original causative agent.

However, Duesberg continues to insist that AIDS stems from drug use – not the sharing of needles portion, but from the ingestion of drugs such as cocaine. Duesberg is either mistaken about cocaine causing AIDS, or reports of the drug’s prevalence among upper middle class white urbanites has been greatly exaggerated since that demographic is not disproportionately impacted by the disease.