#646: Michael Ellner

Michael Ellner is an “aids critic”, and his erudite criticisms of contemporary science related to HIV – and its corresponding conspiracies – have earned him his very own page at whale.to. According to Ellner: “Just look at us. Everything is backwards; everything is upside down. Doctors destroy health, lawyers destroy justice, universities destroy knowledge, governments destroy freedom, the major media destroy information and religions destroy spirituality …,” though more reality-apt people would probably note that when Ellner perceives everything upside-down it says far more about his perception of things than it says about the things he perceive. Ellner is crazy. “As far as ‘AIDS’ goes, we have been subject to the most heinous and genocidal fraud in medical history,” and he suggests that instead of ordinary medicine (which kills people) we must renounce evidence, science and reality and go for holistic treatments without the faintest trace of supporting evidence of efficacy. Accordingly, Ellner can offer nothing but anecdotes and imagination to support his claim, but such limitations hwve never stopped a crank (by definition). Then there is POMO: “AIDS is not a disease. It is a social agreement,” writes Ellner and one Tom DiFerdinando; “[t]here are others who need AIDS also. Do not forget. Medicine is a business.” In other words, people are dying because they accept the conceptual scheme on AIDS and death pushed by the establishment. And fortunately Ellner can offer you safe, affordable treatments.

Ellner considers himself “an internationally prominent Certified Hypnosis Practitioner and Pain Relief Educator,” and claims that there is considerable scientific evidence that hypnosis can help reduce, even eliminate pain (assessed here). He doesn't tell us where this evidence may be found, admittedly, but asserts that the “medical establishment” have been spreading lies about hypnosis. It is unclear whether he thinks that hypnotherapy can cure AIDS, but by the power of POMO it probably can.

Diagnosis: It is noteworthy that on his hypnotherapy homepage Ellner writes nothing about his HIV-“skepticism”, almost as if he dimly realizes that there is something less than convincing about it and that it may contribute to undermining his reputation in the field of hypnotherapy. In any case, Ellner is a woo-meister and denialist, who should definitely not be lent an ear in the most desperate of circumstances.

#628: Michael J. Dochniak & Denise H. Dunn

Michael J. Dochniak and Denise H. Dunn are antivaxxers. Indeed, they belong to the fluffy murkiness of the fringes of the already rabidly moronic antivaxx movement. In particular, they are the authors of Vaccine Delivery and Autism (The Latex Connection) (do take a look the comments in that link, in which Dochniak himself shows up; continued here), in which they blame “the latex rubber often used in vaccine packaging and delivery systems,” for what they perceive as an increase in autism rates). The guiding idea is that the dismal failure of previous attempts to link autism to vaccines cannot possibly mean that vaccines are off the hook – the antivaxxers have invested too much in that hypothesis, so instead of rejecting it they need to look for a different kind of connection, and Dochniak’s and Dunn’s attempts are among the desperate results (no, they have no independent evidence for the link).

According to the blurb on the book Dochniak and Dunn are leading experts in the etiology of allergy-induced regressive autism. This is apparently granted them in virtue of having written a book together before called Allergies and Autism, not because they have any real expertise in any related field (Dochniak does point out that he has a publication in the pseudojournal Medical Hypotheses, though, as if that should count for anything). Their work is reviewed here, here, and here, and summed up by commenter Lawrence as “a guess, inside an idea, wrapped in a layer of ‘no evidence.’” Apparently the authors cite Schopenhauer’s infamous (though possibly spuriously attributed), idiotic quote “All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.” That quote alone should be ample evidence that we are dealing with some serious pseudoscience. And apparently that quote is pretty much all they have to back up their hypothesis.

Diagnosis: Crackpottery, through and through.

#626: Thomas DiLorenzo

Thomas DiLorenzo is a professor of economics at Loyola College, Austrian school “economist” (fellow at the Ludwig von Mises Institute) and neo-confederate pseudohistorian. He has previously been affiliated with the neo-secessionist League of the South Institute, though appears to deny any current affiliation. As an economist his work mostly toes the party line of the Austrian theory, and tends to eschew rigorous analysis and scientific approaches in favor of whatever fits his political views (the Federal Reserve creates business cycles, central banking is a “legalized counterfeiting operation,” anything other than laissez-faire is fascism or socialism, and so on and so forth). More personal contributions to the field include blaming the banking crisis on ACORN and Jimmy Carter.

His rise to infamy in the 90s was based not so much on economics but on his work for the tobacco industry. In works such as Cancerscam: The Diversion of Federal Cancer Funds to Politics he tried to argue that by telling people that cigarettes are dangerous charities such as the American Heart Association were scamming the public by using tax money designated for research to promote what he deemed to be partisan political purposes.

Indeed, despite his designated area of expertise DiLorenzo is primarily known for his work in (pseudo-)history. In writings uncannily reminiscent of David Barton’s attempts to portray the Founding Fathers as advocates of theocracy, DiLorenzo has tried to portray them as ardent supporters of (DiLorenzo’s own take on) “small government” principles (except Hamilton – Hamilton was evil and betrayed Jefferson, partially with the help of judicial activism). Surprisingly enough his profoundly inaccurate characterizations tend to portray those who agree with him politically in a very favorable light and those who disagree as remorseless villains.

His most notorious contributions are his screeds on Lincoln, however. In The Real Abraham Lincoln and Lincoln Unmasked, two pieces thoroughly rooted in the mythology of the Lost Cause of the South, Lincoln is portrayed – through cherrypicking and ignoring all of Lincoln’s letters opposing slavery – as a hardcore racist whose sole goal in the Civil War was to keep the Union together. Though the latter may indeed have been Lincoln’s main goal, DiLorenzo’s portrayal is not merely selective or biased, but pure conspiracy theory – according to DiLorenzo, Lincoln was trying to force the South into secession in order to impose tariffs to benefit the North, thereby destroying states’ rights to bring about the institution of the statist “Hamiltonian vision” of a massive federal government, complete with allegations that mainstream historians have been trying to cover up Lincoln's “true” (communist) intentions (DiLorenzo’s claims are discussed here; a very even-handed review can be found here). Also, Hitler was a fan of Lincoln, which is as relevant as always.

As a measure of his success LewRockwell.com hosted a “Lincoln Reconsidered” conference in Richmond in 2003 starring DiLorenzo. The conference has since become a road show reappearing around the South (in line with the grand tenet of pseudo-science: public outreach is prior to research).

DiLorenzo’s writings on FDR and the Great Depression consist primarily of New Deal denialist PRATTs to the effect that Hoover was a crypto-socialist and FDR the great Satan.

DiLorenzo is of course a long-standing opponent of the 14^th Amendment, and has been caught toying with (or even endorsing) the NAFTA Superhighway conspiracy. The SPLC considers him one of the most important intellectuals to “form the core of the modern neo-Confederate movement.”

Diagnosis: A fine example of what happens when truth and accuracy are viewed merely as means (among others) to support a political position. DiLorenzo’s work as a pseudo-historian are at least borderline conspiracy theory ravings, and his apparent influence is hence more than a little frightening. 

#623: Harvey & Marilyn Diamond

“Fit for Life” is a fad diet book based on “Natural Hygiene” and on the legendary woomeister Herbert Shelton’s reality-oblivious theories of food combining – if one eats the food in the wrong order they “cause fermentation” in the stomach, and “dead foods clog” the body, whereas “living foods cleanse” it. The ideas have been refuted by research, but this seems not to matter for Harvey and Marilyn Diamond, who have sold millions of books promoting the bullshit. Harvey Diamond has his degree in nutrition from a diploma mill, and it shows – most of the book is firmly based on the ecological fallacy, including the ridiculously false and misleading but exasperatingly common idea that “animals in nature are magnificently healthy in comparison to the health that we humans experience” whereas pets and zoo animals develop “many of the problems of humans” (there are alternative and better explanations for why it is rare to see debilitating diseases in the wild than invoking natural as some sort of white magic). The main claims of the Diamonds are covered here, though see also this admirably comprehensive list of dubious health practitioners.

Diagnosis: There are quite enough of these loons around, and exposing them will probably help little or nothing. Still, we have a duty to try, and the Diamonds constitute yet another scheme to exploit human biases and anecdotal evidence for purposes that have little to do with truth or well-being, regardless of what the Diamonds themselves may believe. 

#620: David DeWolf

David DeWolf is a law professor (Gonzaga) and senior fellow at the Discovery Institute. In 1999 DeWolf, together with Stephen Meyer and Mark DeForrest, coauthored the 40-page booklet “Intelligent Design in Public School Science Curricula: A Legal Guidebook,” in which a strategy for legal cases involving teaching Intelligent Design creationism in public schools was laid out, claiming that Edwards v. Aguillard mandated “teaching a variety of scientific theories about the origins of humankind” subject to a “clear secular intent of enhancing ... science instruction.” If only ID had been a scientific theory, it would have been good to go, of course, but it isn’t so DeWolf and his gang needed a backdoor. The strategy they developed did not help particularly much in the Kitzmiller v. Dover case. In response to Kitzmiller v. Dover, DeWolf et al. whined that ID is a “valid scientific theory”, that the court should not have addressed the question of whether it was a scientific theory, and that the decision will have no effect on the development of ID as an alternative to evolutionary theory (the latter of which is of course true, since ID-ists were never in the business of developing a theory anyways but rather to get anti-evolution into schools). Their screeds are discussed here, and absolutely demolished here (note also the discussion of an amicus brief containing some rather astonishingly disingenuous claims authored by DeWolf for the case)

He – and in particular his ardent support of “teach the controversy” (i.e. manufactroversy) –

was cited at length by Santorum in the latter’s Address to Congress regarding the infamous Santorum amendment, and it appears to have been a law article by DeWolf that provided the blueprint for Santorum’s amendment.

Diagnosis: In many ways DeWolf is a fine symbol of the Intelligent Design movement. His efforts are of course all about legal strategies for implementing creationism in public education. And that, of course, is what ID is about – it has never been about doing science.