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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Skepticism/critical thinking

A young antivaccine propagandist plans to teach his mad skillz to other antivaccinationists

As hard as it might be to believe, one time over 20 years ago I actually took the Dale Carnegie course and, as part of that course, read his famous book How To Win Friends and Influence People. I know, I know. It’s probably not obvious from my style of writing on this particular blog, […]

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Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Skepticism/critical thinking

“All truth comes from public debate”: A corollary to crank magnetism

Advocates of pseudoscience like antivaxers love public debates. In fact, they think such debates are an excellent way to get at the truth. That’s not how science works.

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Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Quackery

An antivaccine Frankenstein’s monster turns on his creator

Almost everyone knows the story of Victor Frankenstein and his monster. It’s such a classic tale that has been around so long and told so many times in so many ways that it’s almost impossible for someone living in this country not to have encountered it growing up. Frankenstein’s monster is also a tale that […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Quackery

Joe Mercola attacks vaccinations again. Film at 11.

Joe Mercola is antivaccine, through and through, and, unfortunately, his website is one of the largest repositories of antivaccine quackery on the Internet. While it’s true that, unlike the antivaccine crank blog Age of Autism, Mercola doesn’t limit his advocacy of quackery to just antivaccine quackery, he has recently teamed up with Barbara Loe Fisher, […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Medicine

Andy Wakefield exonerated because John Walker-Smith won his appeal? Not so fast there, pardner…

I sense a disturbance in the antivaccine crankosphere. Actually, maybe “disturbance” is the wrong word. Unabashed whooping it up is closer to correct. High-fiving is perhaps a better term. Or maybe partying like it’s 2005. The question, of course, is what is the inciting event was that sparked such widespread rejoicing in the antivaccine world. […]