Tag: conspiracy theories

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Antivaccine nonsense Computers and social media Medicine Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

The antivaccine movement on Facebook: Small world networks, conspiracy theories, moral outrage, and paranoia

Facebook antivaccine networks by gender
Facebook antivaccine networks by gender

Facebook has become a hub from which antivaxers spread misinformation. A recent study looks at what they’re saying and how FB pages facilitate the spread of antivaccine misinformation.

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Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Politics Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

The antivaccine conspiracy theory narrative: You want it darker?

A hero with heroism
How antivaxers view themselves—and us.

Every story must have a victim, a hero, and a villain, and the central antivaccine conspiracy myth is no different.

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Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine News of the Weird Politics Quackery

Google delists Mike Adams’ NaturalNews.com. His hilarious tantrum about the “conspiracy” behind it is epic, as is my schadenfreude.

Mike Adams of NaturalNews.com in a previous gig.

Mike Adams the “Health Ranger” runs NaturalNews.com, arguably the wretchedest of wretched hives of scum and quackery on the web. Yesterday, Google delisted it. You’ll forgive me if I indulge in a bit of schadenfreude, given Adams’ long history of promoting quackery, gloating over the deaths of celebrities with cancer who used conventional treatment, and character assassination directed at science advocates, including yours truly.

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Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine History Holocaust denial Medicine Paranormal Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

2016: The year bullshit was weaponized

Conspiracy theories, pseudoscience, quackery, and belief in things that can be objectively demonstrated not to be true have always been with us. Unfortunately, 2016 was the year that this bullshit was weaponized, and we may never recover.

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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Popular culture Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Does combatting quackery and pseudoscience through rational argument and ridicule work?

As hard as it is to believe, I’ve been at this blogging thing for 12 years now. In fact, it’s been so long that this year I didn’t even remember to mention it when it happened nearly two weeks ago. Over that time period, I’ve dealt with a large number of conspiracy theories. Indeed, skeptics […]