Category: Skeptic Review: Feature Stories

On November 10, 2018, Cassady Fendlay, Communications Director for the 2017 Women’s March, decided to weigh in on the recent controversy surrounding accusations of anti-semitism levied at the current leaders of the organization.

In an article titled “Deciding Who We Throw Away,” published on Medium, she begins the article with the following:

“You can call this the defining test of the Women’s March all you want, but really it’s the defining test of white American women.”

Linda Sarsour took a similar tack (referencing the problem of white women) in a Facebook post published on Nov 9 (See link below)

Fendlay, in her own article, plays the victim card–well, several victim cards actually, in a rambling piece on why we should not criticize the Women’s March.

(Quick review: victim playing is used to solicit sympathy; divert or deflect attention; imply a misunderstanding; insinuate trickery by others; emphasize unjust treatment by others; shift blame in order to avoid taking responsibility.)

Fendlay shifts blame to the following circumstances and  people for any criticism of anti-semitism levied at the Women’s March or its leaders:

History: Movements addressing oppression are always vilified, distorted and smeared. This is simply to be expected with such cutting edge organization.

White women’s outrage/White supremacy. Fendlay suggests that well meaning white women wanted the Women’s March to be about all women rather than placing a special focus on women of color.

“When millions of us showed up to march, there was a prevailing feeling among women of color, especially black women, that the white women who were showing up to march were not really ready to be allies in this fight.”

“Because of how power operates in society, white people’s rage is a dangerous weapon.”

“This is how white outrage actually reinforces white supremacy.”

The Press: “Even the New York Times went along with this narrative, publishing a critical and patronizing piece accusing us of ‘making white women feel unwelcome’.”

Alyssa Milano: “This moment, with Alyssa Milano, is exactly the type of thing black women were expecting. Alyssa is acting in accordance with the tradition of white women who use the labor of women of color when it’s convenient for them, and then use their power to trash those women when it becomes more expedient.”

“Alyssa Milano is calling for this specific kind of performative outrage, making a public statement condemning a Black man.”

“Alyssa Milano and all the white women lined up behind her are actually enforcing the power of white supremacy through their misguided attempt to challenge hate speech.”

Minister Farrakhan’s Importance: “The demand to denounce Farrakhan may seem logical and even simple, but is it? Certainly his words are anti-Semitic, homophobic and misogynist, and obviously that is incompatible with our clearly stated values and principles.”

“As Tim Wise insightfully writes, there is a history here. ‘This shifting of attention from right-wing, white bigotry and anti-Semitism to Farrakhan is a predictable pivot… And it’s one about which most white folks don’t know very much, but about which black folks certainly do. It’s a history of white people telling black people who their “legitimate” leaders and spokespeople are, or should be, and who among them is illegitimate and needs to be rejected.’ ”

Linda Sarsour, Women’s March Leader, Goes After White Women

Careful observers of the Women’s March and its organizers have known for some time that the message of the Women’s March wasn’t quite as unifying as it appeared on the surface.

The earliest sign of prejudice and hateful messaging that was uncovered was Linda Sarsour’s public claim on Twitter that fellow female activists Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Bridgette Gabriel needed an ass whooping and stated, “I wish I could take their vaginas away–they don’t deserve to be women.”

Sadly, I suspect due to political correctness and societal pressures to not criticize Islam, this attack by Sarsour was at first only discussed by conservative outlets.

Meanwhile, the pussy hats kept rolling in. You could buy them online, take classes on knitting your own, or even get them from this questionable outlet with a consumer warning:

Pussy Scouts: Stern Consumer Warning; Content Warning as Well

Then came fringe complaints such as the following:

Pussy Hats Are Out: Pink P*ssy Hat reinforces notion that woman = vagina & vagina = woman

During the height of the Me Too Movement and Believe all Women atmosphere, claims of sexual harassment against Sarsour made by Asmi Fathelbab were effectively dismissed. It would seem Sarsour was above criticism. (Fathelbab’s claims of harassment may be found here: https://www.gofundme.com/asmilegalfund)

In late August/early September of 2018, at the ISNA (Islamic Society of North America) convention, Sarsour was quoted as saying:

“If you’re on the side of the oppressor, or you’re defending the oppressor or you’re actually trying to humanize the oppressor,” she said, “then that’s a problem sisters and brothers and we got to be able to say: that is not the position of the Muslim American community.”

“You as an American Muslim are complicit in the occupation of Palestinians, in the murder of Palestinian protesters. So when we start debating in the Muslim community about Palestine, it tells me a lot about you and about the type of faith that you have in your heart.”

In a speech that clearly mixes church and state, the rhetoric was not widely criticized or reported–in fact, I had to dig it out of Jewish publications to find adequate coverage.

Linda Sarsour, Women’s March CoFounder, Uses Faith to Pressure Fellow Muslims toward her Political Agenda at ISNA

But the recent behavior of Minister Louis Farrakhan who uses his own religious ideology to justify his anti-semitic views, has brought Linda Sarsour to a position where the general public is willing to criticize her. Sadly, it takes someone like Alyssa Milano, a Hollywood celebrity,  to make it okay to talk about the Sarsour problem, when many skeptics have been saying this for some time.

Now, Sarsour will deflect from the deeper questions about her credibilty by turning the tables; Sarsour and the Women’s March are not the problem here. It is white women, her white sisters, that are the problem.

In a lengthy Facebook post dated November 8, 2018 Sarsour says:

“I am focused, always am and always will be because my people count on it. There is too much at stake in this moment. I know what I am about to write will be uncomfortable for some. I write this out of love and necessity. I write this as a call to action and an invitation to the higher ground.

This is to you, my white sisters. Now I know some of you will understand what I am saying and have done the internal work to show up as allies for the most marginalized but we can all continue to evolve. Others have not started.

Women of color have worked hard to show you that your liberation is bound up with ours. That we are in fact in this together whether you want to admit it or not. There are some troubling patterns that stem from decades/centuries of history where white women have been used to uphold the patriarchy and white supremacy, consciously or subconsciously.

I want to break this down as easy as I can. I want you to absorb it, analyze it, think about it. I don’t expect you to agree with it all. I do expect you to be uncomfortable but I want you to sit in that discomfort because there was never a moment in history where true transformation happened that was not uncomfortable. Discomfort brings change.

Don’t be like the white women suffragists who worked side by side with Black women to get the right to vote and when it was granted to white women in 1920, Black women still had to wait till 1964.

Don’t be the white women who will show up in Black and Brown Movement spaces and/or stand up to rally against Trump but don’t have the courage to stand up against members of your family who are supporters of Trump.

Don’t be like the white women who erase decades of hard work of women of color because you have critiques of them and tear them down when you know in your heart they are the leaders we need right now.

Don’t be part of the 3 out of 4 white women who would rather vote for a racist, anti-women, islamophobe over a more than qualified Black woman for Governor.

Don’t be the white women who puts conditions on her solidarity with women of color.

Don’t be the white women who will only show up if they are directly impacted but are nowhere to be found when an issue impacts Black People, immigrants, Muslims, and other marginalized people.

Don’t be the white women who call us to do work with them but don’t want to name the real threat – white supremacy – because they think it’s divisive.

Don’t be the white women who will ignore the real threats of white supremacy but use deflections and distractions to blame the violence happening in our communities on anyone and anything but white supremacists, white nationalism and white supremacy.

Be the white women who challenge each other.

Be the white women who see their liberation tied to all women in the world.

Be the white women that understand that unity is not uniformity and that we won’t always agree. We can’t. We come from different places, different upbringings and different communities. We can agree that we all deserve to live freely and safely.

Be the white women who doesn’t join other white women to tear women of color down but instead seek information and understanding.

Be the white women who asks questions that uses critical thinking and doesn’t get consumed by hate, misinformation on the internet.

Be the white women that understand that there is a divide and conquer game being played and not fall for it. Be the ones who understand that too much is at stake for us to be divided.

Be the white women that de-centers their privilege to give platform to women of color who don’t have the same.

Be the white women who stand boldly and unapologetically for justice for ALL people.

Be the white women who will be able to say decades from now that you were on the RIGHT SIDE of history and you stood with the freedom fighters of this generation, yes, many of whom are women of color.

I am open to having dialogue and conversation with whomever is ready. BUT we have to do this work. I need YOU to do this work.”

——

Another dumping on the white woman problem is provided here by Sarsour’s communications director:

Alyssa Milano & the White Women Lined Up Behind Her: The Oppressor’s Game

In constitutional law, “the Supreme Court has declared guilt by association ‘alien to the traditions of a free society and the First Amendment itself’. It violates both the Fifth Amendment, which requires that guilt must be personal, and the First Amendment, which guarantees the right of association.”

“In other words, the Fifth Amendment forbids holding a moral innocent culpable for the acts of others.”

Source: David Cole, Professor of Law Georgetown University Law Cente, Terror Financing, Guilt by Association and the Paradigm of Prevention in the ‘War on Terror’ in COUNTERTERRORISM: DEMOCRACY’S CHALLENGE (Bianchi & Keller eds., Hart Pub. 2008)

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In logic and argumentation, guilt by association is considered to be a fallacy known as the association fallacy or simply as an ad hominem attack.

Very simply, guilt by association happens when a person is viewed negatively because of his or her association with an individual or group viewed negatively. The “guilty” party has not actually committed any transgression, but is declared guilty simply through some, often loose, association.

Example: A photograph recently surfaced showing former President Barack Obama in the company of Louis Farrakhan.

Louis Farrakhan expresses anti-semitic views. Therefore, Barack Obama must hold anti-semitic views.

Example: Linguist, philosopher and social critic Noam Chomsky has been interviewed by conservative talk show host Stefan Molyneux. Molyneux is known as an anti-feminist and is classified by some as alt-right. Therefore, Noam Chomsky is alt-right and should be condemned and shunned.

In an article written for the Muslim Times, Zia H. Shah discusses how the accusation of guilt by association may be used against moderate Muslims: “In a post 9/11world especially, moderate Muslims have been subject to unfortunate associations due to the acts of fundamentalists and Jihadists.” (Individual Responsibility or Guilt by Association? January 11, 2015)

Historically, guilt by association may be more than a matter of a smear on a person’s reputation–it could result in criminal conviction and punishment. In the book Family Punishment in Nazi Germany: Sippenhaft, Terror and Myth By Robert Loeffel, Sippenhaft is described as family liability for the crime of a relative. The crime committed was often simply being declared an actor against the state or a resistor. Punishment ranged from property confiscation to imprisonment to execution. Children of the resistors could be placed in camps, sometimes put up for adoption if their parents were put to death.

In modern times, North Korean defectors report that guilt by association continues to be practiced today:

Screenshot of Professor Naima Lowe courtesy YouTube.

Naima Lowe, former Media professor at Evergreen College, (an exit agreement with Evergreen awarded her $240,000) has broken her silence after more than a year by writing about her feelings toward the campus unrest in the late spring of 2017.

A video of Lowe, widely circulated on the Internet, drew much attention as she admonished her white colleagues (Lowe is black), accused them of white racism, and eventually called them motherfuckers who couldn’t see their way out of their own asses as they stood silently listening to her abrasive lecture.

This link is cued up to Lowe’s impromptu speech:

https://youtu.be/Y1QOKs9Pw54?list=PLV8ajpBgPg4hANX8zyqI-sCsjS9rGJ07Z&t=368

Firstly, the circulation of this footage resulted in vile, frightening, graphic and racist messages, emails and voicemails directed at Lowe.  There is never, under any circumstance, a world in which this is okay. That part of Lowe’s story is valid and must be condemned by all.

The videotaping continues and a few minutes later in the video (after Lowe’s speech), professors are shown inquiring about whether if they enter the by now occupied library to listen to student demands, they will be allowed to leave. They are told that George (the president of the university) will not be allowed to leave, but that they will allow others to leave. However, if they do leave, it will be interpreted as harmful to the environment.

In her essay, Lowe continually refers to the incident as a “protest,” which is simply not true. Already, while lecturing her colleagues, the “protest” has become an illegal fiasco, far from a protest as defined by the constitution.

For a reminder on protesting, visit ACLU’s Know Your Rights, which carefully lays out your constitutional rights as an American citizen and as an American student. In the video, you can detect that students have piled up furniture against the entries and exits of the library, and will hold President George against his will. In fact, when he says he has to pee, they tell him to hold it. Then they offer to escort him to the bathroom as his only other option. This could result in a felony unlawful imprisonment charge if the law were liberally applied.

Testimony to the board from Bret Weinstein and others described incidences of assaults and batteries; hunting, stalking and impeding; harassment and doxxing; physically blocking police and pressure to not report crimes to police.

Despite these witness reports, Lowe, in her essay, uses the word “protest” in one form or another in excess of twenty times (twenty-two if I counted correctly).

Campus Argument Goes Viral As Evergreen State Is Caught In Racial Turmoil (HBO) published by Vice News on YouTube gives a nice little 7-minute summary of the disagreements:

https://youtu.be/2cMYfxOFBBM

Lowe titles the article, “I fought academia’s cult of civility and all I got was this lousy PTSD diagnosis.” She displays a quote, taken from the WSJ, which reads:

Media professor Naima Lowe urged one of Mr. Weinstein’s defenders to read about how calls for civility are “often used to silence and/or dismiss concerns about racism.” She also said that the “white people making changes in their white supremacist attitudes and behaviors” were those “who do not immediately balk and become defensive,” instead acknowledging that “white supremacy is literally ingrained in everything.” In other words, merely defending oneself against the accusation of “white supremacy” is evidence of guilt.

Clearly, Lowe is very passionate about racial equity, but says that “when faced with the crisis of confronting racism head on, the white liberal tendency (is) to dismiss patterns of structural inequality in favor of avoiding conflict and hard feelings.”

Lowe plays the victim card pretty unashamedly. Examples:

“This is what happens when black women speak up about being harmed within white dominated liberal spaces.”

“I thought that if I could find a way to temper my fear and anger, someone might take me seriously enough to respond to the threats to my life. By the time I finished I’d broken out into hives and spent the night vomiting and sobbing.”

“Authorities dismiss the danger of the threats, and the school does nothing until it isn’t just black people being threatened.”

“At no point did anyone offer me on-campus safety escorts, and if the threats to my life were investigated by the campus or county police, I never heard a word about it.”

“…then being thrown under the bus by white liberal complacency. I was dismissed, disbelieved, and ultimately treated as though my anger in responding to racism was on par with the racism itself that I was trying to address.”

“I spoke out about being tokenized as a black woman… about being repeatedly bullied and targeted on an all-campus email list for speaking out about racism… and about having my tenure case unfairly challenged despite years of glowing reviews by peers, students, and administrators.”

“I received a $240,000 settlement for my trouble, the majority of which I used to pay off the student loans I’d acquired getting the advanced degrees required to be an academic.”

She also notes that during her speech to her colleagues she was “alone, wearing gym clothes, holding my 8 lb. service dog, being black and pissed off.”

She also speaks of a panic attack and the title of the piece indicates she now suffers from PTSD. At the end of her story, she cries to her parents and they comfort her with love and reassurance.

Lowe is extremely critical of the concept of civility because she insists it can be weaponized to stifle speech:

“The dominant discussion about campus speech vilifies and punishes black people for speaking stridently about our experiences of racism and then hides this disdain for our right to free speech and assembly beneath the guise of civility.”

Also, “Civility hasn’t stopped the oncoming train of far right white nationalism in this country, and it doesn’t solve racism on college campuses. The concept is totally subjective, based on the values of those in power, and is consistently weaponized against women, people of color, young people, queers and others marginalized within public discourse.”

Interestingly, Lowe refers to earlier instances where others seem to find her tone abrasive and difficult, even prior to the Evergreen disturbances.

“Various (mostly white) faculty colleagues and members of the administration approached me over my last year at Evergreen to let me know that they were concerned about whether I was being constructive enough in my approach to addressing these issues. They told me that I was alienating people, that I was doing a disservice to my own cause, and that I was making people feel uncomfortable and unwelcome in discussions. They told me to temper my anger so that they could hear what I had to say.”

So is civility really a weapon against the oppressed? I don’t think so and here’s why. As a former teacher, I embraced social justice and racially and culturally diverse lessons. One of my resources was Teaching Tolerance, a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center.

“Teaching Tolerance provides free resources to educators—teachers, administrators, counselors and other practitioners—who work with children from kindergarten through high school. Educators use our materials to supplement the curriculum, to inform their practices, and to create civil and inclusive school communities where children are respected, valued and welcome participants.”

Teaching Tolerance’s sample lesson plans on how to teach civility are among hundreds of lesson plans to lead children to an ability to respect others, to have conversations, to avoid polarization or bullying, and to be prepared to function in society. If we value this enough to teach civility to our children, why would we not expect the same from our adults?

In the end, Lowe does not agree. She ends her comments on this topic with the following sentiment: “Fuck your civility.”

An article titled “Secular Humanist Values Don’t Accommodate Predatory Sex” written by James A. Haught was published on the Patheos Blog on October 17, 2018.

Haught writes: “We agnostic-doubter-atheist-freethinkers are free from religion’s Puritanical sex taboos, but most of us have empathetic decency. We respect the feelings of others. We don’t force ourselves selfishly onto those who aren’t interested. Secular humanism strives to make life better for everyone – and young women’s lives are hurt by crass abuses by domineering men. It’s disgusting. Women deserve complete equality. Their wishes carry the same weight as men’s.”

Which is all fine and good, but in his article Haught proceeds to detail alleged predatory behavior of Michael Shermer, Editor of Skeptic Magazine and Columnist for Scientific American; Lawrence Krauss, Physicist, Professor and Author; David Silverman, Former President of American Atheists and Author;  and Richard Carrier, Author, Speaker and Historian.

As Haught describes the allegations against the four men, he does make some factual errors or fails to detail the accused’s side of the story. Instead, he just goes with this: “All the accused skeptics deny misconduct, but their rebuttals are questioned.” Let’s take a look:

1. Michael Shermer: Haught says there have been “years of dispute over whether Dr. Michael Shermer – founder of Skeptic magazine and a Scientific American columnist – took advantage of a tipsy young woman at an atheist convention.”

Shermer has repeatedly defended himself against allegations of sexual misconduct, to the point that he kept an ongoing personal statement refuting accusations up on his website. However, when I checked, this statement is currently not available.

In a recent incident that occurred regarding a speaking engagement Shermer had scheduled at Santa Barbara City College, these allegations surfaced again when, according to Inside Higher Ed, “Raeanne Napoleon, chair of chemistry, shared a four-year old BuzzFeed article with the campus, detailing sexual misconduct allegations against Shermer.

“Shermer is someone who has been accused of sexual harassment and sexual assault (rape) by multiple women,” Napoleon wrote, linking to BuzzFeed.

“Although the police did not bring formal charges against him, there have been many witnesses that have publicly corroborated the stories of the victims.”

Napoleon wrote that while Shermer “still has the right to free speech,” she wanted “to warn the women attending the talk that they should be careful not to be alone with him or hang around late on campus after the talk is over. I am also using this platform to highlight this information to faculty and staff so that you can choose whether or not you will support this event.”

—–

In fact, the Buzzfeed article specifically denies these are rape allegations: “Two more women agreed to go on the record, by name, with their Shermer stories. (Neither accused him of rape, and neither was in a position to corroborate Smith’s story.)” The original accuser, Alison Smith, describes a situation in which she says she was too drunk to consent to a sexual encounter. Smith’s story was shared by a blogger five years after the event.

Also, “multiple witnesses” seems to be a stretch as the two other apparently anonymous women in the Buzzfeed piece cannot confirm Smith’s story.

Here is an excerpt from an email sent to SBCC by Shermer in response to Napoleon’s accusations.:

“After the event I was informed that earlier in the day an assistant professor at SBCC named Raeanne Napoleon sent out an email on a campus-wide email server that defamed me by suggesting that I am a rapist and sexual assaulter. She added to the defamation by implying that any students who do attend should not be alone with me, especially if it is dark, as if I were a rapist hiding in the bushes. This is a disgusting, repulsive, defamatory lie. I am no such thing and never have been and never would be and I will not stand by and allow my name and reputation to be so denigrated. Dr. Napoleon doesn’t know me and doesn’t know anything about me. And yet she feels no compunction whatsoever to publicly hurl such calumnies against me in an act of wonton irresponsibility.

Further, Dr. Napoleon willfully and intentionally left out of her email my public response to the libelous BuzzFeed article, clearly and unmistakably posted in the article itself. So Dr. Napoleon either didn’t read the article she is relying on to defame me, or she did and knowingly and willfully left out my response so as to convince you all to boycott my talk and form an unopposed opinion of me as a rapist and sexual assaulter. Either way, it is a form of fraud, in addition to libel and defamation.

As well, in her email Dr. Napoleon implies that the police were called to investigate me but “did not bring formal charges against him.” This is another defamatory lie. Dr. Napoleon has no evidence whatsoever about anything the police did or did not do because there never were any police ever involved in relation to me about anything I have ever done. I have never once spoken to a law-enforcement officer or anyone in any capacity about the lies told about me in the BuzzFeed article. The only motive for Dr. Napoleon to include this lie in her group email to you all was to defame me. That is illegal.

2. Lawrence Krauss: According to Haught, “Physicist Lawrence Krauss, a brilliant hero of the freethought movement, fell into disgrace because several young women accused him of unwanted sexual advances, crude gropings and molestations.”

Haught adds, “Backlashes can be fierce. For example, Dr. Krauss was banned from Arizona State University’s campus pending an investigation. He also was banned from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland and the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Ontario.”

Krauss’s response to these allegations may be found here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IgAGpkAa2vwSMOtFD4iAfwfryTNJbJ_5/view

Haught even speculates: “I wonder if the American Humanist Association will revoke his 2015 Humanist of the Year award.”

I updated my own article about Krauss

https://skepticreview.com/2018/02/23/lawrence-krauss-dissecting-buzzfeed-article-sexual-misconduct/

to include the following information:

UPDATE JULY 31, 2018

Arizona State University has investigated a complaint regarding allegations that Krauss touched the breast of a woman attending a conference in Australia in 2016. ASU ruled the incident is a violation of the university’s sexual harrassment policy. On page 2 of the review, there is a note that the woman involved in the incident had not wanted to make a report and did not feel the incident merited losing one’s job. However, witnesses felt the incident was reportable. The full letter and review is here:

http://www.sciencemag.org/sites/default/files/Melanie%20Thomson%207.31.18.pdf

UPDATE 10.21.2018 Krauss has decided to retire.

An update on my situation at ASU. I have chosen to retire from ASU in May, 2019, when I turn 65. Onward and hopefully upward to new and different challenges. Details below. Thanks for the support and encouragement from so many of you. pic.twitter.com/7PSh0i4NnU

— Lawrence M. Krauss (@LKrauss1) October 21, 2018

3. David Silverman: Haught writes, “Next, David Silverman was fired as president of American Atheists after he was accused of forcing himself onto unwilling women in hotel rooms during the group’s meetings.”

However, this is not the reason David Silverman was fired, and in an interview given with the Washington Post, Silverman states these interactions were consensual. (If consensual, they likely would have been considered inappropriate and unprofessional conduct, but this was never adjudicated.)

Alleged sexual misconduct was not a subject of the investigation that led to the firing of Silverman. According to Pamela Whissel, Editor in Chief of the American Atheists Magazine, “the first complaint alleged violations of American Atheists’ policies, including allegations of undisclosed conflicts of interest, as well as breaches of confidentiality and staff management guidelines. It’s important to know that the first complaint was received before the two individuals brought their allegations to the board.”

And finally, Haught addresses the case of Richard Carrier. I know little to nothing about this case and it is ongoing, but Carrier himself writes about it frequently on his own blog. Carrier is actually asking for support to bring a defamation suit  against FreethoughtBlogs Network et al.

https://www.richardcarrier.info/legalfund.html

So, I’ll just leave you with this thought. On October 18, I posted the following question on the article’s discussion forum:

Where is the due process among “we agnostic-doubter-atheist-freethinkers?”

The answer: My comment was removed.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/daylightatheism/2018/10/secular-humanist-values-dont-accommodate-predatory-sex/

patheos blog saved 10-18

For more, see Inside Higher Ed:

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/06/04/how-sexual-harassment-allegations-against-guest-speaker-rocked-santa-barbara-city

Full email from Michael Shermer to SBCC:

https://www.thechannels.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/email-on-March-21.pdf

An NPC stands for Non-Player Character in a video game.

Courtesy Urban Dictionary:

But the new National Progressive Coalition is pro-Resistance–and this is what is called DISINFORMATION.

Statement of A. Wess Mitchell, Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, Senate Foreign Relations Committee, U.S. Strategy Towards the Russian Federation

Tuesday, August 21, 2018

“It’s important to state clearly what these (disinformation) campaigns are and are not about.

“What they’re not about is any particular attachment to specific U.S. domestic political causes. They are not about right or left or American political philosophy. The threat from Russian influence operations existed long before our 2016 presidential election and will continue long after this election cycle, or the next, or the next. As the recent Facebook purges reveal, the Russian state has promoted fringe voices on the political left, not just the right, including groups who advocate violence, the storming of federal buildings and the overthrow of the U.S. government. Russia foments and funds controversial causes – and then foments and funds the causes opposed to those causes.”

Georgia O’Keeffe’s Series 1, No. 8, 1919.

Carol Miller, Ph.D., of the Portland Ungendering Research Initiative, doesn’t exist. The Portland Ungendering Research Initiative doesn’t exist. Carol Miller and her ungendering initiative are both the products of the imagination of James Lindsay, a male academic and author. Lindsay is part of a team that includes Helen Pluckrose and Peter Boghossian, who recently revealed they were participants in a massive academic hoax critiquing what they term “grievance studies.” A full summary of the year-long project is detailed here:

Academic Grievance Studies and the Corruption of Scholarship

Lindsay, channeling Carol Miller, wrote (in under 6 hours) a piece titled “Moon Meetings and the Meaning of Sisterhood: A Poetic Portrayal of Lived Feminist Spirituality.” The paper “explores feminist spirituality as a center of sisterhood.” “Moon Meetings” was accepted by the Journal of Poetry Therapy without any requested revisions. Sponsored by the National Association for Poetry Therapy, the Journal of Poetry Therapy,

is a peer-reviewed interdisciplinary journal committed to the publication of original articles concerned with the use of the language arts in therapeutic, educational, and community-building capacities. Research (qualitative and quantitative), practice (clinical and education), theoretical, and literary studies are emphasized. The intended audience for JPT includes those in the allied helping professions; as well as those in literary/artistic fields with a concern for the healing/therapeutic aspects of the language, symbol, and story.

“Moon Meetings” tells the story of Carol Miller, Ph.D., who is reflecting on a broken marriage, subsequent divorce, and the unfailing support of her sisters, a group of eleven women who have supported her throughout this ordeal. Interspersed with the narrative are poems, written by Lindsay with the assistance of a teen-angst poetry generator.

But it’s not the poetry I found interesting–it is substandard drivel at best. What I loved about this piece were the characters and the rituals performed at each monthly meeting.

The Characters

(“We aren’t nice women. We’re fierce and free.”)

Carol Miller, our author.

Claire, whose husband Chad doesn’t appreciate her.

Mary, who provides the home for the monthly meetings.

Kahren and Freedom, who both brew beer.

Zolli, Fern and Raven, who make wine.

Roonie, a crone (woman over the “sacred” age of 56) who distills her own shine and is well versed in Hoo-Doo.

Sara, who mixes the ritualistic Blood Wine.

The Setting

The Womb Room, quaint and candlelit.

The Vulva Shrine, constructed inside the Womb Room and “covered in carven ornaments depicting or evocative of the site of womanhood.”

Monthly Moon Meeting Activities

Writing poetry and reading it out loud.

Dancing.

Laughing.

Crying.

Accessing female energy.

Commiserating about unworthy men, emotional frustrations and being controlled.

Celebrating womanhood, including menstruation and other bodily events.

Drinking “deep and long to our bleeding pussies before raising a second toast to the crones who bleed no more.”

Chanting to Freya, to Isis and to Diana, goddess of the moon.

Rituals, sometimes Wiccan, sometimes inspired by Ronnie’s Hoo-Doo. “They’re metaphors and symbols reflecting ancient wisdom and worldviews, celebrating the power of woman.”

Crone ceremonies held “in that liminal time just after Halloween but just before it’s really winter (Eller, 1995).”

A sample invitation to a Moon Meeting I created based on the scenario created by Carol Miller:

And best of all:

Improving the Vulva Shrine

“Presently, we have thirty-three and a half vulvas on our shrine, these mostly being made or found objects resembling or fashioned to resemble that most powerful center of feminine magic. The vulva is that which is lusted after and thus a blossom of power and intrigue, and it is that which opens to bring new life into the world, which is the deepest magic of human existence. It moistens to allow entry to the worthy who can arouse it and desiccates itself to prevent access for the unworthy who wish to. It also bleeds, almost like clockwork, month after month marking the end of every moon cycle that did not produce an offspring, making it an object of (male, thus cultural) abjection, horror, and disgust.

“The half a vulva on our shrine represents the newest addition, the unfinished thirty-fourth.”

In a climactic scene, so to speak, Mary brings a new vulva to add to the shrine:

“It was a found piece of split rosewood which Nature had contoured to a nearly perfect likeness of a gently sprawling pussy opened in awakened desire.

“Mary works wood in her spare time, though, and carved at it, accentuating its shape, fashioning clearer folds, fashioning a clitoris, carving wider the cleft evoking an opening to the worthy. She has it nearly complete, and this week she brought it for our help in finishing. One by one, ritualistically, we took our turns rubbing it smoother with fine-grit sandpaper, inside and out. We all took our turns touching it like the men in our lives won’t touch us or can’t.

“She plans to add a dribbling drop of art resin lovingly between the carven folds and running down. The sheen of her dew. A holy nectar.”

Filmmaker Mike Nayna is documenting this adventure:

Read the full papers and project fact sheet: http://bit.ly/2OsWnnH

Photo courtesy Dr. Phil Show, You Tube.

Review courtesy Sitejabber:

“WORKED TOO WELL” 9/30/18

I had only one arm but then i got the jilly Juice and i regrew that arm but also I grew ANOTHER LEG AND NOW I HAVE 3 LEGS!!!

So disappointed in it, I have to buy 2 pairs of shoes now for my third leg.

-1/5 would not drink again.

I also pooped out my liver.

————-

Jilly Juice is a recipe developed by a woman from Ohio named Jillian Mai Thi Epperly. The juice is a combination of cabbage or kale, water and salt. It is then fermented and used as a type of body detox which Epperly claims will increase the body’s own immune system and may heal cancer, autism, homosexuality, aging (you may now live up to 400) and aging related diseases, and may eventually regenerate organs or even regrow limbs.

The Better Business Bureau offers the following information on Jilly Juice:

Alert

BBB has received multiple scamtracker reports from consumers that Jillian Burke-Epperly is marketing Jilly Juice on the website jillyjuice.com as an anti-inflammatory diet. The reports to BBB indicate severe side effects which required hospitalization and/or death from extreme dehydration and salt poisoning. The website states Jilly Juice will reverse all health conditions A-Z including: autism, cancer, HIV, Downs syndrome and homosexuality. The “juice” is made up of fermented cabbage and salt and claims to detoxify the body. Members are required to pay $30 per year for a subscription to the website and additional fees up to $75 for private consultations.

The BBB advises consumers to consult a physician before beginning any plan to treat medical conditions.

————

Epperly was invited to appear on the Dr. Phil Show in May of 2018. The episode was titled “Jilly Juice: Claims to Cure Cancer, Regrow Missing Limbs and Reverse Aging: Is This a Dangerous Scam?” In this episode, Dr. Phil invites Jillian Epperly, two guests who believe they have been helped by the juice, two guests who both say they had strokes after following the protocol, and Jeff Holiday, pseudoscience debunker and YouTuber who discusses the potential of sodium poisoning and violent diarrhea. Stroke risks and dangers of acute diarrhea are confirmed by guest physician Doctor Adrienne Youdim, an Internist specializing in clinical nutrition and obesity medicine and an associate professor at both Cedars Sinai Medical Center and at UCLA.

The Ohio Attorney General’s Office opened an investigation into Jilly’s Juice to which Epperly responded in June of 2018. I have excerpted her answers to each question. The full document is available in PDF format on Epperly’s website:

Response to Ohio Attorney General Michael Dewine Investigative Docket # 548642 dated June 21, 2018.

1. Substantiation that following the “protocol” you promote will “possibly reverse all cancer, disease and chronic illness from A-Z”

As outlined in Chapter 3, the salt provides additional trace elements that the body requires and also combines with the water to create electrical energy, an energizing force that allows the building blocks of nutrition to heal and seal the gut and promote cell regeneration.

The electrical components found in this combination of mineral salt and water provide a massive amount of electrolytes. This proactively induces the body to purge or “waterfall”, and in the process, carry out the accumulation of toxins in impacted fecal matter, foreign objects, parasites, fungus, and antigens that promote, cancer, disease, chronic illness.

Since all cancer, disease, and chronic illness stem from the human body, it stands to reason that Newton’s Law would apply. “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction”.

2. Substantiation that the fermented drink you promote produces probiotics

A sample of my protocol was recently tested by a reputable, independent laboratory. According to their results, a 3-day ferment (standard) recipe provided a probiotic count level that was initially described as “too numerous to count”. The official certificate with exact results, 13 million CLU, is attached to this document.

3. Substantiation the fermented drink you promote complies with “Kosher Laws”

This “claim” was originally taken out of context. Originally on my Facebook group, the mothers who were feeding their babies with appropriate amounts of diluted juice recipe were actually following Kosher Law, which includes the ability to be able to feed their children foods that were lawful if challenged in a court of law. There is nothing unlawful with cabbage, water and salt. Additional research also supports that the recipe itself can reasonably be considered

Kosher since the juice recipe is only a slightly modified sauerkraut recipe.

4. Substantiation that following your “protocol” offers the “possibility that maybe you can reverse the aging process”

When you regenerate your cells faster than you degrade them, that is called life. The opposite of life is death.

Aging is primarily a result of an overabundance of heavy metals and other elements that are low on the elemental composition of the human body. These toxins are ingested and allowed to accumulate in the body over time.

5. Substantiation that your fermented drink “recipe” is what humanity needs to regenerate cells at a very expeditious rate” 

The population is exposed to increasing levels of toxins and people are falling ill or dying at a faster rate. I’m observing my friends and family dying at a very expeditious rate.

I also considered my own health and obesity issues as an example of what the death process looks and feels like for women over 40 or plagued with autoimmune disorders early on in life.

In researching the different forces that keep the body alive, I found a solution based on maintaining the balance of basic elements that make up the human body.

In a close examination of mainstream health practices, I also discovered that, both vaccines supported by the allopathic industry and detoxes promoted by the holistic industry attack the Innate and Adaptive Immune Systems because of their heavy metal, antibiotic ingredients and law violation of the human body in regard to injections.

The body has a natural process known as autophagy.

By activating your body’s autophagy process, you mitigate inflammation, slow down the aging process by purging out the dysfunctional cells, and allow room for the new cells to regenerate.

6. Substantiation of your “symptom healing management program” 

People can be mutated and managing an illness and still be in homeostasis as the body adapts and seeks a normal from whatever elements it is exposed to.

The key difference is however, is that you can die from a toxin but not a massive amount of good nutrition, even if it does “shock” the system initially.

Perhaps the most significant healing symptom associated with the protocol is referred to as “waterfalls”. Although the process of waterfalls is similar to diarrhea in outward appearance, the cause and effects of the two are very different. Diarrhea is the body’s natural process to quickly expel an overabundance of an unwanted element or toxin. Waterfalls is a proactive mechanism that is initiated by drinking the protocols juice recipe and fueled by its components.

This actually induces the body to purge or “waterfall”, and in the process, carry out the toxins, foreign objects, parasites, fungus, and antigens that promote, cancer, disease, chronic illness.

One could try to make the argument that dehydration could occur from a larger than normal amount of salt intake provided in the juice recipe. Here is when common sense should prevail. If you are thirsty, drink water.

Water, used as a carrier, is the driving force that purges out the impacted toxic fecal matter that may be blocking the intestines, causing re-infection.

As part of the knowledge and understanding process, we need to accept that pain is a natural and necessary part of the healing process. The expression of symptoms can be sometimes painful but pain is an indicator of life and healing. When a person feels pain, it is the Innate Immune System trying very hard to regenerate cells that were damaged.

7. Substantiation of your claim that using your “protocol” has the potential to “regrow limbs and regrow organs, even if one was born without them, reverse autism and Down’s Syndrome” 

Autophagy is the organized destruction of cells that disassemble the unnecessary dysfunctional components of that cell.

Now that we understand autophagy and that short term fasting promotes cognitive performance and health span, we can safely make the correlation to the possibility of reversing related diseases such and Down’s Syndrome, Autism, and other diseases.

Considering that it is already possible for the human body to regenerate cells in the form of digits, skin and certain simple organs, all that is needed to regrow more complex organs and limbs is accelerated cell regeneration.

Unfortunately, those who practice mainstream eastern or western medicine do not acknowledge the ability for human to regrow or regenerate limbs.

8. Substantiate that your “concepts are sound” 

As a full-time researcher, I utilize this information and data to form conclusions from a purely objective standpoint, not subject to any limiting beliefs that may be inherited through formal industry training and education. I also rely on my personal experience as a participant of the protocol with measurable results as I have used it to reverse my own outstanding medical issues.

9. Substantiation that an LGBT lifestyle is a “possible mutation of the reproductive system that sends mixed signals to the brain” and that in following your protocol “the body will figure out what it’s supposed to be based upon the original design of the human being”

Studies completed by National Geographic suggest that male birds overexposed to the element Mercury show homosexual characteristics.

This revelation provides a needed “proof of concept” that overexposure of certain elements can affect gender preference.

As further proof, A 2012 study of humans proposed that epigenetic changes, or alterations in marks on DNA that turn certain genes on and off, may play a role in homosexuality.

A related study from biologists at UC Berkeley shows that the use of pesticide, Atrazine, is proven to cause havoc with the sex lives of adult male frogs, “emasculating three-quarters of them and turning one in 10 into females, according to a new study by University of California,  Berkeley, biologists. The 75 percent that are chemically castrated are essentially “dead” because of their inability to reproduce in the wild, reports UC Berkeley’s Tyrone B. Hayes, professor of integrative biology.

The elemental make up of Atrazine that changed the sex of exposed frogs could potentially have the same effect on humans exposed to the same levels relative to body size.

10. Substantiation of any and all medical training and education you have had.

Admittedly, I do not have any formal medical training and education. I consider that a benefit. With all due respect to the researchers and experts that offer research, studies, data, and information, the concepts that I support may have been previously overlooked due to compartmentalization or a variety of other factors.

Since I do not believe humans should ever die unless they get hit by a car, my research and protocol is worth studying and understanding from an academic point of view.

Epperly has a Facebook page titled “Exposing the Lies Candida: Weaponized Fungus Mainstreaming Mutancy.” She also maintains her personal FB page as Jillian MaiThi Epperly. She frequently posts videos elaborating on her claims.

There are at least 2 active petition sites attempting to have Epperly banned from Facebook and other social media, particularly because, according to this petition, “Ban Jillian Mai Thi Epperly from Facebook and All Other Social Media,” “Epperly has also recommended that her juice be given to newborn babies in lieu of breastmilk or formula, children, and animals. Multiple photographs and accounts have surfaced of parents forcing their children to consume Jilly Juice, either through syringes, enemas, or mental trickery.”

Excerpted from Epperly’s Book:

On October 4, 2018, Epperly shared page one of a letter she says is from the FTC, and stated the following:

“my book and Facebook and social media is my venue to speak and have a platform and the website was never to advertise it was just a supportive place for people who needed to gather without any flak from the General Public

So on my website I cannot advertise any claims that I prefaced on the welcome page so people knew exactly what they were trying to do the juice for. So I took the Ohio attorney general substantiation questions and turn them into possibilities of the protocol and so I cannot say on my website that I could possibly reverse cancer disease and chronic illness reverse the aging process and regrow organs and limbs and even the science on the website isn’t good enough for the FTC when it comes to health and wellness because if you’re going to sell any type of product or protocol regardless if it’s a recipe or if it’s an actual product that you’re selling if the government does not get any money from it like from a pill powder or supplement then you can’t make a claim however if you have a book to sell which is not listed out as anything in question then the only thing that you can do is buy the book and that book is your ticket into the discussion forum where you can talk freely without anybody targeting you or harassing you which was originally my plan to begin with. However my first book that I wrote which is now retired was delayed due to my last publisher and her unprofessional antics and so it took me longer than I anticipated to get any book out to the public and then all the whiners ha that didn’t want me to sell the information wanted me to give it out for free which was fine but the government does not want anything for free that has a huge Market behind it because they want their cut it’s all about the money baby. so I will continue to be what I am going to be on Facebook I will continue to talk about the possibilities on Facebook but my website and even in the discussion forum I’m not going to be talking about anything regarding the possibility you guys will come up with your testimonies and what you have experience on your own knowing the possibility because you have my book

Attached to this post is the first page of two pages of the letter from the FTC so nobody can misinform people and say that my book is on the line as well as Facebook as well as my free speech”

Sample testimonials courtesy Jilly Juice.com

As early as eight years ago, the FDA began warning consumers of serious harm from drinking Miracle Mineral Solution (MMS).

Courtesy FDA’s 2010 public health warning:

‘Miracle’ Treatment Turns into Potent Bleach

Consumers are being warned not to drink a product sold on the Internet as a medical treatment after some users got sick after drinking it—including one person who had a life threatening reaction.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says the product—known as Miracle Mineral Solution, Miracle Mineral Supplement, and MMS—becomes a potent chemical that’s used as a bleach when mixed according to package directions. The agency first warned consumers about the product in July, but federal regulators say it’s still available for sale on the Internet.

FDA says the product is sold by many independent distributors on several websites and through online auctions.

Consumers should be alert when buying such an item on the Internet because the product’s labeling, colors, and logos may vary.

According to FDA experts, drinking the amount recommended on product labels can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and symptoms of severe dehydration. Some labels claim vomiting and diarrhea are not uncommon after the product is ingested—and even maintain such reactions are evidence MMS is working.

FDA experts say MMS is dangerous, and they’re advising consumers to stop using the product immediately.

Distributor websites describe MMS as a liquid that’s 28 percent sodium chlorite in distilled water. Product directions tell consumers to mix the sodium chlorite solution with citric acid—such as, lemon or lime juice—or another acid before drinking. When the acid is added, the mixture becomes chlorine dioxide, a powerful bleaching agent, says FDA expert Charles Lee, M.D.

Lee says both chemicals are the active ingredients in disinfectants, and they have many other industrial uses.

Some distributors claim MMS mixed with citric acid is an antimicrobial, antiviral, and antibacterial liquid that is a remedy for colds, acne, cancer, HIV/AIDS, hepatitis, H1N1 flu, and other conditions. But FDA experts say they aren’t aware of any research that shows the product can effectively treat any illnesses.

FDA has received several reports of consumers who got sick from drinking the MMS and citrus juice mixture. The reports say consumers suffered from nausea, severe vomiting, and life-threatening low blood pressure caused by dehydration.

The MMS product is the invention of Jim Humble. The following claims are from his website (https://jimhumble.co/):

A word from Jim Humble

I want to tell you about a breakthrough that can save your life, or the life of a loved one. In 1996, while on a gold mining expedition in South America, I discovered that chlorine dioxide quickly eradicates malaria. Since that time, it has proven to restore partial or full health to hundreds of thousands of people suffering from a wide range of disease, including cancer, diabetes, hepatitis A, B, C, Lyme disease, MRSA, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, HIV/AIDS, malaria, autism, infections of all kinds, arthritis, high cholesterol, acid reflux, kidney or liver diseases, aches and pains, allergies, urinary tract infections, digestive problems, high blood pressure, obesity, parasites, tumors and cysts, depression, sinus problems, eye disease, ear infections, dengue fever, skin problems, dental issues, problems with prostate (high PSA), erectile dysfunction and the list goes on. This is by far not a comprehensive list. I know it sounds too good to be true, but according to feedback I have received over the last 20 years, I think it’s safe to say MMS has the potential to overcome most diseases known to mankind.

It is important to note that MMS does not cure disease. MMS is an oxidizer, it kills pathogens and destroys poisons. When these are reduced or eliminated in the body, then the body can function properly and thereby heal. I often say, “The body heals the body”. MMS helps to line things up so the body can do just that.

——–

The Church of Bleach:

In order to legally shelter this dangerous product under the guise of religious protections, Jim Humble has formed his church and related religion named “Genesis II: The Church of Health and Healing.” For a mere $35 one can become an official “church” member (children may join for half price). In addition, one may elect to become a certified minister of the church (video courses are available) for a mere $200. Although you must pay to view the video, it is reasonable to assume that a minster is church-speak for a product distributor.

It is also notable that Humble has removed his protocols for administering the Miracle Mineral Solution, but it is widely available elsewhere on the Internet. He also appears to have fled the US and appears to have landed somewhere in Central America, possibly the Dominican Republic, although the website does not specifically say the current location of the “headquarters.”

—

So why are we even talking about such nonsense?

Unfortunately, if you go back to see what MMS is purported to treat, the MMS treatment worked its way into mainstream circles discussing the possible treatment of autism. How? In 2012, an Autism One conference held in Chicago that year invited Kerri Rivera, the founder of a “Biomed-based Autism Clinic in Latin America.”

Autism One is a non-profit parent-driven organization with a reputation for embracing pseudoscience and the claims made by Kerri Rivera remain on their website today:

38 Children Recovered in 20 months with MMS

This presentation will outline the approach Kerri has used successfully to help recover 38 children from a diagnosis of Autism. She will explain how MMS (chlorine dioxide) has become the “missing piece” to the autism puzzle for so many of the families that she works with. MMS is available worldwide, and is extremely cost effective, bringing recovery in reach of all families, despite economic or geographic limitations. This presentation seeks to prove that Autism truly is curable.

Kerri Rivera

Director and Founder of Autismo2 – Hyperbaric Clinic, first and only Biomed-based Autism Clinic in Latin America, Kerri Rivera is the mother of two sons; 11-year old Patrick is in recovery from ASD. Responsible for translating the ARI´s Biomedical Protocol to Spanish, she is a part of “Curando el Autismo” and “Fundacion Venciendo el Autismo” (Puerto Rico and Venezuela); Mexican liaison for AutismOne and ARI, Rescue Angel, bilingual mentor for TACA, and member of the Global Autism Alliance.

http://www.Autismo2.com

Date/Time:  Sun, 05/27/2012 – 9:00am – 10:00am

Rivera’s full presentation and powerpoint slides remain online and available to uneducated parents. There is no mention of FDA warnings against MMS in her presentation. Worse yet, her protocol for dosing children with MMS is shared. The protocol is horrific and includes dosing children as small as 25 to 50 pounds and includes directions on giving the child enemas.

A follower (Stephen Rowe) sent me this video, which inspired this article. This woman is an activist dedicated to exposing this practice and attempting to have the administration of MMS to small children declared child abuse. Based on my research for this article, I would agree with her position.

IMPORTANT PLEASE SHARE.

DPP NOT PROSECUTING MMS BLEACH MOTHER!!!https://t.co/PCvZzAy6iI

— Fiona Pettit O'Leary (@fionapettit71) September 26, 2018

Here is a now closed petition advocating for the same types of action:

https://www.change.org/p/president-of-the-united-states-outlaw-the-use-of-chlorine-dioxide-mms-in-children-and-adults-for-treatment-curing-of-autism-autism-is-genetic-and-has-no-cure-and-we-are-happy-the-way-that-we-are

The US Department of Justice has prosecuted some distributors here on US soil:

May 28, 2015: Seller of “Miracle Mineral Solution” Convicted for Marketing Toxic Chemical as a Miracle Cure

May 28, 2015

United States Department of Justice

WASHINGTON – A federal jury in the Eastern District of Washington returned a guilty verdict yesterday against a Spokane, Washington, man for selling industrial bleach as a miracle cure for numerous diseases and illnesses, including cancer, AIDS, malaria, hepatitis, lyme disease, asthma and the common cold, the Department of Justice announced.

Louis Daniel Smith, 45, was convicted following a seven-day trial of conspiracy, smuggling, selling misbranded drugs and defrauding the United States. Evidence at trial showed that Smith operated a business called “Project GreenLife” (PGL) from 2007 to 2011.  PGL sold a product called “Miracle Mineral Supplement,” or MMS, over the Internet.  MMS is a mixture of sodium chlorite and water.  Sodium chlorite is an industrial chemical used as a pesticide and for hydraulic fracking and wastewater treatment.  Sodium chlorite cannot be sold for human consumption and suppliers of the chemical include a warning sheet stating that it can cause potentially fatal side effects if swallowed.

“This verdict demonstrates that the Department of Justice will prosecute those who sell dangerous chemicals as miracle cures to sick people and their desperate loved ones,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Benjamin C. Mizer of the Justice Department’s Civil Division.  “Consumers have the right to expect that the medicines that they purchase are safe and effective.”  Mizer thanked the jury for its service and its careful consideration of the evidence.

The government presented evidence that Smith instructed consumers to combine MMS with citric acid to create chlorine dioxide, add water and drink the resulting mixture to cure numerous illnesses. Chlorine dioxide is a potent agent used to bleach textiles, among other industrial applications.  Chlorine dioxide is a severe respiratory and eye irritant that can cause nausea, diarrhea and dehydration.  According to the instructions for use that Smith provided with his product, nausea, diarrhea and vomiting were all signs that the miracle cure was working.  The instructions also stated that despite a risk of possible brain damage, the product might still be appropriate for pregnant women or infants who were seriously ill.

According to the evidence presented at trial, Smith created phony “water purification” and “wastewater treatment” businesses in order to obtain sodium chlorite and ship his MMS without being detected by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or U.S. Customs and Border Protection.  The government also presented evidence that Smith hid evidence from FDA inspectors and destroyed evidence while law enforcement agents were executing search warrants on his residence and business.

Before trial, three of Smith’s alleged co-conspirators, Chris Olson, Tammy Olson and Karis DeLong, Smith’s wife, pleaded guilty to introducing misbranded drugs into interstate commerce.  Chris Olson, along with alleged co-conspirators Matthew Darjanny and Joseph Lachnit, testified at trial that Smith was the leader of PGL.

In all, the jury convicted Smith of one count of conspiracy to commit multiple crimes, three counts of introducing misbranded drugs into interstate commerce with intent to defraud or mislead and one count of fraudulently smuggling merchandise into the United States.  The jury found Smith not guilty on one out of four of the misbranded drug counts. He faces a statutory maximum of 34 years in prison at his Sept. 9 sentencing.

Unfortunately, the use of the MMS product now extends far beyond the jurisdiction of the United States.

Epistemology: the theory of knowledge, especially with regard to its methods, validity, and scope. Epistemology is the investigation of what distinguishes justified belief from opinion.

Note: This beautiful and brave story is written by my son, Max, who also helped me to set up Skeptic Review and advises me on current issues of concern to the skeptic community. Schizophrenics often experience hyper-religiosity which can be fueled by auditory hallucinations and what are known as “peak experiences” which can feel deeply spiritual. Max began to apply the concept of Street Epistemology to his religiosity and began to question whether his beliefs were based in truth.  Today, Max believes applying epistemology, based on the Socratic Method, has contributed to his ability to function at a higher level and helps him to deal with delusions in a rational way. Here he recounts his personal journey:

My name is Max. I have had schizophrenia for 9 years, and I want to tell you my story through psychological hell to recovery and hope. I’ll tell you at the beginning that beyond giving you an amusing story about my experience, I eventually want to convince you with my story that I discovered something called “Street Epistemology” that is growing in the atheist community, and that it has helped me get better, along with medication and support from the mental health community.

I was born in 1989 to a wonderful family. I have so many fond memories of growing up. I had a big family get together with all of my aunts and uncles and cousins all going over to my great grandmother’s house and having lunch and a good time together. All of the people in my family were very loving and had wonderful bonds. I was close with my siblings, and my brother and I shared a lot of friends. All of the friends and teachers I grew up with, I feel like were wonderful people, and I felt very bonded to many of them. We went on a lot of family trips growing up, and I traveled in a lot of different parts of the United States, and even to Mexico a few times.

I had no particular health problems, and there would have been no way to predict the hell I would go through when I turned into an adult. I never broke a bone, never had a cavity, never had any major diseases, and although I was prone to a lot of viruses, nothing serious was wrong with my health at all. I did have a teacher in about 4th or 5th grade tell my parents that I had ADHD, because I spent a lot of the time in class staring out of the window. I think she was mistaken that this was caused by a disorder, however. I think the truth is that I was a child full of wonder and energy for the world, and didn’t like to be closed up in the classrooms.

I was a smart kid and I loved to learn, and although I had a joke with one of my friends in middle school that we should “keep from working too hard on schoolwork, so that people didn’t start to get too high of expectations for us”, the truth is I was very successful with the schoolwork I was given. When I got to high school I got to be very shy, and only kept a few close friends. I had an awkward disposition and didn’t talk much, but I still do have a lot of good memories with friends that I kept in high school. I also had some friends that I had kept from elementary school who stayed close with me through high school, so I wasn’t particularly socially unhealthy at that time.

I think my problems really began when my friends and I began experimenting with marijuana. Note that I fully support the idea of legalizing marijuana and truly believe that it could help a lot of people, I just think my problems with it were contextual with the way the experimentation happened within my social life. Me and my friends started getting some problematic behavior, and although I refuse to incriminate myself in this writing, I have some bad memories of some of the things that happened during that time of my life, both alone and with my friends creating problems in our lives.

After getting into that kind of lifestyle smoking pot, and creating problems, I started to experiment with LSD and Mushrooms and any other kind of consciousness altering substances I could get my hands on. I was lucky not to get into anything like heroin or speed or cocaine, but I definitely had my fair share of experimentation with drugs. This is where the problems started to get complicated. I have so many feelings about what my problems could have been, that it’s hard to tease out what the true cause of my long term problems were.

I have heard some scientific speculation that some people are more predisposed to developing the problems I had with schizophrenia due to genetics, but I don’t know enough about it to make any judgment on that. All I know is that I have had these problems, and I also have hope that there is a way out of them, regardless of whether or not my genetics are predisposed or not. I did not even notice the problems myself. The only way I came to identify with my schizophrenia was that I knew everyone started worrying about me, and I just felt no way to challenge it, I gave into their worry, and came to identify with a new identity as a schizophrenic person.

I can still remember my symptoms, and I do think it started along with the experimentation with drugs and creating problems socially and personally. I remember some of my friends who did LSD and everything with me, a lot of times romanticized hallucinatory experiences. I had some of them try to guide me into certain hallucinatory experiences as well by certain social oddities. I think this is one of factors.

Beyond all of these problems, I began to have a major interest in Buddhism and Buddhist meditation. When I graduated from high school, I traveled to San Francisco for 3 weeks and stayed in a couple of Zen monasteries. I meditated there with the experienced meditators and learned how to do intensive meditation by sitting with them all in the meditation hall twice daily, as well as doing work around the monastery mostly in silence. I had a great experience there, and loved what I learned, but I think that the baggage I brought there with my previous experiences created a problem when I began meditating. I think I thought of meditation as a kind of way that was identical to the way I thought of hallucinogenic drugs. So I basically started living in those experiences more permanently.

It seemed so reasonable to do this and felt very natural. I think that if that is something that you bring as an expectation to intensive meditation, can actually work. The problem, however, is that it led me away from a rational perspective of reality. I completely lost all sense of reason in my life, and my life became one giant acid trip that I thought was what meditation was supposed to induce for people. It could be argued that I had the wrong idea of Buddhism, but the point is that that is what I believed, and part of that included these shared hallucinatory experiences I had in my head. I even used a drug called salvia on the weekends on my trip in San Francisco, another hallucinogen, leading me further and further into this rabbit hole.

During my time in San Francisco, through meditation, I started having a much more powerful and profound experience of my life. I really did try to learn how to do meditation the right way, and I think I was pretty successful overall. I remember a certain time when I started to believe that people there could read each other’s minds through meditation. This is an idea that has scriptural support from the Buddhist literature, although I didn’t know it at the time. I remember sometimes as I was sitting in the meditation hall a lot of what felt like a flashing in my mind of powerful lights going on and off, as my experience became more powerful. I felt very alive, in a way that I don’t think I had ever felt before, in a way that they would call in Buddhist terminology, a waking up. But it was only in my experience, my cognitions of what my experience was could not keep up, and I didn’t know how to handle it.

When I got back to my hometown I immediately got back into my drugs, particularly ecstasy, or MDMA. I’m pretty sure the ecstasy was mixed with methamphetamines in what I took, and I decided after I took it, that I would go tell my parents that I had taken it, I guess expecting them to be giving me some sort of supportive experience on ecstasy. That did not happen. There was a major conflict my parents with yelling and screaming, and here I was stuck on this drug. It was such a profoundly negative experience in my life, it do not think it can be put into words. All I remember was a lot of yelling and screaming and accusations, and I was yelling I was convinced that I could read their minds and knew everything they were thinking, which was an idea I picked up through my experience meditating. I wanted them to be able to experience what I had learned through meditation, and I kept telling them to “Wake Up!” repeatedly, and for some reason I remember I wound up taking all of my clothes off in a state of madness. It was terribly traumatizing.

It was after this experience that they started taking me to psychiatrists, and I began getting diagnosed loosely with some kind of psychotic experience. I did not quit using drugs at that time, and my continued use just added to the trauma. I also continued meditating at home regularly, and all of the trauma and drug use and psychotic behavior was right in my experience with the meditation, and it all got interwoven together into my meditative experience, and I think this is when I think my problems started to permanently cement into what would become my schizophrenia. Meditation became my problem solving method, but I it was not sufficient to address the problems I was experiencing, although I was expecting it to. In fact I think it was more likely that it got me fixated on my problems, and unable to move on.

Soon after all of this, my Grandfather began declining into dementia and was dying. I volunteered myself to live at my Grandparents house to help him get along, partially because I was feeling virtuous from the meditation, and partially to get a break from my parents. While I was living there, although I do think I was a bit helpful to my Grandfather and we got to bond before he died, my mind went deep into all of my problems. I think the fact that I was living with him having dementia added a profound layer of sadness and existential anxiety to my experience. After about a month of living there, I had wound up calling the police to on my Grandparents, thinking they were using some sort of evil magic on me. A policeman came, and was very nice and talked to my grandmother, and told me she seemed very nice and that he didn’t think anything was wrong, and that he couldn’t help me. Another symptom at the time was that I was also talking to all sorts of “voices” in my head, mainly spiritual people I looked up to, but also other people in my head, I suppose in an attempt that I could get one of them to pray for me. I was so upset, that I was telling people that I was suicidal, and a few days later was my first trip to the psych ward.

I don’t remember much from my first trip to the psych ward, other than I got started on antipsychotic medication, and was in for about 2 weeks. I just remember laying there in bed thinking “I’m in the loony bin”, “I’m in the nuthouse”, and being extraordinarily overwhelmed and shocked that I of all people was diagnosed with schizophrenia. As I told you, most of my life growing up was wonderful, and I was smart, healthy, and loved. I just couldn’t imagine how I could have been the type of person who belonged there. Just the thought of getting diagnosed with schizophrenia weighed very heavy on me, and was very hard to accept. My mother has told me that she would go into see me in there the first time in visits, and she would try to talk to me, and I had a blank stare and wasn’t responding. I can imagine some of this was from the schizophrenia, some of it was from the medication, but most of it was probably my own shock and grief and indignation that I had landed myself in the psych ward of all places, getting diagnosed with schizophrenia.

When I got out, things didn’t change much, but I had medication now at least that was helping me. I didn’t mind the idea of medication that much, the effects weren’t that bad to me, but I was still in shock. I tried to stay with my grandparents and help some more for a while longer. I got in touch with a girl I knew in high school who I knew had used to have a crush on me in high school, and we began dating. I eventually moved back in with my parents and I think they hired some sort of nurse to help with my grandfather because it became a very hard job and I was too overwhelmed. He died pretty soon after this and it was overwhelmingly sad for me.

I got along with my girlfriend, but it was a strange experience, because she considered herself a Wiccan, so instead of talking me out of my superstitions, my experience with her wound up making my beliefs in magic and mind reading etc., even stronger. Her family also had a lot of its own problems with very strong conflict. I kept up with meditation though, because I thought that if my doctor says I’m “split from reality” that meditation would be the perfect antidote for that. We stayed together for about a year, and it was a nice distraction, but didn’t make me any better.

After splitting up with her, I decided to start going to Narcotics Anonymous meetings to treat my problems with addiction. I had a fling with another girlfriend there, relapsed once with her, but got back into recovery quickly. I wound up becoming best friends with her brother. He had similar experiences to mine, and we got along like two peas in a pod. He was older, but he had gotten diagnosed with schizoaffective after a breakdown during an attempt to become a monk at a Catholic monastery, and I thought it was similar to my experience with a breakdown after going to a Buddhist monastery, plus we could go to NA meetings together.

He and I were great friends, and we supported each other a lot, mainly by supporting each other’s religious commitments. He was very austere about his beliefs and while I was with him I spent most of my time studying and practicing Buddhism, while he did his Catholicism. We became very isolated and didn’t seem to branch out with any other friends while we were friends. We did some; I had a few other friends I met in NA, but not much. Part of the reason was that he was gay and I think looking back this was mainly what led us to isolate together so much, was that he thought of me as a boyfriend. I was trying to ignore that part because I liked that we had so much in common and supported each other as friends so much. However, I think he and I had a habit of supporting each other’s delusions as well, so I didn’t really ever get much better during this time either, and continued going in and out of psych wards every once in awhile. I had fun and I learned a lot on my own though, particularly about Buddhist philosophy, which also seemed to be support for my delusions a lot of the time as well.

I kept going to NA meetings, and learning and practicing more about Buddhism, and hanging out with him, and that was my life for about 3 years. I loved to read all sorts of stuff beyond Buddhism as well, science books at least, and spent a lot of time learning on my own through books, and eventually I discovered audio books, and got obsessed with those. One of the books I read was called “Rethinking Madness” by Paris Williams. It was about how he had helped people with schizophrenia recover from schizophrenia to the point that they were eventually able to manage their lives without medication. I didn’t read all of it, but the first part of the book was dedicated to demonstrating the dangerous side effects of antipsychotics, and the flaws in the theory of what schizophrenia is and how it should be treated. I didn’t even finish the rest of the book, before I was convinced that I needed to get off of all of my medications. I read some of the rest, where he talked about his alternative theories of recovery, but I was already convinced. Honestly, looking back, I think his alternative theories of schizophrenia and recovery are much less solid than the standard understanding. Some of his ideas that I was influenced by though, about flaws in the current understanding and treatment were actually probably accurate. I think looking back also, I need to know that just because a current theory is flawed, doesn’t give a license to make up alternative theories that are even less corroborated and pretend they are solid theories. I think it may also be true that some people with schizophrenia can manage without medications, but that is not related to his theories being true or false.

So I told everyone I was going to try going without medication, I was pretty hopeful, and fairly cautious, and I got people to accept that this is what I wanted to do, and I told my doctor I wasn’t going to take my medications anymore. He cautioned me, but I was convinced. Parts of my convictions were centered in Buddhist ideas as well, which Paris Williams was also endorsing in his book. I had become so knowledgeable and practiced in meditation, I was sure that would help me.

It felt really good for a while. I felt like I was doing the right thing and that I was making the right choice. I wound up getting into a conflict with my best friend of so long for reasons that I won’t get into. I wound up calling another friend I had who I had met from NA and became close with her, who had a lot of problems herself, and was involved with drugs, mainly just marijuana, but wound up getting me involved in smoking pot, drinking, and eventually going back to experimenting with hallucinogenic drugs. I actually managed my symptoms effectively for a little over 6 months this way, but eventually got a DUI, was in jail for a night, and when I got out, had my license suspended, so I was stuck in the house with my parents with no way to get out of the house. Eventually, conflict with my parents started building up slowly again, I started going into a mania, and wound up calling the police because I was convinced that my Dad had killed someone and had buried them in our backyard. I just knew this based on intuition.

The police came, then a crisis team came, and my family tried to get the crisis team to put me into the psych ward, but they said they couldn’t do anything because I was not a danger to myself or others. So my sister decided to get a court order telling the police that I was at danger to myself or others, which I think we all knew was not true, to get me involuntarily committed, in an attempt to help me get better. It did not work. I was furious that I was being held against my will when I was truly not a danger to myself or others, and I knew it. I was so furious that when I was in the hospital, I resisted treatment so adamantly, that I was stuck in the hospital for over a month. When I got out, I wasn’t any better, and was still furious about what happened, and still manic, etc… My parents got to their wits end and told me that if I wouldn’t go to the hospital that they would take me to the homeless shelter. I didn’t want to go to the hospital because I still felt like it was so wrong that I had been wronged like that, so they took me to the homeless shelter. I couldn’t sleep in the homeless shelter I was so upset, so I left and walked over to the jail and used their phone, and called my parents to come pick me up and go ahead and take me to the hospital.

I went into the hospital and was still so worked up, that I was in there for another three weeks freaking out about my situation. I got out and was finally exhausted with it all and fell into a sort of manic depression, and just slept. I just crashed. I was exhausted. I felt like I had been beaten to a pulp through it all. I was that way for a long time. I don’t remember how long. But I remember that during that time, I started studying atheism, because I was worn out with using my faith to fight all of my battles. Just thinking about meditation or my Buddhist beliefs or anything religious caused so much negativity, that I needed something to relieve that. And I think that what I learned during this time studying the atheist and skeptic movements has been what I have needed for so long and never knew what I was missing.

Along with taking medication again and getting help from my mental health team, I learned something called “Street Epistemology” that is growing in the atheist movement. It is a method of conversation based on the Socratic Method, where you ask people about their deeply held beliefs, respectfully, find out why they believe it, how they concluded it was true, and finding out if the methods they are using to come to their conclusions can reliably lead to truth. Epistemology is a branch of philosophy concerned with studying knowledge, what it is, how it works, and particularly how we can know a belief is justified.  Often times, with deeply held beliefs, the method used is faith. Many people have their own definition for faith, but you can let them give their own definition, and analyze it with them as a method of coming to truth, it is very simple, but you can use it on everything. It is not focused on what the belief is, or metaphysics, but how you know the belief is true, or epistemology.

Focusing on epistemology is exactly what I needed to learn. I needed to figure out whether or not the methods I am employing to come to my conclusions is actually reliable. I think that is why people have problems with schizophrenia. It has nothing to do with the actual conclusions they are coming to. There is nothing wrong with the particular conclusions in themselves. The problems come by employing faulty methods of reasoning that creates problems in their daily lives. I am convinced that if we changed the way we think about delusions, by using epistemology, not metaphysics, that people could actually get better by learning critical thinking and reasoning. It has helped me so much, and I am still getting better, but I have hope that there is a way. All of these problems that contributed to my mental health problems are not insoluble, but pretending to know things I don’t know, and can’t know, isn’t a solution to the problem.

I am equally as convinced that when we give an exception from certain metaphysical conclusions as exceptions from being considered as delusions, simply because people consider them sacred beliefs, that it does a huge disservice to the way we are treating mental health problems. It’s what I’ve heard called “belief in belief” or believing holding certain metaphysical conclusions are moral virtues. When you analyze this it doesn’t seem rational that believing in certain metaphysical ideas can be moral virtues.

The idea that we should just let people believe whatever they want and protect certain ideas from scrutiny, leads to a failure in reasoning that can have real life consequences on our society. We live in a democracy and the ability to engage with each other’s ideas freely and openly and without fear is crucial to our societies functioning properly and healthily. A failure to engage on these topics can have a real detrimental effect on our own and each other’s well being. If you don’t believe it, just turn on the news or open a newspaper. It is alarming. And once you become aware of the problem, you will see that to live and let live may not always be the best policy. We need to be able to engage with each other.

I’m going to go to school for philosophy, and stay involved with the skeptical community, and keep practicing Street Epistemology, but I’m not going to give up hope on people.

Street Epistemology: A Primer on Beliefs and Finding Truth