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I see…schadenfreude. Natural News banned from YouTube.

Over the weekend YouTube deleted the Natural News channel, which is the video arm of Mike Adams’ online quackery empire. Adams, not surprisingly is ranting about “censorship.” it’s not.

I’m back…and Mike Adams is not.

To be honest, I never thought I’d be writing about Mike Adams again so soon after the last time, but during my self-imposed hiatus to finish my grant application last week and then, over the weekend, to recover from the many long nights that culminated in my having finished my grant application last week, something happened that demanded that I revisit this conspiracy mongering alt right alternative medicine scammer. I was tired and thinking of delaying my return to blogging until Tuesday, but I was too amused noto to comment on what happened at least briefly.

Adams, as you likely recall, has built an online conspiracy and alternative medicine empire that consists of dozens of interlocking, interlinking websites who’s known for being one of the most over-the-top quacks out there, rivaling Alex Jones for his antics. He’s also known for bad cartoons and bad music in the service of his ideology. Indeed, his videos are particularly over-the-top, such as the time when he tried to portray scientists as evil. Even more hilariously, he fancies himself a scientist to the point that he bought a second hand mass spectrometer and has been using it to analyze everything he can get his hands on for “heavy metals,” including water samples from Flint, MI and, not surprisingly, his competitors’ supplements. He’s also known for sliming his critics, issuing legal threats against them, doxing them and, in one case, issuing what could reasonably be interpreted as a death threat. I, too, have been the victim of his attacks; basically he’s poisoned my Google reputation beyond repair with defamatory posts.

So it was that couldn’t help but feel a little bit of schadenfreude when I learned Saturday night that Google had removed his YouTube channel for violating its terms of service:

This was confirmed on the YouTube help forums. We don’t know why the Natural News channel was removed and all of Adams’ videos deleted, but I strongly suspect that it’s likely due to YouTube’s recent move to eliminate conspiracy videos about the Parkland school shooting claiming that the survivors agitating for gun control are “crisis actors,” of which Adams posted at least a couple. At least, that’s what Adams seems to think, given a post he did a week ago, SILENCE! Twitter, YouTube scrubbing all content and banning all users who question the official (false) narrative on the Florida school shooting.

Now, he’s just ranting about it on Twitter:

It’s gloriously gloriously fun to watch:

In the latest gross violation of free speech committed by radical left-wing tech giants, YouTube has now deleted the entire Health Ranger video channel, wiping out over 1,700 videos covering everything from nutrition, natural medicine, history, science and current events.

Over the last two weeks, YouTube has been on a censorship rampage that’s apparently run by the SPLC, a radical left-wing hate group that despises Christianity, the Second Amendment and patriots in particular. Hundreds of prominent conservative video channels have been targeted for termination by YouTube, leading many independent media leaders like myself to call for government regulation of YouTube to protect free speech and end the tyranny.

I find it hilarious how the same man who regularly rants against government regulation now wants the government to regulate YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook now that his ox has been gored. I also find it equally hilarious how a someone as devoted to “freedom” from government interference doesn’t understand that, although he has a right to free speech, he does not have the “right” to a platform. Google is a private company. It can decide to host what it wants. It can decide not to host what it doesn’t want. It can use any rules if feels like to decide what it will hoste and what it won’t. Besides, nothing’s stopping Adams from hosting his videos on his own servers. Of course, it would likely be hellaciously expensive, given his traffic, but he remains perfectly free to show whatever content he wishes on his own servers. He can still post his videos on Facebook, if he so desires. He remains perfectly free to move to a YouTube alternative, like Vimeo. Oh, wait, he already has! His Health Ranger channel is on Vimeo now. Granted, on Vimeo he’ll have to pay $75 a month if he wants unlimited storage space and bandwith plus live streaming, but, come on! He makes millions. He can afford $900 a year. I’m guessing the real issue with Adams is the loss of a free video hosting service with ads that can bring in significant money for videos with large numbers of views.

You might recall that Adams has gotten into trouble with Google before. About a year ago, Google delisted Natural News from its search results as a penalty for something, most likely SEO optimization shenanigans, but we don’t know for sure. His reaction back then was even more epic, even though his delisting only lasted a couple of days, after which his site was listed in Google searches as it had been before. Truly, for all the bleating he did over the penalty, it harmed him minimally, if at all. In fact, he used it, as he does all things, as a fundraising excuse, which is exactly what he’s doing this time:

4. Help support us financially by shopping at HealthRangerStore.com which offers over 600+ lab-verified products for healthy living and self-reliance. We will need your funding support to fund attorneys as part of our legal effort against YouTube and other techno-totalitarians that have now declared total war on free speech.

Most of all, realize that you are now living in a content police state where the techno-giants are literally “memory holing” all the content channels they don’t like. This is not happening by sheer coincidence… it’s all part of a plan to silence conservatives, commit election fraud at the mid-terms, steal the election, impeach Trump and repeal the Second Amendment. Once all that’s accomplished, the call for the mass arrest or mass killing of conservatives will be unleashed by the deranged Left which has been driven into a mindless, seething anger by the propaganda puppet masters.

The war for America has begun, and YouTube has chosen to side of tyranny. We need you to join us in standing for truth, freedom and the ability to think for yourself. Share this post everywhere.

Tyranny. You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means, Mr. Adams. I do know the meaning of the word “schadenfreude,” though, and that is what I’m feeling right now as I watch Adams rant about this “purge” on Vimeo:

Funny, but he sure doesn’t seem to have any difficulty getting his message out. He’s already talking about creating “YouTube alternatives” for cranks like him. Anyone want to bet that he’ll find ways to make money off of one or more of these “alternatives.” Maybe he should be thanking YouTube for providing him another way to profit. It wouldn’t surprise me if he is doing just that privately, where his credulous fans can’t see him.

By Orac

Orac is the nom de blog of a humble surgeon/scientist who has an ego just big enough to delude himself that someone, somewhere might actually give a rodent's posterior about his copious verbal meanderings, but just barely small enough to admit to himself that few probably will. That surgeon is otherwise known as David Gorski.

That this particular surgeon has chosen his nom de blog based on a rather cranky and arrogant computer shaped like a clear box of blinking lights that he originally encountered when he became a fan of a 35 year old British SF television show whose special effects were renowned for their BBC/Doctor Who-style low budget look, but whose stories nonetheless resulted in some of the best, most innovative science fiction ever televised, should tell you nearly all that you need to know about Orac. (That, and the length of the preceding sentence.)

DISCLAIMER:: The various written meanderings here are the opinions of Orac and Orac alone, written on his own time. They should never be construed as representing the opinions of any other person or entity, especially Orac's cancer center, department of surgery, medical school, or university. Also note that Orac is nonpartisan; he is more than willing to criticize the statements of anyone, regardless of of political leanings, if that anyone advocates pseudoscience or quackery. Finally, medical commentary is not to be construed in any way as medical advice.

To contact Orac: [email protected]

107 replies on “I see…schadenfreude. Natural News banned from YouTube.”

In the latest gross violation of free speech committed by radical left-wing tech giants

YouTube is not the government. Their decision to block and remove your content is a business decision, not a free speech violation.

YouTube has been on a censorship rampage that’s apparently run by the SPLC, a radical left-wing hate group

Ha ha.

Orac: You seem to delight in mass censorship of opposing viewpoints. And nobody should be fooled by the “it’s not government censorship so it’s legal” bullshit. It is censorship empowered by the government – the same government that ignores anti-trust laws and permits the monopolistic dominance of Google/Youtube, Facebook, and other tech firms. The same government that provided those firms with seed money and government funded research. The same government that grants licenses for broadcast bandwidths. How would you like it if the power company or a phone company shut you off because it called YOUR views pseudo science or conspiracy theory or lunacy? Or if your public town square was leased out to Google who then wouldn’t let you assemble there to protest? You’d say it was a 1st Amendment violation and you’d be right.

Tell us more of this government seed money supplied to Youtube / Facebook / Google.

Here’s the thing: My “views” happen to coincide with facts, as established by science and reason. Bill’s, on the other hand really are pseudoscience, conspiracy theories and lunacy. This isn’t difficult, Bill, and it has nothing to do with the government or public utilities (who only shut you off if you don’t pay–and there are even exceptions to that.)

Bill,

You and the rest of the Mikettes below seem to be missing a key point. This is not about free speech. It’s about something much more important.

It’s about revenue. Specifically, a number of YouTube’s largest customers (major advertisers) have started to rethink their relationship with YouTube. They’re afraid their products will get associated with things like:
– Racist, sexist, anti-Semitic, and pro-Nazi rants
– videos of hanged bodies
– people bullying high school students who have witnessed their classmates die

Flat earthers, chemtrail conspiracists, “funniest” compilations, and cat videos are one thing; some things are beyond the pale.

Lately some of their most popular “content creators” have been smacked in way or another for this kind of thing. The Health Ranger, with only 100.000 subscribers, is too well known to hide and too small to be worth bucking their customers on.

Naturally, all of this is IMHO. I am not associated with the lovely folks at YouTube and don’t know why they do anything. Everything I know I read in the newspapers.

Those of us in the technology industries who favor breaking up the tech giants for monopolistic business practices, do not take kindly to seeing that position used to support wackos and conspiracy mongers who are threats to public health & safety.

“The phone company” (at least as far as landline telephony goes) is a regulated utility, for which the revenue model is content-neutral. It can also disconnect service that is found to be used for unlawful activities, a tactic that was deployed in the 20th century for dealing with illegal gambling activities that made extensive use of the telephone. Unlicensed practice of medicine would certainly count if a state wanted to pursue it. That could roll up numerous quacks in one duck hunt, notably including MDs who sell bogus “medical exemptions” to vaccination requirements for school children.

Meanwhile Faceborg continues to host anti-vaxer groups such as the parents who mail each other samples of chicken pox infected clothing and half-eaten lollypops, by way of promoting “natural immunity” by giving actual chicken pox to each others’ children. If ever there was a case that just demanded being shut down, that’s the one, considering that it’s a federal crime to send biologically hot materials via the US Post Office. Not to mention the overt child abuse of giving one’s kid a dangerous disease.

Michael Adams is a hypocritical censorship tyrant. He doesn’t care about others’ health but only himself and his coffers. He lucuriates in his personality cult. He rejects all scientific information from the very journals he loves citing which happen to disprove the many claims he blindly makes in order to sell his supplements. He is a flaming anti-Christian bigot and liberal that has the audacity to accuse liberals with whom he disagrees with of being anti-Christian.

I agree with your points about Adams having other platforms in this case, and I am sympathetic to removing videos attacking the school shooting victims.

But on a more general level, the question of regulating private companies that control large social media platforms in terms of controlling context is one that needs attention and thought. It deserves discussion whether google, Facebook and YouTube should still be treated as private or as semi public for this purpose.

Because they do have a lot of power in determining who gets heard, and treating them as private means no regulation. There are also real pitfalls to treating them as quasi public, so I’m not sure where I fall, but it needs thought.

Given how many U.S. citizens get what they think is news from companies such as Google and Facebook, I agree this is an important issue. But, it’s also not a new issue. Newspapers have always (in this country) been privately owned and subject to bias (think William Randolph Hearst). In addition to discussing the chilling effect a ban by a company such as Google can have, we should also be discussing ways to better educate the public on how to find and read news. People need to know how to critically evaluate both the stories and the sources and how to avoid getting stuck in an echo chamber of either their own or some algorithm’s design.

Also, U.S. presidents should not be allowed to use Twitter. Ever.

But, I’m still enjoying this ban and advertisers pulling their ads from Alex Jones’s feed.

I completely agree with the need to evaluate stories and sources. And you’re right that it’s not new, though it’s reach is probably broader with the internet.

I don’t feel sad for Adams and Jones, either.

I’m glad to see you promoting blatant censorship of things you don’t understand. Since you’ve been raked through mainstream education you’re a proud card carrying member of the unholy group known as “self proclaimed liberal know it alls”. As for your inclination to help people find “real news” I would certainly never let someone as close-minded as you attempt to steer me to “real news” that I have been reading on my own for the last 15 years pertaining to health and nutrition.Your ignorance is your arrogance. Don’t bother responding I won’t be returning to this dishrag blog.

Dorit: Until very recently, the regulatory definition of monopoly included the criteria of holding more than 30% market share and engaging in anti-competitive behavior. It’s clear that the major tech giants do both, for example leveraging “network effects” to effectively stifle competition.

The solutions vary according to the nature of the problem.

Faceborg and Twitter have monopoly power through control of the platform. The solution for them is to regulate them as utilities, and apply the old telco standard of requiring them to cut off users that are engaged in illegal activities. (In the 20th century that meant disconnecting the phones of bookie parlors and brothels; today It should include cutting off user groups that promote things such as “sharing natural immunity” by infecting each others’ kids with chicken pox.)

Google has that for search and video (Vimeo notwithstanding: remember, market share as criterion for monopoly), and is also a conglomerate with vast reach into numerous fields of technology, including its very own form of quackery in the form of “anti-aging research” that’s a dog-whistle for seeking immortality (“fountain of youth” snake oil: everything old is new again). The solution for Google is to just break it up as was done with the old Bell Telephone system.

It’s the height of irony that Mikey the Health Stranger, with his Trumpist and “libertarian” positions, is now trying to co-opt the arguments about regulating the platforms. Most of us around here would firmly agree that there is no “free speech” right to promote medical fraud, nor to libel high school students, etc. etc.: especially in the context of selling self-branded quack remedies that themselves should be banned. The solution for Mikey and the Mikettes is to prosecute them for fraud, practicing medicine without licenses, and whatever other mundane illegal activities. FDA did a thorough job on Wilhelm Reich (“orgone energy” and expensive “orgone accumulators”); if anything Mikey is substantially worse and deserves substantially harsher treatment.

While we’re on the subject, Amazon apparently hosts numerous purveyors of “energy medicine” devices that look like bizarro folk art and do nothing, for prices up to nearly a thousand bucks each. Whether Amazon is quite so entrenched with these fraudsters as Faceborg is with its anti-vaxer groups, remains to be seen. Perhaps Amazon can be gently persuaded to stop giving them a platform to sell their wares, but if not, then I can see substantial ground to regulate or break up Amazon as well.

Adams may know less about the Constitution than he does about medicine.

Maybe he know more about the constitution but for years, he’s been projecting an image & a story, thus his projection of knowing jack sh!t about the constitution.

Al

Regulating a circuit is important to preventing non-linear distortion and oscillation. A common solution is to provide negative feedback; positive feedback makes the problem worse. We provide the negative feedback. Taming very unstable circuits requires quite a lot of negative feedback. Obviously we need to do more.

There are some who will say that if you can’t say something good about somebody, you shouldn’t say anything. My response to any such people: Mike Adams has been banned from YouTube. Good.

the SPLC, a radical left-wing hate group

With this comment Mike says more about himself than he does about the SPLC, a group dedicated to the radical notion that people should not have to fear violence from organizations of racist nut jobs. Scaring off thousands of potential markscustomers doesn’t sound like a brilliant business plan, but that’s just me.

You mean like yourself? Surely you aren’t referring to Mike as racist? He might not be a fan of stupid people attacking him personally, such as your “racist nut job” comment. In fact you seem far more hostile and irrational than him…throwing around racist like your ilk often do..

FYI The Nutritionist/BR: Orac frowns on sockpuppets. Pick ONE name and stick with it.

Yes, Mike Adams is a racist.

I kind of have a problem with Alphabet pulling HealthIdiots channel. He is a moron and spews total utter bull-sh*t. I can’t claim to have even watched a segment from a single one of his videos. But I still think that he should be allowed to say it.

I understand that a private organization can decide what it wants to host. But as Dorit mentioned, private companies now have the ability to either broadcast someones message to the entire internet world (About 3.8 billion people – http://www.Internetlivestats.com) or prevent them from being seen by a like amount. In youtubes case, they serve around 1.6billion people.

Megsaint mentioned correctly, that traditionally information has always been disseminated by private entities with editorial control over their content. The difference is a matter of scale. The New York Times had 130million readers. The Washington post had ~850 thousand readers. The Sun of London had 3.6million readers. Youtube had 1.6 billion. Facebook had 2.7 billion.

That is a huge difference in user levels, and as Dorit says, it is a conversation that needs to be had. The problem is, where and by who. The internet for better or worse is an international medium. It already has varying levels of government censorship, and commercial editorial management depending on where you happen to access it from. One of the things I admire most about you folks to the south, is your adherence to the first amendment. It allows everyone to say what they think, and be judged accordingly. No-one is relegated to the dark corners where they have the sexiness of being rebels. Instead they are all out in the open being applauded or derided for what they say.

I guess I fall on the side of the absolutist first amendment supporters. But then, I also have a fairly simple view on things.

You just proved your own mental enclosement and psychopathy with the following statement (you verbatim): “he is a moron and spews complete and utter bullshit” suffixed by “I can’t claim to have watched even a single segment from any of his videos”…making you a self proclaimed ignoramus and shill.

No. Instead as part of what I do for a living, I had to dredge through the crap on his naturalnews.com website. I’m assuming that he doesn’t appreciably improve in video. Maybe I’m wrong, but I doubt it.

What exactly am I shilling for BTW?

…making you a self proclaimed ignoramus and shill.

Sez the DeRanger fanboi and self-proclaimed “nutritionist”. Is there some problem with sticking to a ‘nym?

You’re absolutely right. Until you’ve eaten every bite of the turd, you’re not allowed to complain about the taste

I kind of have a problem with Alphabet pulling HealthIdiots channel. He is a moron and spews total utter bull-sh*t. I can’t claim to have even watched a segment from a single one of his videos. But I still think that he should be allowed to say it.

He can say it however often he likes. He just has to say it on his own platform and not someone else’s platform. This is as it should be. If you want to use someone else’s platform, you have to play by the rules.

So Chris, you would have no problem when an anti-vaccine loon or anti-SBM CEO takes over your local telecom (land-line or cell) and bans pro-vaccine or pro-SBM messages being delivered over their private exchanges? They pay for them, they pay for the lines going to them, they pay for the links to other exchanges owned by other telecoms. I realize that this is not an exact analogy, but nothing in so called meat-space is an exact analogy to the cyber-space. And if you really want to be depressed, look at how technically feasible it is to censor live speech at the exchange.

Just because it’s not the government doing the censoring, doesn’t make it acceptable in my opinion.

It’s a worse analogy than you admit.

Telecom is regulated by state and federal governments. It’s a service that we pay for, and (especially for cellular carriers) uses the public airwaves. Telecoms must provide service to any and all who can pay the bill. Even the rates that charge are regulated.

YouTube, at it’s most basic, is a free file sharing service.

If the government is going to step in and tell YouTube that they have to host Adams (or anyone else), are all free file sharing services also required to host any and all individuals and businesses? If you say just YouTube is subject to regulation, why them? Adams says he had 1,700 videos on YouTube – would you say that YouTube must provide that same service for everybody, free of charge? Are you suggesting the government should step in and tell YouTube something like ‘you must serve everybody as much as they want, and you can charge them up to $1 per month to post a video’. If Adams was paying YouTube, he might have a case of breach of contract, but he wasn’t and he don’t.

Would you suggest YouTube be allowed to have any regulation over the content of the videos they host? If they not allowed to regulate the content, can they be held responsible for the content?

As Chris notes, Adams has other choices, but Adams wants to use YouTube because, hey, more traffic. MJD wants to post his about his silly latex fetish here on our host’s blog for the same reason. If YouTube can’t say no to Adams, would our host be able to say no to MJD? Both MJD and Adams could create their own platform, and put up all the silly things they like, and none will try to stop them.

So Chris, you would have no problem when an anti-vaccine loon or anti-SBM CEO takes over your local telecom (land-line or cell) and bans pro-vaccine or pro-SBM messages being delivered over their private exchanges?

Unlikely to affect me, as the lines are a semi-government monopoly. Somewhat strangely, the Government already prohibits a whole lot of stuff from going down the wires and you can get into serious trouble trying to send those things.

Privately owned newspapers and media outlets are already refusing to accept articles and proclamations from anti-vaccine groups on the basis that they are a tissue of lies. If newspapers can choose what advertorials they publish, I don’t see why YouTube should be forced to carry Mike Adams’ advertorials.

Anon.Pseudo: There was a time when I was a 1st Amendment absolutist too. Then came “speech that kills,” hate speech that motivates hate crimes including murder, also known as “stochastic terrorism” when the hate-speecher has plausible deniability. Today it’s become rampant.

The error in your reasoning is that you assume that everyone else is also engaged in reasoning. Those who use the 1st Amendment to make excuses while they spew hate, are disingenuous and self-serving at best, and very often have an actual desire to do actual harm or have others do it for them.

Canada, the UK, and Germany, all have hate speech laws, and can hardly be said to be tyrannical regimes or in any way lacking in robust public debate and various forms of “self-expression.”

So yes, I would gladly see strong hate speech laws in the US, and see them ruled constitutional on the same basis as child porn laws: this stuff causes actual harm. To that I would add some way of going after the anti-vax propaganda and quack propaganda, and similar anti-science material that causes actual and demonstrable harm. At minimum, the versions of those things that are associated with selling of products (e.g. Mikey’s e-commerce page) should be considered “commercial speech” and subject to the fraud laws.

“My rights, over your dead body” (or your kid’s trip to the hospital with measles or gunshot wounds) is the ultimate in selfish cowardice, whether it’s about the 1st Amendment or the 2nd (guns).

Hate speech and fraud speech also cheapen the entire value of free speech: when “freedom” equates to being an assh0le, we become a society of assh0les.

We can do better than that.

I am glad that You Tube is being responsible and alerting visitors to scam artists like Adams writing anything they please in order to garner viewers/ customers.
He has loads on money, he should be able to set up his own system.

As Eric Lund observes, he must be trying to attract rightist customers when he insults groups like the SPLC
.
Over the past 10 years, I’ve seen both him and Null shift towards the right when earlier on, they both may have veered left
( then, both ways simultaneously! Trying for everyone’s money) It is hilarious to me when Null castigates the Left whilst enjoying free air time for his infomercials on Pacifica, a liberal bastion**. He broadcasts ” special reports” about the Clinton Crime Family or Obama’s evils..
Similarly, Adams takes ads featuring a scowling Hillary Clinton. This tells me that perhaps their marketing research has shown them that buyers veer right: after all, would you buy from an outlet that showed disrespect to someone you may have supported recently or in the past? Null highlights conspiracy theorists like Gerald Celente who once worked on Fox ,

Both of these idiots complain about the ever encroaching Police State or Censorship despite blasting their pseudoscience and hateful memes all over the internet and the airwaves.

** I believe he was cast out from 3 other Pacifica stations but claims he left one of his own accord. His anti-vax broadcast with another host in Berkeley was censored as well.

Meanwhile…..
The Federal Communications Commission is apparently going to allow Sinclair Broadcast Group to buy out Tribune Media without conditions, thus giving Sinclair a 72% control of the US television market. Sinclair often mandates its stations to air specific reports, segments, and editorials, referred to as “must-runs”…… often with a very right wing slant…… ON SOLELY OWNED broadcasting stations…… in other words, some markets you can’t avoid Sinclair owned television…. whereas all you have to do is switch to Hulu, Netflix, Vimeo,……… or start your own! Hardly the same!

Odd, isn’t it, that “Nutritionist” says he’s never coming back here again, but there are two more posts with the same picture soon after.
The picture is conclusive proof that he has come back, that is unless he actually has a multiple-personality disorder, which I consider unlikely; his posts show no evidence that he has even one personality.

I gave him warning that Orac dislikes sockpuppets. We’ll see if he listens.

how to avoid getting stuck in an echo chamber of either their own or some algorithm’s design.

Well, yea. Google, Facebook, Yourube — These entities are facilitating the echo chamber:

A filter bubble is a state of intellectual isolation[1] that can result from personalized searches when a website algorithm selectively guesses what information a user would like to see based on information about the user, such as location, past click-behavior and search history. As a result, users become separated from information that disagrees with their viewpoints, effectively isolating them in their own cultural or ideological bubbles

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filter_bubble

I don’t know if it sufficient to block Google scripts (it certainly kills the dropdown suggestions); It may just revert to data gleaned from you previously.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

A purge you say?

Tim: The solution to filter bubbles is to not use the monopoly platforms. Instead of Google, use Startpage.com, which privacy-protected and accesses Google via some protected means that don’t let Google’s stalker-bugs accumulate on your computer. Or use DuckDuckGo.com which is its own native search engine and has nothing at all to do with Google. See their respective pages for links to their privacy policies.

Trying to block Google’s scripts yourself is a task for experts at minimum, seeing as Google and Faceborg are masters of the surveillance economy and have developed and/or deployed a multitude of new stalking tech such as “beacons” and “super cookies” (these are known by various names in the IT world). For more info on that go to EFF.org, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and look for their “deep links” page, and search for the topics of interest.

Instead of Faceborg, to stay in touch with people who matter, use oldschool email and phone calls. It’s easy to set up email lists in most email client apps, or just add people to the To: lines.

Tim one more thing:

Don’t use GMail because it does the same kinds of stalking as Google, including “sentiment analysis” of your email (incoming as well as outgoing). That’s a euphemism for “attempted mind-reading.” At root it’s techno-woo based on the untestable belief that human behavior is wholly-deterministic and therefore in theory wholly-predictable. They dress it up in Silly Con Valley speak to make it look all sciency, but the structure of their argument is not terribly different to Deepak Chopra’s quantum woo (despite obvious differences in their respective emotional sales pitches).

Google is up to its ears in “immortality woo” as well; their chief of advanced engineering is one Ray Kurzweil, he of the “upload your soul to a computer to achieve immortality” cr@p. Kurzweil takes over a hundred supplements a day and his personal doc subscribes to the “acid / alkaline” stuff that’s been covered amply in thes pages over the years. Google founders Sergey & Larry are also True Believers in this h0rse sh!t. Don’t give ’em your business.

@Gray Squirrel,

I don’t have a mobile phone but what about the mobile phones situation? (both android and idevices).

Alain

I don’t have a mobile phone but what about the mobile phones situation? (both android and idevices).

In terms of just the base platform, my understanding is that iOS is a lot less stalky than Android. Both of my phones and my tablet are the latter, and it’s a pain in the ass to stay logged out and also avoid the “location services” (rather than just using the phones’ GPS). I further use Naked Browser, which is fine for my purposes.

Holy crap!

I listened to Mikey’s whole tape:

the LEFT is going to take over the country….
wait a minute, isn’t it the Right that is empowered because it controls the executive branch, the congress, most states and by way of the executive, the military,
A false flag event – radioactive- will kill tens of thousands engineered by the deep state.

Who would believe this?

Doesn’t a woo-meister like him or the other loon constantly predicting disaster/ end times as they do endanger their credibility on other topics- like health woo, thus affecting profits?

Don’t listeners pick up that their gurus know NOTHING when they, as art experts, talk about the great Italian painter, TITAN, or as astute historians discuss how Alexander Hamilton was killed in a duel on an island in WV near his childhood home or as a physiologist stumbles over words like “amygdala” ( courtesy prn.fm)?
Don’t the examples I cited prove something about intelligence and scholarship?

Crank magnetism is a thing, Denice. The sort of person who gets his medical news from people like Mike Adams is more likely than average to get his political news from people like Alex Jones–and I’m sure both Adams and Jones are aware of this.

Furthermore, the sort of people who know enough about art history, US history, or physiology to spot any of those bloopers are probably not the target audience for people like Adams and Jones.

But Eric! **

When someone who claims he is an expert in biochemistry/ physiology stumbles, cautiously sounding out amygdala or “serotonin” and who says “meTHANE”, accent on the second syllable and and and best of all: being an expert on climate change who says….
” EL NINO” pronouncing it exactly as I wrote it. And repeats it yet!
I mean, most people DO listen to weather reports and know how to pronounce it correctly.

Seriously, people who follow baseball know how to pronounce Spanish names

My examples are only skimming the surface: it is non stop..

For g-d’s sake HAMILTON is a play!

But here we have a PhD who consistently mispronounces words in Spanish, French and German. Which tells me that he probably studied a foreign language- so wouldn’t it be hard to get advanced degrees without it? He also doesn’t know computers so he wouldn’t have that option instead.

It also tells me that he can’t learn .

Listeners to prn.fm can’t be that dim.

** purely for Schadenfreude

Meanwhile in China, a science journalist criticised a wealthy TCM grifter, who stovepipes his fake “research” through Cardiff Uni to advertise and legitimise his scammocopoeia. The grifter is rich from insect- and fungus-based “herbal” cancer cures, and brings in a lot of ‘medical’ tourism, and therefore has a cosy and mutually-profitable relationship with the Party.
http://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/ud2OGObNVVIeOwprDBHr_Q

Result: the journalist was arrested and held in custody until he retracted the article. Fortunately archived copies remain.
https://twitter.com/TigerBB8/status/970636853295579137

[Mr Punch voice] That’s the way you do it! [/Mr Punch voice]

I posted a comment asking if this meant NN would stop deleting comments and they removed it.

Thats just it! Its accepteing to him to control what goes on his platforms. But its not acceptable when others control what goes on their platforms!

“The Federal Communications Commission is apparently going to allow Sinclair Broadcast Group to buy out Tribune Media without conditions, thus giving Sinclair a 72% control of the US television market.”

This overstates matters. If the deal goes through, Sinclair by entering new markets reportedly would gain access to 72% of households, which doesn’t mean they will “control” every market they’re in.

Allowing that much concentration of media power does sound highly dubious.

It’d be fun to see Adams and NN waste a huge pile of dough in a vain attempt to claim damages from YouTube.

@As fun as that would be, I don’t see it happening. Mikey may spout a lot of nonsense but that’s just to rile up his base. The man is a con artist, and a pretty good one at that. He’ll piss and moan about the man getting him down but I don’t see him throwing money away on a futile fight with no chance of winning.

This overstates matters.

I don’t think Tom Skilling is going anywhere. This would be more interesting if graded by DMAs.

@Johnny @March 5, 2018 at 3:31 pm:
You’ve got that right.
Mikey won’t go away.
Mikey isn’t about to give up the RubeTube free customer recruiting ground even if he had his own server farm to serve up his video dreck. He can’t recruit new customers preaching to the choir.
.
A fun oldie:

“Funny”, that for all the cures they’re making up to scam people, there isn’t any that cures crazy and/or gullibility.

Do we have actual evidence that YouTube banned Adams? I know they were cutting back on conspiracy content, but I feel like, given his clear path to profiting off this and his, shall we say, orthogonal relationship to the truth, that we should assume he deleted his own videos until someone comes up with some proof in the other direction. Maybe I’m just being to hard on the dude, but I have trouble believing anything that comes out of his mouth.

Ryan, I checked a few days ago and again today: the Health Ranger account is labelled “terminated” because it violated community standards. HOWEVER his Natural News account seemed to be functioning. He probably has other accounts of which I am unaware.

IN OTHER SCEPTICAL NEWS…..

Orac must be one powerful dude if quacks dare not mention his name!!!

I just listened to Null live ( prn.fm) read an article I mentioned last week ( Richard Gale/ Green Med Info) AND ……..
he read the whole epic pile of foetid claptrap OMITTING
DG, SBM and RI.
He skipped over, focusing on Barrett, QW, Wikip—, Randi and Sceptic Guerrillas.

Orac should be pleased.

I did some more looking and my looking conformed to yours. That said, there’s still a shirtload of content by Adams on the YouTube, so it had started me thinking conspiratorially. Good thing I’m still able to be convinced by evidence against my conspiracy theory.

Mikey continues:

Freedom of speech is “under extreme assault”- “censorship is tyranny”; Silicon Valley is now becoming like North Korea, the former Soviet Union and present day Communist China ( so I guess Putin is ok).
He will host Info Wars today

He says call the Capitol and demand a federal investigation into the ” censorship of independent news” and federal antitrust action AND
tells his thralls to avoid g–gle, you tube, facebook,
look into his new websites, apps etc.

Interesting how so-called natural health advocates like Mike and Null have become freedom fighters rallying the population to
glorious revolution against oppression and tyranny.
as well as discount, store bought vitamins.

look into his new websites, apps etc.

He should start teaching them about UUCP and bang paths. Packet radio. Moonbounce.

Mike’s ally Kent Heckenlively has also glommed onto the “censorship” angle.

“I haven’t had a lot of contact with Mike Adams, but in my few encounters he has always impressed me as a serious person…”
“Mike’s tech experts told him the (alleged recent hack attack on NN) was so large and sophisticated it was most likely from a state actor. Mike suspected it was the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) as the guilty party and responded in August of 2017 by posting a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the hackers.
Yes, that’s the kind of warrior guy Mike is, which is why he is so popular.”

Kent himself (in an article on his buddy Bolen’s website) says he doesn’t know exactly what dreadful things may happen over the next few months (false flag attack? attempt to remove Trump?), but is convinced “somebody, somewhere is planning to do something VERY BAD”. Kent is very CONCERNED and plans to be VERY WATCHFUL (the all-caps are all Kent’s).

Oo.

” A serious person” ? SRSLY!!
Right. Mikey is serious: so are confabulation, anosognosia and executive dysfunction.

@Chris & Johnny,
Johnny – Thinking about it, a better analogy would have been providers of teleconference or video conference fcapabilities limiting what you can say. The telecoms are common carriers.. What the ISPs used to be considered until the latest change by the FCC. I don’t disagree that it is their right to choose who can participate and what can be said. I just think that with corporations having more influence then governments, it is a conversation that needs to happen. As I alluded earlier, I’m old fashioned wrt free speech, no mater the venue.

Chris – Sounds like a SaskTel type situation where the state/province own the telecom services. They can and have used the “common good” rationale to try and limit what people can say or do. Most times it has been struck down by the courts. The only things they can ban from occurring is things that are illegal, not un-popular or disagreeable. Even Canada’s hate-speech laws arn’t quite to the point of banning things that offend.

I thank you both for sharing your opinions. I doubt we’ll agree, but different views are valued. I guess [end threadjack] 🙂

amazingly, this sham and all his advice is giving people ACTUAL results in their lives. What is a Sham is that certain little groups get to tell all the other groups what they may and may not believe, and what science is and is not real. The last time I checked, You tube and most internet supplying countries upheld that idea of democracy and freedom that means people get to choose for themselves. Apart from your opinion, people actually have brains and like to use them rather than subscribe to multiple choice type tyranny. Just because you call the advice a SHAM does not mean that it is, and I’m sure lots of people like to read your shammy stuff too, and that is their prerogative. What I would like to know is why do people like you spend so much time telling others what NOT do do instead of helping them DO that which can help them. It’s very easy you know… do what you want and stick to those things that work for you. OH… now I see… your advice not generating real results that could help anyone much?

Rebekka – Please point out where any little group has told other groups what they may and may not believe.

You said “The last time I checked, You tube and most internet supplying countries upheld that idea of democracy and freedom that means people get to choose for themselves.” YouTube, last I checked, is not a country. It’s a business which is funded primarily by advertisers. While they rely on the content creators for, er, content, and sometimes share revenue with them, they are not required by either their mission or the government to supply free hosting to everyone. If someone violates YouTube’s terms of service, they’re gone. The terms of service are designed to make it comfortable for a lot of people to view content and to have a good feeling about the ads they view.

If an ad becomes associated with something that large numbers of people feel is offensive, then those groups start boycotts. The advertiser has a choice to make of how to respond. If too many people get mad a an advertiser, it’s simple prudence to ensure their ads aren’t associated with offensive content. If they can’t feel comfortable that this will happen with YouTube, they will move their ad dollars to other platforms. YouTube doesn’t want that, which I hope you’ll agree is only reasonable.

So yes, by all means, make up your own mind. Hopefully you’ll rely on solid information. Don’t expect someone who gives away the hosting to continue to do so if it starts to affect their revenue streams.

In other (non) news….

Mikey announces his very own video site ( naturalnews/ today) and unlike You Tube, it will not censor truth telling, liberty loving patriots like him an Alex Jones:
it will instead filter out lefties: you have to be invited to contribute content.
No special snowflakes or SJWs allowed!

“What I would like to know is why do people like you spend so much time telling others what NOT do do…”

…instead of trying to scare consumers away from prescription drugs, vaccines, genetically modified foods etc.

Adams really should start up the Exploded Irony Meter Channel.

@Gray Squirrel

Ray Kurzweil, lol. I can’t seem to reply directly here but I thought you might like this Talking Heads puzzling evidence:

Mike Adams is a fool. His interpretations of the science are consistently wrong and hyperbolic. And he promotes absurd conspiracy theories.

Adams gives vaccine critics a bad name. There are logical and scientifically-supported reasons why vaccines are causing grave health damage, but you wont hear about the bona-fide evidence from Adams and his ilk.

“There are logical and scientifically-supported reasons why vaccines are causing grave health damage,”

How do vaccines compare to the actual diseases? Just post the PubMed indexed studies by reputable qualified researchers not on the Dwoskin payroll that any vaccine on the present American pediatric schedule causes more harm than the disease. For instance, do we want to have a return of diphtheria like happened in the former Soviet countries in the 1990s:
Diphtheria in the former Soviet Union: reemergence of a pandemic disease.

We already have too many babies dying from pertussis, and if your “aluminum” fear persists we can expect more diphtheria (and tetanus). Truly, you need to provide the relative risks without hiding in the herd.

Remember, vaccines do not cause autism:
Vaccine. 2014 Jun 17;32(29):3623-9. doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2014.04.085.
Vaccines are not associated with autism: an evidence-based meta-analysis of case-control and cohort studies.

In the future when you mention the “increase” in autism, please be clear about which version of DSM was being used to diagnose autism. Remember, you need to make sure it is the same criteria at all times. You need to make sure there are no outstanding confounders in your data, and different diagnosis criteria is a huge confounder.

By the way, a bit over half of the genetic sequences that cause autism have been found:
https://sparkforautism.org/portal/page/genetic-analysis-faq/

Real science advances as you cherry pick the studies!

Your cited taylor 2014, which is a metaanalysis of MMR and thimerosal studies. It is relevant to ONE vaccine (MMR) and ONE vaccine ingredient. It is completely irrelevant to aluminum adjuvant or any vaccine other than MMR.

Hey I would love to know the relative risks. Its really too bad we dont have enough data on that question, which is pathetic. Failure to study relative risks is negligent and apparently deliberate.

The genetics/heritability of autism have been vastly overestimated because of the absolutely wrong assumption that there is no gene X environment interaction. When GXE interactions are assumed not to exist, the heritabiity calculations from twin studies dramatically overestimate the heritabilty. Here is an article on that topic: http://vaccinepapers.org/autism-not-fate-twin-studies-overestimate-genetic-contribution/

The DTP vaccines had an adjuvant. You still don’t understand that before you claim something in vaccines cause autism you need to show autism is associated with the use of vaccines. You have not.

By the way your website is not a PubMed indexed journal. I will not click on your link.

There are logical and scientifically-supported reasons why vaccines are causing grave health damage…
Then you won’t mind posting those reasons along with supporting evidence, will you?

Here is a detailed review of the reasons, with scientific citations.

Del Bigtree? Are you serious?

For those who have not been fully following developments, the Informed Consent Action Network is a project of Del Bigtree, producer of VaXXed. Aprat from Bigtree, the staff consists of an anti-vaxxer as CAO, her husband as social media manager, a photographer and a roving reporter. This is the extent of their expertise. A bunch of amateurs, I kid you not. And Dan thinks we should read this tripe.

Adams gives vaccine critics a bad name. There are logical and scientifically-supported reasons why vaccines are causing grave health damage, but you wont hear about the bona-fide evidence from Adams and his ilk.

No, vaccine “critics” (a.k.a., and appropriately so, antivaxers) give vaccine critics a bad name. Adams is just a bit more out there and obnoxious than the run-of-the-mill antivaxer. However, he doesn’t regurgitate any pseudoscience, quackery, bad science, or cherry picked science that I haven’t seen on more “respectable” antivax sites many times. He just doesn’t bother to disguise his conspiracy mongering.

By Post Author

There are logical and scientifically-supported reasons why vaccines are causing grave health damage

I think you meant to write “There is a lot of scaremongering about vaccines causing grave health damage, some of it by me.”

Come back when you have an actual argument.

Come back? This isn’t your two-holer, Dan, and your implied lack of traffic isn’t the fucking problem of anyone around here.

Perhaps you should come back with some actual PubMed indexed citations:

To prove that the SPARKS for Autism research by the Simons Foundation is not relevant (make sure none of the papers are dated before 2016): https://sparkforautism.org/portal/page/about-spark/
That several large epidemiological studies done in several countries with several hundred of thousands of subject that show no correlation between autism and vaccines are not relevant.

Remember: no links to your website, and definitely no cherry picking.

Here’s something to be thankful for:

Mikey has of late become obsessed with gun rights in regard to the student protests – including his lack of love for millennials ( see natuaralnews.com/ similar rants on prn.fm) as I look at it, the more these loons focus on politics and other issues, the less time and web space they have for misinforming people about medicine, health, nutrition and vaccines.

It is especially entertaining for me to hear these creatures pontificate about the grave deficiencies of education in younger people and how these youngsters’ ideas are so simplistic whilst they display narcissism publicly, seeking out the spotlight.

I swear I am not making this up.

Failure to study relative risks is negligent and apparently deliberate.

Heh.

Mike Adams is a fool. His interpretations of the science are consistently wrong and hyperbolic. And he promotes absurd conspiracy theories.

“That several large epidemiological studies done in several countries with several hundred of thousands of subject that show no correlation between autism and vaccines are not relevant.”

They show no correlation with MMR. They provide no information about other vaccines or aluminum-containing vaccines.

So, to make claims about “vaccines” in plural, or any vaccine other than MMR is a misuse of the science.

Your reading comprehension is underwhelming. I see no PubMed indexed studies in your reply, nor anything that shows comprehension of epidemiological studies or that some of the vaccines included did contain adjuvants.

Perhaps you should to stick to making tools to suck vapors in your lungs. Stay away from anything that requires math, biology, reading comprehension or thinking.

Your reading comprehension is underwhelming.

I seem to recall Dan Steinberg’s asserting that a vaccinated-versus-unvaccinated study would only require a sample size in the low hundreds to settle things.

Dan Steinberg*: “Math is hard.”

Not a direct quote, just an observation.

It was a common phrase addressed to me in junior high by other 8th graders when they learned I was attending the 9th grade algebra class. Of course the 9th graders had to take mid-terms and finals, but not the few of us still in 8th grade. We got to grade the tests of 9th graders who had the class in a different period.

Dan Steinberg doesn’t seem so different from Mike Adams – he just has a smoother line of patter.

As for his expressed disdain for the “fool” and his “absurd* theories – citing Del Bigtree’s
outfit (and getting himself approvingly cited by the loons at educate-yourself.com) puts him in equally embarrassing company.

@ Chris:

Somehow I appeared to bypass the damaging cultural myth that “real**girls are bad at mathematics”. It could be because both of my grandmothers ran businesses including doing the accounting. It was easy for me but I never cared that much about doing it as a career despite tutoring other kids and later adults. I only had one year of undergrad level but lots more for graduate degree requirements.

** whoever they are

This experience was in the early 1970s.

Now in 5th grade it was my mother who explained how different number bases work, so she had the head for it. Her father was an accountant. Unfortunately that was about a month before she died.

My stepmother was all about me being “lady like.” This included wearing gloves to church and a girdle before leaving the house to go to school (she would actually feel my waist to make sure I was wearing the horrible thing!). Fortunately in 7th grade my first class was PE, so I would remove that dreaded garment. She also had a habit of cleaning my room for me. One time she tossed out all of my Superman and other related comic books. Later she tossed my bag of fabric scraps (not a nice thing to do with someone who sews!).

Needless to say, I did not much care what anyone thought about my interests. Especially when I was often the only woman in my engineering classes.

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