In their willingness to embrace fake news, alternative health advocates are no better than Trump supporters

distraught looking conspiracy believer in suit with aluminum foil head isolated on white background

One of the most bewildering, depressing things about Trump supporters is their willingness to embrace complete lies offered to them as fake news.

As The Washington Post notes, despite a disasterous first month of the presidency, filled with huge blunders, outrageous lies, and feuds of his own making, Trump supporters think he is doing a great job.

[pullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Do you believe in alternative health? Then you’re every bit as ignorant and gullible as Trump supporters.[/pullquote]

… They don’t understand why major media outlets don’t see the same successful administration they have been cheering on. And they’re increasingly frustrated that Democrats — and some Republicans — are too slow to approve some of the president’s nominees and too quick to protest his every utterance.

“They’re stonewalling everything that he’s doing because they’re just being babies about it,” said Patricia Melani, 56, a Jersey native who now lives here and attended her third Trump rally Saturday…

She blames the media for circulating “fake” stories about the president — like when she believed he was “very cool, wasn’t yelling” at a Thursday news conference, yet a CNN anchor described his behavior as “unhinged.”

Just about everyone who’s not a Trump supporter (and that’s the majority of the country) can’t understand what they see as ignorance and gullibility — ignorance about the truth and willingness, even desperation, to believe the endless stream of lies vomited forth by the Liar-in-Chief.

How can Trump supporters fail to see what USA Today wrote Trump’s first month in office:

In this short span, the new president has stumbled from one self-inflicted mess to another. The slapdash travel ban he instituted one week into his presidency has been exposed as both arbitrary and harmful to America’s national security interests. And the forced resignation of national security adviser Michael Flynn, amid reports of numerous contacts between Trump aides and Russian intelligence agents, has reignited concerns about the sanctity of last year’s election.

Other troubling developments include: a Cabinet nominee who withdrew before the Republican-controlled Senate could reject him; strained relations with Australia and Mexico, two reliable allies; a flawed military raid in Yemen; a torrent of leaks driven by high-level infighting; blatant conflicts of interest involving the first family; and a top general openly talking of the “unbelievable turmoil” in government.

In the midst of all this, the president insists with a straight face that his administration is “running like a fine-tuned machine” and focuses mostly on what he has always focused on: himself. He has obsessed about inaugural crowd sizes and barely existent voter fraud, picked infantile fights with critics, attempted to undermine the judiciary and the news media, and even disparaged a department store that discontinued his daughter’s line of fashion.

Think you are far more sophisticated than Trump supporters and could never be conned so easily? Then ask yourself if you believe in alternative health.

Yes? Sadly you’re every bit as ignorant and gullible as Trump supporters.

Are you afraid of vaccines?

Do you think cranio-sacral therapy works?

Do you take herbs or supplements that aren’t prescribed by a doctor to improve your health?

Do you fear toxins in food?

Do you spend money on detoxes?

Do you think homebirth is safe?

Do you use essential oils for health?

If you believe in any of this nonsense, you are no different than Trump supporters because you too believe fake news and for exactly the same reasons: You are desperate to pretend that there are simple, easy solutions to complex problems. You look at bad luck and prefer to imagine that you are the victim of a conspiracy. In short, you can’t handle the truth and rush to substitute it with a comforting fiction.

Those who believe in alternative health nonsense are no different than those who think there was a massacre in Bowling Green. And just like you can’t imagine how Trump supporters can be fooled so easily, those of us who have studied science, medicine and statistics can’t imagine how you could be so gullible.

26 Responses to “In their willingness to embrace fake news, alternative health advocates are no better than Trump supporters”

  1. MichelleJo
    February 22, 2017 at 7:58 pm #

    whoa, strong wording but said as it should be. The amount of answers to all your health problems being advertised is staggering. Latest one I saw: Alpha Brain for depression. I did get a kick out of finding 9 adverts for the solution to the pain of childbirth in various forms from the same circular, stuck on my fridge my my 16 year old daughter. She found it highly amusing.

  2. Eater of Worlds
    February 21, 2017 at 4:50 pm #

    I think Trump has dementia. His father had it. He used to be much more coherent. This study just came out

    https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/feb/21/long-winded-speech-could-be-early-sign-of-alzheimers-says-study

  3. Anna D
    February 21, 2017 at 2:08 pm #

    A bit OT, but this is despicable. Babies were hurt by homeopathic teething remedy but the company did nothing. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/hundreds-of-babies-harmed-by-homeopathic-remedies-families-say/

  4. maidmarian555
    February 21, 2017 at 5:46 am #

    OT: I am livid right now. Alison Thewliss (SNP MP) is proposing a bill regarding infant feeding- specifically formula:

    http://www.alisonthewliss.scot/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Consultation-on-the-Feeding-Products-for-Babies-and-Children-Bill.pdf

    It’s due a second reading in the House of Commons this Friday. If this gets through, formula would have to be sold in plain packaging, just like cigarettes. It also proposes that companies be prevented from marketing any baby food to infants aged less than 6 months. She was on TV this morning trying to say that the intent isn’t to draw a comparison between formula and cigarettes even though cigarettes are the only other product (as far as I know) in this country that have to be sold in plain packaging. They’re complaining that parents are getting too much information about formula feeding from the formula companies themselves- completely ignoring the fact that’s it’s next to impossible to get sensible, impartial advice about formula from HCPs (certainly in my experience the only ‘advice’ I got was a leaflet, over which my HV scrawled the websites for LLL and the WHO). Whilst I don’t disagree with everything (Toddler milk is bullshit) the idea that formula be treated in the same way as cigarettes is extremely worrying. How will this help anyone?

    • Empress of the Iguana People
      February 21, 2017 at 8:51 am #

      Getting rid of cartoon camels is one thing, but that’s ridiculous.

    • Linden
      February 21, 2017 at 10:49 am #

      I’m writing to my MP tonight.

    • Steph858
      February 21, 2017 at 11:14 am #

      I skim read it. I like how it makes a big deal about the fact that, although all infant formulas must be very very similar to each other in order to comply with regulations, the advertising would have the consumer believe that there are substantial differences between different brands. This is, of course, a very bad thing.

      Now do excuse me while I go and organise my medicine cabinet. The adverts for brand-name Nurofen(TM) claim that it goes straight to the source of the pain (presumably guided by the visible throbbing red circles one emits when in pain) while generic Ibuprofen just sort of sits around in the brain; I can’t have them next to each other lest my Superior Nurofen become contaminated by my inferior Ibuprofen.

  5. The Computer Ate My Nym
    February 20, 2017 at 9:44 pm #

    I’m afraid of toxins in food. Specifically, I’m afraid that Trump will defund the FDA’s enforcement division and we’ll start getting bacteria contamination, unlisted allergens, and possibly really gross 19th century level crap in the food again. It…hasn’t happened quite yet.

  6. yentavegan
    February 20, 2017 at 7:43 pm #

    The folks I know who are partial to Cranio-sacral practitioners, homeopathy, vaccine refusal, home birth , home schooling all supported Hillary. This post will make them bonkers…equating them with Trump supporters is the lowest blow of all…

    • Allie
      February 21, 2017 at 12:06 am #

      Left-wing extremists and right-wing extremists have more in common than not?! Shocker ; )

      • myrewyn
        February 21, 2017 at 4:38 pm #

        Yeah, here in Oregon the right wing and left wing curve back and meet in the middle when it comes to refusing modern medicine, although for different reasons.

    • Heidi
      February 21, 2017 at 10:29 am #

      Here in the southeastern US, it’s almost the opposite. This crowd seems to be more Republican, but an extreme version of conservative, too. I guess extremists are just that – extremists.

    • Roadstergal
      February 21, 2017 at 11:26 am #

      That crowd in my area voted for Stein. Wi-Fi is poison!

    • Platos_Redhaired_Stepchild
      February 25, 2017 at 11:50 am #

      Trump is an anti-vaxxer. He thinks they cause autism.

  7. Amy
    February 20, 2017 at 5:43 pm #

    I use essential oils to clean my house….because they smell good! I use herbs in cooking….because they taste good.

    I see my doctor when I’m sick…..because she and her peer-reviewed methods “heal good.”

  8. Empress of the Iguana People
    February 20, 2017 at 2:08 pm #

    I’d think he’s senile, except he’s always been this nuts.

    • Gæst
      February 21, 2017 at 12:01 pm #

      Premature senility.

    • Platos_Redhaired_Stepchild
      February 21, 2017 at 10:21 pm #

      He’s been a perverted narcissist for years! I remember watching that Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous episode where he and Marla talk about their infant daughter’s future tits.

  9. MaineJen
    February 20, 2017 at 1:51 pm #

    I hate to say this, but I’m through trying to understand anyone who still supports Trump. They are too far gone.

  10. attitude devant
    February 20, 2017 at 1:20 pm #

    I’ve been pondering this today. The woo-ey people in my world (thankfully not many) are more likely to support Trump. It’s bizarre. Are the ‘low-information voters’ also the users of homeopathy and nutriceuticals? And don’t even get me started on how much of a walking exemplar of the Dunning-Kruger effect the man is!

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