He’s leaping from our shores to yours: David Avocado Wolf is going to visit Australia! If you only read what he writes about himself, you might think this is a good idea.
David Wolfe, who refers to himself as
the rock star and Indiana Jones of the superfoods and longevity universeand boaststhe world’s top CEOs, ambassadors, celebrities, athletes, artists, and the real superheroes of this planet — mums — all look to David for expert advice in health, beauty, herbalism, nutrition, and chocolate.He incorrectly states on his website thata growing body of evidence indicates that vaccines are not safe and that they can injure, permanently maim, or even kill you or a family member. There is no such body of evidence.
Of course, if you ask anyone else, he’s a flaming nutbar.
His claims…include that chocolate is an octave of sun energy, mushrooms are extraterrestrial, and… gravity ain’t no thang.
Or a fraud.
David is a con artist. He preys on anti-sciencers by using pseudo-intelligent word salad. He is fantastic at combining a string of words together that sounds intelligible, however when you actually examine them, they’re nonsensical.
His only talent seems to be gaming facebook.
A purveyor of myths and miracle products, David “Avocado” Wolfe fuels the decline of critical thinking, convinces people they can prevent or cure real ailments with ineffective supplements, and demonizes life-saving vaccines and cancer treatments, all by growing his massive social media following with clever internet memes.
But there is a sucker born every minute, and a predator who preys on the stupid is going to thrive.
Owner of Jing Organics Adam Kingsley said he did not care about the concerns of people and hoped David Wolfe would spread the anti-vaccine message.
“I’m anti-vaccine, I’m publicly open about that, just because stuff is peer reviewed doesn’t mean it’s true. David Wolfe is a world health expert,” Mr Kingsley said.
David Wolfe calls himself a nutritionist, believes the world is flat and claims gravity is a hoax.
Mr Kingsley claimed vaccines cause autism because he is in the health industry, (he makes saukraut and fermented foods and sell organic products) and he speak to mothers whose children have autism.
World Health Expert
, hah. He’s a phony. Australia is actually letting him into the country to lie to its citizens? Tsk.
The Encyclopedia of American Loons on this übercrank woo-woo quack & fraud (Jan-2015):
Look on the bright side: there’s plenty of poisonous wee beasties in Australia.
This nutter adds to that collection.
With any luck he’ll approach Australia from the wrong side and fly over the edge.
I guess our laws against con artists are completely useless…look who’s president…particularly when it comes to the proverbial traveling snake oil salesman. If you con the rich, a la Bernie Madoff, then you might get in trouble, but if you con the average American sucker there’s no risk. In fact, it’s a great American tradition. Perhaps Australia is different.
Of course gravity doesn’t exist…the Earth sucks.
Hold on, he is partially right. Vaccines are nefarious for their effects, providing billions of humans with good health. And we all know that good health is dangerous to the alternate “medicine” fraudsters.
Australia, to our shame, is currently governed by a bunch of antiscience right-wingers who (how I *wish* it were satire!) recently brought in a lump of coal and handed it around in parliament to show us snowflakes that it’s nothing to be afraid of. Who knowingly lied and claimed that blackouts caused by a storm were caused by renewable (wind) energy. And so on… I’m afraid if the world is looking for leadership in pushing back on pseudoscience, my lovely country is not currently in a position to offer it. We’re doing what we can to get rid of the current government…
If the world is flat, the airlines are lying comprehensively to us about the range and speed of their aircraft. I wonder why he trusts them to get him to Australia safely?
As an aussie, is it okay if I point to what happens when you try to keep people out as well?
I’m with you, indianajones@10. Keeping people out for what they say should be limited to extreme cases, essentially where such people are likely to incite violence (e.g. the banning of that MRA leader who was essentially promoting rape — good job, immigration minister). But even though I despise anti-vax pseudoscientific gobbledygookers, and I agree that they can cause a great deal of harm, I think we have to be very careful about extending bans to include people we disagree with.
OTOH, Oz has started cracking down on the alt-med woo over the last few years, especially the antivaxxer BS.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-32274107
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/oct/20/australian-nurses-who-spread-anti-vaccination-messages-face-prosecution
so there’s a glimmer of hope, at least.
and fake news sites, and sites whose job it is to promote deliberate propaganda?
and for the people who thought those weren’t dangerous, all we have to do now is point at Cheeto Mussolini.
it’s no irony that the biggest threats to free speech right now… are the alt-right Freeze Peachers.
if you do nothing about them, they cause untold amounts of damage, both short term and long term.
if you DO do something about them, you are in danger of quashing “free speech”
but I’m a utilitarian. I say, go with what causes the least amount of damage long term, and that, right now, means not giving these assholes a platform to spout lies and misinformation with.
Jing Organics may not care, but at least someone does! “Mr. Vitamins” was sponsoring him at some sort of special event and as woo filled as that looks like to be, his appearance was cancelled due to popular demand.
https://www.mrvitamins.com.au/news/mr-vitamins-outreach/event-cancellation/
Well, lying isn’t illegal. Not like encouraging sexual violence, anyway.
I think anyone who takes him up on his anti-vax views will be surprised how quickly institutions turn on their little miracle: preschools routinely turn away unvaccinated kids, and there’s been talk of making child support payments dependent on keeping to the Medicare vaccination schedule. This was a conservative government, mind, and the far left party aren’t any more inclined to take this woo seriously because it damages their brand as the ‘right all along about climate change’ party.
Why would anybody trust anything said by someone who says the Earth is flat and gravity doesn’t exist?
I’m getting a headache trying to figure out how that is supposed to work.
Generalissimo Google™ suggests flat-Earthism plus no such thing as gravity-ism, combined, is a thing. Not quite sure why, it seems to have something to do with gravity explaining why the Earth isn’t flat. Without jumping into that loon-a-rama, apparently it’s all a matter of weight and / or being “lighter than air”: Helium balloons, e.g., are lighter than air so naturally float away, whereas cannonballs are heavier, so don’t float. Ergo, there is no such thing as gravity and hence the Earth really is flat. Or something like that… (My brain is also hurting…)
But… but weight is a description of the force of gravity on an object. How can something be lighter or heavier than air if there’s no gravity? (Damn, where’s the excedrin?)
Uh, it entirely depends where you are when you do it.
lying is most definitely illegal in court.
it’s illegal to lie to Congress.
not that this hinders people, apparently, but I’m guessing you didn’t mean to make such a broad statement?