#2973: Nikole Hannah-Jones et al.

Nikole Hannah-Jones is an investigative journalist and staff writer for The New York Times, a MacArthur Fellow, inaugural Knight Chair in Race and Journalism at the Howard University School of Communications (where she founded the Center for Journalism and Democracy), possessor of various Honorary Degrees, member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and even a Pulitzer Prize winner for Commentary in 2020 for her work on her most famous project, The 1619 Project. She has, in other words, received lots of accolades and wields a lot of influence, But her work, in particular the 1619 Project, has, to be honest, ideology-driven bullshit as its core (although it should be emphasized that the bullshit verdict doesn’t extend to all essays written by scholars in connection with the project). And even if you agree with her goals (reparations for descendants of slaves, as well as national health care and other social welfare programs for all Americans – like most defenders of the former, she is pretty nebulous about the practical execution and consequences of such a program) – it really doesn’t justify her pseudohistory. And it is junk history. The fact that lots of people like it because they share some or all of her political views doesn’t change that (this review of the later book is somewhat remarkable for its attempt to laud the project but more or less giving up halfway through). The New York Times, meanwhile – and true to their ideological stance – refused to publish corrections, just as they had refused to accommodate the contributions of fact checkers in the first place (instead, editor Jake Silverstein doubled down).

 

And the things is, we have thus far covered a lot of wingnut pseudoscience of the America-as-a-Christian-nation variety – history twisted to serve wingnut or religious right ideology – and that is hard to justify without including the 1619 Project as well. Indeed, the whole thing is eerily reminiscent of the work of David Barton, including the types of inaccuracies and sleights of hand employed.

 

Hannah-Jones herself responded to criticism by pointing out “that history is never objective. There are facts, and then there are interpretations of facts”, and sure: the idea that there is some kind of ‘objective’ framing of history is a myth – that defense of distortion is of course available to Christian nationalists, too – but there are, indeed, facts, and Hannah-Jones seems to be less than ideally concerned with those as well (and with this). It is not a particularly good look. And to emphasize: What really makes the project break the lunacy barrier is not in itself the revisionism – legitimate historical revisionism (in the sense used by historians) is a means to shed new light on and deepen our understanding of history – but the obvious political goal to push it in public schools. Indeed, the Times quickly developed its 1619 Project Curriculum and printed hundreds of thousands of extra copies for distribution to schools, museums and libraries, and The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting made available free online lesson plans and offers help to get speakers to classrooms – all in a manner we are very familiar with from the Discovery Institute’s efforts on behalf of intelligent design: the goal was never to engage with the science but to get their ideas into schools.

 

Some people have of course defended the project on the grounds that, despite its flaws, it serves as a counterweight to prevailing narratives. But that's precisely the sort of idea about the dynamics that makes it scary: the need for a counterweight doesn’t justify pseudohistory in service of ideology but should motivate an even more excrutiating focus on accuracy and detail. Note that the 1619 project is the direct motivation for the 1776 Project, which is even more ridiculously plagued by pseudoscience and pseudohistory. And that’s how it will all continue when accuracy is proscribed in lieu of political games. So even if you agree with the political goal of the 1619 Project, you really ought to be worried about the dynamics here. And no: Our denunciation of the project does not mean that lots of the criticisms from elsewhere weren’t moronic; but they were predictable.

 

Diagnosis: Can people stop doing pseudoscience and pseudohistory in the name of ideology? (Of course they can’t, but life probably won’t get much better before they do.) Given our coverage of wingnut pseudohistory in the past, we really couldn’t circumvent this one. And although the 1619 Project is probably less egregious than, say, David Barton’s drivel, given the support and advocacy it’s been lent and by whom, the 1619 Project’s effects are conceivably even more disconcerting.

#2972: John Hanlin

John Hanlin has been the sheriff of Douglas County, Oregon, since 2008, which means that he was the sheriff in charge of investigating the 2015 shooting at Umpqua Community College that left nine people dead. In that context, media rightfully raised some concerns, because Hanlin had previously promoted Sandy Hook trutherism: In a (later removed) Facebook post, Hanlin posted a link to the video “Sandy Hook Shooting - Fully Exposed”, writing “This makes me wonder who we can trust anymore.” The video suggested that both 9/11 and the Sandy Hook shooting were part of a government conspiracy to take away people’s guns. At the same time, Hanlin wrote a letter to the government asserting that “Gun control is NOT the answer to preventing heinous crimes like school shootings” and pledged that he would not enforce new gun laws; in the aftermath of the Umpqua shooting, he merely asserted that “[n]ow is not an appropriate time to have those conversations”.

 

Now, Hanlin did later assert that the Sandy Hook massacre was not a government conspiracy. He still counts as a loon, however, and not only because he at one point entertained such silliness – for notice the standards he applies to judge which conversations are legimitate to have at what points. And yes, those standards are sufficient to qualify John Hanlin as a loon.

 

Hanlin is also associated with the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers and subscribes to the view that sheriffs are “the highest executive authority in a county and therefore constitutionally empowered to be able to keep federal agents out of the county”. He invoked claims like this in response e.g. to statewide COVID measures in 2020, both because of what he perceived to be medical reasons and because he viewed them as an unconstitutional infringement upon individual freedom, just like traffic laws (he didn’t mention that).

 

Diagnosis: Yes, this entry is centered around one error he made years ago and which he has later, half-heartedly, repudiated. But it was an error that reveals more than enough about what kind of mindset we are dealing with, and it is a profoundly disconcerting one.

#2971: Donald Hank

Donald Hank is a columnist for RenewAmerica – or at least he was: we haven’t seen any new columns for a while – and wingnut. Most of his writings seem concerned with perceived Washington overreach and countering what he thought was fake news from mainstream media, but he did, of course, broach other issues, too, including (sigh!) gay marriage and gay rights. Responding to a decision of the Presbyterian Church to allow pastors to officiate same-sex weddings back in 2014, Hank accused them of “blasphemy against the Holy Spirit” and of supporting what he called “socialMarxism.” Said Hank: “This is social Marxism and we are slaves to it in the US. Isn’t it time to throw off the chains? It's all up to the people”. As Hank sees it, gay marriage “is like saying a dog is a cat” and will allow for “our culture and hence our sovereignty to be destroyed” (The mechanisms he have in mind are a bit unclear). Moreover, gay marriage is wrong because people “deep down” feel is wrong; then he cited the assassination of the Roman Emperor Elagabalus, whom historians have said was either gay or transgender: “In Elagabulus’ case, he was eventually assassinated. The people’s will was done.” So there.

 

Diagnosis: Take a moment to consider how he invokes freedom vs. slavery in the context of the issue at hand (Presbyterian Church allowing pastors to officiate same-sex weddings), and you can probably come up with a diagnosis yourself.

 

Hat-tip: People for the American Way

#2970: Hillel Handler

A.k.a. William Handler (the name he uses when he talks to Gentiles)

 

New York-based Rabbi Hillel Handler is a flamboyantly insane conspiracy theorist and anti-vaccine activist, and likely partially responsible for measles outbreaks in New York’s orthodox Jewish communities. Now, Handler doesn’t quite view it that way; according to Handler, as expressed at a New York symposium with (a.o.) Del Bigtree and Andrew Wakefield, and based entirely on his feverish imagination, the 2019 measles outbreak among orthodox Jews was part of an elaborate plan concocted by Mayor Bill de Blasio to deflect attention from “more serious” diseases brought by Central American migrants. “We Hasidim have been chosen as the target,” said Handler; “the campaign against us has been successful.” And yes, he did claim the role of victim of persecution while simultaneously, and without irony, accusing Central American immigrants of spreading disease, a type of hoary gambit … he should have some awareness of, shouldn’t he? He did, however, claim that Bill de Blasio is a “nasty German” and a “very, very sneaky fellow” and asserted that it was therefore “in his DNA” to hate Jewish people.

 

But yes, that’s Rabbi Hillel Handler for you. Handler views his status as a Rabbi as a sort of mechanism that grants truth to whatever delusional fantasies his deranged imagination comes up with, regardless of fact, coherence, reason or evidence (such as claiming that de Blasio is German). Apparently, however, his word carries some weight in Rockland County (famous, by the way, for hosting the US’s first case of paralytic polio for more than a decade in 2022 – the patient being, of course, unvaccinated), even though he is obviously delusionally insane. And Handler has said a lot of stupid things, including that parents who “placate the gods of vaccination” are engaging in “child sacrifice”. (“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!”, said Rabbi Handler, citing the Gospel of Luke, though we don’t really believe he wants anyone to be forgiven.) Meanwhile, ultraorthodox communities remain a favorite target for anti-vaccine activists.

 

Indeed, not only are vaccines bad, according to Handler, but disease is good: Handler claims that getting measles, mumps and chicken pox reduces the risk of cancer, heart disease and stroke by 60%; needless to say, he didn’t even try to back up his assertions, partially, of course, because they are idiotically false. And there is, of course, a conspiracy afoot (one that goes beyond Di Blasio): “This is all being orchestrated by the drug companies, which are very close to the CDC,” says Handler. “The doctors all march in lockstep with the CDC. The doctors don’t think they’re marching in lockstep. They don’t understand that the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia, is a totally corrupt swamp. … They are criminals.” And of course, invoking the holocaust is a go-to trick: “Yes, there is a vaccine-triggered holocaust of autism and autoimmune diseases, like asthma, diabetes, Crohn’s disease, and various forms of ADHD and brain damage,” says Handler, and promptly goes on to express outrage that “the Anti-Defamation League and other politically-Liberal Jewish organizations have claimed exclusive ownership of this very powerful English word and blocked its use by Autism activists”; he did of course not go on to try to provide any evidence for his claims, which are demonstrably ridiculous.

 

He wasn’t a fan of covid vaccines and covid measures either. On his YouTube video, which amassed thousands of views, he predictably called his political opponents (including Jewish doctors) “Göring” and “Mengele” and accused them of orchestrating a “soft pogrom”, dismissed standard medical protocols, and provided medical advice based on his own delusional imagination, including vitamin supplements. 

 

Handler was also a signatory to a 2020 letter written by Sharon Kroner and Kevin Barry to President Trump to oppose school vaccine mandates. Having the signature of a raging lunatic like Handler doesn’t exactly lend credibility to the letter, but then it didn’t have any credibility to lose in the first place.

 

Handler is notable for other efforts, too, including fiercely attacking observant Jews for reporting child sex abuse to police; as Handler sees it, such accusations should be handled by rabbinic authorities (“[m]olestation cases must be handled by G’dolim, not by ‘experts’”), and he has been caught defending a rabbi who was convicted of raping his own daughter by saying the girl was lying about the abuse. You are supposed to take the authority conveyed by the title “Rabbi” as evidence enough for anything. Indeed, Handler even served as a spokesperson for the campaign to raise funds to support the convicted rabbi (that effort was led by one Rabbi Moshe Green, a name we record for future reference). He has also opposed efforts to regulate metzizah b’pei, a controversial circumcision rite that can spread deadly herpes to newborn boys, on the grounds that the practice must be “safe” because it is “old”.

 

Diagnosis: Incoherently fuming, insane conspiracy theorist. But although Rabbi Handler is a complete idiot, apparently a number of people thinks his title give him some kind of authority on medical issues. Those people should be avoided.

 

Hat-tip: Respectful Insolence

#2969: Patrick Hanaway

Over the last decades, quackery has gradually and successfully infiltrated academic medicine, usually under the heading “integrative medicine”. The nominal guiding idea is to integrate alternative treatments with science- andevidence-based medicine, which means integrating worthless garbage with real medicine, which again – needless to say – does not improve actual medicine (“integrative medicine” is the name of a brand, not a specialty) . But there is usually money in it: the motivation for such efforts is usually that patients request such treatments or, more importantly, that there are lucrative grants from woo-friendly people with so much money they don’t know how else to spend it; and for university administrations (who do, as opposed to scientists, decide such issues) that really is what matters. How else would you explain the remarkable double standard employed with regard to demands for evidence of safety and efficacy for science-based medicine vs. woo?

 

Few places have been more thoroughly infected by the integrative medicine scam than the Cleveland Clinic Foundation (CCF), which has – especially under the leadership of cynical quackery-enthusiast Toby Cosgrove – e.g. promoted integrative oncology; been caught recommending reflexology, “energy healing” (like reiki), and acupuncture for children; been sporting a traditional Chinese medicine clinic run by a naturopath (Galina Roofener); teamed up with Goop to promote myths about heavy metals; and – not the least – opened a new Center for Functional Medicine in 2014 to become “the first academic medical center in the United States to embrace functional medicine”. Functional medicine is, of course, a complete and utter scam, despite the Cleveland Clinic trying mightily and dishonestly to convince you otherwise; thet have even referred to the nonsensical marketing myth that the focus of functional medicine “is more on identifying underlying causes of illness and less on symptom management” – and yes, this is lying: not ‘dubious’ or ‘carelessly phrased’ or ‘inaccurate’ or ‘a mistake’, but baldfaced lying. The center was marketed as a “collaboration between the Clinic and The Institute for Functional Medicine”, i.e. Mark Hyman’s infamous institution.

 

The architects behind the collaboration was Hyman and his companion from The Institute for Functional Medicine Patrick Hanaway, who was subsequently Medical Director of, then Research Director of and currently (?) Research Collaborator with the center. Hanaway is is an integrative “holistic” practitioner who claims to have treated his own laryngeal cancer with nutrition, shamanic healing, acupuncture, herbs and prayer (as well as, he has to admit, chemotherapy and radiation therapy). Hanaway, although he is an MD, has previously served on the Executive Committee for the American Board of Integrative Medicine and is Past President of the American Board of Integrative Holistic Medicine, and he was, for a while, also chief medical officer of Genova Diagnostics, a shady laboratory that offers all sorts of tests of dubious medical value like a saliva adrenal stress profile, comprehensive diagnostic stool analysis, and toxic effects CORE. His own practice, Family to Family: Your Home for Whole Health Care in Asheville, NC, which he runs with his wife Lisa Lichtig – a “family physician, midwife and herbalist” who is “also serving as a traditional healer and ceremonial leader” and an initiated “mara’akame (healer) in the Huichol healing tradition” – is on record offering “holistic newborn and pediatric care” that includes what is ominously characterized as “grounded discussions” on vaccines; and yes, they do promote natural childbirth woo and, yes indeed, homeopathy.

 

In his position at the Cleveland Clinic, Hanaway would write editorials, often mixing word salads with misrepresenting the evidence base in favor of functional medicine – in response to questions by the AAFP, for instance, Hanaway offered a list of studies with no explanation of how they support the practices of functional medicine (and seriously: Does anyone think that this would have been the response if functional medicine had anything?) – and oversee program development and studies designed to make functional medicine come out in a positive light (e.g. pilot, proof of concept studies). Nevertheless, the Center for Functional Medicine was apparently a striking success, leading the Cleveland Clinic itself to commit to serious further investments. There was, after all, what Hanaway described as an “unbelievable pent up demand for this kind of care”, and what other parameter for success could there be in a medical setting?

 

Diagnosis: We’re sure he believes he is helping. He’s also very good at what he’s actually doing. His convictions have, in other words, played a significant role in the shittification of medicine in the US.

 

Hat-tip: Respectful Insolence

#2968: Douglas Hamp

Douglas Hamp has an MA in the Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, as well as a PhD from Louisiana Baptist University, and he is a frothingly insane fundie conspiracy theorist who attempts to defend a hyper-literalistic interpretation of the Bible (dragons, corners of the Earth, rolling out the firmament, God has hands and feet, and so on). Much of his writings – he has published a number of books – deal with various features of the End Times, in particular his Corrupting the Image series, which currently consists of:

 

-       Angels, Aliens, and the Antichrist Revealed, which concerns a Genesis prophecy that “the serpent will one day mix his seed with humanity as a counterfeit of the Messiah” and argues that this is currently happening. (You can sort of figure out the story – as well as Hamp’s state of mind – from that description and the title of the work.)

-       Hybrids, Hades, and the Mt Hermon Connection, which tells you all you need to know and more about Satanic angel–human hybrids and Satan ensuring “his unending reign upon the earth at the Tower of Babel”.

-       Singularity, Superhumans, and the Second Coming of Jesus, which … ok, here we’ll just quote the blurb: “When two prophets with superhuman powers arrive to warn of God’s coming judgment, the world largely rejects their message and treats them as hostile extra-terrestrials who must be stopped at any cost. Posing as an ancient alien, Satan’s hybrid-avatar, the Beast, kills them and urges humanity to take the mark of the Beast and evolve into gods to fight against the coming alien invasion led by Jesus.” We actually don’t think Hamp intended the book as a work of fiction but rather as a prophecy to be interpreted as literally as possible.

 

So Hamp sees the work at Satan more or less all over the place, including places where you would expect dingbat fundie conspiracy theorists to see it if you frequented conspiracy websites back in 2013, such as the freemasons: in his video The Antichrist, Freemasons and the Third Temple, he lays out the Satanic organization of that group based, in part, on the work of Stanley Monteith.

 

His website, meanwhile, offers a lot of impressively detailed (and utterly ridiculous) prophecies, mostly concerned with the always upcoming End Times. It also invites you to watch e.g. a “prophecy roundtable” (with him, one Scott Harwell, and guests) for “an entertaining chat about the end-times”. He currently also leads his own The Way Congregation in Colorado, which seems to be a cult. The weird praise his work receives e.g. on Amazon doesn’t exactly mitigate that suspicion. 

 

Diagnosis: The sort of colorful, deranged sideshow other incoherent endtimes preachers need in order to make them look borderline sane. Hamp seems to have no such concerns about appearing borderline sane, but has nevertheless managed, it seems, to gather a certain amount of followers.

#2967: Bill Hamon

Another day, another raging fundie. Bill Hamon is a fundie, self-declared prophet and founder of the Christian International Ministry Network. Charisma’s Steve Strang has described him as “one of the fathers of the modern prophetic movement”, and Hamon could, in fact, be described as the founder, with C. Peter Wagner, of the New Apostolic Reformation: the motivation for Hamon being his conviction that Christ can’t return to Earth and bring about its end until Christians form a “militant” army led by modern apostles and prophets that will physically subdue Earth and start establishing God’s kingdom in the Earth’s governments. Hamon is also the founder of Christian International School of Theology, an international network of Bible Colleges that has ostensibly “trained and activated thousands of ministers and saints across the world”, and author of a number of books with titles like God’s Weapons of War and Seventy Reasons for Speaking in Tongues.

 

Hamon is, moreover, a promoter of the weird genre of Trump-finds-God fan fic, the idea that Donald Trump himself is some sort of deeply committed religious figurehead – indeed, Hamon has contributed to the subgenre Melania-finds-God fan fic (an example), the most famous example of which being perhaps Paul Begley’s idea – spun entirely from febrile imagination – that First Lady Melania Trump refused to move into the White House in 2017 until it had been “completely exorcised.”

 

In any case, Hamon is convinced that Trump is doing God’s work and hence is, indeed, a major success story for his movement to put secular governments under the control of militant prophets. And as Hamon sees it, Trump’s primary agenda as president is to combat the forces of darkness commanded by Satan who are trying to take down God’s own cherished and carefully crafted project, the US. Said forces of darkness are of course identical to those who disagree with Hamon on political issues or who vote in ways that are contrary to how he wants them to vote. For if you do, perhaps because you “don’t realize this is a spiritual war”, God is ready to punish you (or other random Americans – God apparently doesn’t care much about precision). Hamon has, as a prophet, a direct line to God that allows him to reveal the workings here. For instance, in 2017, Hamon could reveal that Hurricane Irma was a sign from God that President Trump’s opponents will soon be exposed (just like Q also prophecied). As Hamon sees it, Trump is “God’s man for this time and God’s going to use him to restore America back to its true destiny and purpose”, and like many other fundie Trumpists, he has compared Trump to the biblical Cyrus, an ungodly man raised up to carry out God’s will: “The fact is that God raised him up, and God didn’t ask our permission which man He would bring, but it’s God’s time,” said Hamon (meanwhile, “everyone knows that if Hillary had gotten it, we would be a socialist nation and we’d be so far from our purpose” that we’d have invited the “judgment of God” … which, through hurricane Irma, we received anyways? Who knows.)

 

At least Hamon’s views on Trump reflect his general theological views as laid out e.g. in his book Apostles, Prophets and the Coming Moves of God: God’s end-times army (the one led by Trump and himself) will achieve victory by striking God’s enemies with blindness and natural disasters, which will eventually lead entire nations to convert to Christ. And the apostles and prophets (like himself) will be so powerful that Christians who come into their presence with sin in their lives will be struck dead, and eventually achieve immortality (this is his take on the idea of the Rapture). Now, many of Hamon’s ideas and doctrines can of course not be found in, say, the Bible, but the reason is obvious: As an apostle and prophet, Hamon has, through apostolic intuition, insights into new doctrines that supplement those given by the original apostles and prophets, or, in short: if you make it up as you go, it is really information directly from God.

 

Diagnosis: He’s old, but seems to be as insane and dangerous as ever. To minimally reasonable people, it remains unfathomable that anyone could take this cartoonishly laughable drivel seriously, but they do, and possibly because it is as crazy as it is: the sort of militant Taliban-style fundamentalism, complete with prophets, apostles and superheroes, has gained serious momentum around the world lately.