#1511: Anne Dachel

Yes, we have mentioned her before, but Anne Dachel really needs her own entry. Dachel is “media editor” at the infamous quack organization Age of Autism and a vocal vaccine denialist. According to Dachel autism is a “disorder that was unheard of 25 years ago”, but is now familiar due to vaccines. However, mainstream media is evidently trying to cover up – or being mislead by various conspiracies – to overlook the autism epidemic and what she apparently takes to be genuine scientific disagreement over the safety of vaccines (just see their propaganda movie “The Greater Good”). At the very least mainstream media is being unfair by not giving equal time to the insane rants of her decidedly non-expert band of anti-vaccinationists. In fact, Dachel is utterly unable to get the false balance problem (presumably because she herself is on the side of falsity): With regard to the anti-vaccine literature, she has pointed out out that “[m]embers of the press may not bother to read these books but parents do and what they’re learning fuels the controversy,” which is probably true but doesn’t exactly support her complaint about lack of balanced media coverage (though Dachel has pretty explicitly admitted that her goal is to scare parents out of vaccinating their kids, not provide “balanced information”). Similarly, when people point out the trouble with false balance, Dachel responds by pointing out that “when undergrads heard arguments on both sides of the vaccine-autism debate, they were more likely to believe there is a link [between vaccines and autism],” which is not exactly the most convincing way of arguing that false balance is unproblematic. Also, complaining about false balance is a threat to (her) free speech. But of course.

Another favored line of argument is that you cannot trust research that suggests that vaccines are safe since they are not “independent stud[ies]”, where “independent” means not funded by anyone but anti-vaccine groups and not carried out by experts on the matter (who clearly have an agenda) – she actually seems to claim that the very fact that someone has written about vaccines makes what they have written about vaccines untrustworthy in virtue of showing that they have a vested interest in the truth of what they write (as long as it’s not what she wants them to write). And, of course, as if it needed mentioning: she doesn’t understand research. A third favored gambit is, of course, to move the goalposts. A fourth is to compare mandatory vaccination laws to nazi treatment of Jews (you didn’t expect the AoA to go there, did you?)

She sums up her lack of credibility pretty well herself in the title of her article “Industry Insider Paul Offit Attacks… Every Non-Pharma Treatment Known To Mankind.” Yes, it’s all a conspiracy against crankery and crackpottery, and Offit even has the gall to go “after a number of people in his books, including celebrities like Dr. Oz and Dr. Mercola.” He does so apparently because the idea “that people are taking charge of their own health” is a threat to his … well, it’s a bit unclear, but at least she, in the course of her writing, lauds the idea “that diet, supplements, homeopathy, and alternative treatments like chelation and acupuncture can restore health and keep us that way,” i.e. treatments promoted by supplement producers who have no vested interests and just the good of humanity in mind.

Her job, by the way, seems to consist of setting up Google alerts having to do with autism, wait for the links in the search results to appear, find any posts critical of the debunked vaccine-autism link, and then call on her minions to barrage these posts with comments (but of course: it is those who disagree with her who are astroturfing). As well as, of course, to lecture journalists on what constitutes good journalistic practice.

Diagnosis: Fortunately relatively few people are so impervious to facts, evidence and critical thinking as Ann Dachel, but there are enough of them to be slightly worried. An utterly delusional crank and conspiracy theorist.

#1510: Sussanna Czeranko

There’s something Orwellian about naturopaths’ claims to promote health. Many of them are not only anti-science, but actually pro-disease (just check out this one). Naturopathy is for instance correlated with anti-vaccine views, and the longer naturopaths are in naturopathy “school”, the less supportive they become of vaccines: Indeed, one survey of naturopathy students found only 12.8% were supportive of the full pediatric vaccination schedule and it is hardly surprising that care from a naturopath is associated with fewer vaccinations and a greater likelihood of vaccine preventable disease. As such there is nothing particularly novel about the dangerous insanity of Sussanna Czeranko, an Ontario and Oregon naturopath, but lack of novelty doesn’t make her any less repugnant.

Czeranko is the author of a multi-part article, “The Persistent Question of Vaccination”, published in The Naturopathic Doctor News and Review, and according to the findings in the links above her attitudes are hardly untypical of naturopathy practitioners: “When vaccination came onto the medical sphere, to say that the earth opened and swallowed up common sense and human dignity is an understatement,” writes Czeranko (yes, vaccines stand in opposition to common sense and human dignity), and “[t]he core principles that differentiated the distinct schools of medicine [she counts naturopathy as a “school of medicine”, of course] at the time were tested in ways that we still see remnants of today.” Moreover, the debates that arose over vaccines were unfair: Regular doctors who supported vaccination were corrupt pharma shills who “had much to gain from its clinical employment [she conspicuously fails to explain what]” and used dirty tricks and unfair tactics – such as pointing out survival rates, improvement in public health and elimination of horrible diseases – to ensure that “the doctors who opposed its use had to endure hard lessons that persist in today’s medical landscape.” Yes, being wrong is, I suppose, a hard lesson, and the people Czeranko talks about tellingly “endured” being wrong instead of correcting their mistakes.

And make no mistake – Czeranko is anti-vaccine to the core: “The vaccinationists became politicized, rich and kept their patients in ignorance. The anti-vaccinationists educated their communities and practiced with nature’s laws. The naturopathic profession has yet to clarify or even unify its position on the issue in the closing days of the first decade of the new century. We may well as a profession find ourselves nodding in agreement with Hodge, who stated in 1911, ‘the amazing fact that it has been possible to force the vaccination atrocity upon the unconsenting world for more than a century is almost incomprehensible.’” Yes, it’s deranged conspiracy mongering. Remember that naturopaths are licensed as primary-care physicians in the state of Oregon.

Now, that’s just the beginning of the deranged woo promoted by Sussanna Czeranko, of course (she’s for instance a “qualified” Buteyko breathing technique practitioner), but it should give you a clue to how she views the world and evaluate evidence.

Diagnosis: Dangerous, deranged and delusional monster, who is actively trying to contribute to what really ought to count as crimes against humanity. Yes, she's evil. She may not know it, but she is.

#1509: Candace Czarny

Feng Shui is a silly mess of “energy medicine”, qi flow, the Law of Attraction and other woo, and its advocates claim that it is based not only on the “forms” of nature but on the stars and the magnetic compass. “It’s all about energy, the flow of energy and how it enhances or detracts from your life.” Like The Secret and the powers of televangelism, appeals to nature, subtle forces and ancient wisdom. And it can bring you success, harmony and cures for whatever problems of diseases you may have or imagine that you have.

According to Feng Shui “expert” Candace Czarny the blessings of star magic is not only a matter of rearranging your furniture. You can also apply the principles of Feng Shui to your cells, using what she sells under the name of Cell Balancers. These will help you “clear blocked energy patterns from your body and mind, activate greater focus and clarity, enhance your energy flow, activate your higher potential, activate deeper wisdom and bypass years of learning, cultivate a felt-sense of peace, aliveness, spiritual awareness, well-being and integration”, and – best of all, “gently and effectively align your cells with your future self’s positive blueprint.” Saying that with a straight face takes some skill.

There even seems to multiple versions of the Cell Balancer (“this precision-tuned miracle of cosmic technology”), but they all work by putting your fingers on them to “experience a Felt Sense of Cellular balance. You’re an ‘in circuit’ with the transformational energies. Spiritual healing patterns of transformation flow through your energy pathways, directly into the spiritual cells of the body. The Cell-Balancer transmutes negative energy-patterns trapped in your energy-body that confine, limit or distort your true self. As you release the energy distortions, you are freed to access your true essence.”

Then there are the Activator Disk, the Neutral Space Plate, and the Portal, which apparently “speak[s]” the language of vibration and work like a tuning fork, “spontaneously encouraging another tuning fork (you) to resonate with the divine source (Universe, God, Creator).” Most interestingly, these products were apparently developed by one Joel Bruce Wallach – despite the middle initial, I can’t help but suspect some obvious connection to this guy. To support her claims she has testimonials from Feng Shui fans who “felt more alert and energized” when using her products.

Diagnosis: We find it pretty hard to believe that Czarny really thinks she is helping people, but perhaps it is just a matter of our limited powers of imagination due to the fact that we haven’t activated our “deeper wisdom” and accordingly fail “to resonate with the divine source.” 

#1508: Malcolm A. Cutchins

This is going to be short. Malcolm A. Cutchins is a Professor Emeritus (Engineering mechanics) of Auburn University. He has an education. That education is also not even remotely relevant to the study of biology, yet Cutchins is a signatory to the Discovery Institute’s petition A Scientific Dissent from Darwinism. Indeed, Cutchins is also on the CMI list of scientists alive today who accept the Biblical account of creation and associated with the Institute for Creation Research. Apparently he is spending his retirement traveling around lecturing about creationism and against evolution to various church groups.

Diagnosis: Another one of those. Our coverage of creationist scientists is starting to become rather comprehensive; there are pretty few of them, but those that exist certainly do their zealous best to cause as much damage as possible.

#1507: Kenyn Cureton

More wingnuttery. Thing is, the Family Research Council does actually have a Vice President of Church Ministries, and you can probably guess that it would be someone manically insane. Kenyn Cureton believes that “demonized forces of hell” are behind the “homosexual agenda”. (“Who do you think is ultimately behind the efforts to advance the radical homosexual agenda, indoctrinate our children, and ruin our military, now?”). Accordingly, Cureton is out to save gays from the slavery imposed upon them by Satan. Meanwhile, studies suggesting that “homosexuals” are born that way are dismissed as little more than Nazi propaganda – such studies have been “predominantly conducted by researchers who are homosexuals” and who “essentially practice Joseph Goebel’s [sic] Nazi philosophy of propaganda”. Got them there, Kenyn.

In response, Cureton has suggested that we might have to use armed resistance against the government to prevent same-sex marriage. And it will not only be “a great spiritual war with the forces of evil directed by the prince of darkness himself” where God is coming to “wage war on evil with a sword flashing out of his mouth”, it seems, but a real, physical one. According to Cureton, God has intervened directly in American history before.

But then, Cureton has an interesting perspective of American history. His response to the point that Columbus committed genocide and enslaved native people to force them to search for gold is that Columbus had good intentions since he was trying to find gold to fund a potential war with Muslims over control of Jerusalem and spread the Gospel to indigenous peoples; also he only enslaved native peoples instead of killing them because he was a merciful leader. The reason why some people dislike Columbus, then, is because he was a Christian, and criticism of Columbus is just another example of the rampant persecution Christians are facing in America today.

Diagnosis: Well, at least he’s not afraid to use colorful rhetoric … it’s really not easy to find much positive to say about Kenyn Cureton. And this guy really is a central figure in the anti-gay movement.