#1672: Gary Greenwald

Gary Greenwald in his glory days.

Now, this is a legend. It’s been a while since he’s been in the spotlight, but Gary Greenwald was big in the 80s and early 90s, the heydays of the Satanic Panic movement, to which he contributed a series of currently much sought-after videos in which he would find occult or satanic symbolism almost everywhere, especially in toys, music or television shows for kids. His primary target was, in fact, rock music, which he claimed contained much demonic backward masking, but many raging fundies were doing that in the 80s and Greenwald’s name is forever tied to the videos he created with “Turmoil in the toybox”-author Phil Phillips, in which they analyzed Saturday morning cartoons and various toys for their putative Satanic influence. Apparently winding each other up, Phillips and Greenwald would make more and more bizarre claims; here you can for instance watch Greenwald top Phillips’s claim that Smurfs are undead corpses with an anecdote about Dungeons and Dragons game pieces screaming in pain when thrown into the fireplace. Apparently Greenwald still runs something called “Eagle’s Nest Ministries” in California and practices faith healing.

Greenwald’s topics were not limited to music and toys, but also concerned Asian martial arts, yoga and cursed statues and jewelry that might have a demonic influence on their owners. Highlights of his output include:

-       The Punk Called Rock (1981) a cassette series where Greenwald would expose satanic subliminal messages in the popular music of the era. These are currently coveted collectors’ items.

-       Marijuana, the Heavenly Deception (1983), a book.

-       Rock’s Primal Scream (1983), a VHS where Greenwald presents examples of how Satan uses rock music to control listeners and in the end completely possess them.

-       Deception of a Generation (1984 or 1985), the classic series where he and Phillips take on e.g.

o   Scooby-Doo, which promotes occult things like amulets, spell-casting and “dark and evil realms.”

o   E.T., which sent a clear Satanic message (it’s actually a bit unclear what it was, but E.T.’s healing powers were apparently meant to mislead children into thinking that Jesus was an alien).

o   He-Man: the toys were magical objects, and the show instructed kids in how to use these items to cast spells (with incantations like “By the power of Grayskull”) and worship pagan idols; the message of the show being that “He-Man is more powerful than Jesus.”

o   The Thundercats series; promoting all sorts of paganism (after all, the main characters were human/animal hybrids much like the deities of many ancient religions); also, they would use martial arts, which is clearly a Satanic practice since it is rooted in false Eastern religions.

o   Superman, which promotes necromancy.

o   The Smurfs: primarily designed to get children to think that an entirely homosexual community is just fine – in addition to the fact that their blue color being a symbol of the fact that they are spirits of the dead. Yup, gay zombies, no less.

o   She-Ra; explicit promotion of witchcraft.

o   My Little Pony; unicorns are pagan and hate Jesus.

o   Star Wars, which promotes paganism, Zen Buddhism and outright Satanism (the Force is obviously Satan); moreover, Darth Vader was “intentionally designed to look like Odin,” something that was definitely lost on anyone but Greenwald and Phillips (he was also, you know, the bad guy, but perhaps Greenwald and Phillips didn’t quite see it that way).

-       Prophets and Prophetic Movements (1990), a book with an impressive range of random but consistently completely insane pieces of advice on how to run a church.

-       Seductions Exposed: The Spiritual Dynamics of Relationships (2003), a more recent book in which he explains various factors that can lead to abusive relationships and romantic problems, such as “cursing yourself through forbidden statues, jewelry, and practices.”

It is worth noting that Rock’s Primal Scream followed a series of lectures and at least one mass record smashing event.

Diagnosis: A legend. True, his efforts may have caused some frustration among kids in the eighties, but he arguably makes up for that with the entertainment value he provides these days. Complete idiot.

#1671: Russ Greenfield

Andrew Weil has the dubious honor of being the person in the US who has (probably) done the most to legitimize pseudoscience, woo and quackery. Weil is the founder and director of the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine and largely responsibly for popularizing the term “integrative medicine”. Weil is also an MD, and his students, who continue his missionary work on behalf of pseudo-religious altmed treatments, are MDs, too, which, of course, tends to give a sheen of legitimacy to the garbage they peddle.

(I don't know who to credit for this one, but I'll credit people
like Greenfield for making it an apt illustration.)

Russell Greenfield is one of those students, and he is for instance, together with Stuart Ditchek and Lynn Murray Willeford, the author of Healthy Child, Whole Child (with a foreword by Weil), a critique of conventional medicine (which they term “allopathic” (http://skepdic.com/allopathy.html) – a sure sign that some serious quackery will follow) as being of limited scope when it comes to common health issues, and promote a range of quackery and New Age religious rites to complement it. According to the authors “[i]n most cases, the therapies we recommend have at least some supportive research evidence and always have anecdotal evidence of efficacy.” “Anecdotal evidence”, of course, stands to evidence as “toy horse” stands to horse. And by “some supportive research” they have some pretty, uh, minimal standards in mind, citing for the most part poorly designed and mostly irrelevant studies, as well as the occasional anomalous outlier – the gold standard for all pseudoscience and denialism – while usually ignoring all the evidence against the conclusions they wish to draw. As a consequence, the authors end up recommending things like cranial osteopathy for ear infections, headaches, sinus or respiratory problems, learning disabilities, and attention deficit disorder; homeopathic products for e.g. sore throats and colds; and acupuncture for acute sinusitis. And the very title of their chapter on traditional Chinese medicine is “A Billion People Can’t Be Wrong”. No, really.

At least with regards to energy medicine they admit that some techniques are “simply too wacky for us to consider.” Well, among the ones that are apparently not too wacky you’ll find therapeutic touch and “external qi gong”. It’s hard to express politely how wacky these techniques are, and the authors of course fail to mention the existing evidence against them. They do admit that they are “on somewhat shaky ground scientifically when we talk about energy medicine because we are talking about subtle energies that cannot be measured by currently available scientific instruments.” But of course, scientists usually detect the energy of a system by its effects – for instance the effect on someone’s health – and saying that something is too subtle to be detectable just means that it is too subtle to have any detectable effect on anything, including health. What “subtle” in “subtle energies” really means is, of course, “imaginary”. And imaginary energies are, of course, undetectable.

Greenfield has actually managed to establish a bit of a reputation for himself. Dr. Oz referred to him as a  “world expert” in integrative medicine when he brought him on his show to promote homeopathic remedies, no less. Greenfield did describe homeopathy as “among the most controversial” types of alternative medicine, but nevertheless went on to tout “scientific studies” that purportedly show that homeopathy works (he’s already established that he’s about as reliable at assessing whether studies “show” anything as David Icke’s forum) and concluded by saying that what’s important about homeopathy is that it makes us “question science”. Of course, what Greenfield actually does is not only to question science but promote crackpottery that is not only spectacularly false and demonstrably so, but which assumes the falsity of most of physics and chemistry. He also warned his audience that they shouldn’t touch the homeopathic remedy because touching it can “inactivate it.” Because it’s magic.

Greenfield has, like Weil, been heavily involved in efforts to gain official recognition of various types of woo. Together with Kenneth Pelletier and David Eisenberg, Greenfield was a consultant to the Federation of State Medical Boards’ “Special Committee for the Study of Unconventional Health Care Practices (Complementary and Alternative Medicine)”. Their work gave us the Model Guidelines for the Use of Complementary and Alternative Therapies in Medical Practice in 2002, which has subsequently been accepted by several state medical boards.

Diagnosis: Among the more influential pseudoscientists around, and one of the most successful at giving a sheen of legitimacy to even the craziest forms of pseudoscientific bullshit – not by doing science, of course, but, like creationists, doing outreach and advocacy work.

#1670: Steve Green

Not to be confused with rabid British creationist and IS-style fundamentalist Stephen Green, our Steve Green is the CEO of Hobby Lobby, an important example of Corporate Christianity. The Burwell v. Hobby Lobby court case should be familiar enough, but it is worth emphasizing that Green himself is a fanatic religious fundamentalist. Green has for instance spent a fortune

developing a Bible curriculum for use in public schools. Of course, to avoid problems with, you know, Constitutional issues, Green marketed his curriculum as a “nonsectarian Bible curriculum” that would cover the history (with an emphasis on Biblical archaeology, which must at present be considered a pseudoscience), impact and story of the Bible in a non-proselytizing way. Of course, Green really wanted the exact opposite; the curriculum is designed precisely to save souls for Jesus, and since he is a frothing fanatic Green has had some problems refraining from spilling the beans, having for instance explained that his goals for a high school curriculum were to show that the Bible “is true,” that it’s “good” and that its impact, “whether (upon) our government, education, science, art, literature, family … when we apply it to our lives in all aspects of our life, that it has been good.” You see, “this nation is in danger because of its ignorance of what God has taught,” and that’s precisely what Green wishes to remedy: “There is (sic) lessons from the past that we can learn from the dangers of ignorance of this book. We need to know it. And if we don’t know it, our future is gonna be very scary.” The fact that Green has a backstory of partnering with David Barton to produce full page newspaper ads full of precisely the mined and misleading quotes Barton has become so famous for should have been a hint. And yes, the curriculum is precisely a fundamentalist Sunday school curriculum that treats Adam and Eve as historical figures, advocates young earth creationism and claims that science support the creation story in Genesis.

The first target for the curriculum was Mustang school district in Oklahoma, a few miles from the company’s corporate headquarters. The district eventually dropped the curriculum, though, apparently since Green failed to provide them with an opportunity to review the final version and denied their request to pay the legal expenses in the event of a lawsuit. State senator Kyle Loveless later filed a bill that would protect school districts using Green’s curriculum from legal action by attempting to place a “loophole” in the law that would let public schools teach that the Bible is literally true: The idea was apparently to declare a state of emergency and that presenting the Bible as literally true in public schools was “immediately necessary for the preservation of the public peace, health and safety.” The bill doesn’t seem to have had much success.

Diagnosis: Zealous anti-science fundamentalist, and Green has got the money to back up his battle against decency and civilization. Dangerous

#1669: Rick Green

Described as David Barton’s sidekick, Rick Green is a former member of the Texas House of Representatives and an associate of Barton’s organization WallBuilders, a wingnut political organization that seeks to revise, censor and manufacture America’s “forgotten” history as a Christian nation. In 2010 Green also sought a position on the Texas Supreme Court; he lost that one, despite receiving the backing of luminaries such as Chuck Norris, Mat Staver of Liberty Counsel and Liberty University, Kelly Shackelford of the Liberty Legal Institute, and state legislators like Warren Chisum. To give you an idea of why he received these endorsements, let us point out Green’s claim that the separation of church and state is the “exact opposite” of what the Founders wanted and simply a tool to move the country “towards socialism and communism;” the separation is also, for good measure, responsible for increases in out-of-wedlock births and crime. Evidence? If you need to ask, you’re probably a commie. (Interestingly, Green nevertheless appeared to agree with Danny Holliday when Holliday visited the WallBuilders show to argue that gay marriage violates the separation of church and state; once again, you probably shouldn’t ask). He tried again for the Supreme Court in 2016 – this time also picking up the endorsement of Ray Comfort – but failed once more.

In addition to promoting Barton’s pseudohistory (and running the American Family Association’s Patriot Project), Green has tried his hand at revising history in the name of ideology himself. He has for instance promoted his own 15-week online course in American government based in part on his book Freedom’s Fame, which is to a large extent devoted to discussing the religious commitments of the Founding Fathers as Green, based on Barton’s fictional accounts, imagines them to be so they can serve his purpose (it also contains a chapter “What about Separation of Church and State?”). You don’t need more than a casual skim to realize that the book is not about facts or accuracy. Green also blames school shootings on the absence of forced religious education and of the Ten Commandments in classrooms (and thus on the courts) because he doesn’t actually bother to do any research or give the issue much thought; what matters is that the conclusion fits his agenda (it doesn’t even count as motivated reasoning since Green doesn’t even try). And like Barton, Green tries to show that just about every (positive) aspect of our government and culture is been explicitly anchored in Biblical principles – the connections are usually so tenacious (example) that they would have been laughable were the revisionist, fundamentalist zeal behind them not so scary. Of course, the problem is not only that the connection Green thinks he sees isn’t there, but that Jesus’s teachings, if interpreted as promoting anything to do with politics, don’t seem to have promoted the system Green wants him to have promoted.

Although Barton is a fraud, and not a historian, Green introduces him as “America’s premier historian” on their radio show, which would be a bit like introducing Ammon Bundy as America’s premier expert on Constitutional Law. And in response to criticisms of Barton’s pseudohistory and refutations of his lies, Green has complained that Barton’s critics are “elitist professors” and “leftwing bloggers” since a concern for accuracy and truth is not only elitist but a communist conspiracy engaged in an effort to “disenfranchise Christians” (despite the fact that some of Barton’s most vocal critics, such as Warren Throckmorton, are rather hardcore Christians) – i.e. pointing out that Green is (demonstrably) wrong is oppressing him. And just to make sure people see where he is coming from, Green has also likened Barton’s critics to Adolf Hitler, and compared reasoned criticism of Barton to the Holocaust (as well as quixotically denying that any of his claims have been “proven faulty”). He has even gone so far as to state, on his website, that “[i]f you can show me specifics that back up the image created by the critics [sic] innuendo, I’ll post it right here for the world to see.” Predictably, Green failed his own challenge: Chris Rodda provided precisely what he was asking for, but Green refused to post her criticism nonetheless, ostensibly because doing so would help promote her book (?), thereby demonstrating once more – as if further demonstration would be needed – that he is a fraud and dishonest to the core.

As already indicated, Green doesn’t fancy the gays, but seems not to understand what the fight for marriage equality is all about.

There is a good Rick Green resource here.

Diagnosis: The kind of guy for which the phrase “liar for Jesus” was invented. Spectacularly dishonest, and dangerous. 

#1668: Simon Gray(?)

Simon Gray is the guy who registered the domain for Above Top Secret back in 1997. As most of you know, ATS is an internet dump for conspiracies, UFOs, paranormal rubbish and anything that smells of crankery and pseudoscience. It’s currently rather slick – by conspiracy website standards – and even a touch self-aware, as befitting what is probably the most popular conspiracy pit on the Internet. It’s all bullshit, of course – so much so that if ATS is ever a source for a particular claim, that is pretty good evidence that the claim is bullshit.

But who is Simon Gray? Ah, now that’s a tricky one. Apparently Gray is a conspiracy theorist who is particularly fond of UFO and Roswell-style conspiracies, but it is hard to find much information apart from a few interviews he has done for his own site. He doesn’t seem to be particularly prone to making public appearances.

Of course, given the intended audience for ATS, Gray and his website have therefore – entirely predictably –become common targets for conspiracy theories themselves. Here is a complaint about how ATS censors Sandy Hook truther material, presumably because they are agents for the government – one John Lear, for instance, thinks ATS is a “CIA front” for the purpose of collecting UFO information from the public (since UFO loons are generally unwilling to volunteer that information to anyone and everyone, right?). Meanwhile, a former member has exposed ATS’s Zionist connections (but of course), and this guy claims that ATS broke into his house and tampered with his computer because of the information he was posting; these ones think ATS is in a conspiracy with google to push pages exposing the ATS conspiracy as far back as possible. And so on, and so forth.

Diagnosis: Yeah, that is the predictably result of venturing into the epistemic abyss of conspiracy theories. We don’t really know the extent to which Gray himself believes any (or all) of the shit posted on ATS, but he deserves an entry nonetheless for the Internet pollution he’s partially responsible for spawning.