#1717: Kristan Hawkins

Kristan Hawkins is a vocal representative of Students for Life of America and one of the more vocal and influential pro-life campaigners out there. Now, as we have said before, it is possible to have serious philosophical debate about the moral dimensions of abortion, but Hawkins has as much to contribute to that debate as a young-earth creationist have to contribute to modern biology. Hawkins is the kind of abortion opponent who claims that Planned Parenthood is some sort of all-powerful “abortion Goliath” that not only possesses immense political power (used to subsidize abortions) but conspires to get girls pregnant (by distributing harmful and malfunctioning contraception) so that they will later be forced to have abortions (getting breast cancer on the way) – all in an effort to maximize profits, which is their goal. Indeed, it is one of her “ugly truths” about Planned Parenthood: Abortion is a big business that profits from a woman’s crisis, and Planned Parenthood makes millions of dollars: 92% of Planned Parenthood’s business was abortions, and they even have abortion quotas, according to Hawkins. None of the claims have anything whatsoever to do with reality, of course.

I bet you can guess what some of the other “ugly truths” are. Oh yes, abortion increases the risk for breast cancer and causes emotional harm to women; according to Hawkins the suicide rate is 6 times higher for women who have abortions. Facts are, once again, not on her side.

Oh, and Planned Parenthood is also a racist business that “promotes and covers up” statutory rape and aids sex traffickers. And they support sexual education and birth control only to convince young women to have premarital sex and then spend money on STD tests, treatment and, of course, abortions. No wonder she and her group have made taking out Planned Parenthood one of their primary goals.

Diagnosis: Stock conspiracy theories, really, and not much different from militia sympathizers raging about the IRS and the Illuminati – except that Hawkins and her groups have quite a bit of influence and political clout among fundies.

#1716: David Hawkins

Magda Havas is a pseudoscientist (a serious pseudoscientist) and one of the leading snowflakes in the wi-fi-phobia movement; she deserves a mention in any Encyclopedia of Loons, but she is also Canadian – she even teaches students in Environmental & Resource Studies at Trent University in Ontario; stay away from that program, in other words.

Not that David Hawkins is much better. Hawkins is a trained MD and psychiatrist, but decided to go rogue some years ago and gave up any vestige of truth, evidence and accountability in favor of New Age mysticism with a hint of orientalism. He currently runs his own Veritas publishing house to publish his own books (such as Powers vs. Force and Dialogues on Consciousness and Spirituality) without having to deal with referees or people who ask for justification and support for the claims he makes. In fact, Hawkins is not only an MD, but a “Ph.D.” – from Columbia Pacific University, an unaccredited diploma mill that was shut down by court order (Jerry Bergman also got his degree there); his thesis appears to have been Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis and Calibration of the Levels of Human Consciousness, which probably doesn’t need further comment.

You can find his ideas on the website consciousnessproject.org, where he supposedly tells you how quantum physics validates applied kinesiology (AK) (by handwaving, assertion and assuming that the audience doesn’t know anything about quantim physics). Yes, Hawkins has discovered that the insane pseudoscience of AK (a good survey of AK tricks here) is a good vehicle for New Age bullshit, and he runs with it as far as he can: His website can even tell you that “David Hawkins conclusively proves the ability of kinesiological testing to distinguish truth or falsehood in any statement ...” (of course, we don’t get anything like a proof, but you know). AK can also serve as a reliable test for how spiritually advanced a person (or corporation, or nation, or piece of music) is; Hawkins has “developed” a consciousness-scale from 0 to 1000 (“consciousness” apparently refers to some kind of spiritual entity; the parallel midichlorians is striking); scoring above 700 means “enlightenment” (Jesus is at 1000; Hawkins himself merely at 999.8). Meanwhile, skeptics score at 140 (“which is that of sophomoric egotism;” Hawkins doesn’t like skeptics), and anyone who doesn’t believe that AK works automatically ranks below 200 (and one shouldn’t fraternitize with them); George W. Bush scores at 460 (in the range of intellectual genius). According to Hawkins’s acolyte, David Gersten (another MD): “Below 200 an individual or society are at very high risk. Up until 1986, the world CS calibrated in the low 190s, but there was a sudden shift in 1986, taking the world CS to 207, which is a safe place to be. The reason for this positive shift is unknown.”

Apparently it is all on his Map of Consciousness. Before his own lectures, he tests the audience to see how they locate as a group on the Map; the groups always start out very high, but after the lectures, when Hawkins retests them, they have nevertheless always gone up another five points or so – it’s just as surprising every time. Since very few people, according to Hawkins, climb more than five points in a lifetime, the tests prove that his lectures were a good investment. So it goes.

Interestingly, Hawkins apparently co-authored a book with Nobel laureate and world-famous pseudoscientist Linus Pauling called Orthomolecular Psychiatry.

Diagnosis: This guy appears to be quite influential, despite the staggering idiocy of his claims and techniques. He does come across as a true believer rather than a fraud. I don’t know whether that puts him in a less or a more negative light.

#1715: Lisa Haven

Lisa Haven is a raging end-times fundie who seems to think that every medical innovation and invention is the mark of the beast (google her “It’s Here! ‘Mark of The Beast Tech’ Adopted By Children’s Hospital” article if you wish; we’re not linking). She is of course also a hardcore conspiracy theorist, having bought into more or less every shadow government conspiracy trope that graces the Internet. The result, the Lisa Haven News website, is not for the faint of heart (a moderate summary here); the title of the most recent item (September 7) in her “Government Corruption Illuminati” section is “Wait Until You Hear This! This is How Bad It Will Get, Really Soon …”, pretty much sums up the content and clickbait-like presentation of every article on the page (the article in question really a video chat with Dave Hodges of something called The Common Sense Show, which seems to be an example of an extension of Badger’s Law – he had to put “common sense” in the title, cause if he hadn’t you would never have guessed.) Other recent items include “DARPA Pulls Technology Straight From The Book Of Revelation: Eerie Plans Reveal We ARE In The Final Days,” “Weapons of the Antichrist Discovered in Top Secret Documents: Parapsychology, What The NWO Is Preparing You For” (oh, yes; she does) and “An Antichrist’s Violent Purge Ignites – Turkey, Russia, NATO, US – Who’s Behind it All? A Coming WWIII” You really don’t need to read it to find out, do you?

In the “Conspiracy Facts” section recent articles include “Globalists Wolves Frothing At the Mouth In Rage Are Activating A Treacherous Plot To Destroy,” which is about how “the globalists initiation of federalized healthcare, via Obamacare, and a federalized United Nations education system, via Common Core” (she doesn’t seem to have a very solid grasp of what “globalized” means – or what the UN or “Common Core” are, but that’s because she thinks it is all some kind of secret front group for a nefarious New World Order Illuminati mind-control shadow government run by Satan) will “kill the freedoms in America we so passionately adore,” and “Nightmare! Doctors Being Used To Label You An ‘Enemy’ and Using Your Kids As Bait,” which concerns the possibility of being asked questions about firearm use or drunk driving when visiting the doctor (which, of course, doctors are dutifully recording for the government to keep track of patriots). There are also articles on how the Government is involved in a “takeover” of elections to rig them in favor of Clinton, as well as the upcoming disaster – apparently a food crises created under the cover of environmentalism – planned by FEMA but controlled by the UN (“For the past few years world governments and globalists have been stocking food, water, ammo, and the like. Some have even moved and purchased bunkers in countries like New Zealand”) to depopulate America. The FEMA concentration camps are apparently just around the corner, too. FEMA’s depopulation plot is in fact already up and running. As Haven puts it (in an article in the “Christian News” section of her page, for some reason), have you wondered “[w]hy almost everyone around you has something wrong with their body and is constantly downing pharmaceuticals?” Ah, but “it’s ALL by design. The globalists ruling this country from behind the scenes are engaging in chemical warfare against us. From chemtrails polluting the air we breath, to radiation leaks, to GMO’s [sic], to fluoride in the water; the ultimate agenda is depopulation and the dumbing down of the masses via pharmaceuticals.”

But that’s just the more mainstream parts of her website. For the truly insane, you should to go to the “Nephilim, Fallen Angels, Demons” section (“Cryptic Key To The Bottomless Pit Just Discovered: Anthony Patch Tells It All …” [no, literally. That.]; “Body Of Revelation Locusts Revealed?? L.A. Marzulli’s Shocking Find! Photos, X-Rays Included!!” [we’ll have the opportunity to revisit Marzulli in a later entry]; “NASA’s Revolutionary Discovery Hastens Pope To Ignite His ‘Alien Welcome Party’ As He Prepares For the New World Order!” [yes, those kinds of aliens – apparently the Pope’s attitude to the government conspiracy to hide the existence of extraterrestrials is a running theme; do also keep in mind that Haven is a raving endtimes fundamentalist; presumably “Classified Alien Information Leaked! You Wont Believe What Happened to These Abductees! Plus the Link to Fallen Angels and Nephilim …” explains things). Or you could visit the “Supernatural” section (where you can e.g. learn how to protect yourself from the government’s attempt to hook you on pharmaceuticals) with articles like “NASA: ‘There’s a Monster Hole In The Sun!’ As More Of Their Scientists End Up Dead…” or “What Happens When You Die – New Afterlife Research That Opens a Whole New Can of Worms… Christian Beware!”. Or not. That’s probably the best idea.

Diagnosis: Raging lunatic, and easily confused with a parody of fundie, wingnut conspiracy theorists. But Haven appears to be the real thing. Her impact is probably negligible, however.

#1714: Nico Haupt

Nico Haupt is a remarkably crazy 9/11 truther and something of a central figure in the truther side show (though see below). It was apparently Haupt who coined the acronyms MIHOP (“Made It Happen On Purpose”) – the idea being that 9/11 was planned and executed by the Bush administration (e.g. by planting explosives in the buildings and firing a cruise missile at the Pentagon building) – and LIHOP (“Let It Happen On Purpose), the idea that the Bush administration knew about the attacks beforehand but let them happen to garner support for the War on Terror. Haupt himself is of course a MIHOPer. In fact, he is not only a MIHOPER but a “no-planer”, one of those who claim that no planes hit the buildings at all but that holographic images were projected into the to make them appear like planes – “9/11 TV fakery” is Haupt’s preferred label.

The only people who can really be bothered to actually argue against the no-planer contingent seem to be other truthers who at least realize that the no-planers tend to undermine whatever little credibility the truther movement could conceivably have enjoyed among people who are not delusionally insane. And Haupt’s delusional paranoia, combined with his belligerence, has made him rather unpopular with other truthers (though he has a fan base as well). Indeed, Haupt has entirely predictably been accused of being an agent for a COINTELPRO operation. And Haupt has, equally predictably, been accusing the other 9/11 conspiracy theorists (“planehuggers”) of conspiring against him. And so it goes.

Diagnosis: Raving lunatic. At least he is probably hurting the anti-reason movement more than he helps it.

#1713: Mark Hartwig

Mark Hartwig is a Fellow at the Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture (CSC), and is known as one of the early organizers of the intelligent design creationist movement (apparently his own background is in educational psychology). At least he used to be managing editor of the (moribund) journal Origins Research and director of CSC’s Access Research Network (with Dennis Wagner, Stephen Meyer and Paul Nelson), which aims to bring creationism to the public, and on the advisory board of the IDEA center, which is … the same (though with an explicitly religious perspective). He was also the author of The Wedge (http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Wedge_Strategy) Update column and The Intelligent Design FAQ. He has not been involved in relevant research, of course, but intelligent design is about outreach, not science, evidence and research. Hartwig is notably also an employee of Focus on the Family.

Like most intelligent design creationists, Hartwig has worked hard to get creationism – or at least PRATT-style objections to evolution – into public schools and for instance defended the infamous Cobb county requirement that biology textbooks be equipped with a sticker telling students that “Evolution is a theory, not a fact.” According to Hartwig, the theory of evolution is uncertain, as shown by the fact that it is controversial. Of course, the controversy is a controversy among non-scientists, partially due to the obfuscatory efforts of the Discovery Institute; it is not scientifically controversial, but Hartwig pretends not to notice the difference (nor does he seem to understand the science of evolution or how scientific research and publication work). He was also involved in the rather complex creation of Of Pandas and People.

And like so many intelligent design advocates Hartwig likes to compare scientists to Nazis; here, for instance, he draws an analogy between “Darwinists” and the Nazi oppressors of Czechoslovakia. Apparently the “Darwinists” often resort to the oppressive tactic of criticism targeted at the creationists (and sometimes even ridicule when the creationist arguments are particularly daft, which they often are). To Hartwig, that shows that they are afraid, which is evidence that the theory of evolution is in trouble (“[w]ith the growing success of the Wedge, I’m sure we’re going to see a lot more of this stuff,” said Hartwig in 2004; the vindication of intelligent apparently continues to remain just around the corner). Of course, one suspects that if Darwinists had failed to criticize intelligent design and rather ignored it, that would have been taken as evidence against evolution as well. It’s tough to play when your opponents don’t know the rules.

Diagnosis: We haven’t really heard much from or about him the last couple of years, but Hartwig is, or at least used to be, a central character – if not the loudest or most colorful – in the religious fundamentalist anti-science movement.