Countless charlatans are fleecing people worldwide. It’s nothing new. But now it seems that most of these assholes have a Facebook page.

This is my second go at this. I received an overwhelming response to my first collection of Facebook pages, but that list was hardly comprehensive.

Last year, my mother was suffering migraines all day, every day. It was a severe form of light sensitivity. This retired R.N. was willing to try any treatment to make the pain go away. She hoped that acupuncture might help, and it did not. She tried a very expensive, imported headband thing that tingled her head nerves. Nada. Her doctors supported her desperate desire to try alternative treatments.

But lucky for my mom, her doctors also prescribed meds that had a proven history of helping others. They experimented a bit with dosage, and tried alternating drugs. They tailored a treatment that proved effective for her. Slowly, she built up a tolerance of light that is nearly back to normal. Thanks to modern medicine and caring doctors, she suffers very rarely now.

I write these lists because I care about people. People who are opting out of effective medical treatments that actually reduce suffering and save lives. People who are spending thousands on “alternative” treatments and “natural” remedies that work no better than a sugar pill. People who fret that certain foods will kill you. Children who are suffering and dying from vaccine-preventable diseases.

Bad, nasty people are encouraging needless fear from good people, in order to pick their wallets.

So here are another ten pages not to share from:

Facebook fans:

What He Says About Himself

A bunch of stuff in a 33-second promo video that looks like this:

What He Really Does

Billy DeMoss is a chiropractor who creams himself over any government conspiracy story.

He’s so anti-vax that he treats unvaccinated children like they are the unsullied, the untainted (and the rest by inference are polluted.)

He also twists the spines of newborns and feels good about it.

Oh, and he insists on writing it: chiropracTIC.

Recent Ridiculousness

Once you’ve started shouting about chemtrails, you may as well wear the tinfoil hat too. The Illuminati will be ramming your door and seizing your guns any day now.

These chemtrail guys are even more hilarious when they mistake ordinary cirrus clouds for government mind-control geoengineering.

There couldn’t be any simple explanation for crisscrossing contrails. Except maybe typical flight patterns near an airport.

Sample Fan Comment

Ice crystals bum me out too, dude.

Bonus Post

Yup, 9/11 Truther. It was really hard to pick between this one and the Agenda 21 post.

What She Says About Herself

“Encouraging and empowering information on raising a healthy family, naturally.”

What She Really Does

Kate Tietje writes as the voice of alternative mothering, which in her mind means rejecting all modern technology except for Facebook.

She also wants to sell you books and sponsored products. Oh, and she wants to give you tips on homemaking.

Recent Ridiculousness

Kate makes the claim that birth is one of the least evidence-based fields. It is unclear whether she means that there’s little research in the field of childbirth, or that the people that help us have babies ignore all the evidence. Either way, it’s a baldfaced lie she’s parroting from other mom bloggers.

When she says “we”, she means the United States. She makes a huge, mistaken leap in suggesting that medical intervention in birth causes poor outcomes. And when she urges mothers to embrace natural options, she is part of a trend to instill a fear of hospital childbirth. So what happens when families have babies at home instead? “[A] tripling of the neonatal mortality rate.”

To make matters worse, the article headline is misleading. The content of the article does not support the notion that vaginal birth is the best option for breech birth. It simply states that Canada is making an effort to teach more of its doctors how to handle breech births vaginally. And it does nothing to support the Kate’s fear-mongering in her commentary.

Sample Fan Comment

Hey, American mom who probably didn’t read the article. It is from 2009, and it is about Canada.

Bonus Post

And of course, Kate’s anti-vax.

What They Say About Themselves

“We are now 124,800 Fans strong!!! Think Globally but Act Locally! Visit www.NVIC.ORG today! Your health. Your family. Your choice!”

What They Really Do

Probably the biggest distributer of disinformation about vaccines in the United States.

Recent Ridiculousness

Wow, that’s really scary. But it’s by an MIT researcher, so sounds legit.

Except that Stephanie Seneff, PhD‘s specialty is in computer science, not epidemiology or biochemistry, or anything like that. Increasing rates in the diagnosis of autism is due to changing diagnostic criteria, and nothing more. There is not a single scrap of evidence that glyphosate has a causal relationship with autism.

Sample Fan Comment

You’ve got the Lethal Dosage (LD50) all wrong, Facebook commenter. Glyphosate has a toxicity at 5,600 milligrams per kilogram, which is safer than table salt and baking soda.

Facebook fear-mongers love to throw around the meaningless term “endocrine disruptors” to sound like they know what they are talking about. Please, tell us the mechanism by which the trace amounts of glyphosate that humans ingest might disrupt our endocrine systems.

If cancer is the #1 killer of kids now (it’s not), then it’s only because vaccine-preventable diseases have left the competition.

TL;DR version: citations, please.

Bonus Post

The history of the pertussis vaccine is complex, but it is hardly failed. The research effort is ongoing, to achieve the level of effectiveness of the earlier vaccine while maintaining safety. More doses means the current vaccine is short-lived, not ineffective.

And yeah, that’s not the definition of insanity. And Einstein never said that.

Stop trying to kill babies, NVIC.

What She Says About Herself

“I‘ve lost over 40lbs on the raw till 4 lifestyle. Watch my YouTube videoshttp://www.youtube.com/user/Freelea/videos”

What She Really Does

Leanne Ratcliffe eats a shocking amount of fruit (including 30 bananas a day–3150 calories), and little else. She promotes a meal plan she calls Raw Till 4. She calls herself a health guru. She promotes her lifestyle with testimonials rather than evidence, in between ass selfies on Facebook.

But no hard feelings, bananas. I ate one of you today.

Recent Ridiculousness

If you eat meat and dairy, you deserve to die, according to Freelee. All of you. It’s not just enough to admire her for being a vegan. She doesn’t want to kill you personally, but she thinks you deserve to die. You must be forced to be a vegan.

Sample Fan Comment

Lovely.

Bonus Post

“Freelee, I’m doing what you say and I keep gaining weight!”

“That’s good, keep it up!”

What She Says About Herself

“The Voice of Reason about Vaccines”

What She Really Does

Dr. Sherri Tenpenny uses quite unreasonable fear tactics to dissuade parents from vaccinating their children. She’s an osteopathic doctor who doesn’t understand how research is done. She also has no background in infectious disease or immunology. Because she rejects the idea that microbes cause disease (germ theory).

Recent Ridiculousness

Are you fucking kidding me. What the fuck is wrong with you, Sherri?

Sample Fan Comment

I “get” that you don’t have the ability to discern the trauma of rape, from the desire of civilized people to not have their children suffer and die.

Bonus Post

Implying that adult autistics would be nonverbal in diapers and helmets, is pretty fucking offensive. And truly displays her ignorance. Shame on you, Sherri.

Yet she has no shame, as this was the second time she posted it. For the views and shares.

Every vaccine-preventable disease causes harm, every single one. Especially measles.

What They Say About Themselves

“GreenMedInfo.com Is The World’s Most Widely-Cited, Open-Access, Evidence-Based Natural Health Resource With 20,000+ Articles!“

What They Really Do

They ignore any science-based evidence in favor of quackery and marijuana. Anti-vax, anti-chemo, and anti-dentist, in favor of pointless (or dangerous) supplements and essential oils.

Recent Ridiculousness

All carbs get broken down in our bodies into glucose and fructose–it doesn’t matter the origin. And our cells need glucose to function. Sugar does not feed cancer cells any more than it feeds healthy cells. It definitely does not transform healthy cells into cancerous ones.

This is but one example of how GreenMedIno.com lies to readers about important health topics.

Sample Fan Comment

What in the who, now? You’re aware that animal cells and DNA don’t work that way. Right?

What They Say About Themselves

“Fresh News & Information ~ www.REALfarmacy.com”

What They Really Do

This is pretty much the twin of GreenMedInfo.com above. They think that in the past, people lived hundreds of years–so it’s modern technology and gluten that has reduced lifespans instead of increased them.

Recent Ridiculousness

These assholes want you to believe there’s a big conspiracy to hide life-saving cures between “Big Pharma” and the doctors who care for you.

There is no evidence that cholesterol level has a causative relationship with heart attack. But REALfarmacy and Dr. Jonathan V. Wright want you to believe that donating blood twice a year reduces your risk of heart attack by 75%, because something-something cholesterol.

Bloodletting worked out really well for George Washington.

Oh, and Dr. Wright has been in trouble with the FDA and other drug regulators for decades.

Beware of anyone who tries to convince that they can tell you “what ________ won’t tell you”. They’re picking your pocket while you tremble in fear.

Sample Fan Comment

Perhaps. And perhaps you have good genes.

822

On April 13, it was 623K. On April 30, it was 723K. No page escalates a fanbase that fast without buying from a like farm.

What He Says About Himself

“Today is The Best Day Ever!”

What He Really Does

Make up all kinds of weird shit so he can sell you “superfood” supplements.

He makes you mistrust your own body processes, and only he has the secret “alchemical” ingredients to make it work right.

He’s a self-acclaimed “expert” without any sign of a relevant education.

Recent Ridiculousness

I see innocuous feel-good nonsense shared from David Wolfe’s page all the time. Most of the people sharing it don’t know how positively ridiculous he is.

Here he implies that medical doctors want to keep you sick in order to stay rich. Dead patients don’t pay medical bills.

This is absolutely repugnant, not to mention a fabrication without merit.

And it’s just douchey to like every one of your own posts.

Sample Fan Comment

Oh, lordy. I wouldn’t even know where to begin for this gish gallop.

Bonus Post

That’s not how nicotine works. That’s not even how sweat works.

What They Say About Themselves

“Taking our planet back 5.23.15 [email protected]”

What They Really Do

March Against Monsanto does what it says on the label: protest against Monsanto agriculture company.

They frame Monsanto as the cause of many evils, which they aren’t. (Go ahead, call me shill. That’s the typical response to anyone sticking up for Monsanto.)

But they don’t stop there. They also monger the now-familiar fears about genetically-modified organisms (GMOs), vaccinations, “chemtrails”, sugar, dentistry, and the lot.

Recent Ridiculousness

They’ve linked to a blogger, who links to a group specifically established to find a link between cell phones and cancer. That’s not how science works. You don’t start with the conclusion and work your way back. You begin with a question.

P.S. There is no evidence that cell phones cause cancer.

Sample Fan Comment

YouTube videos, and testimonies to city commissions, do not qualify as scientific proof.

What He Says About Himself

“Dr. Oz is host of the Daytime Emmy Award-winning The Dr. Oz Show, and won a Daytime Emmy Award for Best Informative Talk Show host two years in a row in 2010 and 2011. Dr. Oz is also a Professor of Surgery at Columbia University.”

What He Really Does

Oh, you already know who he is. Dr. Oz, that friendly doctor on teevee. But a few years ago, on the random occasion that I caught a few minutes of his show, I started noticing a pattern. A pattern of selling worthless fat loss secrets and of scaring people about evidence-based medicine.

He’s always been a weird one in the operating room, practicing pseudoscientific voodoo alongside his cardiac surgeries.

He’s just gotten more extreme now that he’s discovered how lucrative it can be on television. He regularly invites guests who are anti-science. This is irresponsible for a medical professional. Reckless, even. John Oliver did a killer evisceration of Oz.

Then he turns around and calls his critics shills.

Recent Ridiculousness

Case in point about anti-science guests. Mark Hyman, MD is the founder of something he calls “functional medicine.” It is a mish-mash of whatever bullshit people seem to gobble up readily, such as “detoxes” and autism cures.

This is but one example of the kind of content found on Oz’s show and Facebook page.

Sample Fan Comment

All hail the cult leader TV doctor!

So there are another ten Facebook pages I hope not to see on my own friend’s walls. What other science-illiterate pages would you include?

(Part 1 is here.)

UPDATE June 25 2015: Ten Facebook Pages You Need to Stop Sharing From Part 3