More thoughts on the KKKonfederacy of Dunces

The past couple of days, I have been spending my spare time, while I still have a bit more, on some outside/related projects so I apologize for not being as engaged as usual in my comments section.

I must say that the commentary on my last post, William "Wheat Belly" Davis agreed to interview with David Duke personally, is both amusing and appalling to me.  Amusing, because the predictable anonymous advisors have swooped in to offer their unsolicited wisdom on how I should best spend my time and/or what content I should put forth here.  Newsflash!  It's my life, my time and my blog.  The door is up there in the right corner, just click on the X and watch your backside as the door tends to slam a bit ;-)

I am appalled by those comments critical of me for merely posting this information, and/or expressing my opinion that a NYT best selling author should offer up a full explanation for his actions.  I can guarantee you that if anyone in the mainstream had granted an interview to David Duke, their ass would be toast, or at the very least there would be widespread public pressure for them to answer to the circumstances surrounding their actions.  Early on (elsewhere), I even saw defenses of all three for going on his program as perfectly acceptable to spread the Good Word ... after all, neo-Nazis are people too, why should they be deprived of lifesaving nutritional information?  While that latter point may be true, the former simply is not.  When someone like a NYT Best Selling Author and cardiologist such as Dr. Davis it lends credibility to Duke.  It matters not even if they only discussed the book and there was no discussion of Duke's beliefs.  At the very least, they provide content to attract an audience to Duke's promotion of his books and DVDs of his speeches and such.  That is reason enough.  There are appropriate venues for sharing and spreading one's message.  David Duke's radio program isn't one of them.  

Let us not forget that it was Jimmy Moore who brought it to everyone's attention that both Dr. McGuff and Dr. Davis had appeared on Duke's radio program early last year.  But now that we do know, their explanations are incomplete at best.

It is beyond puzzling to me that there has been limited public discussion of this disturbing issue in the Incestral Health Community.  Don't get me wrong, I'm well past being surprised by the amount of rationalizing that goes on in the IHC .... "for the cause", but here we're talking the sort of thing that *rightly* ruins political careers and mainstream businessmen and such.  This is not about political correctness.  It is not up for debate (I hope) that David Duke is what he is:  former GW of KKK, neo-Nazi, white-supremacist, racist, etc. 

If you listen to the interviews with McGuff and Davis, Duke mentions what "we" believe many times.  I outlined that and included a clip of a very iffy exchange in McGuff's case in my previous post.  The I had no idea doesn't cut it when a person repeatedly uses "we".  If Duke had used "I" it might not set off the alarm, but "we" ... who is this "we"?  What group or movement or whatever is Duke speaking of?  Neither seem at all uneasy or concerned over this.  Are these doctors that naive they don't pick up on this sort of thing?  That the term "globalist" doesn't even have them curious after the fact as to who they just gave 45 to 90 minutes of audio to?  Neither bothered to request so much as a link to the final product?  Who on earth does that???  A naive 20 yo who is just so flattered anyone might be interested in their views, maybe ...  Two men a few years my senior?  I'm sorry, I cannot cut them that kind of slack.

Which goes back to whether this issue impacts the value of the science in either book.  It wouldn't in McGuff's case, but since there's more than a whiff of conspiracy in Wheat Belly, such a bias may have come to play there.  In any case, I never signed any sort of pledge that I would only discuss the science here anyway.  This issue is damned serious and damned important and I'm going to discuss it! And I don't care if I'm the only one.  Don't read the blog if it bothers you that much.  Does the IHC really need these ties to offensive political movements?  

We now know that Rodale had nothing to do with the Davis interview.  A busy author granting a long interview to some nebulous character broadcasting from an undisclosed bunker in Europe doesn't cut it.  In McGuff's case we are pretty sure McGraw Hill didn't arrange his interview either, but we know from his own comments that he was provided with examples of this "Dr. Duke's" work.  I think he should come clean what those were.  It makes a difference.  Or do people really not care that recommending his book and thereby supporting him financially will forever lend credibility to David Duke because of that interview.  I guess they don't.

As to Jimmy Moore, I didn't mention him in my last post.  Commenters did.  But I'll discuss him in response to those comments here.  Do I think he's a racist?  I really don't know.  His situation is very different from the two docs' as I laid out in my previous post.  He is a flagrant liar.  Period.  In his case it is BOTH the crime and the coverup.  Because Jimmy should have known it was THE David Duke as he was provided links to davidduke dot com by a listener.  And in his own words, Jimmy tells us he went to those links and perused some articles.  That none of the tabs around the articles had him the least bit curious to check out his "About" -- that mentions the Klan, although not the Ku Klux part -- page before engaging in an email exchange for mutual interviews defies belief.  Jimmy Moore is not blind.  Why he went on the radio show I do not know, but he linked his followers to the interview that began with a 5-6 minute quintessential Duke monologue and was LIVE.   They also engage in global conspiracy dialog that is uncomfortable to say the least.  Jimmy is no 20 y.o. country bumpkin.    He later lied to Doug McGuff and all of his readers by responding to Doug's comments by saying that was "almost precisely" what happened with him.  Just not so.  In his own words in the article he related how just that day he had learned of the Davis and McGuff appearances, yet claimed in comments that Duke had used the docs' names to persuade him to come on his show.  The list goes on.  

Several have told me the neo-Nazi thing isn't a big deal.  In that regard, while I think it is the main story here, in Jimmy Moore's case, his flagrant lying and utter lack of integrity is just as big or a bigger deal. In this regard, it is my opinion, that I express here on MY blog, that the IHC should ostracize Jimmy Moore.  He was given one opportunity at redemption by the LC community just five years ago, but he has not learned his lesson and changed.  

I've been told that there is no financial compensation, even a free cruise, in the deal for those speaking on the LC Cruise.  Yet Robb Wolf is still on the finalized schedule, and Diane Sanfilippo signed on after this whole scandal had broken.  There is definitely no direct financial compensation for going on Jimmy's podcasts -- guests only make money for the host.  Thus the only reason to appear is to sell something.  The Caltons appeared to promote their new book, and they'll be on the cruise.  Both Robert Lustig and Zoe Harcombe were interviewed by Jimmy after this broke ... and appeared to sell their books.  Mark Sisson's appearance was the most overt book ad of all, though I'm unsure when it was taped.  Still, Mark seems to value sales over all else, because he's well aware of the issues surrounding Richard Nikoley vis a vis his unacceptable despicable actions against Melissa and myself, and yet sent him some link love recently ... coincidentally following RN's review of the sauce cookbook he had just come out with. 

Look.  Jimmy Moore's initial responses to questions about linking to David Duke were the honest ones.  His response was that Duke's nutrition views were spot on and he didn't give a shit whatever else was on that website.  There's a lot of that going on.  Jimmy Moore provides an audience and a sympathetic one at that.  Who cares if he has no integrity and links to neo-Nazis and gives credence to them by appearing on their radio program.  Folks have books and supplements and diet programs and whatnot to sell.  

More than one person has linked to instances where Paul Jaminet has linked to questionable websites.  .This is not quite as egregious as linking to David Duke, but it's pretty bad.  He has publicly ignored recent requests for clarification by myself and at least one other person on his PHD blog.  Now I've been linked to another post where he linked to Mangans, and I agree with the commenter here yesterday, that his response was unsatisfactory.  Paul has made the transition into the mainstream with a publisher and stated goal to mainstream PHD.  I emailed him for further clarification and his response left a very sick taste in my mouth.  I honestly don't know what's going on there but if people in the IHC think they can live by a different set of rules than everyone else, they're kidding themselves.  I hear all manner of pronouncements of hopes to mainstream this "movement" ... and perhaps that is part of it.  Swallow your criticism for the good of the movement?  Are we STILL talking like that after what happened with the relatively benign Jack Kruse?  It saddens me to see Paul dig his heels in on this, we'll see where it leads I suppose.  I do agree with Beth (Weight Maven) who commented here recently something to the effect of each situation is individual and to be treated as such in the context of one's overall reputation, actions, etc.  In this regard I have always had the utmost respect and liking for Paul so in all honesty I'm a bundle of mixed feelings on this one.  We'll see what plays out I suppose ....  I know what I would like to see happen, because Paul has pretty much had all the exposure he's ever going to get from Jimmy anyway, and had publicity galore with podcast appearances and such the past few weeks.  But he's his own man and that be that.  

So in conclusion, I just don't get why the IHC is not sidelining Jimmy Moore.  The only reason can be some misguided notion of not harming the community/movement from within.  But what's going on just solidifies why I am calling it the Incestral Health Community ... or should the "C" stand for cult?  Because it seems to be more about growing the ranks of the members who will buy the books and supplements and preach the gospel to the vulnerable that can be easily picked up.  The goal cannot be to mainstream.  It simply can't.  To mainstream the ideas of this community they are going to have to grow a set, nay a huge set, and police their own.  Beginning with sometimes publicly opining on difference one has with the ideas of another member -- not in random tweets or FB comments, but out front and center on the main venue blog.  Or perhaps beginning with not blindly promoting and affiliate linking to someone's book or program just because they are a fellow paleo traveler.  Or perhaps beginning with holding people accountable for their behavior by saying "sorry, I just can't involve myself in your shizzle."  I don't know.  I do know I'll keep blogging on this sort of stuff until perhaps I tire of it myself.  It sure has been a demoralizing month for those of us who believe in some of the purported goals of the IHC but can't swallow the profiteering and such.  Coming on the tail of a positively disasterous year?  

That's just how I feel.