Beware the Quack Quack Quack

18th October 2014

By Tracy Kolenchuk

Guest Writer for Wake Up World

With apologies to Lewis Carroll although, we don’t know, he might just approve…

“Beware the quack quack quack my son,
the laws they spite, sciences they hatch.
Beware the hate hate bird, and shun
The frumious band who snatch.”

 

Lewis Carroll advises us to ‘beware the Jabberwock and the Bandersnatch’, which of course he did not define. Was he writing nonsense, or was he telling us to beware of nonsense?

What is Quackery?

What is a quack?

What is a quack quack?

What is a quack quack quack?

Why do we need to beware them?

The Quack

Is a quack someone who sells ‘false medicine’. Not just that. Merriam-Webster defines a quack as “one who makes false claims of identity or expertise” – not just medicines. They are claiming to have expertise they do not have.

Does a quack know they are a quack? Do they really think they have the required expertise, or are they simply lying, perhaps to sell a dubious product, and moving quickly to the new customer? It doesn’t matter. Both the idiot and the liar fit the definition of a quack.

The Quack Quack

A quack quack is someone who claims to see a quack, but is actually “making false claims of identity or expertise” themselves.

The name ‘quackbuster’ is used by a group of people who claim to ‘bust’ quacks, exposing their quackery. It’s very easy for a quackbuster to be, or to become a quack – that is to say, a quack quack.

How can  you tell if a quackbuster is just a quack quack? Check the width of their swath, and the number of quacks they find. The more quacks they find – the more likely they are quack quacks. If they find quacks everywhere, or if they find that everyone in a certain area of study is a quack – it’s clear that their quackfinder is ‘quacked’.

Tim Bolen from QuackPotWatch.com advises us that the quackbuster’s popular website Quackwatch.com is exactly that:

North Americans have known, or suspected, for some time, that there has been an organized assault by a group, against companies, and practitioners, offering alternatives to the drugs/surgery paradigm. That group calls itself the “quackbusters”…

 

According to Tim, Quackwatch is a collection of ‘quack quacks’ pretending to search for ‘quacks’.

Confused yet? Right now, it seems about as clear as the mud underneath the ducks. But stick with me, soon it will be as clear as the quack of a mother duck.

CONTINUE READING:

Previous articles by Tracy Kolenchuk:

• 10 Reasons to Love Your Homeopath
• We Study Illness with Infinite Precision – But Who Measures Health?
• Community Healthiness: Love and Virtue Strengthen Our Communities
• Body, Mind & Spirit: Understanding the Links Between Health & Consciousness
• Curing Cancer Requires a New Kind of Thinking
• 10 Common Nutrition Myths and Misconceptions
• The Alternative Medicines Myth
• Fatergy Drinks: The “Energy Drink” Myth De-Bunked
• Are You Getting Enough Vitamin M?
• Generic Cancer (Part 4): The End of The War on Cancer

   

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