Christopher Maloney is a quack. It’s that simple really. He’s an N.D. (Naturopathic Doctor / Not a Doctor) from Maine who doesn’t seem to understand the concept behind the Streisand Effect.
What happened is a student dared to criticise him on his blog and referred to Christopher Maloney as being a quack. Rather than ignore it as most people would do, or dispute it in the comments as many others would do, Christopher Maloney and his friend Andreas Moritz (a cancer quack) instead went to wordpress (the hosts of this blog) and threatened them with legal action if they didn’t completely shut down the blog in question.
Unfortunately, wordpress complied. Their actions are very wrong, Christopher Maloney and Andrew Moritz had no legal standing to make such claims or demands and wordpress had no obligation to respond in any way shape or form. They did the worst thing they could. There is good news though. It seems people discovered what has happened and instead of Maloney and Moritz continuing to be able to practice their quackery in peace, word has gotten out and there is now a large Streisand Effect response happening, with this story being spread far and wide amongst thousands of people globally.
Maloney still hasn’t learnt, and rather than arguing his case for not being a quack he’s twisting and warping everything being said to make it look like he is being persecuted. He used to have a video up which, in his own (paraphrased) words he added a picture of the Eiffel Tower to the front of as well as flame effects “to get and keep your attention”. NaeHutch decided to take this video and make some minor changes to the audio. Christopher Maloney instead responded by saying she is threatening him endorsing violence and setting him alight. In a matter of days he managed to forget it was Chris himself that added those flame effects, not NaeHutch.
If you go through the hundreds of comments at Pharyngula you can see many MANY more cases of him twisting reality to falsly try to claim physical threats and other such acts which, quite simply, have not been even remotely close to being made. The posts on him can be found here, here, here, here and here. Search the comments for replies by “Quackalicious“
Christopher Maloney really doesn’t seem to have a firm grip of reality at all going by what is observed of him, and I’m not just talking about the lack of reality when it comes to his “medical practice”.
21/02/2010 at 3:03 pm
HAhaha I hadn’t seen this video, nice job Nae.
I was going to write a post about this today and include some screen shots of the hundreds of “Quack!” comments from his YouTube channel. You beat me to it and did a very nice job too sir.
I’m going for a lie down. I haz the giggles.
21/02/2010 at 4:42 pm
Ummm, does this make any sense to anyone?
From Maloney’s website
—
A letter to the PZ Meyers flock about recent false accusations.
Quack: 1) a fraudulent or ignorant pretender to medical skill. (short for quacksalver).
What is most fascinating about this definition is that a hundred years ago the medical doctors whose medicine I practice were at war with the quacksalvers. We were the eclectics, using herbs, water, heat, and diet to affect change, while the quacksalvers used heavy metals (like mercury or quicksilver) to suppress the symptoms of disease. The quacksalvers became the American Medical Association, while the eclectics were divided and argued among themselves. We lost when the quacksalvers partnered with the budding pharmaceutical industry and shut us down almost entirely.
—
See http://www.maloneymedical.com/id67.html
Huh?
21/02/2010 at 6:05 pm
I think he’s trying to say that conventional medicine only took off because those doctors got in to bed with big pharma, while alt medders lacked behind because they argued amongst themselves.
What got conventional medicine ahead is the fact they actually looked at the facts, did thorough testing, looked at the numbers and changed to improve. Alt medders just kept on denying any need to change, test their theories, or look at the results of any tests.
22/02/2010 at 12:19 pm
I think there’s something wrong with his site. When I go there, all I see is some images and the words: Quack quack quack-quack, quack quackity quack quack QUACK!
01/04/2010 at 8:48 pm
Disturbingly, last week all my neighbors received hand delivered hate mail in the predawn hours. It frightened one disabled retiree, who assumed it was a burgular. The skeptic/stalker made it away before the cruiser arrived. He waited until I was away from my home to stuff his hatemail inside my screen door.
Naehutch is a hatemonger and gets to join all those apologists who argue that “media” has no effect on the actions taken by unhinged individuals. I want her held responsible if my little “friend” decides to visit me more often. He has already battled local officers over a simple parking ticket, so attacking a quack is hardly out of his range of normal behavior.
We are not talking about paranoia. We are talking about MH, the sad little boy you all defended because I was “prosecuting” him. Funny thing is, he’s managed to get himself thrown off one of the social sites for creating a hate site against Moritz, but I didn’t hear any complaints from all of you. Typically irresponsible hypocrisy.
This site is also irresponsible. Hatemongering is a despicable act.
01/04/2010 at 9:33 pm
Christopher, I have one thing to say to you:
Quack quack quack quack quack…
01/04/2010 at 9:48 pm
Mr Maloney, as no one is more unhinged than yourself, I think you can relax and let this paranoid episode pass.
Here is a picture that should help you unwind.
http://www.thispeanutlookslikeaduck.com/quack/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/peanut-duck.jpg
01/04/2010 at 9:52 pm
Maloney, I wouldn’t piss off Nae. She can use her skeptical powers to annoy you at a distance of 9799.26 miles.
Dissent and criticism is not hatred. You’d debase yourself with the absurd accusation if you weren’t such a raving quack with no dignity to preserve.
01/04/2010 at 9:53 pm
I’m with Christopher on this. You’re all being far too mean to the poor quack. Why can’t you just quack off and let him quack in peace?
02/04/2010 at 11:34 am
You want me to be held responsible for the actions of an individual in another country who is putting things in letterboxes? Er… right, yeah, that’s completely rational.
In other news: waaaaaah!
P.S Mick – Christopher is so desperate to be heard he posts comments on months-old blog posts. Ignoring him is probably the best policy, but far less entertaining
02/04/2010 at 11:44 am
Maloney. Call her Hitler. You know you wanna. I can see your contorted face dribbling over your wooden keyboard as we speak.
06/04/2010 at 11:30 am
How marvelous. You really have outdone yourselves on this site. I refer you all to http://www.maloneymedical.com under the Pharyngula page and the lovely Russell Brand video of the kind of hate mail I’ve received as a result of your clever little pranks. In response to your comments above…no response is necessary. The level of intelligence you exhibit speaks for itself. Violent, ignorant, and unethical, you are authoritarians.
07/04/2010 at 9:08 pm
Ooooooh…he was *that* close! Were the flames in the video from the burning strawmen strewn around your feet?
07/04/2010 at 9:08 pm
Oh FFS, would you just go away? Please? Your attention-whoring is pathetic. Find something constructive to do, you dribbling imbecile.
07/04/2010 at 9:22 pm
You make all these claims about threats and threatening actions, yet you clearly demonstrated earlier your ability to jump to conclusions with your interpretations of the video I discuss in the original post. After that, how can we take anything you say about your “persecution” seriously without clear and sourced (links to the original sources, that is) examples?
You simply appear to be beating up a bunch of non-events in to something it isn’t to try and gain sympathy as you’ve been doing from the start rather than address the actual issue here, which is that you are a quack who promotes false medicine which has either been not proven to work, or proven not to work.
If you’re not a quack, provide the proof that you’re not. Peer reviewed, double blinded, well run studies. The only ones that meet those criteria only ever show your modalities do not work and are false.
07/04/2010 at 10:13 pm
“In response to your comments above…no response is necessary.”
And yet… you responded.
08/04/2010 at 11:25 am
Bugger! looks like I missed the entertainment.
17/04/2010 at 12:18 pm
Dear Bastard Sheep,
For direct from the source cackling from MH, refer to his blogs, “For the Sake of Science” and “Without Apology” I have several copies of the “newspaper” he distributed to my neighbors in the predawn hours, and have reported the incident to the Augusta Police, who are already familiar with him. If you don’t know who MH is, shame on you for copying Myers without reading him.
In terms of RCT studies, I’ve actually been moderated off the endless thread for providing too many studies. I will post here the final, too taboo for Myers, random responses to questions on the endless thread. For many more RCTs I refer you to the endless thread (my Pharyngula attack page has summaries), to Novella’s site (discussion finished under Homeopaths on the Run).
Here it is, an exclusive to Bastard Sheep, the comment too shocking for Myers to allow to be posted (warning: it’s boring)
THE TERRIBLE BLOG COMMENT THAT PZ MYERS MODERATED OUT OF EXISTENCE
I’m sorry to have missed the intellectual furor that is the endless thread. I’m back for a brief, desperate visit to see if any of you have any scientific evidence for any of your opinions on alt. med. Zero. I am heartened that much scientific data has appeared on other subjects. We even have math equations, and recipes.
Dear AJ Milne: You’re right that most of the airline mag stuff is junk, but I want to give you a couple of data. First a negative JAMA study (for Nerd really, because it will make him drool) showing that magnetic insoles didn’t do more than regular insoles, but that putting insoles in your shoes does really help. http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/290/11/1474
In terms of acupuncture, we’ve had fifteen thousand studies. It’s time to move forward. Here’s the latest Cochrane analysis: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20070551
Nerd: You have cited no studies of any kind. Here is a JAMA article on moxa use for breech correction.
http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/extract/282/14/1329
Kel: Thanks for the link. As I’ve already mentioned, you are far too reasonable to be a big pharma shill. Perhaps you could share this link with Rorschach for his back pain.
http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/161/8/1081
Rorschach: Hey, magnets change morality? You said it, I didn’t. Here’s the link again for those who missed it. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125304448 Full credit goes to Rorschach for providing the evidence for magnetic effects. Kind of makes you wonder about MRI effects.
Paul W, fermenting things is a risky business depending on the sterility of your starter cultures and kitchen space.
David or any other biologist: I thought the Komodo used bacteria. What poison does the platypus use in its hind leg spurs?
END COMMENT Pretty shocking stuff? I think Myers can’t handle the truth. We’ve got studies.
17/04/2010 at 4:00 pm
I have looked through his blog and fail to see the things you are describing. Again I can only put this down to you continuing to do what I accuse you of in the original blog post and trying to create personal attacks and situations for which you can be the victim where there are none. You are continuing to invent your own reality still which has no relation what so ever to real life.
I have tried to find the full text of the studies you mention but was not able to find any. Extracts and summaries are useless for analysis so at this point in time I cannot confirm nor deny the validity of your sources. Keep in mind that there are many studies performed which are poorly controlled, blinded, or just performed. The fact that a study exists on a topic does not confirm a claim.
The study on magnets I am actually familiar with. They do not use magnets but rather Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation. To compare this to magnets would be like comparing a plastic spark to an industrial chainsaw. Yes, they both use a sharpened edge to cut but they are VERY different beasts. As for the magnets/TMS comparison – tees, they both utilise magnetic fields but they are VERY different beasts.
It in no way validates the fridge magnet equivalent products that quacks often tend to sell.
Chris, you still have not verified any of your claims and are still trying to play the victim where no victimisation takes place. I am growing tired of this, you have not contributed a single thing to this discussion at all so far and have just wasted everybody’s time which your childish whinging. Please do not return unless you have something with substance to respond with.
17/04/2010 at 4:51 pm
‘We’ve got studies,’ eh? Do unicorns fart ultraviolet rainbows in all of them, Mr Baloney?
Quaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack.