THE YOGA WORLD’S “OH SHIT” MOMENTIt was humbling to have my writing be the center of attention within the global wellness/yoga community, at first. Then I asked the important question of why.
1.Why is this the first piece from the wellness and yoga world about the importance of vaccination? 2.Why did it take so long for my essay to get published? 3.Why is it causing so much “controversy,” within wellness/yoga spaces? And most importantly: 4.Why have none of the celebrity yoga teachers stepped into this conversation, before my piece went public, and especially now? I started with the last question first, and decided that the answer was: they didn’t want to lose followers or money. They also identified as “Highly Sensitive,” which is white-woman code for “I don’t like to be uncomfortable or cause disagreement” (being a Highly Sensitive Person is a real thing, but I think that white women in particular tend to lean on this term in order to avoid growth/change/discomfort). I made a post calling all white yoga teachers with large followings of 10K or more to open up conversation about the importance of vaccination within their respective communities. I made sure to state that I should not be the only voice on this matter, and that it was their duty to help protect their communities from harm by dispelling misinformation and pseudoscience within their far-reaching platforms. A few responded as expected; they virtually patted me on the head and told me how brave I was, shared my post/article, and then moved on to their trendy, instagrammable lives. One--who happens to be one of the most famous yoga teachers alive, with a bestselling memoir, speaking engagements all over the media, etc., snapped back at me, claiming in her direct message that she’s done enough work and posted a picture of herself getting vaccinated only to receive threats from cyber-bullies and get her Facebook account hacked. She continued on her rant saying that she and her business lost so much money and how dare I even bring her into this conversation in such a public way. She said that she felt attacked by me, that if I had wanted her help so badly I should have reached out to her, instead of tagging her in my “offensive,” post and “calling her out,” publicly. This was also someone who was considered a revolutionary socio-political activist within the Yoga world; she spoke out against racism, cultural appropriation, Republican policies, and even wrote an article featured in NYT about how the Yoga Industry rejects Qanon culture after the Jan 6 attack on the US capitol. So why was she so touchy about me asking her to share the load and use her platform to de-platform misinformation within the wellness community? It was right there in the erratic jumble of words she threw at me: she had lost money for sharing a singular picture of herself getting vaccinated. How did she lose money through something as simple and innocent as a post on Instagram? Followers who had been consumed by alternative health rhetoric intersected with her social and professional community in such a way that a large enough percentage cancelled memberships, created facebook groups against her, and even went as far as hacking into her Facebook page and posting blatant misinformation which confused her pro-vaxx followers enough for them to also unfollow, block, and report her accounts across social media. Large platforms like hers don't exist as fun tools to connect with friends and family; they stimulate business growth and bring in a sizable paycheck. While many yoga celebrities openly share things about their lives, they exist as a personality to entertain the masses attracted to their respective niche. They literally feed themselves through the algorithm of clickbait and heart shaped likes and comments, especially over the course of this pandemic, which has eliminated/minimized in-person gatherings, workshops, and retreats, which account for the majority of their income. Social media masks itself as a tool for connection--which in many ways it is--but it’s true purpose is to mine profit off of friendly faces and business moguls. This woman felt attacked by me because the industry which had once supported her comfortable lifestyle in the limelight was now wreaking havoc on her bottom line. She was hurting, and I almost felt bad for her. Then I remembered how many lives had been lost to COVID because people with immense platforms and social responsibility dropped the ball and let misinformation permeate within their communities in order to avoid conflict or personal discomfort, and I felt less bad. The more I pondered on the actual question at hand--the “why aren’t more yoga celebrities talking about this,” question, the more I realized that not only were they not talking about it, they were inadvertently promoting misinformation, pseudoscience, and anti-vaxx sentiment, and had been for years by contributing to each and every trend within the industry in order to stay relevant. Their moral compass wasn’t just all over the map--it was shattered. And, for people who loved sitting in the seat of the teacher in order to bask in the limelight of popularity, they certainly did not want to do the unpopular thing amongst their followers by following what is supposed to be the true North of Yoga: to do no harm. That’s right, Ahimsa. Weren’t these people supposed to be all about oneness? Weren’t these leaders supposed to be a “guiding light,” within their communities? Weren’t these people against alt-right groups like Qanon and All Lives Matter weirdos? Yes, but… There is always a but. BUT… This topic isn’t in my “scope of practice” This topic will offend people This topic is too controversial This topic is too nuanced There are so many other topics that deserve to be centered This isn’t my responsibility I support bodily autonomy, I am pro-choice I will rant for hours about why racism is bad and how I am an enlightened white lady, but I won’t tell my white woo friends who post misinformation online that they are wrong because they actually are “good people”. It was much deeper than them not wanting to talk about the division within their respective communities, it was them not being able to grasp their role in all of it. We all have those “Oh shit,” moments, but imagine realizing that 50% of your yoga friends, followers, students, and patrons have been indoctrinated into harmful belief systems and, for lack of a better word, cults. Imagine having 120K-2M people whom you influence daily and knowing that you contributed to their rapid progression into whatever the fuck has become of that half of the yoga community? It would almost be too much to bear, wouldn’t it? Most people would shut down, but white women often have the knee jerk reaction which names any constructive criticism as an attack. For me, my “Oh Shit,” moment came in the wake of my brother’s suicide. That loss hit me so hard, it catapulted me into a realization that the wellness world was not all I had thought it to be. It opened my eyes to the massive harm this industry does to young women. I had been drawn to the allure of women who looked like me being these beautiful, bendy, spiritual beings. I put them all on a pedestal. If they chanted, I learned how to chant and read sanskrit. If they wore Alo yoga clothing, so did I. If they steamed their vaginas, I did too. For years I swallowed the well-calculated lies of alternative health, I sought the Divine through ancient cultural practices that were not of my own ancestry, and celebrated trendy celebrity yogis whose names and faces were all over festivals, workshops, trainings, books, social media, and articles profiting their brand of fucked-up kool-aid which they shamelessly continue to peddle to the masses. What’s more? I strove to be like them. I chanted in sanskrit and read all of the books and philosophy, not to understand, but to sell to my students. I practiced diligently, not for mind-body-breath connection, but to sell my bendy body for likes on Instagram. I did not understand that this was not wellness, that what I was practicing was not yoga, and that I was causing blatant harm to myself and others. I allowed a franchised studio to control my life, my health, my relationships, and my success as a yoga teacher, because I had been trained to believe that one must put work before all else--sacrificing the Self for the benefit of someone else’s bank account. I went from cleaning toilets at a flagship studio to hiring new teachers for franchisees in a matter of months. I was likable. I led a well-structured and creatively sequenced yoga class, and I had a beautiful singing-voice to captivate customers with during savasana. I could sell memberships instantaneously, with the flash of a smile and a hint of mystery which led to the consumer craving more; more spirituality, more exotic philosophy, more flexibility, more “community”. I did this for years. I did this even after having my dream job of studio manager ripped away from me after I miscarried my first planned pregnancy, citing my “failure to perform at adequate levels” as a “threat to the success of the business owner and the safety and security of her family.” I did this after being shunted off the top rung of the ladder, anxiously clinging to somewhere in the middle for coveted class times and styles while 20 weeks pregnant with my first-born. I did this after being asked not to talk about the Parkland High Shootings and encouraging my students to vote for gun control in the upcoming local elections because it is our sacred yogic duty to protect our community from harm. I did this while balancing motherhood and leading YTT groups through fast-paced 8-week certification programs. I did it even after I woke up to the fact that I spent years of my life suffocating myself and propagating harm to benefit the large monster of this spandex-clad industry. I was trying to cope with my past trauma with methods of spiritual bypassing. I collected all of the crystals and cleansed them in the moonlight, and I swore they connected me to God and the Angels--that they had healing powers that would somehow cure me. I fell into the spiral of orthorexic “purity culture” trends--eating specific vegetables and fruits, making strange herbal concoctions, drinking alkaline water and celery juice every morning in order to “cleanse” my system of impurities that would block my connection with Spirit and fix my gut. I knew that all of this was silly, and as a yoga teacher, most of it was a performance to keep my students on the hook. I wanted so badly to be perceived as “inspirational,” not only for my perspective, but for my looks. I modeled my behavior after teachers whom I admired, I used similar cues as theirs in my classes until I found my own style. I bought the same yoga clothing and I pushed my body to extremes. Throughout all of this I knew that right under the surface of my actions, was self-scorn and ridicule. In other words, I knew I was full of shit. I was grounded in reality, but as someone who believes in magic, I wanted to be admired for the persona I was creating. I shared deep, personal things about myself on Instagram and I watched my followers and class numbers grow. I was politically active and vocal. I was a cocktail of white feminism and new age spirituality. And, boy was the attention glorious. When Tucker died by suicide soon after the birth of my son, all of these methods and tactics came crashing down around me, and though I was shattered I was also raw. That rawness left me with nothing but the true essence of myself; a person who was not afraid to talk about hard things. I started getting real with my students. I stopped trying to physically challenge or impress them with fancy sequencing, and I started to tap into their ability to connect to themselves. I challenged their critical thinking skills by questioning trends in the yoga and wellness circles that so many other people were teaching. I stopped chanting OM. I stopped saying “Namaste”. While I knew that wasn’t enough, it seemed revolutionary. Revolutionary enough for me to ask “What else? How else have I been causing harm?” I stopped pretending that all of it was OK. I was able to listen to marginalized people–many of whom have ancestral claims to spiritual practices which the wellness industry has stolen–and see clearly that I was the problem. My response was not to automatically withdraw myself from the continuation of harm, but rather to get unreasonably frustrated by it without the necessary clarity which allows for change and growth. I started to get more abrasive at the studio and with my students. I decided in late 2019 to pitch an advice column to Yoga Journal, and it took off. I answered difficult questions and the letters were published. I decided to quit teaching yoga by the end of 2020. A month after the pandemic hit I was done. My writing became more of a gut-punch to my readers than a soothing balm in times of turmoil. I became even more vocal, blunt, and honest than I had ever been before. My editors at Yoga Journal softened the hard edges where they could, and often questioned if I should even be writing the things I was writing because I was a white woman. Their preference was to seek out BIPOC voices for these topics--something which I wholeheartedly agree with. The problem which inevitably unfolds from this, however, is that white women within wellness and yoga communities tend to gravitate to teachers and writers who look like them--writers like me. They are often the types who fall silent and dismissive of uncomfortable truths due to their conditioning, and for that reason avoid listening to and learning from BIPOC. They will seek alternative facts that feel “nicer,” regardless of who is holding the mic--even if that person looks like them--but if enough people who look like them are talking about these hard topics and issues, they might start to shift their perspectives and choose differently than before. They will start to acknowledge our involvement in this shitshow. And when I say “our involvement,” I mean everyone and anyone who partakes in Westernized Yoga and Wellness. The industry itself feeds off of our preferences. It tracks trends and expands on them, squeezing every morsel of dignity out of an already appropriated practice, as well as those who gobble it up. The social conditioning to be accepting of what’s in style can only be defined by capitalism and it’s cruel manipulations of our reality. It makes us not only want something, but need it. We click the links, we stop drop and shop, we scratch the itch for more more more. But, how has eastern spirituality, yoga, indigenous culture, astrology, veganism etc transformed to fit what’s in fashion throughout history, and how have White women been a driving force in the perpetuation of this booming industry since its birth? Throw a stone and you’ll hit white women of all different ages claiming to be “magical thinkers,” But what does that mean, really? Magical thinking is the gaslighting big sister of spiritual bypassing. It is the idea that if you keep your thoughts positive and keep a clarity of mind, body, spirit, etc. then you are “protected.” Protected from what? Who the fuck knows. As it applies to a pandemic; a deadly virus which does not discriminate and will show up whether or not you have an onyx stone stashed in your bra. As I continued to write my way into unpopularity, my column was reformatted, and I kept speaking up about the problematic practices of the white-wellness industry and how it has led us to this ugly moment in history. I saw the response from angry white “yogis” who refused to wear a mask and opposed COVID-19 vaccines even before they went into active trials. I wrote about yoga and politics, and I mapped a Venn-diagram between Q-anon, White Wellness, and the intersectional group that stormed the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021. I lost friends, family members, and *GASP* followers on social media. And that’s where I found my answer to my first, second, and third “Why?” Why is this the first piece from the wellness and yoga world about the importance of vaccination? Because publications, teachers, and even yoga alliance were too afraid to openly speak about it, especially when they were all bleeding from the “White Awakening,” of summer 2020 as it related to the stolen practice of Yoga in the Westernized world. The last thing anyone wanted was to acknowledge the harm White Wellness promoting when it came to anti-vaxx rhetoric, pseudoscience, and conspiracy theories. Why did it take so long for my essay to get published? Because Yoga Journal didn’t want to cause an outrage amongst the anti-vaxxers they both profit off of (cover stories and features of yoga/wellness “gurus” trending on social media, wellness authors, etc.), but they also didn’t want to lose subscribers by the dozens during a time reckoning (see above). Why is it causing so much “controversy,” within wellness/yoga spaces? Because for far too long, we have been allowing every white, sage-clad, yogi to choose their own adventure in the name of spirituality and sovereignty, and it’s all come back to bite us all in the ass. Oh shit is right. Q:What is the history and reason why supplements and vitamins are not regulated by the FDA like food and medicines? What are the consequences for this lack of oversight? A: In 1994, all “health supplements” fell under protection of the DSHEA (Dietary Supplements Health and Education Act) which allows all dietary supplemental products (powders, gels, capsules, etc) to go directly to market, most proliferating unfounded claims of what the product does (the miracles it supposedly performs for your health), with the responsibility of proving the product is unsafe rests with the FDA, after the fact. This is problematic because there are so many supplemental products on the market (as of 2021 Dietary Supplements is $151.85 billion industry), that it would be nearly impossible for the FDA to monitor every new product that rolls into public spaces. This is not a mere oversight, but actual politics. DSHEA was backed by Senator Orrin Hatch with a huge sum of money by the supplement industry, which was already booming at the time. It wasn’t just something that the FDA (David Kessler, the director at that time, has ridiculed DSHEA time and time again) merely let slide, it was a ghastly political loophole which set up an entire industry to go unregulated. The consequences are obvious: Anyone can create a supplement and put it on the market, boasting of it’s healing properties and benefits which are often dubious. The ingredients themselves are unregulated–from sourcing onward–and even those rare brands/companies known for their transparency do not rely on actual science, but on holistic claims equivalent to wives’ tales. The FDA technically does have the ability to take anything they have proven unsafe off the market, yet it has to exist on the market before being regulated, recalled, or prohibited. Many supplements have been removed from shelves because of tireless work by the FDA. How they got onto shelves to begin with is the real issue, as private companies are supposed to monitor and report adverse effects found before moving to market. However, if they use common ingredients, they can skip multiple steps in the private trial process, regardless of where or how those ingredients were sourced. For instance; they could buy their ingredients off of multiple third party sources who had mixed ingredients with different agents to improve coloring, shelf life, or fillers. There could be an additive that is contaminated, thus contaminating thousands of different products. MLM’s like Shakeology, doTerra, and JuicePlus have run rampant and created entire lifestyles for their followers (who populate their entire salesforce), sucking innocent middle class housewives into pyramid schemes who move on to spew false claims, conspiracy theories, pseudoscience, and the like. In short, it's all just a slippery slope into anti-vaxx cults. A great article (though published in 2016) which documents the frustration of multiple FDA board members and former directors over this issue can be found below. Why Vitamins and Other Dietary Supplements Can Contain Anything, by James Hamblin Q: Please explain the reasoning behind the following claims: 1.Fish pose will cure all diseases. 2.One must rotate to the Right first before rotating to the Left due to the way the transverse colon empties. 3.You can't go upside down while menstruating. A: For those of you who do not/have never practiced yoga asana, I am going to give you a brief rundown of why pseudoscience exists in the yoga world: All of these claims above were written as statements by one BKS Iyengar in his book Light on Yoga. As it happens, I know a great deal about the contents of this book because it was required reading in my first YTT. While I loved all of the Hindu mythology Iyengar would slip into descriptions and origins of the postures, I was slightly skeptical of the medical claims made on nearly every single page. When I inquired with the lead teacher of the program I was in, she laughed and said “It took you long enough!” She then proceeded to lecture the entire group on the pseudoscience of yoga. I kid you not, this super woo, ayurvedic obsessed, tall, mysterious white lady crashed through the facade we had all created for her and opened up about power dynamics, critical thinking, and knowledge over nonsense. Over the next few months, I dove into almost every claim Iyengar made, and found the vast majority of them to be false at the worst, and a stretching of the truth at the very best. Years later, when I began leading teacher trainings, I required my students to read Iyengar and talked about pseudoscience, power dynamics, and misleading “facts,” within the yoga world. It was an open discussion, which encouraged their critical thinking skills. I didn’t wait for people to question Iyengar, I required them to. I was never the perfect yogi, I was never the most conscious, but I did at least try to combat the cycle of harm where I knew how. You see, when we are enamored by any system wherein there is teacher and student, our brains tend to romanticize, glorify, and put the thoughts, musings, preferences, styles, and beliefs of said teachers on a pedestal. Those teachers grow a following. These followings develop a cult-like mentality, and the teachings of these teachers are passed down through generations of new teachers–often further muddying false claims like those listed in the question above. So if you have ever heard any of these claims in the middle of a yoga asana class, chances are that your teacher was exposed to a “master teacher,” who came up in a certain yoga lineage known as Ashhtanga. They likely recycled cues, mythology, and pseudoscience in order to make their classes seem intoxicatingly “factual,” thus lighting a spark around intellectually minded people who enjoy philosophical discussion over topics within which they have no training; like medicine. So let’s go through each of these pseudoscientific claims one by one to clear up any confusion:
Q: Hot yoga detoxifies. (your kidney and liver detoxify - when I looked into this claim sweating may help release some toxins but not as many as Hot Yoga peeps like to claim). A: YES! I love that nurses and doctors are part of our Pack! Let’s expand on what you’ve uncovered with your expertise, shall we? First, YES, your kidney and liver are responsible for detoxifying the body. Maybe you do release some topical toxins when you sweat, but I promise you that Hot Yoga in and of itself is a hoax. Don’t believe me? Bikram–the dude who “invented” Hot Yoga–was a sketchy, sexually abusive, ethically unsound, egotistical asshole who lied about many things and captivated thousands of students in the 90’s and early 2000’s with his ludicrous teacher training programs that caused mass harm. Hot Yoga used to be called “Bikram Yoga.” People call it “Hot Yoga” now as a way to distance this still very fucked-up practice from the guy responsible for causing so much harm. Watch the documentary “BIKRAM: YOGI, GURU, PREDATOR” on Netflix for further education on this topic. Q: Yoga cures depression and anxiety. A: Hey, nope. Here I am both depressed and anxious* after consistently practicing yoga for almost two decades. Mindfulness–ie: meditation, breathwork, etc.--can help manage anxiety. Moving your body releases endorphins, which can be very helpful for temporarily alleviating depressive thoughts/moods. This qualifies as toxic positivity and gaslighting, which we see much of in westernized wellness and yoga. This idea of mind over matter/live laugh love/magical thinking is harmful because it leaves the practitioner feeling like there is something innately wrong with them and their practice for not being able to banish anxiety and depression. This has become a huge selling point within this industry, both for yoga studio franchises, MLMs who feed off of new age yogis, and white men and women who label themselves as “leaders” in yoga and wellness while appropriating ancient cultural practices and misusing them by making them part of their brand–ie: ”I am a shamanic healer who helps you overcome self-doubt.” *I am medicated and I attend regular therapy sessions via Zoom. These paired with yoga and meditation help me immensely, but my chronic anxiety still has an affect on my ability to function in the world. Last words… Pseudoscience has blended magical thinking with ancient healing practices in the worst way. Not only has it created marketable schemes, but it perpetuates the idea that western medicine is a harmful evil. I utilize many eastern medicinal practices alongside modern western medicine because there is no need for an “either/or” circumstance in my life. I am not part of a cult, I do not have a spiritual guru or coach or wellness organization to answer to. Those who do are put in the difficult position of selling a product, an ideology, or being a “good student” by adhering to the cultural code they were sucked into at the beginning of their yogic/spiritual/wellness journey. For this reason, the lines are blurry as to who we blame. Do we blame the teachers and their students, or the system of Whate Supremacist Capitalism for selling ancient spiritual practices to fuel their massive, manipulative greed machine. If politicians within certain political parties (the GOP) are on board to not only back and support a free market for supplements, oils, and powders, without certified approval from the FDA from the get-go, then imagine how unregulated and irresponsible the pseudoscience within yoga studios and teacher training can be? Many teachers were trained in what I refer to as a “puppy mill program”--a training course which lasts less than 8 weeks and teaches people to spit out cues at a fast pace without much knowledge attached to them. I have led these programs and tried to add as much philosophy and science as I could, but admittedly fell short. I did it for the money and the status. I was part of the problem, and I know first hand how much harm I caused and am now doing my best to be more mindful in my own life and practice. Younger yoga teachers are often enamored with the magic of their teachers and mentors, and therefore repeat common cues without question, because they sound cool or make them feel like they’ve leveled up as a teacher. These cues are often pseudoscience mixed with word vomit, and lead student within those 60 minute classes down rabbit holes of mystery and enchantment, landing some in a fast-paced teacher training program which promises to elevate their minds, bodies, and spirits. Once they have a teaching certificate in hand, they begin mimicking their current teachers while exploring new methodologies. Some dabble in private coaching and within a span of months, market themselves as a brand on Instagram and lend to Pastel-Q rhetoric unknowingly. They pay for a coach, learn how to sell to clients, build spiritual mentorship programs, become influencers, sell products like essential oils and nutritional powders and supplements, and create an echo chamber of misinformation for themselves and others. That is how and why the Wellness/Yoga industry accounts for 65% of the COVID/Vaccine misinformation floating around the internet, infiltrating the minds of the young and old; conservative and liberal;wealthy and those on the poverty line, alike. Q&A 12/8/2021: Variants and Myths
Q: Explain and debunk the myth “The vaccines/the vaccinated are causing the variants.” A: Those of us in science communication refer to this as “moving the goal post.” What does that mean? That means that as soon as one narrative is proven false, the misinformationists move the goal posts further down the pseudoscientific field to provide a convenient narrative, otherwise known as “alternative facts,” which relieves them of responsibility not only for the existing circumstances, but for admitting they were mislead/were misleading others and causing harm in the first place. Now, let's unpack the science: Vaccination actually decreases variant evolution. So...the opposite of the myth in question. “Mutations occur during replication of a virus. Viral replication can only occur when the virus has infected a host. Therefore, reason stands that when our vaccination percentages increase, we are reducing the opportunity for the virus to mutate! Just another reason vaccination is positive for humanity. No body, no host.” Annicka Evans, PhD Virology. So, plainly put, not enough people got vaccinated, and at the same time the CDC gave the greenlight to remove public health mask mandates (back in May 2021). This meant that there was absolutely nothing to stop the virus from spreading and mutating, and when a mutation occurs the genome sequence is altered in order to be more resilient and carry a higher viral load. Why don’t people spreading misinformation want to take the time to learn any of this? Because it would mean admitting that they were wrong, which would induce deep feelings of guilt and shame. The easiest way to avoid the truth is to move the goalposts, create your own truth, and rely on not enough people having access to science education and trustworthy news sources due to social media algorithms and hair-raising headlines. Q: Explain and debunk the myth “Variants are manufactured by the media/the liberal government body to scare people.” A: This myth stems from the alt-right/GOP party’s mistrust of the news. The radical term “fake news” was delivered and encouraged by the Trump Administration during his 2016 run, and was an evolution of his whack-a-doodle “birther,” claims against Obama in 2008. This is how fascist police states are born, through the demonization of journalism, science, and social justice. We need look no further than every single uprising against oppressive political parties and governments in all of history. We know that variants are not manufactured by the news cycle, nor are variants a scare tactic by Democrats to get people jabbed with “poison” (as proliferated through anti-vaxx groups/alt-right supporters). They are manufactured by low or non-existent vaccination rates within our global community. The news cycle latches onto any and all new information revolving around this pandemic and tries incredibly hard to produce click-bait-worthy headlines--sometimes these headlines can be misleading, but trustworthy sources like NPR deliver factual information without high emotional stakes. As a writer who has worked in journalism, I can tell you that some of my best pieces of writing have been disgraced by truly shitty headlines based on what the editors think will attract more readers. My original title for the essay I wrote for Yoga Journal--the one that landed me in the field of science communication--was “Vaccination and Ahimsa: The Importance of Herd Immunity in the Midst of a Global Pandemic.” It was of course changed to “Getting Vaxxed was My Act of Ahimsa,” because the term “Vaxxed,” offers a platform for speculation and anti-science commenters, as proven in the comments section of the teaser post YJ put out on Instagram. The variant myth in question is an argument put in place by far right camps-- many of whom have infiltrated the wellness and yoga community by way of spiritual assimilation, supplement promotion, and cult-like rhetoric masked as “alternative health,”--in order to detract their followers and community leaders from actual science. The real conspiracy is how White Supremacy has so succinctly morphed itself into any and every type of spiritual, holistic, and “natural,” community throughout history, and how it continues to promote harmful disinformation--once from the shadows, and now in the broad daylight of the GOP stage and news outlets like FOX News. |