Snake Oil

rebel8

I'm fascinated at the masses of people who prefer to believe there are extremely simple answers to our problems that require little or no effort on our part. These solutions of course are being covered up by "them". "Them" is the boogeyman du jour-the government, men in black helicopters, big business, etc. (Yes many dubs fall into that category.)

Case in point--Kevin Trudeau.

Kevin Trudeau's Mega Memory: How to Release Your Superpower Memory in 30 Minutes Or Less a Day by Kevin Trudeau (Paperback - April 23, 1997)

Natural Cures "They" Don't Want You To Know About by Kevin Trudeau (Hardcover - Jun 2005)

More Natural Cures Revealed: Previously Censored Brand Name Products That Cure Disease by Kevin Trudeau (Hardcover - May 2006)

The Weight Loss Cure "They" Don't Want You to Know About by Kevin Trudeau (Mass Market Paperback - Dec 23, 2008)

I ignored him as an annoying little twit until I saw his 60+ second commercials. Now those are pricey to run-he must have some big bucks. In his newest book, he preys upon people who are down on their luck and/or unwilling to change their spending habits. He now claims to have been "in the banking industry". Probably a bank teller or somethin'. I mean he's got inside knowledge about every industry now!

Debt Cures "They" Don't Want You to Know About by Kevin Trudeau (Paperback - May 5, 2009)

So that's when I looked him up. Guess what I found? He was already in deep legal trouble but kept perpetuating his frauds. All of the books listed above were written after he'd become a convicted felon. He was banned from infomercials in 2008 but there he is every day on tv with more infomercials.

Kevin Trudeau Banned from Infomercials

FTC: Marketer Kevin Trudeau Violated Prior Court Order

He's also received a Pigasus Award from James Randi.

Maybe some people are in cults because they are gullible and don't bother checking into things before diving in head first. What do you think?

PEC

We will never know, how many people die each year, by rejecting real medicine for alternative (Snake Oil) medicine.

Kevin Trudeau is the lowest of the low, he seems to be on TV 7/24, he should be locked up and feed his own BS, until he chokes to death on it.

Philip

lurk3r

Kevin should release his next book installment, " How to cure anal glaucoma" . I have a hard time seeing my ass buy any of these books. But only cause i have learned, albeit the hard way.

People fall for scams everyday in one form or another. We all WANT to feel better in one way or another. Some of us think money will do it, others religion. I mean, we have to get direction from somewhere don't we? I'm not saying your wrong, I just wonder if there is possibly more to it? Are people who put the thought and effort into things such as avoiding cults possibly gullible in other area's?

lurk3r

John Doe

Placebo effect. I say if the idiots want to fool themselves, I'm not going to hold it against a guy for helping them. Personal responsibility and all that.

drwtsn32

Here are a few things off the top of my head that annoy me. I wish people had better critical thinking skills so they wouldn't be taken advantage of by unethical people/companies trying to sell their snake oil.

Organic - This is a total gimmick. Marketers have been very successful in getting people to think organic is good while anything else is bad. They are successful in selling produce at inflated prices. I even see it applied to things that are not food.

Natural - Another marketing gimmick. Natural is not synonymous with "safe" or "good for you." Along these lines they imply "artificial" is always bad.

Homeopathic - Pure rubbish. Most proponents have no idea what it even means. (They usually think it means "natural" or "herbal.") I have even seen some non-homeopathic items marketed as homeopathic just because it's such a great, marketable buzz-word.

Toxins - Many pseudo-scientific health remedies or practices like to use the word "toxin" or claim they "detox" or "cleanse" your system. They are never specific about which toxins they are supposedly getting rid of. Real treatments make specific claims.

drwtsn32

And of course anyone trying to point out the ridiculousness of some of these things is just a shill for big pharma, etc. *sigh*

sir82

Oh and how about "genetically modified" food that is considered bad for you?

Umm, hasn't man been "genetically modifying" food for the past 10,000 years or so?

drwtsn32

Yeah, that's another one, sir82! Man has been "unnaturally" modifying crops (and livestock) for thousands of years using selective breeding.

PEC

Now you can buy Organic dirt.

Philip

cameo-d

The thing about Trudeau's book that I read...was that just when you think he is going to give you information about the solution to the problem....he hawks his website. Then he tells you the real information will be on his website. It was too cutting edge to get it into the book, or the details are lengthy, etc. etc. , pages of documentation, etc. etc. You go to his website to look it up and it says you have to pay some ungodly fee like $600 to access his website.

He is a shyster, that's for sure.

He is obviously greasing a lot of palms along the way to be able to continue as he is doing.

Snake Oil

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