Tag Archives: Bullying

It’s not a good idea to act like a total merchant banker in my presence. I don’t scare easily and I don’t like being talked at as if I’m an idiot. Threats and bluster from quacks and frauds merely encourage me in my hope that I may be doing something right. As a result, I practise my WTFometer kata with added enthusiasm.

You may point out that, as Arthur Conan Doyle first posited and the Dunning-Kruger Theory of Fuckwittitude predicts, fools are incapable of understanding that others may be smarter or have a better grasp of the subject being discussed. That is so, but surely the instinct of self-preservation against public ridicule should kick in sometimes? For one particular foaming quack, this was one of those times.

Several days ago I published this on Scoop.it:

undercover-homeopath.blogspot.com (via @urban_healing) – February 13, 5:02 PM

Ethics? That’s in England, isn’t it?
FREE HOMEOPATHY CONSULTATIONS ON TWITTER:

Any colds, aches or sneezes? What are you waiting for? #healingmondays 4-5.30PM! http://t.co/9Slkjm9htweet or DM for homeopathy advice

You can safely assume that anyone giving health advice via any form of chat or microblogging service is a quack. So much for homeopaths claiming to be an ethical profession that spends time with its patients (they don’t, no more than real doctors on average).

That was the entire thing, except that it originally linked to the photo of this charlatan (she does “homeopathic profiles” of celebrities without their knowledge or consent, in true gutter gossip columnist style). For anyone who might not understand the problem I, or indeed anybody with a vague sense of decency or professional conscience, have with diagnosis-by-twitter, here you are:

1. Firstly, this person, who is not a doctor, is claiming to give medical advice
2. She is doing so via social media, which is completely unsuitable for any form of counselling
3. Last but not least: she’s punting quackery

Yesterday, this comment arrived in Scoop.it:

undercover_homeopath

anarchic_teapot is the one with no ethics, bend on a campaign of disinformation fuelled by his fanaticism he fails to mention that the offer of free advice is only applicable for minor/recent ailments as clearly stated on the post, and repeatedly stated on twitter! I guess his obsession in evoking lack of ethics comes from the fact that he doesn’t really know the meaning of the word.
February 24, 8:22 PM

Great stuff, and one cannot but admire the frothing and incoherent attack that completely misses the central problem: dodgy health advice is being offered to complete strangers over a microblogging service. Here, under the Fair Use and Quote For Truth rules, is the original blog post referred to:

FREE HOMEOPATHY CONSULTATIONS ON TWITTER:

Every Monday between 4 – 5.30pm GMT I’ll be on Twitter available to treat your ailments for free.
Any health problem less than a week old responds well to this kind of quick prescribing.

The challenge is to be objective and to keep your appointment to one tweet only at the same time as giving as much detail as possible.

On your tweet include in this particular order: your gender M or F, your age, what the problem is and where is located (i.e. R or L), how it started, what makes it better, what makes it worse.

If you are worried about privacy send me an Direct Message!

I need to be following you on Twitter in order for you to be able to send me a message so remember to follow me first @urban_healing
I generally follow back unless you are a spambot or a complete scambag in which case there is nothing I can do for you!

Prescription:
Once I’ve tweeted you the remedy and potency you can order it from a reputable Homeopathic pharmacy either in person or on line.

While I am prepared to concede that “scambag” is a damn good word and that I should adopt it forthwith, could anybody please point out where this woman says she is NOT giving health advice over social media? Moreover, is there any real indication that she is only prescribing sugar pills for minor, self-limiting illnesses? Or that she would know when an apparently mild symptom could indicate a more serious illness that requires immediate medical attention?

Being a fair-minded Teapot, keen on balance and all that, I reTweeted the post so that others could read her “right of reply” rant. It elicited a response, the pettiness and stupidity of which I shall leave to the reader to evaluate.

@anarchic_teapot Do you realise that you're infringing copyrigths by publishing my photo without seeking my permission? I grant you #ethics—
undercover homeopath (@urban_healing) February 25, 2012

For the curious, the photo used was her public profile photo from Blogger. I did not copy it, merely linked to it. As I have done here ->

Fair Use. Live with it. If it bothers you, make a remedy from it and take a pilule six times daily until the Stupid goes away.

P.S. I replaced the linked photo on Scoop.it with a nice rubber ducky because this woman is a dangerous quack.