One Nation Under God with Liberty and Stupidity for All

Despite what AIDS Denialists may say, AIDS Denialism has political ties. The reality is that Peter Duesberg attracts  champions of free speech and anti-censorship. That is because the folklore of Peter Duesberg centers on his being censored by science and defunded by the federal government, neither of which is true. Still, he has successfully cultivated the sympathies of the anti-government crowd. 


Those of us who follow AIDS Denialism are well aware of the connection between AIDS deniers and Libertarianism.  Former college math teacher Rebecca Culshaw came to us through the Lew Rockwell anti-government, anti-war, pro-capitalism website. Libertarian comedian Bill Maher (and by the way, I am a fan) came out in support of the late AIDS denier Christine Maggiore. Other AIDS Deniers like conservative columnist Tom Bethel and venture capitalist Robert Leppo also fall into the Libertarian camp. Of course there are the Clean Hands whistle blowing American Physicians and Surgeons people who publish AIDS deniers in their sham journal. Then you have David Rasnick who fears the NIH, CIA, FBI, DHS, IRS etc. to the point where he lives in exile in the Bahamas. There are several other examples from less known (and less significant) AIDS denier bloggers.

So it did not surprise me to see AIDS Denialists crawl out of the woodwork on former Libertarian Presidential Candidate and US Congressman Ron Paul’s website. It is an amusing read, with connections between Chinese viruses, Peter Duesberg, and natural cures.

New Aids like easily transmissible disease in China

Submitted by runforron on Thu, 06/04/2009 - 18:24

A new infectious disease is spreading in large areas of Mainland China. Symptoms are similar to AIDS but it spreads faster between family members, even via bodily fluids like saliva.

Holocaust Deniers, AIDS Denialists, and Other Conspiracy Theorists

Just a few days after President Obama renounced Holocaust Denial, 89 year old white supremacist James Von Brunn opened gun fire at the National Holocaust Museum in Washington DC killing at least one person. Von Brunn apparently had quite a following and some of his Holocaust Dinier fans are also rather active AIDS Denialists.

There is a long history of racist and homophobic undertones to AIDS denialism which I discuss in Denying AIDS. Perhaps even more disturbing are the recent homophobic remarks made by some of the more outspoken AIDS Denialist bloggers. AIDSTruth.org has expressed concern about this trend with a post well worth reading. Of particular concern to all of us are comments posted online by AIDS Denialist Clark Baker regarding homosexual ‘lifestles’.

Members of Rethinking AIDS complain that they are mischaracterized as conspiracy theorists and are never happy when their parallels to Holocaust denial are pointed out. The evidence of course is in their rhetoric. (see post "What is HIV/AIDS Denialism")

If AIDS Rethinkers are not essentially a group of deconstructing conspiracy theorists, then why are they embraced by the most extreme of all conspiracy nut cases? There are several examples of extremists reaching out to Rethinking AIDS. For example, David Rasnick is well known among fellow conspiracy theorists. Rasnick’s theory “The AIDS Blunder” is singled out in discussions of 9/11 Truth Seeking, Secret Sterilizations, and CIA Mind Control Experiments. Rasnick is quoted by conspiracy theory extremist David Kay, where he discusses Rasnick’s views on “The AIDS-HIV Guinea Pig Kids” fiasco that baselessly caused the stop of pediatric HIV treatment trials in New York City.

Surprisingly even more repugnant is the link to Rethinking AIDS neo-Nazi hate group websites. First Light Forum has connected to Rethinking AIDS and AIDS denialist Janine Roberts’s homepage and her blog, by just clicking “The Great HIV/AIDS Hoax - reaping loot for Jew pharmaceutical cartels and killing Gentiles.” First Light Forum focuses on anything anti-Semitic and all conspiracy theories. You can read about the fabricated JFK assassination, the ‘Great Adolf Hitler”, refuting the Holocaust, how Jews brought down the Twin Towers on 9/11, and of course “Rethinkingaids.com - HIV/AIDS Scam exposed”.

Are the AIDS denialists a hate group? No.

Are AIDS denialists neo-Nazis? No.

The point is not that AIDS Denialists are even like Neo-Nazis. The point is that AIDS denialists are like Holocaust Denialists. Just as they are similar to 9/11 Truth Seekers, Global Warming Denialists, Creationists, and Flat Earthers. What connects them all is a shared constellation of personality characteristics, including paranoia, anti-government passions, mis-representation of history, manipulation of facts, and attention seeking. The similarities are undeniable.

Damage Done: Why We Should Care About AIDS Denialism

Is AIDS denialism a problem? How widespread is AIDS denial? Are people who question that HIV causes AIDS given any attention?

People who care about HIV/AIDS are well aware that misinformation undermines prevention and treatment efforts. The spread of myths takes its greatest toll on the Internet, where pseudoscience is easily mistaken as science. There are perhaps thousands of people who refuse HIV testing, ignore their HIV positive test result, and avoid treatment because denialists persuade them that there is a debate among scientist about what causes AIDS. To many of us AIDS denialism is undoubtedly a significant social problem. But what is the evidence? What objective data do we have that says AIDS denialism is rabidly undermining AIDS prevention and treatment? On what basis should we think AIDS denialism is widespread?