NaturalNews is one of the most highly trafficked alternative medicine websites in existence and a significant source of unhinged conspiracy theories and denialism (not only related to medicine) for a staggering number of people. L. J. Devon is one of the staff writer for NaturalNews, and has contributed pseudoscientific ranting and conspiracy mongering on a number of topics, including anti-vaccine nonsense (“Is the flu shot effective or just a big government-endorsed scam?”), but a recurring theme is fear-mongering about purported toxins, and in particular environmental toxins – Devon’s writings are, if nothing else, characterized by rabid chemophobia and almost religious-zeal-like appeals to nature.
Notable among the toxins Devon thinks are killing us is, unsurpringly, fluoride. “Most people today are slowly being poisoned each day through the water supply,” says Devon, and this is particularly evil since “[f]luoride calcifies the pineal gland, making it hard for the gland to regulate melatonin and DMT production, limiting one’s sleep and dreams, emotional state, and heart-brain coherence” – it’s basically a mind-control agent turning us all into sheeple. Reality begs to differ, of course, but we are not even remotely in the vicinity of caring about reality here anymore. “Many researchers [unnamed, of course] show that we are seeing incredible amounts of dementia, sleep disorders, Parkinson's, learning disabilities, depression, anxiety, and disconnection in our society today,” says Devon,“because people everywhere are being systematically poisoned – their pineal glands calcified.” And it is, of course, all a conspiracy: “The agriculture system (glyphosate) and the medical system (heavy metal injections, fluoride-based psychiatric drugs) and government fluoride mandates are literally teaming up to destroy our minds and our spiritual connection to ourselves and one another.”
The delusion that the government is deliberately poisoning us through the municipal water supply is a mainstay at NaturalNews, however, in part because Adams has his own laboratory that he uses (ineptly, of course) to analyze samples of municipal drinking water and finding all sorts of alleged contamination – which is unsurprising given that he is biased and fails to take precautions to avoid contamination in the sampling process. And according to Devon, “if you drink tap water, there’s a good chance you’re taking in all sorts of pharmaceutical drugs at the same time” since “[o]ur drinking water contains massive doses of prescription drugs”, which is, of course, false. Now, that tap water might contain trace amounts of drugs is indeed a concern that has been raised in legitimate fora, especially for reasons related to environmental effects, but a decade of research has found no detrimental impact on humans, which is not surprising insofar as most of these trace pharmaceuticals are present in extremely low levels. But hey: its not like NaturalNews would ever miss a chance to sow them some FUD.
So what should we do? “In this awakening, we must learn how to clean our blood, detoxify, and de-calcify our pineal gland [which will apparently open your chakras and make you see “the truth”] to restore our consciousness, connection, and love for one another,” suggests Devon.
Diagnosis: Nonsense and conspiracy theories. But it is nonsense and conspiracy theories that reach a frightening number of people inhabiting the rather large and insulated internet ecosystem of conspiracy theories and denialism Adams has managed to build.