Naturopathy: Wikipedia’s Assault on Natural Medicine
Americans are increasingly turning to Complementary and Alternative Medical (CAM) systems for their healthcare needs. This trend has been underway for several decades. This has been perceived as competition by the medical establishment. Wikipedia's co-founder Jimmy Wales claims to hold high standards of objectivity and balance in the content of the online encyclopedia and the integrity of his volunteer army of editors. Indeed this is largely true for non-controversial content where economic, political, social factors hold no consequence. Yet, when it comes to the composition and editing of CAM systems and natural healthcare, in our opinion Wikipeida is an arsenal of misinformation and lies; we believe it has become a malignant growth to serve the ideological and financial purposes of select individuals and groups Wales has shown favor towards. A group of individuals and organizations, collectively known as Skeptics, who assert they represent “science-based medicine” now portend to be the final arbiters of what is and is not sound medical practice. However, it is our opinion the Skeptics are grossly biased, widely uneducated about CAM, and are both anti-science and anti-health. Skeptics consistently refuse to accept the enormous volume of published CAM research because it is contrary to skepticism's regressive understanding about medicine and limited to a pharmacological model. Throughout our history, from the Salem witch trials to McCarthyism and Red-baiting and now censorship by the current surveillance state, we have always had small groups of individuals who are intolerant of any reality other than their own. Jimmy Wales and Wikipedia Skeptics are simply the latest incarnation of this dogmatic prejudice that is further eroding the nation's quality of health.