Say what?

Remember back in June, we were talking here about “medbeds,” which, in the words of the NYT story I had posted, one subject of which…

…came to believe, along with millions of others, that Covid was a creation of the federal government used to manipulate the public and steal elections; that two doses of the vaccine would make men infertile; that Trump had been anointed to lead a “government cleansing”; that fighting had already begun in underground military tunnels; that Trump’s election in 2024 was preordained by God; that he would return to power with loads of gold collected from other countries that had capitulated to his power; that, during his next term, Americans would have free electricity, zero income tax and “medbeds” powered by a secret technology that could harness natural energy to heal diseases and extend human life; and that the only thing standing in the way of this future was a deep state so malicious and vast that its roots extended all the way into tiny Esmeralda County.

Well, the same reporter, Eli Saslow, who already has one Pulitzer and will no doubt gather a few more in the coming years, actually found someone seeking medbed therapy, such as it is. And the story — gift link here — is astonishing.

The subject is a 60-ish former paratrooper and current rancher, whose body is a banged-up, painful mess, and thanks to the “Patriot Party News,” whose various feeds are his near-constant companion, is after this miracle cure his online friends are talking about. He seems like he at least leans in the direction of skepticism, but piping this garbage into his brain nearly every waking moment of his life has taken a toll:

Michael walked outside to check on the horses while he listened to people on the audio feed talk about how Trump was anointed president by God, and how George Soros was building mansions in Hollywood to house undocumented immigrants. He turned up the volume and spoke back to the group over the wind as the unrealities in his ears continued to become the reality of his life.

“Thanks for helping me get up and going this morning,” he said. “I never thought I would be on a platform with people I’d never met and hear this many I love yous.”

“I’m so glad we’re in this war together,” said an aircraft mechanic who went by the name Oath Keeper Bill. “We need you healthy and strong. Have you been following the latest news on medbeds?”

“Oh yeah. They’re here, and they can heal anything,” someone else responded. “Cancer. Dementia. Broken bones. Arthritis. Forty-five minutes in one of those beds, and you’ll never be in pain again.”

“Come on,” Michael said. “Really?”

Yes, Michael, really! Of course, “the military” has a big share of them, and the ones in private hands are being hogged by “liberal billionaires” and why no one thought to pop Joe Biden in one is not a question that’s answered here. I don’t want to spoil the story for you, but eventually Michael gets his medbed appointment — and this section of the story is amazing. Just a glimpse:

He picked up the menu of options and looked at the alphabetized first page, which had more than 50 choices beginning with the letter A: “Acid Reflux,” “Acne,” “Alzheimer’s,” “Alcoholism,” “Aneurysm,” “Anthrax,” “Anxiety Relief,” “Arthritis,” “Asperger’s,” “Autism.”

“Wow, it can really correct all this?” Michael asked.

“Over time, it’s possible,” Andrea said. “As long as you believe, and your mind and body are in alignment with the right frequencies.”

It’s just a new version of faith healing, yes, but…wow. I said back in June I’m no longer interested in making nice with these people, that they deserve whatever is coming for them, but it’s hard to stay hard-hearted about legit chumps.

No, maybe it isn’t.

What else did I do this weekend? Well, it was hot. And I worked. But the coming week won’t be as busy as last week. But it will be as hot. Hotter. Stay cool out there.

Posted at 5:39 pm in Current events |
 

39 responses to “Say what?”

  1. FDChief said on July 28, 2024 at 5:53 pm

    Sure it is. Because millions of chumps like this nitwit will vote, and will vote to give power to the grifters and fascists and Christopaths who are jonesing to give it to us untermenschen good and hard. They come for the woo, but they stay for the dictatorship of the MAGAteriat.

    So Michael and all his lunatic chums can go die in a hole. What’s the line about believing lunacy and committing atrocity. Yeah, that.

    Our fire season came late but is making up for that in a big way. Supposed to be cool and maybe even rainy tomorrow, so here’s hoping.

    556 chars

  2. David C said on July 28, 2024 at 6:02 pm

    I had a ruptured disc in my back that had me living on the floor for four weeks. It’s 95% better now, but I understand how back pain could make some desperate enough to try any kind of woo. There’s a doctor here and everyone who darkens his threshold is told they have chronic Lyme disease and put on long term antibiotics and the vitamins the he, of course, sells. I think he only lets go of them when their money runs out. Medicine often has few answers for chronic pain and other things that make people feel like shit. The internet fills that void with bullshit. But there’s bullshit, and there’s wack-a-doodle.

    615 chars

    • nancy said on July 28, 2024 at 6:36 pm

      I believe I said in the earlier blog that these people had other problems, primarily loneliness, life disappointment or other existential soul-aches. I was struck by this guy’s wife, trying to tell him he was being fed a load of crap, but unable to draw a line in the sand. Of course, they live in a remote area of a remote state; of course he’s lonely. No matter how much you love one another, you need friends and a network.

      426 chars

  3. Peter said on July 28, 2024 at 6:03 pm

    Did it ever occur to you that Joe Biden has been a steady user of the medbed for months and what you’re seeing now is the improved version?

    (Did I do that right? I’m not an expert on sarcasm)

    195 chars

  4. tajalli said on July 28, 2024 at 6:15 pm

    Ah, doncha know that these medbeds were developed by the same aliens that built the pyramids and other amazing artifacts found all over Earth and are easily accessed by a system of wormholes found in secret locations such as Antartica? This was all very clearly explained by Amanda Tapping and Michael Shanks on Stargate Atlantis.

    331 chars

  5. Ann said on July 28, 2024 at 7:02 pm

    That article is so sad. He has found a real community, which lord knows all of us need. Unfortunately his has more than its shares of grifters and con men. Andrea the spa owner has no doubt been conned herself, but plenty of naturopaths and other “health coaches” make good cash, so maybe she will too.

    The reddit algorithm feeds me the subreddit filled with people who’ve lost family and friends to this kind of conspiracy. More sad stories every day. https://www.reddit.com/r/QAnonCasualties/

    499 chars

  6. David C said on July 28, 2024 at 8:46 pm

    Loneliness and the feeling they have inside knowledge that nobody else has because “they” are suppressing it. I think megachurches perform the same function. When you’re in a crowd like that, it must have an all alone together feeling. If you wanted real connection with people you’d probably find it at the little church down the street that’s struggling to stay open.

    369 chars

  7. Deborah said on July 28, 2024 at 9:07 pm

    The sad part of course is how many con men are out there exploiting these poor desperate people. The duped marks should know better of course, this has been going on for ages. It’s been an education for me about how many there actually are, both cons and marks. Are people more gullible than they used to be or is this just another example of my naive bubble?

    The religious cons are legion and have been for a long time. It’s so disgusting the way people aching for spirituality and also the desperately ill have been exploited by charlatans who are about as evil as it gets, on the other hand how long does it take for the exploited to wake up and realize how they’re being played. The victims must be getting something out of being conned because they keep falling for it over and over again.

    804 chars

  8. Suzanne said on July 28, 2024 at 9:09 pm

    Ah, the wellness community grifting.
    I once took a tour of a health & wellness store, full of vitamins, essential oils, and supplements, and an owner who spoke of the wonders of a “chi bed”. She allowed the tour to try it for just a few minutes each but to really get the benefits, one had to pay for 30 or 60 minute sessions. Turned out, it was a cot with a mechanism at the foot that you rested your feet and ankles on, which them wiggled your legs from side to side (like this thing https://www.amazon.com/LifePro-Chi-Machine-Exercises-MediRipple/dp/B0BFFVTYT9) We were told would cure all sorts of things from back pain to migraines.

    And then there is the cancer survivor program I attended at the local Y that was so full of bogus pseudoscience I could barely get through it. Reflexology takes care of every chronic condition and essential oils, well, you just rub them on the skin and the oils know which nerves to effect. Also, being overweight and eating sugar can cause cancer we were told. Too late! I already got it!

    Then I was with some friends in a small town which had a store that sold Himalayan sea salt lamps. These lamps supposedly put some kind of ions into the air and cured allergies and snoring among other things. They cost between $40 & $60 and a bunch of the people I was with bought them. Amazingly a few months later, they all said the lamps didn’t do any good.

    Why are so many people willing to believe in any sort of garbage cure??

    1487 chars

  9. Deborah said on July 28, 2024 at 9:37 pm

    Suzanne, there’s another one out there for “grounding”. The theory is that our bodies have acquired DNA to accept slight grounded charges (or whatever) through the electro magnetic field of the earth from when back in cave man days people walked around barefoot or wore leather footwear that allowed those charges to enter up through our bodies and over time they became essential for keeping inflammation at bay and other things. We have been wearing shoes with plastic soles for decades now which insulate the body from receiving those supposedly helpful charges. So I thought this info was kind of an interesting theory and decided I’d try it out. The only thing you have to do (again) supposedly is put your bare feet on the ground for 30 minutes a day and it’s supposed to help sleep and all kinds of things. It’s easy for me to do in NM because all I have to do is walk outside and put my bare feet on the bare ground for a half hour, it’s supposed to work on concrete too as long as the concrete doesn’t have a moisture barrier underneath. In Chicago it’s a little more difficult to achieve unless I walk over to Oak Street beach.

    Then I started noticing all of these grounding mats that you can buy for your bed or somewhere else in your home and the red lights started to come on.

    I have done the bare feet on the ground thing outside in NM but I haven’t been consistent at all, so I’m not seeing results one way or the other.

    It’s probably a scam but if I can try it without spending a dime what does it hurt?

    1553 chars

  10. Julie Robinson said on July 28, 2024 at 9:53 pm

    Wait…are you telling me we really could have fixed all that ailed us by putting a quarter in the Magic Fingers machine attached to the motel bed? So many lost opportunities!

    175 chars

  11. Mark P said on July 28, 2024 at 10:21 pm

    “Wow, it can really correct all this?” Michael asked.

    “Over time, it’s possible,” Andrea said. “As long as you believe, and your mind and body are in alignment with the right frequencies.”

    Andrea knows exactly what she’s doing. Those are the weasel words that make it the “patient’s” fault if it doesn’t work. Just like the faith healer or the psychic who say your negativity is preventing the woo from working.

    441 chars

  12. Jason T. said on July 28, 2024 at 10:59 pm

    “One company, Tesla BioHealing, had purchased a half-dozen old motels in places like Tampa, Fla., Dubuque, Iowa, and Butler, Pa.”

    Butler, Pa.? Seems like that’s been in the news lately.

    Anyway. As Nancy knows, I worked part-time for about 10 years for a chain of radio stations that ran nothing but paid programming — most of it from “alternative medicine” practitioners. I heard that disclaimer — “It’s not meant to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease” — at least once an hour.

    In my defense, I needed the money, but I was deliriously happy to finally quit.

    The Venn diagram of people in the MAGA movement and people who believe this medical woo is almost an single overlapping circle. Almost every one of the self-accredited “doctors” on our radio stations was a far-right kook. (Especially, not surprisingly, about abolishing the FDA and FTC — several of them had been investigated and fined multiple times.)

    For a while, one of my duties on Sunday nights was to call Ron Paul’s hotline and make a tape recording of his weekly commentary for broadcast on our stations.

    When his son turned out to be a right-wing kook — and a self-accredited doctor — I wasn’t a bit surprised.

    1223 chars

  13. David C said on July 29, 2024 at 6:04 am

    My wife bought a grounding sheet. Unfortunately for the scammers who sold it to her, her husband has a multimeter. There wasn’t even any continuity in the cord. It didn’t ground anything. We got a refund and for some reason they didn’t want it back. So I got to do a little reverse engineering. The wires inside the sheet were insulated. That’s not good at all for grounding. It was just an out and out scam but their web site had scads of five star reviews “Best sleep I ever had”. Is Dr. Placebo in the house?

    511 chars

  14. Suzanne said on July 29, 2024 at 7:52 am

    During the weird YMCA cancer survivor program I attended, the benefits of “grounding” were also touted. We were told to spend a few minutes barefoot every morning outside to “ground” your body. Go out even in winter. I think there was something in there about it pulling the toxins out of your body. The group leader talked a lot about body toxins, although she never really said what those toxins were. She also touted the benefits of a foot bath which also pulls the toxins out. I have read about those foot baths which are a scam. I knew a now deceased man who got foot baths to cure his pancreatic cancer. The water became discolored so you could see the toxins that came out, his wife told me.
    Do you feel better after a foot bath? Well, yes, because we all feel better after putting our feet in a nice, warm tub of (possibly scented) water. It’s relaxing.
    In the cancer survivor class we also heard about the benefits of reflexology and how it helps with everything from migraines to eczema to kidney and sleep issues. Yes, a nice foot massage does make one sleep better and is relaxing, I will give you that.

    1129 chars

  15. ROGirl said on July 29, 2024 at 8:39 am

    Let’s not forget the people who died from covid denying that they had covid.

    76 chars

  16. Mark P said on July 29, 2024 at 10:06 am

    I have a wonderful, proven method for removing toxins from the body, and it’s the only one that works. It’s called being born with a liver.

    143 chars

  17. Deborah said on July 29, 2024 at 10:25 am

    Pete Buttegieg said something that I recently read that makes some sense why Trump keeps saying all of this weird stuff about sharks, electrocution and Hannibal Lector etc. Trump is trying to keep everyone afraid and full of anxiety about anything and everything in general, so he has all us full of agitation and an underlying state of discomfort. Trump doesn’t want us to feel joyous or satisfied or happy because we can’t be manipulated as easily if we’re feeling good. Buttegieg didn’t say that in those words but that’s what I took from it. It’s sort of like how telling small children scary stories before bedtime, even if they’re fantastical and unreal, puts them in a state of fear and makes them have nightmares or they have trouble falling asleep. I wonder if Trump has calculated this or he’s just a cruel person who does this unconsciously.

    852 chars

  18. Jason T. said on July 29, 2024 at 10:53 am

    Mark P. at 16 says:

    I have a wonderful, proven method for removing toxins from the body, and it’s the only one that works. It’s called being born with a liver.

    “One Weird Old Trick For Removing Toxins From The Human Body — Quacks And Scammers Hate It!”

    I was just wondering if Medbeds are in-network for my health insurance. I have a diagnosis of debilitating Trump Derangement Syndrome that causes me to lash out and throw things at my TV.

    478 chars

  19. Dexter Friend said on July 29, 2024 at 12:33 pm

    To quote Withnail in “Withnail and I”…”ABSOLTE TWADDLE!”

    58 chars

  20. Julie Robinson said on July 29, 2024 at 4:06 pm

    Back when I was in severe pain from plantar fasciitis, I heard every recommendation you could imagine, including supplements, chiropractic, and a lady who could diagnose me by looking in my irises. Many of the Amish in NE Indiana would go to Mexico for all kinds of spurious cures for cancer, and they pretty much all died. Heck, even Steve Jobs got caught up in the woo-woo, and he died early too.

    Anyway, today we celebrate my mother turning 92; a true outlier. Her mind is no longer as sharp as it once was, but I’d match her against most others her age. Did I mention she adopted a kitten a couple of weeks ago?

    619 chars

  21. Heather said on July 29, 2024 at 4:41 pm

    My version of grounding is being more present in my body and more aware of it. This is (speaking very simplistically) the basis of the somatic approach to therapy, which I started exploring a few years ago. Somatic exercises have helped me relax my nervous system quite a bit, so I sleep better (even in the throes of perimenopause) and have less anxiety. Unlike the medbeds, there is actual scientific research on its effectiveness. Sounds like it can also have applications for chronic pain.

    493 chars

  22. Deborah said on July 29, 2024 at 5:02 pm

    I’ve been reading about the vagus nerve and the fight/flight response to perceived danger. Of course now there are all kinds of gadgets out there that supposedly calm the nerves that run from your brain down your neck and into your torso. I’ve probably got that all wrong but it has been linked to PTSD and other anxiety issues. I have excessive anxiety so I paid attention but of course I’m skeptical that there is any connection, it’s kind of an interesting topic to go down a rabbit hole online about.

    It’s interesting to see how much press Walz is getting now, I thought he was a long shot but now I wonder. It’s nice that Harris has all of these surrogates now out there gunning for her and they’re getting a lot of attention. So far none of them seem to have flubbed up.

    Of course the NYT has a negative article about Harris today, that she’s going to have a problem with her progressive stand from when she ran for president previously. As some say there’s no such thing as bad press, I don’t know if that’s true but it sure worked for Trump in 2016.

    1063 chars

  23. David C said on July 29, 2024 at 5:54 pm

    The Times and its concern trolling can go fuck itself.

    54 chars

  24. Cheez Whiz said on July 29, 2024 at 8:04 pm

    Its possible to feel sypympathy for these suckers (acute pain is a wonderful sales tool) without granting dispensation for what they want to do to the rest of us in the name of making themselves feel better, but its hard. It seems to me the federal government needs to come up with a Marshall Plan to deal with the ungovernable tribal regions in spite of the local warlords running the state. There is no easy or quick way to deprogram an entire population, even with unconditional surrender it took a long time to deal with Germany and Japan. Funny how WWII examples resonate these days.

    588 chars

  25. Sherri said on July 29, 2024 at 9:37 pm

    Thomas Friedman is concern-trolling the Dems over weird. It seems to me that weird is the nicest thing you can say about people who want to police our bodies, our bathrooms, our bedrooms, our libraries, and tell us that they’re all about freedom.

    248 chars

  26. Deborah said on July 29, 2024 at 9:44 pm

    Just a random question that floated into my head this evening as I’m enjoying a nice interlude outside on the patio with a gentle breeze: did the Republicans allow guns into their convention?

    193 chars

  27. Suzanne said on July 29, 2024 at 9:50 pm

    Oh, Deborah, LOL! Of course guns weren’t allowed inside!

    https://www.thetrace.org/2024/07/guns-rnc-concealed-carry-legal-wisconsin/

    137 chars

  28. Dexter Friend said on July 30, 2024 at 2:45 am

    I am glad Cooper dropped away because I had him gone already. The field is like the current Cleveland Guardians bullpen; any one of them can come in and do the job. Lots of excitement over the current Whitmer/Shapiro rallies, in support of Harris. Walz is attracting support for VP daily and is soaring. Whitmer is stunningly good at speaking. Shapiro, my hopeful for the pick, is the right man, if Harris “needs a man.” I have a feeling Andy Beshear wants it more than any of them, but now he seems out of it. Pete is the outlier, sorta. Nobody’s counting him out.
    Tim Walz served as a sucker and a loser for 24 years in the National Guard. Let him go after Old Bone Spurs on the trail. Walz is a really great guy.
    Trump doubling down on Vance as his man. Behind the curtain, donors and other Republicans want Vance removed.

    837 chars

  29. Jeff Gill said on July 30, 2024 at 8:50 am

    “Whatever they’re telling you on that website, it’s all basically hogwash,” Cheryl told him.

    “A lot of it’s wacky, but 10 percent is the real deal,” he said. “That’s better than anyplace else.”

    [That’s the part that both baffles me & seems so familiar. A casual acceptance that a source is 90% wacky/hogwash, but a contentment with a 10% that rings your chimes makes the whole tolerable. I mean, MSNBC is surely 10 percent the real deal & 90 percent wacky, but it would be unacceptable viewing content for him.]

    545 chars

  30. alex said on July 30, 2024 at 11:18 am

    That sort of magical thinking reminds me very much of domestic abusees who say that the the occasional shred of kindness that they get from their abusers makes up for everything else. It’s a weird fault in the human wiring system that bad actors know how to exploit.

    266 chars

  31. Sherri said on July 30, 2024 at 12:32 pm

    It seems obvious to me that it’s the audio chat the guy participates in daily that’s the key to all of it for him. That’s his community, his friend group, his trusted people, and they all believe in the medbed garbage. To stop believing means abandoning his friend group. He can’t go on that audio chat daily and listen to a bunch of people talk about stuff he thinks is nonsense, and he can’t stop going on the audio chat, because it leaves a huge hole in his life.

    He’s basically self-medicating his pain not with medbeds, but with a bunch of people on the Internet to talk to. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but unfortunately, it’s a bunch of crazy people who want a world that harms a lot of people.

    725 chars

  32. Sherri said on July 30, 2024 at 1:42 pm

    Here’s a thought: who could the GOP send out as a surrogate to counter the “they’re weird” narrative that’s building? Is there anyone left who can represent the GOP who isn’t weird?

    193 chars

  33. alex said on July 30, 2024 at 3:45 pm

    Lisa Murkowski maybe, but she probably wouldn’t do it willingly.

    64 chars

  34. David C said on July 30, 2024 at 3:53 pm

    Yesterday, they sent out Stephen Miller. It didn’t work out.

    60 chars

  35. Deborah said on July 30, 2024 at 4:31 pm

    They are weird, they are totally weird, my husband and I have been saying that for years. Look at Trumps hair and orange make-up, look at all of the way past their prime, ridiculously made up, big lipped and plasticized women at Mar-a-lago, including Kimberly Guilfoyle, holy cow are they ever weird. Going back to the tea party people screeching and wearing hats with tea bags hanging off of them. And the flag shirts, pants, caped outfits at rallies, the Trump flags and signs on boats and trucks. The wildly outfitted people on Jan 6, individuals owning dozens and dozens of high powered guns, Trump’s entourage at his trial wearing blue suits and red ties, the strange ear bandages at the convention. It’s all weird as can be and has been for years. It has not been normal for a long time. It’s beyond weird, bizarre actually.

    I get that people want to express their identities with what they wear but why are their identities all wrapped up in one reality television celebrity man? That’s weird.

    1004 chars

  36. Sherri said on July 30, 2024 at 4:33 pm

    Stephen Miller being sent out to counter the weird accusation is what started me thinking about this. I mean, Stephen Miller is bottom of the barrel weird, but who else do they have? Is there anyone left who could represent this ticket and you wouldn’t go, yep, that person’s a real weirdo?

    294 chars

  37. FDChief said on July 30, 2024 at 4:43 pm

    I think the cult sees Miller as “not weird” because he’s got the button-down bizbro look they see as “professional” because they don’t get the creepiness of his T2000 aroma, the corporate button-man the rest of us have no problem seeing there.

    The problem with the whole issue of “weird” is that you have to actually look and listen to these jamokes, and 1) the 30% of the public that even bothers to vote but ignores “politics” until October 15th doesn’t do that, and 2) the “news” doesn’t pound on how freakish these people really are. The headlines soften up the creepily weird shit they say and do, and it takes a deep dive past the headlines – which none of the 30% will bother with – to find the creepy weird shit.

    So we’re pretty much at the mercy of these dull-normal randos in November unless we find some way to Clockwork Orange their eyeballs to the screen between now and then.

    895 chars

  38. alex said on July 30, 2024 at 5:47 pm

    So Trump’s all pissed off at the Heritage Foundation now that Project 2025 has become an albatross. Weird, huh.

    111 chars