An astonishing thing happened today. It was much like any other day. The sun was out, for a while, at least. Coffee smelled great, as usual. The kids argued, like kids do – that didn’t last long; there were parties to attend; lunches to be had.
Then this happened.
Meryl Dorey compared the plight of childhood infectious disease advocates, like herself and Stephanie Messenger, to the French Resistance:
Working from the shadows, they found ways to circumvent the fascist dictatorship that ruled their countries.
New Yorker Dorey tells us, invoking the Spirit of the ANZACs:
Over it’s almost 225 year history, many Australians have fought and died in wars which were supposedly to protect freedom – whether the freedom of Australians or of our allies.
But, it’s all under threat:
…by members of the Australian Skeptics and their splinter organisation, Stop the AVN. These organisations, science’s Brownshirts, are blatant in their opposition to freedom of speech and freedom of communication.
They want to take away our voice, burn our books and destroy our right to choose. Just as the original Brownshirts wanted to blame the Jews for the institutional failures of Nazi Germany…
Okay, this is parody, right? Unfortunately not. This is par for the course for the Health Freedom Warrior who refuses to answer questions, in lieu of accusing her critics of atrocities: accusations which have been shown to be wrong, libellous and immature.
Dorey continues with a list of “illegal” activities which have been carried out against her:
1- Contacting the venues and telling them lies about the organisation and people involved in an effort to get the venue to cancel contracts.
Erm, no. Venue owners have been contacted telling them that they are hosting an anti-vaccination organisation which has a Public Health Warning, and a loss of Charitable Fundraising Authority (with more to come), against its name. Then, they can decide for themselves.
2- Putting ads in local papers in opposition to these seminars or appearances.
So what? It’s our personal money used to place advertisements alerting the public to the facts of the AVN.
3- Targeting the event even if the vaccine safety group is not the organiser but simply the participant to try to get them to cancel the appearance (as evidenced by the recent Woodfordia Festival kerfuffle).
Asking questions about Woodford Folk Festival’s decision to give credibility to a “threat to public health” is entirely appropriate. Especially when that threat is touted as an “expert”. We’ll do the same next year; and every year after that, if need be.
4- Spending massive amounts of money (from where?) setting up stunts such as hiring an airplane to circle the venue towing banners.
Here we go: the Big Pharma conspiracy. The aeroplane cost $2800 to tow a banner. Over 30 people chipped in their own money to pay for the exercise. I couldn’t afford it; but, I chipped in any way. I was not alone with my financial duress, I can assure you.
5- Intimidating attendees in advance by stating they will be there to ‘set the record straight’, implying a confrontation between themselves and the people who are coming to hear the speaker.
Implying what, exactly? Everything is a threat to anti-vaccinationists, except when they are the ones doing the threatening, of course. This accusation from Dorey is old and tired. Maybe Dorey should ask her friend Judy Wilyman what Judy thinks of contacting venue owners?
So, what prompted this dishonest, offensive, hysterical, paranoid, conspiratorial screed from the keyboard of Dorey? Why, a defence of her long-time friend Stephanie Messenger, of course. Messenger and Dorey appear to think they have a protected right to lie, without consequences.
Stephanie Messenger is carrying out a tour of misinformation at this very moment. She was in Brisbane, yesterday*. She is doing New South Wales over the coming weeks. Luckily, we now have a transcript of Messenger’s Brisbane seminar with which to warn the media, community, and Public Health units in Katoomba and Wollongong.
Messenger has taken to some strange tactics to hold her seminars, as investigated here by Drunken Madman. Dorey lists the precautions taken for the clandestine, underground nature of the promotion of the seminars:
1. There were no tickets sales at the door.
2. All tickets were sold on-line or by credit card prior to the event.
3. No location was revealed until the night before the seminar – the only details were that it was held within a certain number of kilometers of a central location.
3. Mobile phone-numbers were required at the time of booking.
4. The venue location was notified by SMS the night prior to event.
Thanks to Orac for pointing this out to me: but, do you know who else has used the above tactics for their recent tour of the US? David Irving: Holocaust Denial liar. That’s right: anti-vaccination liars are now forced to undertake the same clandestine tactics as Holocaust Deniers, to be able to spread their misinformation, unhindered by silly things like facts and ethics. It is apt that this is now the case.
Dorey finishes off with some more legal opinion, from her own special dictionary:
In this way, she was able to keep not only herself, but those who came along to hear her speak, safe from the threats posed by these two groups.
Going underground is a valid and intelligent way to deal with those who break the law with the full cooperation of those who are meant to uphold it.
If we can’t rely on the police or the government to protect us from persecution, we have to take matters into our own hands and find ways to work around the institutional abuse apparently approved at the highest levels of our society.
Yes, Mrs Dorey: you are being “persecuted” by the Brownshirt Nazi Skeptics who “break the law”, obviously in “full cooperation” with the “police or the government” who are carrying out a program of “institutional abuse” in an effort to get you to answer for your public claims. This is “approved at the highest levels of our society”.
Here is another one of your 2009 quotes, Mrs Dorey:
While we are already seen as rabid, idiotic fringe-dwellers by so many in the mainstream, it does our argument no good at all to bring in conspiracy theories which, though we may subscribe to them, are unprovable.
Get a grip.
Finally, here is Dorey’s reply to a comment on her blog post. Nice.
*much thanks and kudos to the courageous and strong-stomached Skeptimite, who attended the Brisbane Messenger seminar.
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