BS and the 'Food Babe'

This is Yvette d'Entremont, the 'Science Babe' and critic of the 'Food Babe,' Vani Hari, who's supposed to be one of the 30 most influential people on the internet.

Yeah, America: bringing the intelligence and perception of 'reality TV' to every walk of life.

To begin with, I dislike this whole 'babe' stuff - on both sides. But it's always an effective marketing ploy, isn't it?

And to her credit, the 'Science Babe' is an actual scientist (though she runs that website full-time now). Of course, she's not nearly as well-known and popular as the 'Food Babe,' and she doesn't make anywhere near as much money, but she doesn't just spout bullshit, either.

Unfortunately, this stuff demonstrates that pseudoscience is an equal-opportunity employer, not just embraced by right-wing ideologues. The left also has its faith-based thinking, based mostly on scientific ignorance and the distrust of corporations.

Now, I can understand the latter, but let's not go completely off the deep end. Belief in a world-wide scientific conspiracy about food additives, GMOs, or vaccines is just as dumb as believing in a world-wide scientific conspiracy about global warming or evolution.

But it's always easy to criticize the other side, isn't it? Admittedly, right-wing crazies have a lot more political power. For all its faults, the Democratic Party does generally accept science. Although there are plenty of Democrats who don't, they don't control the party.

This video is long (though the last 15 minutes or so is a question-and-answer session). But she's an entertaining speaker, mixing plenty of humor into her talk. And I always like to remind people that pseudoscience isn't just a problem on the right.