Comedian Bill Maher on Maggiore’s book “What If Everything You Thought You Knew about AIDS Was Wrong?”
One of the most striking features of the tragic life of AIDS denialist Christine Maggiore was her success in gaining high-profile support, perhaps most famously from Dave Grohl’s iconic band the Foo Fighters. Less well-publicised, if equally surprising, was the resounding endorsement given to Maggiore’s book, What If Everything You Thought You Knew about AIDS Was Wrong?, by the outspoken libertarian comedian Bill Maher.
From Aliveandwell.org
“This is a book everyone should read, and not a moment too soon! One of the most corrosive flaws in America is our tendency toward conformity; in the quest to understand AIDS, it has been stifling. Christine Maggiore prompts the kind of questioning that is the lifeblood of scientific inquiry.”
The book has been described elsewhere as “unscholarly, misleading in its presentation of existing evidence and data”, and “based on speculation with no solid evidence to back up claims”.
See also: The parallels between AIDS denial and Holocaust negationism
I like Bill Maher. I am disappointed by this. I like Will Smith too, and I was disappointed years back when he told Barbara Walters that AIDS was a conspiracy against Blacks.
But I guess I should not be surprised by Bill Maher. As Liberatrian I mean. Look, Becca Culshaw made her denialist debut at Lew Rockwell’s website. And Robert Leppo sponsored Scovil’s block buster movie on late wife and AIDS myths. Leppo also underwrites Peter Duesberg’s lab and gives money to David Rasnick for whatever he does. This whole libertarian thing does seem odd to me though. The politics of denialism demands more attention. Celia Farber says there are no politics in AIDS denialism. But I bet her boyfriend Bob Guccione has some strong libertarian sentiments, especially around free speech.
paco
January 10, 2009 at 8:33 pm
Bill is a smart guy, but I think there are times when the iconoclastic part of his personality gets the better of him, and this may have been one. There’s no date on the quote, so I’d assume it was before we knew the truth as clearly as we do now. In the meantime, Christine’s “Alive and Well AIDs Alternatives” site still makes no mention of her death. I guess this would slow down the money train from the pathologically gullible. To be accurate, shouldn’t the website be renamed “Dead and Buried AIDs alternatives?”
Robert Walden
January 11, 2009 at 4:11 pm
I know what you mean – This morning I was actually listening to Maggiore’s last podcast, dated December 11th (though from comments in the programme I think it may have been recorded a couple of weeks before), and it’s just jaw-dropping the number of times she talks about her supposed good health and the length of time she’s been able to live happily without medications. Then there’s a big discussion about the “Law and Order” TV show which she believes (plausibly I guess) to have been based on her life story (http://www.nbc.com/Law_and_Order_Special_Victims_Unit/video/clips/retro-1028/796041), and she’s laughing about how ridiculous it was that the show portrayed the mother eventually dying from an AIDS-related illness. It’s just gobsmacking stuff to listen to.
As for Bill Maher, I want to agree with you – he’s obviously a smart funny guy, and I particularly liked his response to the 911 denialists, but I think Maggiore’s book was published in 2000 when things really were pretty clear. Assuming the endorsement wasn’t just completely made up, it does seem to put him in quite a bad light – though of course there’s nothing particularly unusual in a talented, intelligent celeb getting way out of their depth on some scientific issue or another!
Richard Wilson
January 11, 2009 at 6:41 pm
2000? That’s a little scary. Mr. Maher, if you’re ever googling your name and see this, look into this stuff more closely and maybe ask Maggiore’s site to stop quoting you. Innocent people have died from believing in her odd cult. I know from watching Religulous you aren’t in favor of that.
Robert Walden
January 11, 2009 at 10:43 pm
AIDS “realists” really think they have it all figured out. Why do I only hear name calling and labels from the realists and actual scientific findings from the Dissidents? And how do you know what caused Christine to die? HIV negative people have died from pneumonia too. In Christine’s case, isnt it interesting that many of the realists accused her of lying about her poz status, and now that she has died, they want to obscure the fact that she tested negative, indeterminate, as well as poz. Furthermore, the facts leading up to her death deserve to be told. She had undertaken an ill advised ” Dietary Cleanse”, well before being diagnosed with bilateral pneumonia, not AIDS PCP mind you. She had not eaten enough and had become severely dehydrated and weak before getting sick. She was already physcially slight, and was under enormous stress from an impending trial and the recent Law and Order slam against her. Who among us hasn’t fallen ill, sometimes seriously, after several weeks of stress?
john
February 10, 2009 at 4:35 am
“Why do I only hear name calling and labels from the realists and actual scientific findings from the Dissidents?” – maybe because human beings have a tendency selectively to remember information that confirms their pre-existing beliefs, while blanking out information that conflicts with them?
Richard Wilson
February 10, 2009 at 7:34 am