Saturday, October 23, 2010

Lowell's Idea of a Medical Expert: Kevin Trudeau

Apparently Lowell leaves quite an impression with people because I have had several sources provide me with information about him. One recent email sent to me included the following quote from Lowell (using his "Wildman440" username):


"...ever read the book by Kevin Trudeau, "Natural Cures They Dont want You To Know About", that might outline a bit of this as to how it really works."    
- Wildman440 (aka:Lowell Hubbs)

Yes you read that correctly - Mr. Hubbs is citing none other than the informercial pitchman Kevin Trudeau as one of his experts. This is the same Kevin Trudeau that has been convicted of credit card fraud and larceny and has served prison time (perhaps his time in prison is why Mr. Hubbs admires him since they apparently have something in common).

This is the same Kevin Trudeau that has paid a $500,000 fine for making false and misleading claims in his infomercials. The same Kevin Trudeau that has never had any of his claims verified by independent research. The same Kevin Trudeau that has been found guilty of running pyramid schemes, who has sold speed reading and memory courses via late night tv commercials, who has bilked morons for millions of dollars for worthless nutritional supplements, books, hair growth remedies, and who has paid the FTC millions of dollars in fines for breaking the law.

In fact, as recently as August 2008, Trudeau was fined more than $5 million and banned from infomercials for three years for continuing to make fraudulent claims pertaining to his "miracle" natural cures books. The amount of the monetary damages was later increased to $37.6 million, which is roughly the total amount of money Trudeau made on his idiotic book. I doubt he has ever paid up as he is likely still in the appeals process (the first appeal went against him) but in February of 2010, Trudeau once again found himself arrested and in front of a judge, so is would seem clear he hasn't learned his lesson.

As with most of these anti-mainstream medicine types, Kevin Trudeau has only one true motive and that motive is money. He hawks product after product after product and rather than caring about the people who are actually seeking medical advice, his only concern is how much money he can make off of them before they wise up and become aware that he is nothing more than a fraud. He even charges over $70 a month to subscribe to a newsletter which is nothing more than repackaged advice that can be found in health magainzes or other publicly available sources.

Of course if you ask Mr. Hubbs, he will claim that Kevin Trudeau is some type of a medical genius (even though he has no medical or scientific training) and that his miracle cures are simply being suppressed due to the government and "big pharma" wanting to shut him down to suppress these cures. Mr. Hubbs and Kevin Trudeau are both fond of citing conspiracy theories, but in Trudeau's case it is merely because he wants to make a quick buck, while in Mr. Hubbs' case it seems due to his ignorance.

However, if there is no science available to support any of the wild claims made by Trudeau, and if conspiracy theorists like Mr. Hubbs agree there is no science to support those claims (whether it is being suppressed or not), then how can they verify any of the claims or prove any of them are legitimate? That appears to be an issue that Mr. Hubbs avoids, because even he has to acknowledge there is no evidence to support anything Kevin Trudeau claims, and if there was such evidence, Trudeau would have been able to reference in any of the number of court cases he has been involved in.

Frankly I'm just a little disappointed that a snakeoil salesman like Trudeau is still out there coming up with new and more clever ways of bilking idiots out of their money, but one thing I have learned is conspiracy theorists are more than happy to pay out vast sums of their personal incomes for gadgets, supplements, newsletters, or books - and this is precisely why so many con-men like Trudeau focus upon this market.

Trudeau could never profit by selling his products to the educated masses, so he targets ignorant fools like Mr. Hubbs. He focuses with laser-like intensity upon those among our populace who are uneducated and who will believe pretty much anything they read on the Internet or see on television. To some degree, Kevin Trudeau is much like the type of person who starts a cult or starts his own religion, which quite honestly migth be his next move if he figures out how to make a buck from it.

Nevertheless, this is the type of person that Mr. Hubbs looks up to and the type of person he feels best represents the anti-vaccination movement. The tactics and technology may have improved, but Kevin Trudeau is nothing more than a modern-era snakeoil salesman... and Mr. Hubbs has been drinking the poison all along.

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