Sad reptiloid by Andrey Kurpatov
The LIAR Award chose the "best"
Tatiana Voltskaya, North.Realities
TV presenter Andrey Kurpatov became the "Honorary Academician of VRAL-2021" for outstanding achievements in the field of pseudoscience, pseudoscience and their popularization for "the abyss of digital dementia". Alexander Redko, a member of the City Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, who claims to have discovered the eighth gene and opposes vaccination, won in the medical nomination of the Academy of Preventive Chakrosurgery, in which as many as four doctors of medical sciences got into the semifinals. Kurpatov got a "Sad Reptiloid" as a prize, and Radko got a golden coffee enema.
At first, the winners among the propagandists of pseudoscience were chosen by ordinary people, almost 5 thousand votes were cast in total. The first "top three" was headed by psychotherapist Andrey Kurpatov (32.8%), who claims that due to the use of gadgets and new technologies, people get depressed, become suicidal and just get stupid. He was followed by the author of the channel "Sedition" Anton Myslivets (18.2%) and historian Olga Chetverikova (17.1%). At the head of the second three was Dr. Alexander Redko (35.1%), actress Maria Shukshina (27.5%) and doctor Alexander Myasnikov (24.3%). "People's Choice" coincided with the opinion of the professional jury, which gave the first places to Kurbatov and Redko.
Correspondent North.Reality tells who and why got into the top of anti-scientists and propagandists of pseudoscience.
"In ancient times ... there were so-called acrodelphids who lived on the coast near the water cut. Their appearance is reconstructed as very similar to human. Acrodelphids... disappeared 5 million years ago – about the time when man appeared… Most likely, they just transformed into us" – this is a fragment of one of the speeches of the writer, candidate of philosophical sciences Viktor Ten, the author of the concept of the origin of man from ancient dolphins – and one of the semifinalists of the anti-prize.
– Applicants for our award are not necessarily representatives of the academic community, they can be businessmen, film figures, journalists – anyone who spreads pseudoscientific ideas, – explains the editor of the portal "Anthropogenesis.<url>" and the head of the organizing committee of the award "Honorary Academician LIED" Alexander Sokolov. – It's not the formal status that matters here, but the contribution, which is why we have such a motley company. For example, Victor Ten writes books on various topics, including the fact that man descended from a dolphin. Before that, there was a theory of the "water monkey", but it took a radical form from him – Ten believes that man did not originate from some near-water primates, but directly from dolphins. Ten uses outdated information and invents downright grotesque interpretations of various human characteristics. Is that why a person has long hair? But because our ancestors lived in water, they were attacked by huge anacondas, and to protect themselves from them, people covered themselves with their hair like an umbrella – and snakes with thermal vision did not see them. In general, Ten is a very prolific author, he is a "Renaissance man" with a wide range of interests – he wrote about the Russian language and about Pushkin. Some of our nominees have been known for a long time, for example, the writer, journalist, popularizer of supposedly ancient texts of Slavic mythology Alexander Asov has been acting since the 1990s, including translating and popularizing the so-called "Veles Book", a forgery known in the scientific world – a "document", which is a sample of the "pre-Christian writing" of the Slavs. It has been actively used by all sorts of neo-pagans for a long time. It supposedly dates back to the IX century, but in fact it is a fake of the twentieth century.
Another participant in the list of semifinalists of the anti–prize LIED is Doctor of Chemical Sciences, Professor Anatoly Klesov, author of "DNA Genealogy", which he presents as a new science studying population migrations and the genetic history of mankind. Experts recognized the theoretical foundations of DNA genealogy, its methods and conclusions as incorrect, and the concept as pseudoscientific. Looking into Klesov's article "Patriotism and Scientific Patriotism", where he smashes the Norman theory of the origin of the Old Russian state (about the vocation of the Varangians), we read: "DNA genealogy is designed to actively resist Russophobes of all stripes in their incessant attempts for more than two hundred years to belittle the importance of Slavs and Russians ..., including with the involvement of the vicious concept of "Normanism", which was smashed by M.V. Lomonosov. DNA genealogy dramatically shifts the balance towards scientific patriotism, shows that Normanism is... the worldview of the "fifth column", Russophobia in its essence."
– Klesov proves that the ancestral home of mankind is not in Africa, – says Sokolov. – That the Slavs descended from the Aryans, he wrote a book about it, he starred in Zadornov's film – in general, he is active, prolific and promotes his ideas on YouTube. He was repeatedly nominated for the LIAR, but never went beyond the semifinals. But who unexpectedly got into the semifinals here is psychotherapist Andrey Kurpatov, a TV presenter and producer, he hosted a program on Channel One, the author of a bunch of books. He actively speaks – even appeared at the Federation Council and the economic forum in Davos. Kurpatov intimidates the audience with negative consequences for the psyche, which allegedly leads to the use of social networks and smartphones, for which he introduces the terms "information pseudodebility" and "digital autism". Kurpatov's speeches are scientific, but psychological experts find in his constructions numerous speculations and distortion of the results of scientific research.
Kurpatov expounds his ideas about the perniciousness of social networks and gadgets in the book "The Red Pill". In it, he claims that the use of smartphones increases the risk of suicide and makes people antisocial. Interestingly, among the figures noted by the experts of the LIAR, there is an author-performer, singer and composer Yuri Loza.
– A few years ago, he began to spread conspiracy ideas and talk about the flat Earth, – says Sokolov. – He supports homeopathy, the so-called "alternative history", and all kinds of conspiracy. Of course, he is not a scientist at all, just a media personality who suddenly started promoting completely obscurantistic ideas. But for many he is an authority, that's the trouble.
– Where did this flat Earth theory come from?
– The movement of flat-earthers existed for a long time, but they were small sectarians on the margins of the civilized world, but in recent years they have risen noticeably thanks to social networks. This is an example of the deformation of modern society, when even such delusional ideas are supported by a certain part of the public and spread virally on the Internet.
– The reverse side of progress: the Internet spreads scientific knowledge – but also anti-scientific.
–That's right. At our forum "Scientists against Myths", anthropologist Alexandra Arkhipova spoke, who is engaged in research on how rumors spread. Social networks erase borders between countries. On the one hand, this is good, on the other, the most inventive ideas are spreading with great speed, and anyone, regardless of their qualifications, gets a voice on the Internet – and here, please, the Vine tells with a smart look that rivers could not flow the way they flow on the round Earth. But he once graduated from the Faculty of Geography.
Among the semi–finalists of the award is Anton Myslivets, a blogger, owner of one of the most popular pseudoscientific channels in Russian YouTube – "Sedition", promoting pseudoscience and conspiracy, with millions of views. "This is a kind of aggregator of obscurantistic ideas from all fields of science, having pronounced commercial goals," it is written about him in the annotation to the anti–prize.
– This is such a YouTube version of REN TV, only even more "hardcore", – explains Sokolov. – He has millions of subscribers, this is one of the most popular mouthpieces of pseudoscience, his owner Anton Myslivets became a defendant in a lawsuit over the spread of fakes about Covid. He was given 200 hours of mandatory work for a video about a "vaccine of mass destruction" in which he claimed that the covid vaccine is a means of reducing the population.
– Does he also distribute about Bill Gates and chipping?
– Both he and our other nominees. But "Sedition" is just a translator, the channel itself does not compose anything, but only compiles all kinds of obscurantism and conspiracy – with links, including to our other finalists. What is not there – and aliens, and Masons, and forbidden technologies, and an alternative history, there you can find out that the Moon is fake, that the ISS does not exist, and about the danger of 5G, and about the horrors of chipization, and about terrible doctors who poison us.
Another nominee of the LIAR Award is writer and publicist Olga Chetverikova, Candidate of Historical Sciences, associate professor, writer, director of the Center for Geopolitics of the Institute of Fundamental and Applied Research of Moscow State University. In her numerous videos and books, she intimidates viewers with the upcoming digitalization and the "electronic concentration camp" into which the world's behind-the-scenes, rushing to power, wants to plunge us. Among the topics appearing in Chetverikova's speeches recently are the danger of 5G and vaccines, covidafera, chipping.
– By the way, she taught at MGIMO for almost 20 years, – says Alexander Sokolov. – And my friends who studied with her told me that Chetverikova willingly shared her conspiracy theories with students at her lectures on history. And now she is broadcasting about terrible "digitalists", these are some terrible disguised sectarians, a shadowy world government that wants to plunge humanity into a digital concentration camp, turn people into obedient slaves, or even replace everyone with robots. She used to say that digitalization is a global apocalypse that must be resisted, and now, in the wake of the coronavirus, all this has merged with stories that covidafera is part of a global conspiracy. For this, children are put on remote, and 5G towers are put, and vaccines are made – and everything is in order to ruin Russian spirituality. Also in the semifinalists is the legendary Valery Chudinov – he is known for discovering "ancient inscriptions" in Russian everywhere – on any surfaces, including mountains, pieces of plaster, elephant skin and even the surface of other planets. Russian Russian believes that the "Slavic Vedic civilization" arose long before all other known civilizations, that all languages originated from Russian, that thousands of years ago Russians flew into space.
This year, the project "Anthropogenesis" within the framework of the VRAL Award established a separate medical award of the Academy of Preventive Chakrosurgery ("Academy of Preventive Chakrosurgery"). The organizers believe that during the pandemic it is important to pay special attention to medical obscurantists – anti-vaccinators, covid-dissidents, supporters of new-fangled conspiracy theories. Interestingly, there were four doctors of medical sciences among the finalists of this award.
The first on the list is Pavel Vorobyov, MD, who founded Pavel Vorobyov's Medical Bureau "Clinic for Responsible Self-Treatment", where he offers his own method of treating COVID-19 "with 99% efficiency". Vorobyov promotes the idea that covid is not SARS, but vasculitis, denies the effectiveness of masks and vaccination. In 2020, he claimed that the COVID-19 pandemic was a "fake", an international scam. He says that the Sputnik vaccine is a dangerous genetically modified virus that secretes covid particles.
Another semi–finalist of the special medical anti-award is Igor Gundarov, also a doctor of medical sciences, a specialist in the field of epidemiology and medical statistics. He is the author of an unconventional direction of preventive medicine – "epidemiology of spirituality", an active popularizer of various dubious ideas – that, for example, 80% of the population already has coronavirus, that self–isolation and personal protective equipment are not needed.
– Gundarov believes that the main cause of all epidemics, mortality is spiritual distress, – says Sokolov. – He also promotes the horrors of vaccinations, in his opinion, to cope with the coronavirus, it is enough to have a good mood that increases immunity, all this is on YouTube, in his speeches, interviews. Another of our heroes is also a Doctor of Medical Sciences, professor of the Department of General Pathology of the Medical Institute of Tula State University Denis Ivanov. He is an active fighter against vaccination, known for outrageous statements – for example, that mostly those vaccinated against coronavirus get sick and die. He calls the COVID-19 vaccine an "experimental immunobiological drug" and considers its use unacceptable. He has a standard set of anti–vaccination ideas: the vaccine changes the genome, vaccinated people may become infertile - and so on.
The next nominee of the APCI Award is Alexander Myasnikov, cardiologist, candidate of medical Sciences, TV presenter, participant of various TV shows. In his speeches, he repeatedly said that the coronavirus is almost safe, that masks do not protect, but only create a "false sense of security", that only people over 65 need to be protected. However, in 2021 he changed his position.
– He is the head of the information center for monitoring the situation with coronavirus, – says Sokolov. – And he repeatedly said in 2020 that the coronavirus is a common acute respiratory infection, the flu is worse, the mortality from covid is minimal, the risk of infection is hundredths of a percent, that only pensioners die, we will get over everything anyway, and those who are supposed to die will die. Now he seems to have changed his position, but the effect has already been produced. Moreover, he is so charismatic, a good speaker, has an influence on a large audience. Another semi–finalist is Alexander Redko, Doctor of Sciences, however, his doctoral dissertation could not be found, he himself says that it is classified. There is a video where the traffic police stops him and he proudly demonstrates the "crusts", one of which says that he is a major general of environmental safety. He makes loud anti-vaccination statements, quite illiterate from the point of view of medicine and biology. According to Redko, there is no pandemic, masks are ineffective, vaccines can lead to dangerous mutations, leave a "digital footprint" in the body. He speaks weightily, solidly, knows how to make an impression.
– And how did Maria Shukshina get into this company?
– This is the daughter of the writer Vasily Shukshin, an honored artist who seems to have nothing to do with science, but since 2020 she has also become known for her provocative speeches about vaccinations and pandemics and the organization of round tables dedicated to the pandemic, where she gathered various obscurantists, including those I mentioned. Some of them, thanks to her round tables, have been promoted. There was talk that we were being dragged to a digital concentration camp, that a social experiment was being conducted on us, that the pandemic itself was not so terrible, and the main trouble was from vaccinations. And all this against the background of the fact that people are now dying by the thousands from COVID-19. At the same time, Shukshina recently received the Order of Merit for the Fatherland of the 1st degree and did not forget to mention at the award ceremony that a "social experiment" was underway.
According to Alexander Panchin, a member of the jury of the award, a member of the commission on combating pseudoscience, candidate of biological Sciences, the activities of obscurantists in the field of medicine bring the greatest harm to society.
– It seems to me that the most harmful are the deniers of the benefits of vaccinations, because when misconceptions spread to a wide audience lead to deaths, this is the most terrible thing. And I would single out Alexander Redko, he backs up with his authority an incredible amount of nonsense about vaccinations.
– Isn't Dr. Myasnikov more harmful – as more famous?
– Yes, he made a lot of strange statements on television, but still he was not so radically anti-scientific. He is more and more about the fact that the coronavirus is not so dangerous that it would be better to pray and everything will pass. But I remember that when the pandemic was just beginning, his statements formed the early impressions of society, and his negative influence was great.
– Why do you think there are so many obscurantists?
– Someone just grew up surrounded by people with anti-scientific views, and now he has become an authority, everyone praises him, and he does not want to look at himself critically. And someone just wants to become famous. After all, it is not as easy to gain fame by expressing neutral judgments, doing good deeds, as if you throw it on a fan. What is the success of the same REN TV or "Battle of Psychics": the more elements of the show you have, emotions, the more mysterious, when you "open people's eyes", the stronger the audience's fascination. There is a wonderful book by psychologist Rob Brotherton (Rob Brotherton) "Distrustful minds. What attracts us to conspiracy theories" – about the reasons for the popularity of conspiracy thinking. Firstly, it turned out that people who themselves, according to their feelings, would agree to participate in some kind of conspiracy, are more inclined to believe that other people are entering into conspiracies, such is the projection. Secondly, there is such a distortion of human thinking, when it seems to people that if a big event has happened, then there must be a big reason for it.
– That is, a small mutated virus as the cause of millions of deaths does not go away?
– Yes, we need something big, hence the versions of laboratory origin, bacteriological weapons, chipping through vaccines, etc. And the third reason is the error of teleological thinking – an attempt to attribute reasonableness to natural processes, for this type of consciousness nothing happens by chance, someone necessarily controls everything.
One of the experts of the award LIED, Doctor of Psychological Sciences, Professor Vladimir Spiridonov believes that it is surprising that someone still retains the ability to think critically.
– Most often, all sorts of anti–scientific constructions are extremely interesting - they contradict the usual postulates, show the world in an unexpected light: these are Slavs, these are ours – what ancient Egyptians or Chinese are there – let them go through the forest! – he remarks. – On the other hand, for people who are not connected with science, this is a terribly boring thing: well, why are they sitting there, counting the legs of mosquitoes, and then a man came and answered all the questions with one movement of his mind. It's all a bit like a circus, only people take it at face value.
– So why do they accept at least the same conspiracy theories?
– Firstly, in many phenomena of the modern world it is really very difficult to grasp all the causes and connections, and conspiracy theory is a way to simplify the picture. Secondly, it is a way of relieving tension. According to our results, by the way, it is very clear that as the waves of covid increase, the number of supporters of the conspiracy theory increases, at least in covid issues. Incomprehensible and disturbing – and here's a conspiracy theory for you. Well, and entertainment – there is school science, boring, it can't do anything, and here – that's what beauty is. When you are engaged in science, it is so structured that it forces you to think within its framework, and when you are engaged in the "Veles Book" or reptiloids, there are no restrictions, there is room for imagination. It's much more interesting and easier, but science is a chore, it takes a long time, and you need to learn, and not everyone gets it – not like about a flat Earth. The problem is that modern science is disconnected from public life, and the school curriculum is 80 years behind what is happening in real science. Therefore, the question of what kind of education people should receive in order not to fall into the traps of pseudoscience remains open.
Correspondent North.Realities asked the semi-finalists and finalists of this year's LIE how they feel about their nomination for the anti-award, only Alexander Asov answered: "With humor. Who cares about buffoons..."
Anyone can nominate candidates for the award of the Lying Academy of Pseudoscience, a long list of candidates is submitted to an Expert Council consisting of scientists in the field of medicine, history, archeology, physics, astronomy, linguistics, psychology. The Expert Council acts at the quarterfinal stage, and then passes the baton to two juries, the main one (consisting of six scientists in the field of both natural and humanitarian sciences) and the medical one. At the semi-final stage in special communities "Anthropogenesis.<url>" a popular vote is held to determine the finalists. The final part, the election of the academicians of the LIE is also held with the participation of both the popular vote and the vote of the jury members.
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