More "Natural News" Ridiculousness...

I'm going to have to comment on this article. When I read it, it made me wonder if Natural News is the "alternative health" counterpart to the cultural eviscerations of the "Onion."

http://www.naturalnews.com/034676_sheeple_study_psychology.html#ixzz1jqjo20yM

The title of the article is:

Study Proves 95% of People Really Are Sheeple...

And it just goes downhill from there. The article sites a limited study in which non-verbally communicative people organized themselves into herds, essentially. In the study, a larger group of people was willing to be lead by a small minority.

That's the study in a nutshell.

Here's the source: http://psychcentral.com/news/2008/02/15/herd-mentality-explained/1922.html

From those facts, the author of the Natural News Article goes on to theorize that this tendency towards herding would lead to our susceptibility to being lead by political leaders, and to being taken in by con-men; to falling for political cover-ups, to falling for phony conspiracy theories. This paragraph has got to be the height of irony:

"Scary. Are we such sheeple that we allow a few "informed" people to lead us around without even knowing what's happening? Sadly, it makes sense. How many fall for scams of all kinds because of friends or "informed" sources, from pyramid schemes to religious hoaxes and political coverups. We seem to believe just about anything, or blindly tolerate it as long as the message is delivered with enough social credibility."


You've got to know a little bit about Natural News to understand the irony - this site consistently peddles fear to its audience. Articles routinely propose the idea that the government will be rounding up American citizens, illegally detaining us, forcibly vaccinating us with mind controlling agents, etc. The agenda is not even subtle.

I think what you have to do here, to see where the article is so far off base, is... you have to try and clear your mind. Then read the study first, the article's source. After you've read the study, go back and read the article, and see if the conclusions the author draws, from the limited parameters of the study, are the same as the conclusions you might draw.

Anyway - I'll expand on this later. I think it's pretty obvious that I have some serious doubts regarding the Natural News author's conclusions. Aside from that, the title certainly suggests that the article is being marketed to a relatively select audience.

Seriously, this article leaves me thinking: if there are sheeple, they are the ones buying into this story.