My friend Dean Blundell reached out about our coverage of Casey Means’ hearing with The Save America Movement. He immediately that I needed to talk to Denver Riggleman about it. Denver is a former Congressman from Virginia’s Fifth District who sat on the January 6th committee, a tech company CEO, a veteran, a bourbon distiller, and an expert in conspiracies and cults. He and Dean have both been doing great work with SAM andI promptly shared a link to Means’ poem, “The Devil’s Wellness Plan,” which resulted in Denver and Dean conducting the most incredible poetry reading I have ever witnessed. Do yourself a favor:
However, as Dean and Denver discussed, it does not end with the absurd poetry. Casey Means is a profiteering quack who is also applying her skills as a functional medicine influencer to aid the MAHA movement in putting everyone’s health at risk and undermining democracy. So we thought it would be a good idea to discuss this, because as much as the wellness poetry is an undeniable triumph of the AI-assisted rhyming couplets.
You don’t have to go very deep into Means’ past before the woo woo absurdity takes a darker turn. If you read past the poem itself in Means’ newsletter, you’ll see that after throwing in a few (for once, disclosed) sponsored ads for gross-looking vegan snacks, she has a few not-remotely-unhinged things to say about Big Ag! Specifically, she falsely equates damages awarded in civil lawsuits with proof that the herbicide glyphosate (Roundup) causes a laundry list of diseases, some of which are not actually diseases at all (mitochondrial dysfunction). There is no evidence that glyphosate causes any of these diseases, despite years of studying it. Modern agriculture depends on glyphosate to ensure high yields, which is more important than ever now as Trump’s trade war and disastrous agricultural policies are increasing food insecurity. And back when she was writing Satanic wellness poetry, she was also advocating against legislation that would protect the American food supply.
Even worse, she compared this legislation to the “horrific” 1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act, which was passed to ensure that manufacturers continue to produce essential childhood vaccines. She laments that this resulted in “a literal explosion in the number of vaccines” and “a complete, full-court suppression of the science showing known harms.” She falsely implies that vaccines are poisonous, just like glyphosate. She does not produce evidence to support these claims (because no such evidence exists).
There are real-world consequences to spreading this type of medical disinformation. Means is actively spreading pseudoscientific propaganda to advance her own interests. If she were as qualified as she claims, she would not knowingly lie about where the science stands. She does so despite also knowing that the American food supply depends on glyphosate and children die of preventable diseases if they don’t get vaccinated.
It pains me to say that it’s a surprisingly short trip from doing psychedelic-fueled arborial husband searches (yes, she did that too) and writing wellness poetry to ushering in mass preventable death. Thanks again to Dean, Denver, and SAM for unpacking it.
The Surgeon General should not give Americans advice that will kill them, which is what she has already demonstrably done. The Senate HELP Committee must not advance her to a confirmation vote.
