Savvy Celiac: Why so much anger with the Gluten-free movement? - MinnPost.com (blog)

[Scott Adams]

Open Original Shared Link MinnPost.com (blog) Want to get the celiac or gluten free community riled up? I think we now know how. A vile Facebook entry earlier this month by self-proclaimed “chef” Damian Cardone in Colorado did just that when he said “gluten free is bulls*#t” and he would serve ... Open Original Shared Link

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[Serafina57]

I am disabled because of celiac disease. My nervous system is attached and I can't walk or think. Gluten Ataxia. It takes about 14-18 hours after eating gluten to have symptoms for me and I'll be sick for weeks. So...this "chef" seems to support what I suspect many chefs/cooks believe. I always ask to speak to the manager when I dine out. Always. I stopped eating out two months ago, because I was constantly getting glutened. I feel much better. By the way, I live in Colorado.

[Takala]

There are lots of "foodie" trolls all over the internet. Just like there are trolls for all sorts of different subjects. Why the "anger?" It's very simple. I had several identities trolling me on the specific topic of auto immunity on another board, and there was a specific, deliberate effort to discredit the information I presented, which was not done in a way that would be considered polite. It was ghastly. ( I was not getting paid, but just writing in an informational, conversational way as an educational sort of thing to advocate for better general knowledge. But I also cited scientific papers, which must have really messed up their narrative. ) I dug around and found out who and what the likely reason they were doing this. I was not pleased when I found out. My only cold comfort was that since then, they've gone to extraordinary lengths to hide their online identities. One of them since then, I've seen communicating publicly in a friendly, advisory way with a writer who's done what could only be described as a hit piece on the entire topic of gluten intolerance/celiac and other related conditions.

This is pretty weird, actually. 'Cause now they've gotten even more people annoyed with them in the auto immune disease community.

They aren't like the chef guy, whom I think just has a bit of a screw loose, and should perhaps seek some counseling on why he's claiming he likes to hurt people. Instead it's deliberate as part of a business strategy, as far as I can figure out.

Imagine these types of encounters happening, over and over again. They like to try to make people angry because in their mock calm and "reasoning" it gives them a feeling of control. Here are people who tout their online identities as being professional, cool, and very erudite, and they have this secret side of themselves that is not.

The classic response is supposed to be to ignore trolls and take the higher road. But if we get a few hundred people cleverly manipulating the "common knowledge" data base of public opinion on the internet, with out a passionate response to correct the sabotage, we could end up with the general public thinking that it's an imaginary disease, or a psychiatric condition.