As I’m sitting here typing this unplanned but sorely-needed response blog post today, my very emotionally-sensitive wife Christine is balling her eyes out over the vile ugliness she is seeing being said about me on the Internet (she’s never gotten used to the normal cruel discourse that happens on a regular basis online despite the fact I’ve told her this is par for the course). I’ve been writing columns on a variety of web sites since 2001 and I’ve been called a lot of things over the years. But a “neo-Nazi” isn’t one of them.
In fact, I didn’t even know what a neo-Nazi was before all of this drama unfolded online over the past few days with the really disgusting and unwarranted memes being created with my photo on them that you see in this blog post. Apparently there’s this big hullabaloo out there in the Paleo community about me being some kind of a racist, white supremacist, Jew-hating, KKK sympathizer that seemingly sprung up overnight (I guess it was my Christmas/birthday present this week from my enemies) because of my December 7, 2012 radio interview appearance with a man named Dr. David Duke (if you choose to listen to this interview because you are curious about what I said in it, then you can Google it although I’m not advocating that you listen to this man). Who knew that on the anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor this simple conversation I had on a radio program sharing about the healthy low-carb message (which I’ve done numerous times before on podcasts, radio and television in the past nine years) would become the latest sneak attack on my good reputation in the latest attempt to bring me down?
My friends and faithful blog readers have been sending me e-mails and messages on Twitter and Facebook linking to all that’s being said about me wondering why I haven’t responded to this yet. Well, let’s see, Christmas was earlier this week, I’ve been away on vacation visiting family in Virginia, my birthday was on Thursday, we traveled back home to South Carolina all day on Friday–ummm, I’ve been just a little busy and there were other things much more important to me than whatever trumped-up crisis-of-the-moment was happening on the Internet? I’m always amazed by how deeply invested people become online living virtually every moment of their entire day on there without ever getting out and experiencing life in the real world. Although I do my fair share of work online, I try to take plenty of opportunities to be away from the computer, iPhone and iPad to spend time with the people I love doing the things that matter the most to me.
So forgive me if I’m not hurriedly responding to this accusation and that accusation about me online that may pop up from time to time. Life’s just too short to become entrapped by the measly squabbles that run rampant across the World Wide Web. I cannot believe I’m putting off my much-needed trip to the gym to lift some heavy iron and instead spending hours of my limited time responding to this today–but I suppose it is a necessary evil to clear the air about what I’ve been seeing and hearing out there about me.
Before I share with you the whole story about the specifics of this nonsensical meme, let me tell you what all of this is REALLY about–believe it or not, there are people in this world who hate me and everything I stand for and would like nothing more than to bring an end to the online presence of Jimmy Moore and “Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb.” That’s the reality of what most of this latest drama is intended to do as I’ve shared previously about several months ago in an April 2012 blog post entitled “Aren’t You Going To Respond To The Negative Attacks Against You?” There’s been a never ending, relentless campaign of outright character assassination by people who are either somehow jealous that I’m able to do what I do full-time for a living or have some sort of abject hatred for me personally for any number of twisted reasons. Anything they can say to disparage me personally (true or not), call into question my authenticity or impugn my faith and belief in God (something I believe plays a much BIGGER role in the intense personal hatred of me in the Paleo community than people want to admit), nothing is off limits to their willingness to engage in the ugly dredges of the politics of personal destruction. Sadly, that’s the world we live in now and anyone who chooses to be online should be abundantly aware of this.
I have attempted to live my life on the Internet and in the real world in such a way to be as open and honest as I can possibly be as a man of integrity in all that I do. I’m by no means perfect (and never claimed to be), but I strive to be the best possible human being I am capable of and letting the chips fall where they may. Whatever it is that’s gotten the people who despise me to lash out as they have, I’ve been online as a public figure long enough now to realize that this unfortunately comes with the territory of putting yourself out there for all the world to see and being as transparent as I am with all the ups, downs and in betweens of my life.
Interestingly, most of the rabblerousers who try to start some new controversy about me would never dare share full body pictures of what they look like, their latest health test results, details about any struggles they may be going through, etc. Instead, they’d prefer to lob insults and judge people like me from afar without ever really dealing with their own issues first. If these people were serious about wanting to help others in their health journey as I am trying to do, then they would spend a lot more time encouraging people and offering to lift them up in their time of need. Instead, they would rather lurk quietly behind their computer screens like some kind of crazed obsessed stalker for the chance to create something out of nothing as a means for tearing down those who are doing good. Sadistic? You bet it is.
So how did all of this actually transpire to make me the great evil enemy of the Paleo and low-carb community this week? You’ve heard the other side of the story already, so now hear my take and then decide for yourself. It all started back in October when one of my “Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show” podcast listeners e-mailed me about this guy they had discovered named Dr. David Duke who was promoting some fantastic pro low-carb messages on his web site. You’ve gotta know that I get e-mails every single day from people making suggestions for people I should interview on my podcast, so this was nothing out of the ordinary. Honestly, I’d never even heard of this guy before but I clicked through to some of the links my listener provided and saw some superb articles about why we need Vitamin D for optimal health, the dangers of consuming wheat, how cutting carbs can improve health and weight and so much more. In other words, it was obvious this guy understood many of the exact same ideas espoused by most of the other guests I have interviewed on my show. So I contacted him inquiring about whether he’d like to appear on my podcast for an interview to talk about his ideas on nutrition just as I do with other prospective interview guests virtually all the time.
Within a day, I heard back from Dr. Duke (that’s how he signed the e-mail) himself stating that he’d love to be on my podcast, but that he would like to interview me on his radio show first. No problem. Since I had been a guest on plenty of other programs before, I agreed to appear as part of his “Fitness Friday” segment on December 7, 2012. He noted in his e-mail to me that he liked my “down to earth explanations of low-carb, low grain, high natural fats and protein, essentially Paleo eating and living lifestyles.” Awesome!
And so we did the interview at 11AM EST that day and it was pretty typical interview fodder–tell us about your weight loss success eating low-carb, what can we do to improve the health and weight of Americans, what obstacles stand in the way of the low-carb message becoming mainstream, yadda yadda yadda. If you choose to hear what happened during the interview, then Google it to take a listen for yourself (if you so choose to listen to this vile human being) and you’ll find that this didn’t sound all that different than several other interviews I did that exact same week with Abel James, Vinnie Tortorich or Sam Feltham. These kind of radio show appearances are an effective avenue for sharing more about low-carb living and the work I am doing with brand new audiences of people who need to be exposed to an alternative message on nutrition.
Shortly after the interview was finished, I shared a link to it on social media just as I do all of my media appearances. My Facebook friend Burton Brown asked me at the time in a comment on that link, “Is this the ‘infamous’ David Duke?” I thought he must already know about who this guy espousing low-carb nutritional principles is and so I responded with a quick and simple “yep.” With nearly 500 daily e-mails and keeping up with a high volume of comments made on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, on my blog posts, on my forum and other places online, short and sweet answers like this are what help me personally answer them all and still have time to do all of my other work. Again, I wasn’t yet privy to the history behind this guy and what he was all about beyond the fact that he had his own radio show where we talked about my low-carb work and he had a nutrition page on his web site that had lots of pro-Paleo and low-carb columns.
So when I put together my December 2012 list of new Paleo, low-carb and health blogs as my regular readers have become accustomed to seeing, I included a link to the Health/Fitness page of his web site at #14 (it’s since been removed and replaced with another blog as a result of all this revelation about who David Duke is and my further investigation). That’s when I started getting comments from people in my e-mail, on my Facebook page and on Twitter about why I’m associating with a former KKK grand wizard and whether I agreed with his views. Say whoawhat?!
Honestly, this took me by total surprise because I really didn’t have any idea what they were talking about. You can point the finger of blame solely on me for that one because in my haste to do follow-up on a listener suggestion for a podcast interview, I didn’t do the proper due diligence in vetting out who it was I was dealing with. I sincerely apologize for failing to look into the background of this man before appearing as a guest on his show (and just in case you’re wondering, no he’s not scheduled to appear on my podcast now or ever).
This certainly underlines the serious need I have for an assistant, a publicist, or someone who can sift through all the media appearances and other such stuff for me since I have very little time to do that with all the work I’m doing now (if you’re interested in that job, contact me). Plus, with the hectic schedule I’ve had over past two months doing a 3-week speaking tour across Australia and then visiting family in Virginia over the Christmas holidays the past couple of weeks, I didn’t have very much time at all to do my homework to look into exactly who David Duke is. That was totally my fault and I take full responsibility for not looking closer into who he is and what positions he takes on issues outside of nutrition. When I was being questioned about his inclusion on my blog listing, I noted that his positions on nutrition are “spot on” and they are. But I can see how there would be concern by people who saw me link to his Health/Fitness page and jump to the conclusion that I somehow agree with what this David Duke guy thinks about all of his other stuff too.
Let me be VERY clear–I DO NOT AGREE WITH DAVID DUKE ON ANYTHING ELSE BESIDES NUTRITION!
In fact, a couple of weeks after I was on his radio show, the producers of his radio show contacted me again and said they enjoyed having me on the first time and wanted me to come back again to discuss other issues outside the realm of diet and health. I refused because my passion is nutrition and healthy living. In no way does my appearance on “The David Duke Show” imply that I am in agreement with his very extreme and hurtful beliefs about anything else which I have discovered doing research into his work these past few days. Yikes! No wonder people are so up in arms about this which is why I quickly removed links to his web site from my blog as soon as I realized exactly who he was and why I decided to write this blog post today. By no means did I ever intend to promote the non-nutritional beliefs of this man and anyone who knows me personally wouldn’t even question this. Again, those few vindictive Jimmy Moore haters out there will use whatever glimmer of opportunity they can muster up to try to destroy the good that I’m doing.
Incidentally, I was doing some research for this blog post today and discovered that I’m not the first person from the low-carb and Paleo communities to be a guest on Duke’s radio show. Check out who the guest was on February 10, 2012:
If you care to listen, Google it!
That’s right, it’s none other than my friend and New York Times bestselling author Dr. William Davis discussing the concepts in his uber-popular health book Wheat Belly appearing on the show with David Duke. Very interesting, eh? But two weeks later on February 23 and 24, 2012, guess what other Paleo luminary appeared on there as well? Take a listen for yourself:
If you care to listen, Google it!
Yep, you heard the voice of Dr. Doug McGuff who wrote about super-slow weight lifting and Paleo living in his book Body By Science being interviewed by David Duke. I’ve listened to both interviews featuring Dr. Davis and Dr. McGuff and they stuck with their respective messages throughout the interviews just as I did during my interview.
So I’ve gotta ask one simple question: if there is guilt by association as has been heaped upon me heavily this week for daring to appear on the radio show of someone being described as a neo-Nazi, then I guess using that exact same logic would require you to believe that both Dr. William Davis and Dr. Doug McGuff are neo-Nazis too? Surely you jest. None of these people has said a peep over the past ten months since both of them were interviewed on that exact same program and this simply exposes the bigger agenda at play here. The primary objective of the people spreading these lies about me is to try to make me look bad, create this distorted image of me in the low-carb and Paleo communities, call for a boycott of my podcast as a means of preventing me from continuing to blog, do podcasts, write books and all the other work I do helping others get quality information about weight loss and health.
The hypocrisy of this entire soap opera pseudo-scandal controversy about me runs thick and deep and quite frankly I’ve grown tired of all the childish antics meant to expose the real agenda behind what I’m doing. But I’ve got a NEWSFLASH for anyone who hasn’t noticed it before: What you see from me is what you get from me. No frills. No underlying message. No secrets. Just the truth as best as I know it along with sharing the school of hard knocks that life throws at me along the way. If you’re looking for this kind of honesty on the sites of those who are being critical, good luck with that. They are gutless cowards who don’t have the courage and dignity to put themselves out there to be judged. And I think that says a lot about who these people are. Maybe they’re just mad that I’ve lost over 60 pounds this year using “nutritional ketosis” to do it. Who knows? I’m not really sure why my success in weight loss and career is such a threat to them.
Try, try as you may to smear me, run my good name through the mud and attempt to tarnish the good work I am doing through all my “Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb” projects, I remain undeterred. There’s just too much at stake with all the hundreds of millions of people out there who are still suffering from the ravages of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and other health issues for me to get bogged down by the pettiness of people who have nothing better to do with their time than to try to cause harm to those attempting to make the world a better place.
I don’t know about you, but I’ve got more productive ways to use my time than to worry about what anybody thinks about me or my motives. Believe what you want to believe about me, but I’m just going to keep living my life in a way that is positive, uplifting and inspiring to others as they seek to live healthy. If I can ever personally help you in your low-carb journey, then please feel free to e-mail me anytime at livinlowcarbman@charter.net. I’m ALWAYS happy to help!
Special THANKS to Richard Nikoley for standing up for me and my good name through this fiasco despite our dietary differences. And THANK YOU to all of my faithful readers, podcast listeners and followers who recognize what this is and continue to support the work I am doing educating, encouraging and inspiring others in their own journey to better health.
NOTE: All links to Duke’s hateful web site have been removed. THANKS!
