{"id":955,"date":"2008-12-07T21:57:03","date_gmt":"2008-12-07T19:57:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.basbasbas.com\/blog\/?p=955"},"modified":"2008-12-07T22:02:32","modified_gmt":"2008-12-07T20:02:32","slug":"dutch-journalists-tricked-by-magic-mushroom-ban-opponents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.basbasbas.com\/blog\/2008\/12\/07\/dutch-journalists-tricked-by-magic-mushroom-ban-opponents\/","title":{"rendered":"Dutch Journalists Tricked by &#8216;Magic&#8217; Mushroom Ban Opponents"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">You would think that journalists&#8217; intelligence and street smarts prevents them from falling for hoaxes, but recent attempts to show the insanity of the Dutch <a title=\"What are magic mushrooms?\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Magic_mushrooms\" target=\"_blank\">&#8216;magic&#8217; mushroom<\/a> ban by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mushmush.nl\/\" target=\"_blank\">opponents<\/a> of the ban show otherwise.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Ridiculing the mushroom ban, a website called <a href=\"http:\/\/www.paddobestrijding.nl\/\" target=\"_blank\">PaddoBestrijding.nl<\/a> (Shroom Removal) has been created promoting a service that supposedly helps keep innocent people safe from the long arm of the law. PaddoBestrijding&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.paddobestrijding.nl\/?page=8&amp;s=3\" target=\"_blank\">press release<\/a> reports that home-, land- and gardenowners as well as nature preservation organisations risk prosecution over ownership of one of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.minvws.nl\/includes\/dl\/openbestand.asp?File=\/images\/vgp-2844534-532-bij-brief-ek-en-tk-b-_tcm19-165976.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">186<\/a> mushroom types banned in The Netherlands, starting the 1st of December. This could lead to sentence of up to 6 year imprisonment or a 740,000 euro fine.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The ban is quite controversial as I&#8217;ve stated before in the following two articles:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.basbasbas.com\/blog\/2008\/11\/13\/netherlands-to-ban-magic-mushrooms-starting-december-1\/\" target=\"_blank\">Netherlands to ban \u2018magic\u2019 mushrooms starting December 1<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.basbasbas.com\/blog\/2008\/11\/13\/dutch-smartshops-take-legal-action-against-ban-on-magic-mushrooms\/\" target=\"_blank\">Dutch smartshops take legal action against ban on magic mushrooms<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">One of the mushrooms getting banned is the Fly Agaric, or Amanita muscaria (picture below, by <a href=\"http:\/\/flickr.com\/photos\/roger\/50040286\/\" target=\"_blank\">Roger B.<\/a>), a popular mushroom in European folklore (and in Super Mario), one of our nature&#8217;s beauties, and a <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Amanita_muscaria#Psychoactive_use\" target=\"_blank\">popular sacrament in ritual shamanic use<\/a>. Looks like the Christian Democrats are still on a witchhunt, with the aid of the Labour Party.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"The Fly Agaric is one of the mushrooms illegalized in the Netherlands\" src=\"http:\/\/www.basbasbas.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/12\/50040286_0d70e8b787.jpg\" alt=\"The Fly Agaric is one of the mushrooms illegalized in the Netherlands\" width=\"500\" height=\"374\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">It took me a second to figure out that PaddoBestrijding was an eleborate hoax, but three sections of the site really give it away and I&#8217;m stumped that journalists didn&#8217;t get the joke. Then again, the Dutch government did try to ban the use of satire once (<a href=\"http:\/\/binnenland.nieuws.nl\/41555\" target=\"_blank\">1<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.volkskrant.nl\/den_haag\/article138969.ece\" target=\"_blank\">2<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nu.nl\/news\/1511938\/11\/Balkenende_verliest_kort_geding_over_neptoespraak.html\" target=\"_blank\">3<\/a>). The pages that really give the spoof away are the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.paddobestrijding.nl\/?page=1&amp;s=2\" target=\"_blank\">methods<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.paddobestrijding.nl\/?page=1&amp;s=3\" target=\"_blank\">testimonials<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.paddobestrijding.nl\/?page=9&amp;s=4\" target=\"_blank\">shroom of the month<\/a>. Some translated quotes from the various pages:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">ShroomRemoval about methods:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;Depending on the scale of infection and the soil type, we choose for a surface-, or a depth treatment. With the latter a fungicide is sprayed into the soil under high pressure as deep as 70 cm. Thankfully this is not always necessary and most of the time a surface spray can be utilized, after which the fungi killing substances slowly seep into the soil. <strong>Modern fungicides are extremely poisonous, meaning that only a small amount has to be used; a comforting thought.<\/strong>&#8220;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">If that last sentence doesn&#8217;t give it away, maybe one of the silly testimonials might:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;When we could access our garden again, eight weeks after the mushroom removal, all mushrooms were gone. We were warned about dead animals, but luckily it wasn&#8217;t that bad. The plantgrowth has recovered a bit by now and every now and then we&#8217;re also seeing some birds in our garden again. In a few years we will once again be able to safely eat from our garden.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Hellooooo gullible journalists&#8230; you got it yet?! No? How about the mushroom of the month, where an opposition to the new mushroom ban is subcommunicated. Strange, for a company that can profit so much from this, no? Here it goes:<\/p>\n<blockquote style=\"text-align: justify;\"><p>&#8220;Even though the &#8216;orange funnel&#8217; (Rickenella fibula) <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bioimages.org.uk\/HTML\/B148676.HTM\" target=\"_blank\">doesn&#8217;t contain psylocibin<\/a> or other related tryptamines, it has still been put on the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.paddobestrijding.nl\/?page=8&amp;s=2\" target=\"_blank\">list of banned mushroom types<\/a> under the aged synonym <em>&#8216;gerronema fibula<\/em>&#8216;.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">All of this, combined with pictures of people in yellow suits and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.paddobestrijding.nl\/images\/beschermende_kleding.jpg\" target=\"_blank\">gas masks<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.paddobestrijding.nl\/images\/voorbehandeling.jpg\" target=\"_blank\">spraying<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.paddobestrijding.nl\/images\/preventive_measures.jpg\" target=\"_blank\">toxic chemicals<\/a> should raise some doubts in the mind of journalists, but nope, they fell for the hoax. An eleborate and modern version of the type of jokes Provo&#8217;s played on Dutch society, which I <a href=\"http:\/\/www.basbasbas.com\/blog\/2007\/11\/28\/dutch-government-to-ban-cultural-identity\/\" target=\"_blank\">blogged about before<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-958\" src=\"http:\/\/www.basbasbas.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/12\/bestrijding_hand.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"450\" height=\"296\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.basbasbas.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/12\/bestrijding_hand.jpg 450w, https:\/\/www.basbasbas.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/12\/bestrijding_hand-300x197.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I must admit that as I started writing this article I wasn&#8217;t <em>100% <\/em>sure about this being a joke. Since I don&#8217;t want to spread misinformation, I did some research, like any self-respecting journalist should. Through some very simple domain name <a href=\"http:\/\/whois.domaintools.com\/paddobestrijding.nl\" target=\"_blank\">research<\/a> I found out that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.basbasbas.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/12\/mushmushpaddobestrijding.jpg\" target=\"_blank\">MushMush.nl registered PaddoBestrijding.nl<\/a>. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mushmush.nl\/\" target=\"_blank\">MushMush<\/a> was selling magic mushroom growkits until the ban and talks about growing methods. So of course it is a hoax!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">So far ShroomRemoval has been <a href=\"http:\/\/www.paddobestrijding.nl\/?page=9&amp;s=5\" target=\"_blank\">featured<\/a> in the following media:<\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li>Spits (Rush Hour), one of the biggest (if not the biggest) free newspapers in Holland. [<a href=\"http:\/\/www.spitsnieuws.nl\/archives\/tech\/2008\/12\/paddobestrijders_klaar_voor_ac.html\" target=\"_blank\">web article<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.paddobestrijding.nl\/images\/spits_05_12_2008_pb_voorpagina.jpg\" target=\"_blank\">newspaper clipping<\/a> (from the frontpage apparently)]<\/li>\n<li>NOS Headlines on 3FM (Radio), one of Holland&#8217;s most popular radio stations. [<a href=\"http:\/\/headlines.nos.nl\/forum.php\/list_messages\/13207\" target=\"_blank\">online<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.paddobestrijding.nl\/images\/pb__3fm.mp3\" target=\"_blank\">direct download<\/a>]<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\">FunX (Radio), popular radio station for teenagers and other people with a poor taste in music. The two DJ&#8217;s spoke with a representative of PaddoBestrijding on the air and showed particularly gullible behaviour and nauseating stupidity. \ud83d\ude09 [<a href=\"http:\/\/www.paddobestrijding.nl\/images\/paddobestijding_funx.mp3\" target=\"_blank\">direct download<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Just shows how gullible the media is and makes one think twice about the trustworthiness of news. With one I mean me, and hopefully you too.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em>BasBasBas.com is about a Dutch student living in Istanbul. I regularly write about my adventures in Istanbul and travels in the region. If you\u2019d like to stay up to date, you can <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/basbasbas\" target=\"_blank\">subscribe to my RSS feed<\/a> or <a href=\"http:\/\/www.feedburner.com\/fb\/a\/emailverifySubmit?feedId=1139007\" target=\"_blank\">get email updates in your inbox<\/a>. You can also <a href=\"http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/spartz\" target=\"_blank\">follow me on Twitter<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You would think that journalists&#8217; intelligence and street smarts prevents them from falling for hoaxes, but recent attempts to show the insanity of the Dutch &#8216;magic&#8217; mushroom ban by opponents of the ban show otherwise. Ridiculing the mushroom ban, a website called PaddoBestrijding.nl (Shroom Removal) has been created promoting a service that supposedly helps keep [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,33,35,36,37,17],"tags":[824,697,702,821,105,818,111,650,404,822,820,827,140,159,1024,168,406,175,1026,826,707,819,214,825,701,1041,229,235,823],"class_list":["post-955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-politics","category-religion","category-society","category-spirituality","category-thoughts","tag-amanita-muscaria","tag-ban","tag-christian-democrat","tag-christian-democrats","tag-dutch","tag-dutch-government","tag-entheogens","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-fly-agaric","tag-fungicide","tag-hoax","tag-holland","tag-magic-mushrooms","tag-media","tag-mushroom","tag-nature","tag-netherlands","tag-news","tag-paddobestrijding","tag-provo","tag-sacrament","tag-satire","tag-shamanism","tag-smartshops","tag-society","tag-stupid","tag-the-netherlands","tag-witchhunt"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.basbasbas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.basbasbas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.basbasbas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.basbasbas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.basbasbas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=955"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.basbasbas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/955\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":961,"href":"https:\/\/www.basbasbas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/955\/revisions\/961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.basbasbas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.basbasbas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.basbasbas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}