From Steve D.: Your use of the current state of affairs in the world to hawk a book by Mark is distasteful, at best.

You’d do good to spend some of your time looking at the realities of actions in the Middle East and how they’re fulfilling biblical prophecies.

We are on the brink of a world war… beyond anything that’s ever happened before. All the moneymaking tactics you present will be useless when this happens—and that time may be sooner than you think.

From Len J.: Nice hit piece on Natural News. You pretend ballistic missiles flying over major cities are somehow normal and safe, with no possible explanation of your own. At least Natural News offers a theory that—while it may or may not be true—makes sense and gets people to question things.

As you say, your own promotional copy is often less believable and more bombastic. If I were to judge your entire product line on one of your failed recommendations, you’d look more foolish than you assume Natural News to be.

Have some class, and open your mind to “outside-the-box” possibilities.

Reeves’ Comment: Steve and Len, I’m sorry you found my treatment of Natural News’ World War III “on the precipice” article distasteful and closed-minded.

My intent, as always, was to serve our subscribers’ best interests. Let’s see if I can do a better job of that here…

It appears there are two main points where I let you down:

  1. Dismissing Natural News’ account of the missile launch events without offering my own theory.
  2. Offering one of Mark’s books as part of a solution against falling for hype and hysteria in the media.

Here’s my take on the November 8 missile launch. It comes from someone who’s spent over a decade in active and reserve naval intelligence:

The ballistic missile submarine, USS Kentucky, operated in the 36,000-square-nautical-mile Point Mugu Sea Range (60 miles northwest of Los Angeles). She launched an unarmed Trident missile as part of a routine readiness test launch.

The Navy may or may not have also used the launch to test its Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System. It would’ve fired an intercept missile from a guided missile cruiser or destroyer thousands of miles further out in the Pacific.

The takeaway: Nothing was out of the ordinary here.

The Navy may have chosen a nighttime launch because a similar daytime launch in the area in 2010 caused its own stir in the news media. I don’t put it past the Navy brass to misjudge just how noticeable a nighttime missile launch would appear.

But here’s what’s not “ordinary” in Natural News’ coverage of the events…

Apparently the media thinks the public is so incredibly stupid that they’ll believe the U.S. Navy has nowhere else to launch a test missile other than right next to Los Angeles. Somehow we’re supposed to believe the entire Pacific Ocean won’t work for such a test launch, so they have to launch it adjacent to the airport and thereby inconvenience commercial aviation traffic for an entire week.

Wrong. The entire Pacific Ocean will not work for a launch. Thousands of ships crisscross the ocean at all times in every direction. That’s why there are set exclusion zones (and times) for launches and splashdowns.

China’s war of aggression is also in high gear on the geopolitical side, with China pressuring Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou to publicly state yesterday that Taiwan is now part of China!

This is either pandering or a gross misunderstanding of history. The Chinese civil war ended in 1950. The Chinese nationalists fled to Taiwan. Since then, both the Mainland communists and the Chinese nationalists have always agreed there’s only “one China”… they’ve just disagreed over who its legitimate government is. Nationalist President Ma Ying-jeou is stating nothing new by saying Taiwan is a part of China.

Many people believe China and Russia are working together to prepare for a massive first strike against the United States that would cripple its defenses and economy. Following that first strike, a land invasion would commence using Russian troops.

There’s no conceivable way for the Russians to mount and sustain a full invasion and occupation of the United States. They don’t have the equipment, personnel, supply lines, or money to sustain such a massive operation. The plot of Red Dawn is not a viable, real-world scenario…

Still, the fantastic distortions in Natural News’ editorial managed to garner over 54,000 social shares. That’s a lot of people duped into thinking a routine event was the first shot of an “imminent” World War III…

It’s why I ended the critique with a link to Mark’s book, Persuasion: The Subtle Art of Getting What You Want. In it, Mark shares the tactics persuasive writers use to get you to take a desired action.

We use persuasive tactics in our own writing. We do so whether or not we make a case for investing in a particular stock or purchasing a particular subscription.

Without persuasion, you wouldn’t follow our recommendations… and our business would collapse.

But we keep our persuasion in line with your interests by offering the most liberal refund policies in our entire industry—in most cases, a 100% money-back guarantee (time frame of guarantee varies by publication). If we ever fail you, your money comes back, no questions asked. Operating “without a net” keeps us laser-focused on your best interests… since they’re also our own.

Steve and Len, I hope I’ve proven the validity of my criticism. It sprang out of a genuine concern for our readers—how to recognize a “bill of goods”… and how to avoid being sold it.

We know the world is a dangerous place. We’ve pointed to several legitimate threats to global stability in these pages (like here, here, and here).

The tragic attacks in Paris were a foreseeable escalation in the real march toward more wars we’ve warned about.

But irresponsible fearmongering serves no good end… and we’ll continue to alert you when we see it. Thanks for your letters.