I'm sure I'm going to get a lot of flack for making this post, especially since I'm pretty new here, but hell, I'm going to speak my mind: I don't think we raw meat eaters market ourselves well.  While I appreciate the open mindedness on this forum, and certainly don't want to slam anyone's views, I can't help but recoil at the apparent zealotry I frequently witness on these forums.  I understand everyone's enthusiasm with finally having found a diet that works so well and that seems so common sense in retrospect, but as someone (relatively) new to these ideas, I can attest that when people start peddling the views of gurus like Aajonus as if they are indisputable facts, I start getting a seriously cultish vibe.  This is not to say that those ideas are not worth serious consideration and thought, I just don't think that anyone can legitimately pretend, for example, that the whole raw detox is theory is true beyond a shadow of a doubt and that food poisoning is total BS.  Last I checked, Aajonus hasn't any specialized knowledge about the human body than the rest of us do not. 

My feeling is that there is enough to recommend this diet without reverting to the unsubstantiated theories of celebrity seeking gurus.  I know that its a natural inclination for movements to find leaders to attach themselves to, but honestly, as charismatic as figures like aajonus may be, they can also be pretty damn intimidating and generate a pretty strong nutcase response from people new to his ideas.  I mean seriously, this guy claims that he discovered his diet after being led to a dead carcass by a tribe of foxes (or something like that).  I can't help but worry that the odd mix of pseudoscience, cultism, and spiritualism that Aajonus has managed to market so successfully to his niche community of followers has been more of a liability than an asset to the public image of RAF.   My feeling is that if we want to attract attention to and build credibility for our views on nutrition, we would be better off sticking to the more substantiated, scientific side of the RAF debate, at least publicly.

I realize that this forum is basically a private group of like minded individuals, and I don't mean to suggest that we ought to completely mute our discussion of these sorts of ideas. I just think that its worth keeping in mind that at this point in time, information supporting the dietary views that we support are pretty scarce.  In most parts of the developed world, the sight of a person eating raw meat is more likely to give the impression of psychopathy than superior health.  Being one of the few public communities on the net, I think we would be wise to keep in mind the impression we inevitably have on the outside world, especially open minded individuals who are considering a RAF diet.

I hope I did not offend anybody.  I am indebted to this community for expanding my horizons nutritionally speaking, and the last thing I want to do is to step on the feet of those who have been so helpful me.  I just want to shed some light on the sorts of things that a newcomer to the idea of RAF finds potentially outputting (speaking from experience) so that others like me are not turned away from the great health advantages eating this way confers.