Thanks for the taking one for the team. That was an epic response!
It really comes down to this. These are ‘true believers’, which is not to say it means everything they say must be false – that would also be a logical fallacy – but that you have to be doubly careful to verify their statements. However, their presentations are exclusively as Richard described them: big assumptions based on confounded associational data, a big helping of moralizing, and they declare the science unquestionable. For anyone with some critical thinking skills, it’s as transparent as anything.