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JMO
Joined: 18 Jul 2006
Location: Daegu
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 Posted: Fri Oct 31, 2008 9:21 pm Post subject: Ten Most Wanted: Stars Who Promote Harmful Pseudoscien |
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http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4125
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#10 - Montel Williams
#9 - Chuck Norris
#8 - Joe Rogan
#7 - Ben Stein
#6 - Pamela Anderson
#5 - Larry King
#4 - Bill Maher
#3 - Prince Charles
#2 - Jenny McCarthy
#1 - Oprah Winfrey
The only person who can sit at the top of this pyramid is the one widely considered the most influential woman in the world and who promotes every pseudoscience: Oprah Winfrey. To her estimated total audience of 100 million, many of whom uncritically accept every word the world's wealthiest woman says, she promotes the paranormal, psychic powers, new age spiritualism, conspiracy theories, quack celebrity diets, past life regression, angels, ghosts, alternative therapies like acupuncture and homeopathy, anti-vaccination, detoxification, vitamin megadosing, and virtually everything that will distract a human being from making useful progress and informed decisions in life. Although much of what she promotes is not directly harmful, she offers no distinction between the two, leaving the gullible public increasingly and incrementally injured with virtually every episode. |
There is a paragraph for each one, but I just included the Oprah one. |
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Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
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| Posted: Fri Oct 31, 2008 10:21 pm Post subject: |
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| Bill Maher? You and Mises are going to have a schism. |
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JMO
Joined: 18 Jul 2006
Location: Daegu
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| Posted: Sat Nov 01, 2008 1:17 am Post subject: |
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| Kuros wrote: |
| Bill Maher? You and Mises are going to have a schism. |
Well I didn't write it, but frankly I would have put Bill Maher higher. This is what it said about Bill Maher.
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| While we love Bill Maher's movie Religulous and appreciate that his is one of the very few public voices opposing the 9/11 conspiracy myths, we can't deny that he has a darker side. Bill Maher is a board member of PETA � one of the people actually approving their payments to people like convicted arsonist Rod Coronado � but his ongoing act that's most harmful to the world is his outspoken denial of evidence-based medicine. Yes, Bill is correct that a good diet and exercise are good for you, but he seems to think that doctors deny this. Not any doctor I've ever spoken to. Bill made it clear on a four-minute speech on his show that he believes government and Big Pharma conspire to keep everyone sick by prescribing drugs. If even a single person takes Bill's claims to heart and avoids needed medical treatment as a result, Bill Maher is guilty of a terrible moral crime. Considering the huge size of his audience, this seems all too likely |
Denial of modern medicine is dangerous. Much more dangerous in my opinion than 911 conspiracies. I do like his show though. |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Sat Nov 01, 2008 3:14 am Post subject: |
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| she offers no distinction between the two, leaving the gullible public increasingly and incrementally injured with virtually every episode. |
I think there is a vast conspiracy to dis poor Oprah. There is sort of an arrogance about how 'we' won't be taken in but the stupid masses are and aren't we all so much smarter than her and them. |
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JMO
Joined: 18 Jul 2006
Location: Daegu
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| Posted: Sat Nov 01, 2008 4:59 am Post subject: |
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| Ya-ta Boy wrote: |
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| she offers no distinction between the two, leaving the gullible public increasingly and incrementally injured with virtually every episode. |
I think there is a vast conspiracy to dis poor Oprah. There is sort of an arrogance about how 'we' won't be taken in but the stupid masses are and aren't we all so much smarter than her and them. |
I don't think it is arrogant to say that the public are largely believing of what we see on TV.
I think gullible is a bad choice of word. In the case of anti-vaccination propaganda, the public are ignorant on the real story. Oprah does not help that situation. She will devote the majority of her show to emotive accounts of autistic children and their mothers and then let people like Jenny McCarthy allege that this is because of vaccinations. At the end of the show, there will be a two minute piece from the other side.
Oprah has a wide enough audience so she can influence a substantial number of people not to get their kids vaccinated. That is unscrupulous and immoral to do so. If you have an audience of millions, influencing them in ways that will injure theirs, or their children's health is immoral.
Not all of Oprah's viewers need to be influenced. She has 100 million viewers(it says in this article). How many have to stop vaccinating their kids before the whole population is in peril? How many will eschew conventional medicine and shorten their life?
All in all, I would call that pretty irresponsible. |
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cangel
Joined: 19 Jun 2003
Location: Jeonju, S. Korea
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| Posted: Sun Nov 02, 2008 1:14 am Post subject: |
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| That's what you get from listening to ignorant tv personalities. A bunch of ditto heads. |
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jajdude
Joined: 18 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Sun Nov 02, 2008 4:54 am Post subject: |
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Expected to see Tom Cruise, though the crap he believes isn't even qualified to be 'pseudoscience.'
Edit: Ah, the link clears that up nicely. An interesting and well-written article. |
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RACETRAITOR
Joined: 24 Oct 2005
Location: Seoul, South Korea
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| Posted: Sun Nov 02, 2008 8:15 am Post subject: Re: Ten Most Wanted: Stars Who Promote Harmful Pseudoscien |
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Good list.
I would've liked to see Patricia Arquette and Kelsey Grammer on there for their work on Ghost n Crime. Why does it seem like all the US' most intelligent-seeming right-wing celebrities are peddling so much garbage? |
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Justin Hale
Joined: 24 Nov 2007
Location: the Straight Talk Express
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| Posted: Sun Nov 02, 2008 3:50 pm Post subject: |
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| JMO wrote: |
| Kuros wrote: |
| Bill Maher? You and Mises are going to have a schism. |
Well I didn't write it, but frankly I would have put Bill Maher higher. This is what it said about Bill Maher.
| Quote: |
| While we love Bill Maher's movie Religulous and appreciate that his is one of the very few public voices opposing the 9/11 conspiracy myths, we can't deny that he has a darker side. Bill Maher is a board member of PETA � one of the people actually approving their payments to people like convicted arsonist Rod Coronado � but his ongoing act that's most harmful to the world is his outspoken denial of evidence-based medicine. Yes, Bill is correct that a good diet and exercise are good for you, but he seems to think that doctors deny this. Not any doctor I've ever spoken to. Bill made it clear on a four-minute speech on his show that he believes government and Big Pharma conspire to keep everyone sick by prescribing drugs. If even a single person takes Bill's claims to heart and avoids needed medical treatment as a result, Bill Maher is guilty of a terrible moral crime. Considering the huge size of his audience, this seems all too likely |
Denial of modern medicine is dangerous. Much more dangerous in my opinion than 911 conspiracies. I do like his show though. |
Wow. That's fucked. |
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D.D.
Joined: 29 May 2008
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| Posted: Sun Nov 02, 2008 5:50 pm Post subject: |
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It's amazing how many idiots on this board believe in science. Science is so limited.
I guess if you stop your study at the university level and believe everything that you are told science would appear to be all knowing.
Good for Oprah if she told another side of the sory on vaccinations. If you want to know the truth you need to look at many sides not just the one that science gives us. |
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JMO
Joined: 18 Jul 2006
Location: Daegu
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| Posted: Sun Nov 02, 2008 6:10 pm Post subject: |
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| D.D. wrote: |
It's amazing how many idiots on this board believe in science. Science is so limited.
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It is limited. Not in the area of vaccinations. Everything we know about vaccinations is through science.
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I guess if you stop your study at the university level and believe everything that you are told science would appear to be all knowing.
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strawman. Science is not all knowing.
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| Good for Oprah if she told another side of the sory on vaccinations. If you want to know the truth you need to look at many sides not just the one that science gives us. |
She told a side that is patently false and could lead to the people's death. So no, not good for her.
If you ever get a serious illness(god forbid) please go to a real doctor(science) and don't listen to people like Oprah. |
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RACETRAITOR
Joined: 24 Oct 2005
Location: Seoul, South Korea
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| Posted: Sun Nov 02, 2008 6:17 pm Post subject: |
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| D.D. wrote: |
It's amazing how many idiots on this board believe in science. Science is so limited.
I guess if you stop your study at the university level and believe everything that you are told science would appear to be all knowing.
Good for Oprah if she told another side of the sory on vaccinations. If you want to know the truth you need to look at many sides not just the one that science gives us. |
So instead of being careful what we believe, it's better to jump in and believe a bunch of garbage that has no reality to it? |
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supernaut
Joined: 04 Jan 2007
Location: Nova Scotia
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| Posted: Sun Nov 02, 2008 11:00 pm Post subject: |
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I kind of agree with Bill Maher's views although I've never really listened to his works. I think he used to have a late night show???
But I do believe that Big Pharma is pretty evil and their more interested in making money then actually healing us.
There are many reports on alternative medicine (i.E. eating natural foods, not taking medicine, acupuncture).
I firmly most of the crap Big Pharma produces is bad for us and actually makes us sick. There are many good books about this. It kind of explains why cancer keeps on getting worse andd new disease keep on being invented. So Big Phama can keep on peddling pills.
Big Pharma and the Food Industry are the 2 main reasons why people are so unhealthy this day in age. |
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RACETRAITOR
Joined: 24 Oct 2005
Location: Seoul, South Korea
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| Posted: Sun Nov 02, 2008 11:06 pm Post subject: |
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| supernaut wrote: |
I kind of agree with Bill Maher's views although I've never really listened to his works. I think he used to have a late night show???
But I do believe that Big Pharma is pretty evil and their more interested in making money then actually healing us.
There are many reports on alternative medicine (i.E. eating natural foods, not taking medicine, acupuncture).
I firmly most of the crap Big Pharma produces is bad for us and actually makes us sick. There are many good books about this. It kind of explains why cancer keeps on getting worse andd new disease keep on being invented. So Big Phama can keep on peddling pills.
Big Pharma and the Food Industry are the 2 main reasons why people are so unhealthy this day in age. |
Imagine how much more unhealthy we'd be if there was no food and no medicine. |
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ED209
Joined: 17 Oct 2006
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| Posted: Sun Nov 02, 2008 11:43 pm Post subject: |
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Here's an interesting link on celebrities and science from the UK.
PDF file
http://www.senseaboutscience.org.uk/pdf/ScienceForCelebrities.pdf
Supernaut, which illnesses or cancers have been linked to big pharma?
How long does big pharma wait between discovering an illness and delivering the cure?
Why hasn't any scientist spilt the beans?
Which reports on alternative medicine have you seen? And what did they say? |
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