I’m not fond of name calling so I had mixed feelings when this article floated through my Facebook feed. Be warned, the writer uses coarse language (lots of it) so this may be NSFW.
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. That’s a popular belief that pervades society these days and is born of a curious and unearned entitlement, sort of like the way we all think a bus shouldn’t have urine on it, but of course it does. It’s also terribly untrue due to its lack of completeness. Everyone can have an opinion, but you have to be ready to accept that it may be wrong and misguided and in need of correction. That’s not an opinion. That’s a stone cold sexy fact.
Unfortunately, too many people have beliefs that are rigid and not open to change. Like trying to pee with a boner, they are difficult to manage and can be disastrous when forced in another direction. No one likes to hear that the things they strongly believe are wrong, but it’s a disservice to all of us if we can’t be open to the idea that we are wrong, and open to learning something new. And while it’s true that no one is right all the time and no one knows everything, that’s natural. What’s unnatural are those people who have been elevated to a position of authority, rightly or wrongly, who use their power and influence to spread their wrongheaded beliefs, not just to the benefit of ignorance, but to the dangerous detriment of those who believe them. Basically I mean assholes who spread bullshit. Follow along!
Oh my. That’s quite a metaphor. However, as I kept reading, I could see his point. First up on his list? Sylvia Brown. That gravel voiced oracle has a fair amount of influence.
Sylvia Browne, world-renowned fake psychic and perennial runner-up in ogress beauty pageants, has had a long, lurid career of stringent bullshit, foul deception and money-grubbing assholery. Many people have tried to expose her fraudulent ways, but those who want to believe hold fast to their ignorance in a way that is both aggravating and sad. Like a dog that refuses to stop eating poop, they consume what she tosses out like it’s delicious, cruddy ambrosia.
While proponents can argue that it does no harm to believe Goblin Browne’s ranting if she gives comfort to people who have lost loved ones, you really must question all the times that she’s been caught in outright, terrible, despicable and stomach-turning lies.
Sylvia Browne predicted that MS would be cured in 2012. The common cold would be cured in 2010. Obama would not be re-elected. There would be a tsunami in Florida this fall. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie will break up. She has predicted that for four straight years. There are lots of lists of her failed predictions to peruse, but that’s harmless, right? She’s like your loopy aunt who drinks too much schnapps and tells you what a big boy you’ve become when her hand is on your inner thigh. It’s not right, but it’s technically not too bad.
Sadly, most of her followers fail to remember her failed predictions and instead focus on the nebulous language and squeeze other events into “successful” prognostications.
Next up? Jenny McCarthy.
Jenny McCarthy got famous for showing her tits and making farting sounds, which is how I wanted to get famous. But I failed miserably, so maybe this entry is tainted with jealousy. Once that shtick ran its course and she became a parent, McCarthy apparently got into the bottle of pills marked “bwaagah laahagah wha!” and downed every last one with a glass of Scotch to hop on a one-way train to Crazy Town, Vaccination Station.
McCarthy currently champions the anti-vaccine movement. After her son was diagnosed with autism, McCarthy went on a crusade to “educate” others about the link between vaccines and autism. To save you the time of reading into the subject, I will let you know that there is no real link between vaccines and autism. Look at this helpful and hilariously grim website for many, many details on why her beliefs are crazy like a fox hopped up on peyote if you’d like to know more.
While it’s awesome if McCarthy wants to ignore science and believe unhelpful things, when she starts going on talk shows and writing books to let other people know why they shouldn’t vaccinate their children against lethal diseases, that becomes an issue. The number of parents opting out of vaccines has steadily increased since McCarthy and those like her started making public appeals, while the total lack of any real autism cases linked to vaccines has remained the same.
The anti-vac crowd is truly scary. I’ve had a few unfortunate conversations with people who refuse to vaccinate their children, pets, themselves and wow… it’s like trying to converse with a brick wall. On one hand, I understand how they feel. My heart breaks when my puppies yip the day after their shots, but I’d rather endure one day of discomfort than watch them succumb to rabies. But I digress.
Next up: Tom Cruise.
My fellow Cracked columnist and the guy who I share a cot with at the Cracked offices, Adam Tod Brown, recently wrote a piece in favor of Tom Cruise and why he gets unfairly shit on. And while I agree with him, as a reader pointed out to him later on Facebook, there is one big issue with Cruise that is not so easily forgiven, and that’s his insane devotion to Scientology’s hatred of psychiatry.
Psychiatrists are not the devil. I looked into it, and very few are even partially demonic. Scientology believes that psychiatry is a Nazi science and that its history is rife with abuse and fraud. The history of abuse and fraud that Scientology also carries around is therefore ironic and thus hilarious as well.
Cruise has stated publicly that there are no such things as chemical imbalances in the human body and that psychiatry is a pseudoscience. There’s such an abundance of evidence that psychiatry and medications like antidepressants do work, however, that it’s borderline insane to even start a debate on the subject. Questioning their efficacy is kind of like questioning Lindsay Lohan’s acting skills. What do you gain by doing that anymore?
The writer has a point. However, I’m not sure how much influence Mr. Cruise has in swaying the general public’s view of psychiatry. He seems to be a kind enough gent, he’s a strong box office draw, but a “dimwit?” That could be debatable.
And the number one “dimwit?” Check it out after the jump. 🙂
