Oprah Appreciation Thread (or "Hiii Oprah Haters")

Cafe Society
1

I love Oprah. So freakin’ much, you have no idea.

I dig her style. Just her overall ‘steeze’ of being a powerful energy in the damn room! Love that.

I like her gutsy climb to the top, and I love her work in South Africa. The way she is going about it…erecting that school to shape leaders for the future of their nation…that is so much hotter than just throwing money at the problem, which she also does, just to cover all bases.

But, I’m really feeling her because she has so many haters. This one really is the thing that pulls my love most deeply for her.

I don’t mean people that just hate her, like I hate Lil’ Wayne or Will Smith. No, I mean haters ™ in the sense of people that hate for silly reasons like wanting to appear intellectual or cool. I mean, really…not choosing a product or book because it is on Oprah’s fave things list or something? That’s silly. I also happen to believe that Oprah’s haters are hypocritical.

They will say, "I hate her for that book ‘the secret’, but then they will believe in the ‘power of prayer’. Or they have a problem with her pushing that dreck, but no problem with pastors and preachers and such that teach sky magic. Let’s take MLK Jr., and no I am not comparing Oprah to him, but he basically taught faith and sky magic, and somehow, he has sidestepped the hate. Well,…usually.

Then, they say, “Well she is always pushing the next ‘it’ thing that is supposed to change lives! It’s horrible”. Well, yeah, but everyone is always pushing the next thing. Constantly, we are being advertised to. All the time. We are always being told that someone has the next thing to make us thin, young, spry, rich, happy, relaxed, etc. The difference is, Oprah has mastered it. So we can’t get mad at her for mastering a game that we all play. I, myself, have teeth whitening goop in my cabinet. I mean, really. Someone convinced me I needed that mess, and it wasn’t Oprah.

So, I love Oprah, and I am proud. Who else loves her? Come on. I’m not the only one.

By the way, I readily admit I don’t really watch her show much, and never really did all that much. But I catch it once in a while and enjoyed her. Also, I don’t think she is perfect. I know she panders to a certain kind of audience. I have caught her ass in the act with that. But it couldn’t make me dislike her.

Also, it’s true this is a call out to Oprah Haters, and I nearly put it in the pit, but I really wanted this to be more of a light hearted thread. Hope it doesn’t get too heavy, but I figure this is a good forum to start it in.

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First off, I just want to point out that I don’t believe an any power of prayer, “sky magic,” or even God, for that matter, so I can hardly be lumped into that group of people you seem to be referring to. I believe in science, logic, and facts.

That being said, how do you feel about her peddling and promoting people and ideas that are outright lies? The biggest one I can think of is Jenny McCarthy and the anti-vaccination autism brigade that has chosen her as their general. (cause clearly a woman famous for showing off her fake tits and hoo-ha is the best authority on medical issues.)

Study after study has proven all of the anti-vaxers claims wrong, and the original author of the first study to find a link admitted he fabricated data. Yet people like Oprah will continue to allow them to spout their nonsense, because according to them and her, feelings and emotion are far more important than facts and reason. The more people hear about this ridiculous movement, the more a few of them will “sign on” and endanger the lives of their, and other peoples’, kids.

3

I have to say that my main emotion about Oprah is indifference–I’ve never really watched her show or anything. It’s nice that she’s so successful and has overcome difficulties, etc. It’s great that she wants to help girls in South Africa. But I do have a huge problem with the woo she promotes so uncritically. She’s a very powerful person, and I wish she would use those powers for good. Too often she uses them to endorse dangerous nonsense.

You say that everyone plays the advertising game. Well, she doesn’t have to play it for so much nonsense, and I don’t have to help her do it.

That’s pretty much the sum total of my feelings on Oprah–since I don’t watch daytime TV, I don’t have much more.:stuck_out_tongue:

4

I just feel like, so what? I mean so what if she promotes people that have ideas that are outright lies. Big deal. Why do people have so much hate for her, but not a ton of hate for others that push outright lies? The fact, bouv, that you don’t believe in God, but you don’t have this level of hate for people that ‘peddle’ the idea of god seems hypocritical to me. Why hate her for promoting ‘secrets’ but not hate others that promote ‘secrets’ in the form of faith or whatever?

As far as her allowing people to spout their nonsense, why not? Give the woman a platform, and if she is truly nothing more than fake tits and hoo-has, then that will come to the light.

And, of course, I don’t know if you actually take others to task for ‘peddling outright lies’, maybe you do. Maybe you hate every preacher and pastor with the same fire that you hate Oprah.

ETA: My post is in response to bouv. I didn’t quote him, but I meant to.

5

I don’t really have a dog in this fight - I can’t say I care about her much one way or another - but I don’t think this is a valid argument. Some people do hate religions and rail at them. Some hate Kevin Trudeau or Jenny McCarthy’s “I cured my baby of (undiagnosed) “autism” via diet” blatherings. Some hate Scientology. I suspect many of these have the same roots, but eventually people have to pick their battles - there’s way too much ignorance-peddling out there to try to root all of it out yourself.

It’s like asking someone who contributes to the Humane Society why they care so much about that organization and not others that have lots more suffering animals under their auspices. People have limited resources at their disposal.

One could make an argument that Oprah has such a wide audience and makes a show of scientific support (the doctors on her show, etc.) that perhaps her appeal is especially insidious.

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I like her, god help me. I think she’s a kick ass business and living the American Dream like nobody else (sorry Obama). I actually watch Dr. Phil more because most of her shows seem to be celebrity showcases these days (yawn), but occasionally I’ll tune in and be surprised by who or what’s she’s got on. For example, the other day there was a rerun of a show she did on women who come out as lesbians after getting married to men and having children. It was sad and enlightening and may have made a few million people reconsider their views on homosexuality.

But seriously, I hate that Secret shit. And the angels can go, too.

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Right. Those people that do rail against religions in general, and also hate Oprah, I don’t consider them ‘haters’. It is just that I have a sneaking suspicion that many of her haters are not known for ‘railing’ against religion in general. But, again, in those cases, I completely understand the hate. Because it is my understanding that she does push some mystical shit. (I actually have to take other’s word for that; I have not watched her eps on “The Secret” and have no idea if it is anything more than some pantheistic leaning / positive thinking type deal that I may largely buy into myself.)

The fact that she has doctors on her show can’t really count against her, I don’t think. I don’t know what that has to do with the price of tea.

ETA: Whoa, whoa, whoa…Cat Fight. What’s up with the Angels? What angels?

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If only.

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Has anybody demonstrated that anybody takes the supposed scientific claims or The Secret exhortations seriously? I get the sense that there are a lot of preconceptions about Oprah’s audience (mostly women, and therefore suggestible) informing this criticism. Yet all the allegedly science-minded types here haven’t shown the essential linchpin: Oprah’s audience doesn’t know how to discount the veracity of the claims that they hear on the show.

Has there been an uptick in vaccine-avoidance by watcher of the program? Or any other evidence that the dubious claims have been put into practice?

What I see is posters on this board who otherwise thrill to such bullshit like the “Ladders” theory engaging in what Freud would call the narcissism of small differences. Stay-at-home moms have their chewing gum for the mind just as you do. It is not any more disreputable that it is The Oprah Show rather than that stupid xkcd.com webcomic or Mythbusters.

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I’m not sure if she’s still into them, but she used to go on a lot about ‘guardian angels’ and ‘angels of light.’ Fit right in with vague, viewer-friendly spirituality.

Haven’t checked out the other thread, but something about certain Oprah haters leaves a bad taste in my mouth – the ones who hate that their wives watch the show faithfully and ‘swallow that stuff,’ as if women are incapable of critical thinking and being led astray by a (black, female) cult leader right under their husbands’ very noses!

But again, she’s incredibly successful and going to be a target. I think there was a thread quite a while back about the school she built in South Africa and the SDMB consensus was that she’s doing way more good than harm with her wealth and power.

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Given the core mission of The Dope, this statement should result in the immediate banning of the individual who wrote it.

Thing is, The Secret? The ideas are dangerous because people who might otherwise succeed by, Og Forbid, preparing for something may well go empty by following nonsense.

As for O backing Jenny McCarthy - harmful. JM is a bloviating singularity of volitional, prideful, ignorance. Her anti-vax stand is ignorant and willfully stupid. Her nattering on about quackery on ASD therapeutics and “indigo children” is consumed by desperate parents and multiplies the harm.

See, Stupid Hurts Sometimes. Rationality is a key virtue in removing stupid, harmful and damaging ideas from the market. Oprah is a force for Stupid - volitional, feel-good, damn the evidence stupid.

MLK did not preach “sky magic”, you cretin, he preached, as did Gandhi, non-violent social change. He preached pacificism. He didn’t yammer on about faith as a flight from reason, he reasoned with his critics.

It’s bad enough that Volitional Stupidity reigns elsewhere, but around here it simply should be beaten with sundry and sharp objects about the head and genitals until it either dies, flees or otherwise gets the fucking fuckity fuck out of the way of reason.

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Oprah plays to her audience, that’s for damned sure. I’m no fan of hers, though.

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You’ll understand if I go ahead and at least playout the remaining of my paid membership, right? Then we’ll see if I go ahead and accept a banning? Goody.

MLK, in my opinion, most definitely did preach sky magic. He was actually quite clear about the need for faith, which actually is indeed a flight from reason. Hey, I did a paper on him so emotionally charged that all the good Christians in my school gave me an award. I like the guy. I don’t feel the need to pretend he is anything other than what he was. As a matter of fact, I don’t even want to deflect from the meat of my argument by getting all anti religious up in here. I apologize for the use of the inflammatory phrase ‘sky magic’. The rest of my post, I stand by.

Now, with MLK neatly out of the way, anyone that has a beef with JM should take issue with JM. What kind of sillyness is hating O for being powerful enough to provide an audience for nutjobs? I got an idea. Maybe we should save our contempt for grown ass women that would swallow everything the likes of JM says, hook line and sinker.

The core mission of the dope is preventing people from promoting whatever they damn well like, whether it be true or false? Oh, I didn’t know that. Fascinating.

14

While I do not consider myself an Oprah hater (I have never payed much attention to her) I do have a question I have been meaning to ask the Dope for a long time specifically about Oprah—I really hope I am not hi-jacking this thread—but what I have wondered for years is how she was able to reveal some very serious lapses of character in her 20’s and 30’s and never took any heat for it, from the press or her devoted legions…

I remember that she admitted to smoking crack cocaine, and also to having an affair with a married man,(I am not sure how old she was when these events happened, but this was long after she was a teen) and seemingly her audience never wavered in supporting her, many even lauding her courage for coming clean.

This is the same audience that is usually shocked and horrified when one of her guests admits adultery or drug use, but she seemingly got a free pass.

Bill O’Rilley also was able to duck his sex scandal with not much damage to his image or career, even though he is always happy to point out others moral failings.

Why do some have thier lives and careers ruined by scandal, (I could give many examples) when others seem bulletproof to negative press, even if thier actions show them to be extremely hypocritical?

Any ideas?

I wonder if there is a common denominator in how some are able to successfully weather scandal, or if it’s all case by case?

15

Double postiing, whee!

16

Thank you for your permission to hold Oprah in contempt.

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[quote=“Gleena, post:15, topic:498433”]

[quote=“Nzinga_Seated, post:13, topic:498433”]

Maybe we should save our contempt for grown ass women that would swallow everything the likes of JM says, hook line and sinker.

If you think Oprah buys her crap, I got a bridge with real shiney rails I want you to see. Just 19.99 with shipping and handling.

18

I used to like Oprah until she got really popular and successful and started thinking everything was about her and we all wanted to hear how everything related to her and what she thought of everything. The guests on her show can hardly get a whole sentence out without her interrupting them to make everything, again,all about her. It’s rude and annoying.

Shut the hell up Oprah, your guest is more interesting than you.

I don’t hate her though. I am indifferent to her, I just don’t pay any attention to anything Oprah.

19

Shit, it’s getting harder, though, aint it? Long after I stopped watching the show, I have been noticing her on magazine covers, in the news, on message boards, on other tv shows, movies, books, plays on Broadway. It’s crazy.

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Why wouldn’t she buy the anti-vax crap? She’s bought a hell of a lot more ridiculous things than that.