I don’t divide people into 2 groups. I believe there are an almost endless variety of fucking idiots. Sylvia Brown and those who are entertained by her are merely two of them.
If she actually does believe she has these “gifts”, despite the almost comically large number of times her predictions have been proven dead wrong, then she’s insane. Either way, she shouldn’t be practicing.
If she actually believes in what she does (which I can’t even possibly buy and Og knows I’m the most give-the-benefit-of-the-doubt rose colored glasses wearer there probably is), then hows about she does it, even just a little bit, for free?
I was refering more to Ensign You’re Either With Us or Against Us.
faithfool: Priest, ministers, and the like get paid for their services. You have to pay the bills somehow.
Not all denominations have paid clergy. Also, for those denominations with paid clergy, not all of the members of their clergy take pay for their services.
Good point Wolfian. However, and I must admit I don’t know too much about her and her ilk, but just from the clip(s) I watched, she certainly didn’t perpetuate that whole ‘true believer’ vibe. More like she was an adherent to the Paris Hilton Academy of Bitch. Just in my opinion, o’ course, and the fact that I’d like to twist those types’ insides into pretzels when you see the look of sheer pain on the faces of those who bring questions to them. Like that poor woman who lost her SO in 9/11. I’m afraid I might’ve rushed the stage if I’d been her. And the parents would be within their rights if drawing and quartering had taken place.
Argh. :mad:
I say we fight ignorance with ignorance.
Let’s burn her as a witch.
You masturbate when she fucks up but you realize you are impotent. Is there some odd slang I am not getting here?
Why would you wank when she fucks up ?
Stop reading my mind, you phychic, you!
Hmmm… I just made up a new word.
I don’t like you. When I respond to you in the Pit, I feel free to let that show.
I apologize; I responded to the wrong post of yours. The opinion I was referring to was “So what if she’s a fraud”. And the reason it twigged my itchy flame finger is the same basic reason I don’t like you: I think you could be smarter than that. You should be above it. You should and could know better, but you wouldn’t want to be so totally uncool as to use your fucking brain for once.
Well, like I said, honey tits, it’s not that I think you hate science, it’s that I think you consider what other people will think of your opinion more than you should. I could be wrong about all of this, of course. I’m just some weird jackass on the internet. But in the small context of what I’ve seen here, my very strong suspicion is that your general insecurity and need for approval leads you to think less clearly than you could.
Of course it matters that she’s a fraud. Just because something makes people feel better doesn’t mean it’s good for them, or for humanity in general. And she definitely know she’s a fraud, to whoever was on about that – she cheats a LOT, like all the pros, because they have to. But if she didn’t, that would just make it all a little bit more tragic.
A tremendous amount of time, money, energy, and emotions goes into these fucking scams. All of that would be better spent on almost anything else – science, art, families, sitting around the fucking woods looking at trees and thinking about shit – anything would be better than this greedy black hole that sucks the reason and sense right out of people’s heads.
And another thing, Diosa. Maybe the fucking people being defrauded care if she’s a fraud, because maybe they would be horrified to think their money and emotions had been exploited for a lie. Maybe you don’t care about those people because you think they’re stupider than you, so you can be entertained at their expense. But the joke is on you, snoogums. It’s not harmless, it’s not trivial; the ends do not justify the means.
This odious bit of skewed reasoning, frequently offered up as justification for charlatans like Sylvia Browne and John Edward, really sets my teeth on edge. If “giving grieving people some solace” is the ultimate criterion for determining what is ethical, why not craft an even more egregious and reassuring fiction? That their loved ones aren’t really dead— they’re simply vacationing in Hawaii, and will soon return home suntanned and content?
Sure it’s a lie, but think how much relief it will bring to their family and friends in the meantime!
Damn, Ensign. I haven’t agree with everything DiosaBellissima posts, but is she that bad?
Are you, Diosa, entertained by this? The mother in that video is waxing desperation and allowing hope to prevail over common sense long enough to find herself seeking answers inside the whirring center of a crooked mind, whose sanctimonious, smug assertion that she is somehow touched with a gift from heaven results in nothing more than the killing of this poor woman’s son all over again. How tragic that the worst possible pain, the heartbreaking hole that is the loss of a loved one with no understanding of how or why, creates a breeding ground for the worst representation of humanity!
Oh, but that is high entertainment to you, right?
It’s appropriate to me, totally appropriate, that Sylvia Browne has her nails manicured to lengths of a shot glass, as it provides us a small clue as to what kind of fucking animal we are dealing with. Does laying down on a mountain of cash clawed from the pockets of her agonized victims help assuage the guilt of what’s left of the human side of her long enough to get a good night’s sleep? I suppose I’ll never know, but as long as you are thoroughly entertained, I guess that’s all that really matters.
Incidentally, for anyone who watched the video I linked to in the above post, the boy was found in his truck, in a lake six miles from his home. There was no foul play. There was no breaking down of the truck for parts. There was no metal shaft. He was not across the state line. The grieving mother is very outspoken about how Sylvia Browne’s statements added to her torment.
I can’t stand Sylvia Brown, but I watched the video anyway.
Looks like her typical crap. I only wish she had said ‘ortopsy’ instead of the grieving mother. More to mock that way.
Calling her a fucking twit was okay, but saying ‘I don’t like you’ is beyond the pale?
But to answer anyway: No. I’m not quite self-absorbed enough to think that everybody who rubs me the wrong way is a bad person. But there are plenty of decent people I don’t like. Celine Dion comes to mind. Regardless, in this thread the stand she’s taken is reprehensible to me, whereas she herself I find merely irritating. If I thought she was truly that stupid or awful, I wouldn’t care. So…no, she’s not that bad.
Works for me!
Now, normally, I am of the opinion that, if you’re dumb enough to give any money or resources to such an obvious charlatan, you deserve everything you get. However, making a not inconsiderable fortune off people so desperate for some sort of closure that they are willing to grasp at any available straws to achieve that closure is just plain fucking evil ! We’re not talking about some dweeb giving 20 dollars to a storefront psychic to have their tarot cast; this is out-and-out fraud ! Period!
And shame on you , Montel Williams, for even giving this harpie a forum to spew her gospel of false hope in the hope of attracting more desperate people (and their money)!
Just once, I would like to see some talk-show host somewhere have one of these snake-oil salesmen on, let them do their little circus act for a bit, then totally blindside them and call them out for the complete fraud that they are! Of course, it would be just once, since after that, none of the other fakes would dare appear on that show, but wouldn’t it be sweet?
I remember feeling the same way about John Edward when his show was on the air. I don’t really believe in an afterlife, but if there is one, people like this should spend eternity undergoing the worst kind of torture at the hands of the very same people they claim to have had contact with (or have knowledge of) at the expense of grieving, desperate loved ones.
Now that would be closure!
Didn’t she at one point tell a grieving parent that her daughter was still alive…and it turned out the girl was dead all along?
Um, no.
I’ve never disagreed with you in the past, but listen here: Don’t ever twist my words like this again. My post was very simple and concise. All you had to do was either answer it or ignore it.
If you only find her merely irritating, then your response to her was over-the-top. Yes, we’re in the Pit, and yes, it’s your right to vehemently disagree with someone’s comments, but your posts just seem so unnecessarily mean and hostile. Saying “I don’t like you” made it personal when it didn’t have to be.
There are a handful of posters who I have an active disliking towards, but I don’t go responding to them with “I don’t like you”…unless they hurl a personal attack at me first. That just seems like the more reasonable, non-bully approach.
But of course, YMMV.
So what if dealers sell heroin? People choose to take it and that is certainly entirely their choice.