Monday, February 19, 2007

An open letter to Oprah Winfrey

 
Rebecca Watson of Skepchick publishes An open letter to Oprah Winfrey. Here's part of it ....
And then there’s Dean Radin and The Secret. Oprah, you promoted a “documentary” that claims to show proof that you can literally alter reality by wishing. We’re not talking about the power of positive thinking; we’re talking about the ability to create a pony that farts rainbows by merely thinking about it. Anything is possible, they say. They use a poor muddling of quantum physics to try to confuse people into believing their nonsense. That’s like me claiming that I have a scientific theory to back up my ability to read the future in caramel fudge sundaes: it’s called stratigraphic succession. This proven scientific theory, first developed in the early 19th century, deals with the careful study of layers, and how we can use layers to obtain a deeper understanding of time. Following in the footsteps of the revolutionary researchers who discovered this amazing theory, I simply take it to the next logical level and apply stratigraphic succession principles to the world around me, allowing me to “see” ahead into time.

Did you understand any of that? No? That’s okay, I’ll publish a whole book of that complete and utter nonsense and then come on your show and explain it to you and your audience of millions, going very slowly using the exact same words. Then you can cut me a big check and I’ll buy myself a god damned swimming pool full of caramel fudge sundae. Every year or so I’ll put out another book with the same words rearranged in a different order, and as the money rolls in I’ll laugh at all the suckers who keep me swimming in ice cream for the rest of my diabetes-ridden days.

3 comments:

  1. we’re talking about the ability to create a pony that farts rainbows by merely thinking about it.

    I'd pay to see that.

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  2. LOL I actually saw some of the episode where the secret was featured. I never saw such egregious charlatanism. It was so funny. And Oprah and her audience reacted to the gibberish as if it were the most profound thing they heard.

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  3. I also like how they appeal to ancient famous people and how they used the secret(tm) to gain power and wealth. People like Mark Antony and Cleopatra. And here I was thinking people who were born in wealth and raised to be a replacement had a sense of entitlement.

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