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this post was submitted on 29 May 2025
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How did this pseudoscientific alternative medicine bullshit get so mainstream?
The failures of capitalism not being recognized as the faults of capitalism so people try to rationalize the world around them without the help of material analysis and also Oprah.
Why is Oprah popular and why do so many dark things being popular start with her?
She is popular because she claims to have come from poverty so she is the bootstrap queen. Also she very publicly struggled and won against obesity, credit where credit is due.
The dark things on her show come from a woo mindset. Her audience wants easy answers like seeing Drs Phil and Oz talk complete shit easy solutions to complex problems. So she ends up with murderous cult leaders on sometimes when they're getting started, because they offer the same bullshit.
I feel like this isn't a total explanation. I know many people who are poor and have lost weight, but they don't have a giant audience for it.
She was the first black woman to host (and eventually produce) a nationally syndicated talkshow. Not only that, it was one of the first talkshows not focused on celebrity gossip and entertainment promotion. Oprah zeroed in on social issues and problems faced by everyday people, something no one else was doing outside of dedicated news programs. And it was being done on daytime TV when cable was still new.
Unfortunately, she lacks material analysis and her class interests became aligned with capital. Because of this, Oprah can't identify problems and solutions the way socialists can. This always leads to woo-woo shit, just like how liberalism always decays into fascism.
Are they incredibly charismatic? Do they make you feel like you've always been best friends when you met them? She's a talented entertainer, she's just unleashed a lot of dogshit into humanity. She probably means well. Eh.
I've never watched the show and such qualities were not included in the list of why she was popular. The clips I've seen make my skin crawl.
Medicine is privatized and thus too expensive for many people, so they cope with hokum.
I have no idea how this happens to rich people who can actually afford to go to the doctor.
Capitalism is also hyperindividualising, so they become convinced they don't need to rely on doctors or experts.
i think it's a chicken-egg thing. everyone is terrified of being bankrupted by going to the doctor, even if it's more subconscious, visceral thing.
"so it can't be the system because i am told through threat of death and imprisonment that the system is the only one that works
so it has to be the doctors and experts. who else could it be?" - normie thought process
plus since the entire process is designed to drain your wallet (required every 30 day visits for ADHD meds, layers of specialists, surprise bills) some people just self-medicate. Some of these people are even somewhat educated in doing so. doors are slammed shut and you seek alternatives (trans women getting hormones, myself).
Inevitably you end up submerged in the same hokum communities just to keep up with safe sources (kratom is a great example of this, full of anti-regulation hippie CHUDs and for good reason)
But what's weird and what I'm confused about is how rich people get like this.
RFK Jr has never even once in his entire life been worried about going bankrupt because he had to go to the doctor, so what the fuck is happening in his brain that's making him like this?
See also: Steve Jobs killing himself by drinking smoothies instead of getting treatment for his cancer.
What do you mean about kratom? I take it to decrease my cravings for alcohol, I used to be a severe alcoholic. But I don't have a clue what a hippie CHUD is.
kratom is fine but the community around it's discussion is swirling with the same right wing poisoned anti-medical science types. because of lack of access to pain medication and health care people get sucked into that world
I see what you mean, thanks.
The rich people find it attractive because it harmonizes with their eugenic and personal responsibility-focused understanding of society.
The OG Nazis also believed in all sorts of quackery.
Right wingers in general are susceptible to magical thinking and insane theories on things. The marriage between their religious/political dogma and it's susceptibility to stuff like numerology or finding symbolism/hidden meanings in things that aren't there (Qanon is the best example but they froth at the mouth at anything these days) is perfectly paired with woo alt medicine bullshit. It all perfectly lines up.
You see rightists believing in woo in countries where healthcare isn't overly expensive like AmeriKKKa too. The Americans have spread these ideas all over due to the internet.
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