Democratic Primaries
Related: About this forumMarianne Williamson isn't funny. She's scary.
Williamsons views on depression and illness are dangerous. The media is complicit in spreading them.
Marianne Williamson is not a serious candidate for the presidency: Shes a self-help celebrity who openly disdained policy debate onstage Tuesday night. Worse than that, she looms as a menace to public health someone who has attacked antidepressants and vaccination in a manner that can literally kill people, as my colleague German Lopez (who covers public health) put it. She has no business being on the debate stage; the more famous she gets, the more harm she can do.
The fact that a lot of media figures arent recognizing this that theyre either celebrating her flashes of insight on issues like reparations for slavery or enjoying her kookiness shows that they havent fully internalized the lessons of Donald Trumps rise to power. Williamson is vanishingly unlikely to win, or even come close, but the amount of press attention shes getting is troubling. Even if public interest in her mandates some level of coverage, at least it could be more muted and skeptical than what were seeing.
...snip...
At a June campaign stop in New Hampshire, Williamson argued against mandatory vaccination, calling it Orwellian and draconian. To me, its no different than the abortion debate, she said. The US government doesnt tell any citizen, in my book, what they have to do with their body or their child. She apologized for these comments in a subsequent statement, claiming she personally supports vaccination, but she has a long history of promoting skepticism on the subject (something Trump has done as well).
Anti-vaccine sentiment is easy to spread through social media and difficult to rebut once it takes hold. The more Williamsons views get attention, the more validation she gets, and the more likely it is that shell contribute to the problem convincing individual parents that its okay not to vaccinate their children, which weakens herd immunity and makes outbreaks like the recent measles emergence in New York more likely.
Moreover, as the Washington Posts Gillian Brockell notes, Williamson has spread misinformation about illness more broadly. In her book A Return to Love, Williamson wrote that sickness is an illusion and does not exist, and that cancer and AIDS and other physical illnesses are physical manifestations of a psychic scream. She advised her followers that seeing sickness as our own love that needs to be reclaimed is a more positive approach to healing than is seeing the sickness as something hideous that we must get rid of.
more...https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/7/31/20748594/marianne-williamson-debate-democratic-july-2019-depression
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
Faux pas
(14,691 posts)"do we want to exchange a carny act for the con?" Sheesh and wtf?
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
MFM008
(19,820 posts)Soon.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
customerserviceguy
(25,183 posts)most of them will be gone.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Moostache
(9,897 posts)Every election since about 1992 has been the same thing...horse race, scandal, horse race, scandal, stories about how the scandals affect the horse race, then back to the horse race...
Steve Kornacki and Nate Silver have turned this hideous spectacle into CAREERS that would otherwise not exist....big boards and probabilities and projections OH MY!
I am sick of the retarded debates, with 10 people, 15 second answers and nothing worth a damn coming out of them.
I am sick of the beating up on our own candidates instead of impeachment discussions about Trump. I am sick and tired of "leadership" that simply does not measure up to their opposition in terms of ruthlessness, viciousness or desire to put the results over reputation or decorum. Once the fucking "Brooks Brothers Riot" essentially showed the GOP that they could force things to go their way as long as they did not mind a little ethical vagarity, things have been in an accelerating downward spiral every since...
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
LincolnRossiter
(560 posts)Every election since about 1992 has been the same thing...horse race, scandal, horse race, scandal, stories about how the scandals affect the horse race, then back to the horse race...
Spot on. It's exhausting. I mean the day after every election for most Americans is like the end of an ordeal (last election excepted. I got plenty drunk after that nightmare).
I am sick of the retarded debates, with 10 people, 15 second answers and nothing worth a damn coming out of them.
I am sick of the beating up on our own candidates instead of impeachment discussions about Trump. I am sick and tired of "leadership" that simply does not measure up to their opposition in terms of ruthlessness, viciousness or desire to put the results over reputation or decorum. Once the fucking "Brooks Brothers Riot" essentially showed the GOP that they could force things to go their way as long as they did not mind a little ethical vagarity, things have been in an accelerating downward spiral every since...
All up in here with you. Except for:
Nate Silver have turned this hideous spectacle into CAREERS that would otherwise not existI don't listen to 538's silly little podcasts, but he relies heavily on numbers for most of his analysis, which I always appreciate. And he is always amongst the first to caution that (1) the numbers bounce around but tend to revert to certain identifiable means, (2) in this day and age, with social media and self-selected media and our entire political chattering class inundating us nonstop, nobody is going to win or lose an election because of debates (Hillary wiped the floor with clownass in all three). I mean I guess it could happen if a candidate seemed especially confused or pulled down his pants or something, but the stakes just aren't that high--especially for candidates who already have a high public profile. He was the only one giving Trump between a 1/4 and a 1/3 chance to win, because he was all up in the data. Most major media were giving Trump between a 1% and 10% chance, which most of us dismissed (though we shouldn't have, because even a tiny chance is still a chance.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
qazplm135
(7,447 posts)for something to be scary, it has to have the ability to actually have an effect on something.
She's going to be forgotten by September, October at the latest.
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
arithia
(455 posts)and this woman is telling ppl that meds don't work, that they should pray more & other absurdities.
She's not a new trope, just a very loud amplification of one already killing people.
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
qazplm135
(7,447 posts)and there are plenty of folks selling the same thing.
She's certainly not being covered for that.
There's always going to be people like her.
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
arithia
(455 posts)this is outdated information that doesn't need to perpetuate.
But what do I know, I'm alive today because of medication she's condemned.
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
UniteFightBack
(8,231 posts)I'm seriously done with this woman. What little novelty there was has worn off. She needs to get.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Blue_true
(31,261 posts)Somewhat of an offbeat person who has some personal charm and accomplishment behind her. I don't doubt her progressive bobafides, the lady was cooking meals for homeless people when that was not a popular choice.
I don't think that she will lead many people astray. Donald Trump was a different candidate, he successfully tapped into a well of hate and anxiety that has been festering since Reagan began the destruction of the middleclass. Trump has the type of composition where even if he doesn't actually believe something, he won't hesitate to use it to his advantage, he has absolutely no moral compass at all and no concern about the damage that his actions cause.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
no_hypocrisy
(46,202 posts)Saccharine and feel-good.
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
mtnsnake
(22,236 posts)I cannot believe some people thought she actually won one of the debates.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden