Re: virus: Why does everybody love Oprah?

• Messages sorted by: [ date ][ thread ][ subject ][ author ]
• [ Next ][ Previous ] In reply to: Reed Konsler

Reed wrote:

Well, I certainly don't love Oprah, as I've made quite clear. Sure, she was great in The Color Purple, and she isn't Pure Evil like Sally Jesse so I don't outright hate her, but she's a fraud like all the rest nonetheless.

>That could be why Oprah is rich and famous, and why she asks
>Richard to be on her show...she respects her audience, and
>Richard does, too. I think people can feel that, even on TV.

Yes, but ask yourself WHY she "respects" her audience. Ratings, my friend, ratings. My point is that all those warm and mushy feelings shared between home-viewer and blurry color-blob on screen are completely artifiical.

>As a hypothesis, I suspect that while you hold the elitist perspective
>that you do, you aren't going to be very effective in influencing
>most people.

Well of course I won't. Oprah will always win; I don't have the legions of believers that she does, nor has anyone offered me a personal forum that I can use to reach millions of Americans. I don't whore myself out to a television audience, or even attempt mass communication or global exposure for myself. That's because I don't care what other people think of me. See, I'm not trying to influence anyone's actions, only sharing my own opinions. Do you think I'm so naive that I actually believe my little self-indulgent rants would cause a person to put down the remote control and stop watching TV?

Listen, Judge Wapner of the People's Court...

And since when did I become an "elitist" for refusing or being physically incapable of watching TV? I never stated that I command everyone to be like me. I know that the majority of people merrily spend time doing so, including almost everyone I know, and I certainly haven't condemned *them* for it. I think people have the freedom to waste their time however they see fit. I do.

>Now, you can go ahead and say "I don't care". Richard would say
>you are holding the value of some meme like <Truth> above the
>value of communicating and having a chance to help make the
>world a better place for everyone.

Ha! I won't deny holding any memes hostage, but my reasons go far beyond being a self-righteous little snot. Do you really think that Oprah's shows "help make the world a better place for everyone"??? Pardon me, but that is sooooooo incredibly silly of you. Tell me this: Which helps to make the world a better place for everyone?

• I sit in front of the television in my room, five days a week, for an hour, and stare at it in contemplation as she interrogates middle-aged women with childhood trauma.
• I volunteer my time (out of my busy schedule) at the local Women's Rape Crisis Center.

I pick number two, and by the way, I do. Sorry I can't devote more of my attention to the fluffy, peachy, pseudo-reality of Ms. Winfrey and her gang of power-walkers, when things this side of Wonderland are so very grim at times.

There are enough abused and battered women that I know personally in this world, who need help, without Oprah on her soap box wringing her manicured hands over guests and whining in the tabloids about her tragic past. I think too many people in this country care about Oprah's constant weight-loss battle, and not enough care about the innocent people that are right now being slaughtered by bombs from the US military in Iraq. Yes, I am much more in grief over that than Oprah's plight.

>You have the freedom to make that choice, but I'd consider the
>consequences pretty carefully.

I'm baffled. What are the consequences of my poor opinion of daytime television talk shows?

I'm basing all this on what I remember of watching her Show ages ago. And yes, it was after she supposedly cleaned up her act and emerged with a "serious" talk show. Ah, same old fodder to me.

I can tell you think I'm attacking Oprah and television in general for spite and because I'm a smarmy leprechaunish pseudo-intellectual, but that isn't so. She personally offends me, and that is my main reason for disliking her.

Mainly, it's that "I'm Every Woman" slogan that really gets my goat and raises the hair on the back of my neck. With that, her whole gimmick is "I'm a wholesome, wonderful person that ALL women can relate to, therefore you should all tune in faithfully." This woman has a cook, a personal trainer, a hairdresser, a makeup artist and countless other luxuries. As a fiercely independent person trying to make my way through university and living modestly, I don't have fans or butlers or guest spots on 20/20, and I certainly do not identify with this woman. Excuse me Ms. Winfrey, but when's the last time you did your own laundry or even applied your own lipstick? We live in different worlds, and I don't buy into her fake chumminess and understanding. Rather, it makes me feel patronized. 'I'm every woman' is rather conceited and self-centered as well.

Secondly, it's a damn show. A set, a farce, and one hour of entertaiment, operating under the pretense of something "serious". No matter what subject, I don't take it seriously. Oh, so the new Oprah wants to "inform" the public, and offer enlightenment and therapy to all domesticated housewives? Yeah right. Money is behind everything on public television, but they want you to believe it's for other reasons....like..."I'm every woman...I *care* about you all." What a crock of bullshit.

In the end, those shows are about public idols like her preying on the weakness and suffering of her guests, and the gullibility of her audience. Then, the next day she shows us all how to make ornate holiday wreaths. Sure, when Oprah Winfrey interviews a rape/incest/mafia-torture survivor on national television to show her sensitivity, the tears shed are real, but do you think she spends a second's reflection on it the next day? No! It's on to cooking pastries and weaving tablecloths with Martha Stewart! On a scale, it all weighs out to be equally trivial in the end.

But what is she *really* doing? In truth, it's just milking someone else's pain in order to provide a topic of discussion and further her own career. IMO, there is nothing more heartless and shallow than that. Am I supposed to sit in front of the television, without guilt, and drool all over myself like everyone else?

>>My observation is that Philosophy has always been two old
>>guys trying to disprove each other anyway. ;-)
>
>So, not only is philosophy beyond most people...it's also worthless
>to those people who can understand it? Why do you even bother?

Huh.

>Don't wimp out with that sarcastic wink. What do you really think?

I really, really think that you completely missed that joke, and have the sense of humor of a comatose Orthodox Roman-Catholic nun. No- even nuns, pieces of flint, and wombats show traces of humor.

~kjs, who takes her talk show arguments DAMN seriously

• [ Next ][ Previous ] In reply to: Reed Konsler