There has been some confusion over my hatred of John Edward. Perhaps I should explain.

John Edward does the show "Crossing Over" which was originally on the SciFi network, and was then syndicated. In his show John Edward has an audience full of people and then he "talks" to the departed loved ones those people. Of course, it's bullshit.

Okay, that's not fair of me. I'm not giving him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe the dead do want to tell us something, and this asshole is the only guy they can get in touch with. It's absolutely absurd, but I have no proof that it isn't the case. But here's the thing, what this guy does is a scam, and has been all but proven by skeptics. He's an excellent snake oil salesman, but that's all he is.

So this guy says that he speaks to dead people. Either he's lying (which seems to me to be the case, as he has made a shitload of money from his show, his books, and his tours) or he's not. Maybe he really thinks that the voices he hears in his head are dead people, and not something like intuition. If that's the case, then he's also an idiot and experiencing the biggest self-deception anyone has ever experienced.

So what's so bad, right? He's making some money by lying to people, but in the process he's giving them closure and making them feel good. No, no, no, no. It's fake. It's fake closure, it's fake hope, it's fake good feelings. He's a liar, a fake, and an asshole for doing this to people. These aren't all stupid people for buying into this, they're scared. They're scared of the big questions in life, and if this giant douche keeps pretending to have the answers, then these people aren't going to look for the real ones.

I'm personally affected by this guy because my step-mom (who's a bitch anyway) and my sister (who routinely makes bad decisions but is generally an intelligent individual) believe that his guy is the real deal. I don't care whether this guy is actually as malevolent as I think he is, or if he's just buying into his own scam. The effect he has on people is not healthy. It isn't harmless, it's very dangerous to think this way.

I'm not denying outright the possibility that dead people continue to exist in some way and are able to talk to us. I have insufficient evidence for that, one way or the other. But this guy does not talk to ghosts, or anything like them. That judgement I do have enough evidence to make and to feel confident about.

And that's what I think about that.

  posted by Matthew @ 4:07 PM

 
John Edward is the biggest douche in the universe. Tell me I'm wrong.

  posted by Matthew @ 3:16 AM

 
Remember my fetish for snooty intellectual jokes? Here's a good one.

  posted by Matthew @ 4:38 PM

 
I swear, I live in a frickin' Jerry Seinfeld bit.

Why do hot dogs come in packs of ten, but hot dog buns in packs of 8? Seriously, what the fuck?

  posted by Matthew @ 10:58 PM

 
This just in: Billie Holiday's song "Strange Fruit" is one of the creepiest songs of all time, especially when it's remixed.

  posted by Matthew @ 5:06 PM