I could never imagine it happening there first, which is weird,
but it is happening there first:MOSCOW — Russian lawmakers on Tuesday backed a bill banning the country's faith healers, witches and assorted sorcerers from advertising their services in a potential blow to the booming business.
Faith healers and the like cause "moral and physical harm to the people and economic harm to the country," wrote lawmakers proposing the bill, which was passed in an initial reading.
Russians often turn to folk healers and fortune-tellers to solve problems and tabloid newspapers fill pages with ads for "psychics", who promise to return cheating husbands, cure alcoholism and bring business success.
Advertising of esoteric services in the mass media means that "charlatans attract a lot of clients without giving any guarantees, and sometimes engage in fraud," the bill's authors said.
The Duma needs to vote for a draft in three readings before it is signed by the president and becomes law.
Son of a bitch. By stating the problem clearly - "moral and physical harm to the people and economic harm to the country" - Russia has finally differentiated itself from the West in a manner that actually matters. The United States has lowered it's stature, as
The New World, by still giving the old one too much that it could relate to.
In America, NewAge nonsense is promoted - most prominently through the country's largely unexamined support for Oprah Winfrey, despite her fondness for quacks, showcases for spiritual charlatans (with one now charged in a sweatlodge triple manslaughter case) as well as her notoriously bad choice in presidents. It's as though the popularity contest of promoting
vacuity to viewers is now taken to be the equal of ethics itself.
Well it's not - it's corrosively eating this country alive. NewAge is the core issue of the so-called "decline" in America. It consists of a multitude of frauds, large and small, that when taken together add up to a huge burden on society - on the West itself - while their implications (including the results of the damage they've already caused) are barely mentioned as such, much less reported - and this is especially true in our country, the United States. And it's a damn shame. It's also fucking embarrassing, really, now that Russia's gone ahead and acted somehow:
I mean, after this, can it be made any more abundantly apparent America can now be regarded as having gone just plain stupid by it's adversaries, since it is this country, almost alone - but most importantly - where the powers-that-be have repeatedly demonstrated they can no longer even reliably
pretend they have a clue where and how they could realistically act, to protect their citizen's interest, and on their behalf, in the 21st century?
Unlike the Russians, apparently, Americans are essentially defenseless from without and from within.
So is there really any wonder why our enemies want us dead - at this point in time - and seem to even think we'll go along with it?
I could never imagine it happening there first, which is weird, but it is happening there first:
Son of a bitch. By stating the problem clearly - "moral and physical harm to the people and economic harm to the country" - Russia has finally differentiated itself from the West in a manner that actually matters. The United States has lowered it's stature, as The New World, by still giving the old one too much that it could relate to. 
In America, NewAge nonsense is promoted - most prominently through the country's largely unexamined support for Oprah Winfrey, despite her fondness for quacks, showcases for spiritual charlatans (with one now charged in a sweatlodge triple manslaughter case) as well as her notoriously bad choice in presidents. It's as though the popularity contest of promoting vacuity to viewers is now taken to be the equal of ethics itself. 
Well it's not - it's corrosively eating this country alive. NewAge is the core issue of the so-called "decline" in America. It consists of a multitude of frauds, large and small, that when taken together add up to a huge burden on society - on the West itself - while their implications (including the results of the damage they've already caused) are barely mentioned as such, much less reported - and this is especially true in our country, the United States. And it's a damn shame. It's also fucking embarrassing, really, now that Russia's gone ahead and acted somehow:
I mean, after this, can it be made any more abundantly apparent America can now be regarded as having gone just plain stupid by it's adversaries, since it is this country, almost alone - but most importantly - where the powers-that-be have repeatedly demonstrated they can no longer even reliably pretend they have a clue where and how they could realistically act, to protect their citizen's interest, and on their behalf, in the 21st century?
Unlike the Russians, apparently, Americans are essentially defenseless from without and from within. 
So is there really any wonder why our enemies want us dead - at this point in time - and seem to even think we'll go along with it?
It's called freedom of stupidity. People can legally drink themselves to death, gamble away their fortunes, so why should freedom of speech be abridged? Oftentimes these psychics do a social service just by getting people to release their worries and emotions. Who else is going to listen to some of these lonely people? Like it or not, people need an explanation, need some sort of hope, and if they can get it from some old broad with a turban wrapped around her head, so be it. We're just not that intelligent a species, when it comes down to the bottom of everything. The smart ones are greedy and the not so smart ones are gullible, and we're all selfish.
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ReplyDeleteNo, posing as a a psychic is not the same as drinking yourself to death, it's fraud. See? There's even a word for it - fraud. You know what it means already and everything, and "psychic" defines it.
ReplyDeleteYou say "Oftentimes these psychics do a social service just by getting people to release their worries and emotions." Really? And what if, after being unburdened and all, those people proceed to wreck the lives of those around them - would that be part of this "social service" you speak of? And does the personal freedom of one of the "lonely people" no one else but a psychic will talk to, equal the negative life-changing ramifications this unqualified paid consultant can wreck on others who have no idea what's being done or confessed or why?
What is the effect of these psychics, say on a community - bound by no law or even a code of ethics - knowing what these people tell them? Charging a fee to learn their neighbor's business just to use that information against them? You do understand psychics have message boards for accumulating information and trading notes on marks, don't you?
I could go on, but let's just say I don't think it's even close to as simple as you're making it out to be.
"What is the effect of these psychics, say on a community - bound by no law or even a code of ethics - knowing what these people tell them? Charging a fee to learn their neighbor's business just to use that information against them? You do understand psychics have message boards for accumulating information and trading notes on marks, don't you?"
ReplyDeleteNo, I did not know that. I understand that you're the expert.
Where do freedom of the press, and ENFORCEMENT of the law come in? Who is going to crack down on these people? Not many, eh? This sort of thing is way down on the totem pole of misdemeanors, if it were misdemeanor.
I haven't studied your site, so I don't know...do you put out any newsletters for local consumption, etc.?