Dr. La*ra: schadenfreude whiplash or tragedy aikido??

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So, Dr. L&ura's mom gets murdered and is found after having been left unfound for a long period of time. I initially felt pretty great about the real world interrupting the good doctor's annoying, smug and frequently hypocritical pronouncements. OK, she can't even maintain enough of a relationship w/ her Mom to know she'd been killed. Weeks ago. Then I read a transcript of L&ura's statment, which basically said, "yup, this is a huge tragedy for me, and this is why I tell you to hold on to your families as tightly as you can". I actually felt bad for her. SO:

Did I simply feel (internally motivated) guilt at having so thoroughly relished someone else's misery, proving... what, that I have some sort of conscience maybe?

Did she use her black arts, turn her "tragedy" (which was no tragedy to her) back around and mind f*ck me into both feeling shitty about myself and scarier still, AGREEING WITH HER IN MY OWN FEAR OF LOSS! DO YOU SEE?

― Hunter (Hunter), Saturday, 21 December 2002 06:08 (twenty-three years ago)

She is awful = I vote the latter.

― Hunter (Hunter), Saturday, 21 December 2002 06:11 (twenty-three years ago)

two months pass...

I think that Dr. Laura -- much like many alcoholics in recovery or general fuck-ups who have become born-again Christians -- is the sort of person who has made enough major mistakes in her personal life to be hyper-rigid about badgering others into not repeating them.

I think this means that when she addresses someone who is actually like her -- who is in the same sorts of positions she found herself in earlier in her life -- she can be a very effective voice of caution. But I also think this means that when she addresses normal people, she is a rigid screamy harpy who thinks that in overcoming her own personal problems she discovered some sort of universal truth.

Lastly, I think that she's failed to understand the clear lessons taught by Oprah, who derived most of her credibility as an advice-giver from openly admitting that her life had once been a mess and offering an empathetic example of how those problems could be solved.

― nabisco (nabisco), Friday, 21 February 2003 00:26 (twenty-three years ago)

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