VOX: Marianne Williamson isn't funny. She's scary.

[Quixote1818]

She is very likable but I agree that a lot of her views are dangerous and un-scientific.

Williamson’s views on depression and illness are dangerous. The media is complicit in spreading them.

By Zack Beauchamp@[e-mail] Jul 31, 2019, 5:40pm EDT

Self-help guru Marianne Williamson was the breakout star of CNN’s first Democratic debate — at least if internet chatter and pundits are to be believed.

Williamson was the most-searched person on Google after the debate in 49 out of 50 states. CNN analyst and former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm praised her “really compelling and authentic” answer on reparations, saying, “Honestly, I think she brought it.” GOP pollster Frank Luntz tweeted that “she’s cutting through the clutter tonight.” A Washington Post article claimed she had “a big night,” writing that she “used her limited time on the microphone to maximum effect, attracting attention for meaningful answers on race and Democratic ideology.” Even current Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) singled out her “surprisingly eloquent answers” to some of the debate questions during his post-debate MSNBC appearance.

This all needs to stop.

Marianne Williamson is not a serious candidate for the presidency: She’s 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.

More: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/7/31/20748594/marianne-williamson-debate-democratic-july-2019-depression?fbclid=IwAR0rpSnMAvy3Rf6CuSOakF11Y2dX0rjZegYWNDoB2yv2ZAhiVfnyaG-KmVc

[customerserviceguy]

1. That's true

It is like laughing at cancer.

[UniteFightBack]

2. She does not belong on a Presidential debate stage.....PERIOD and end of discussion. nt

[MiniMe]

7. Neither did tRump

[Bradshaw3]

3. K&R

Every person on DU needs to read this and stop the fawning over her.

[Quixote1818]

4. I had no idea she had some of these fucking ridiculous, dangerous views.

This article was a real eye opener.

[Bradshaw3]

5. Maybe others on here were unaware too

I hope that's why a number of them are praising her.

[Gore1FL]

8. You mean you don't want to convert from petroleum to essential oils? nt

[calguy]

6. She's quite simply a novelty candidate

She's made a few good points. Also a lot of weird and whacky points. Doesn't matter. She'll be gone and forgotten soon enough.

[Maru Kitteh]

9. She's an EFFING NUTJOB and she needs to quit using our debate to raise her profile and sell books

We're in the fight of our lives and she is NOT a serious candidate.. Fucking go home and back the hell away from our party. We have REAL work to do.

More from your link:

Williamson has repeatedly cast doubt on the idea that clinical depression is real, calling the idea “such a scam” in an interview with actor Russell Brand and labeled antidepressants harmful, a cause of suicide rather than a cure for it.

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.”

At a June campaign stop in New Hampshire, Williamson argued against mandatory vaccination, calling it “Orwellian” and “draconian.” “To me, it’s no different than the abortion debate,” she said. “The US government doesn’t 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 Williamson’s views get attention, the more validation she gets, and the more likely it is that she’ll contribute to the problem — convincing individual parents that it’s okay not to vaccinate their children, which weakens herd immunity and makes outbreaks like the recent measles emergence in New York more likely.

[greatauntoftriplets]

10. I just watched her interview with Anderson Cooper.

And I swear to the gods that she is on drugs or something because her mannerisms while speaking are very weird. Her eyes seemed very unfocused and her facial expressions gave me the creeps.

Much of the discussion focused on her attitude towards depression, which seemed bizarrely "off" to me. My mother suffered from severe clinical depression (and that's a medical term; told to me by one of several psychiatrists that she saw over the years). She was depressed during my earliest memories and I only realized that years later because I was too young to understand. Her depression spawned such related disorders as agoraphobia, a somatization disorder and a persistent anxiety disorder. But she was no hypochondriac, the symptoms were very real down to the chest pains that felt like she was having a heart attack and ending up in the ER.

The only thing that ever helped was medication, and that was achieved only after many years of trial and error.

Sorry for the rant, but your post set it off in me because Williamson's cavalier attitude was so wrong headed. And scary.

She has about as much business running for president as I do. And I'm not foolish enough or looking for the adulation she hopes to get to ever make that mistake.