Recently, celebrity doctor, Dr. Oz, has come under fire for faulty advice he's given out on his show. As a way to pay for his show, in addition to traditional commercials, he has endorsed homeopathic products with little or no scientific evidence of being effective. Some people have even put Dr. Oz's advice over that of their own physician. He is being sued for his false claims.
Here's the question that no one is asking: is he responsible for people blindly following his advice? This isn't really about him endorsing products (celebrities do that all the time), this is about Americans wanting to place the blame for their own stupidity on someone else.
So, going back to the title of this post, do Americans have the right to be stupid? I believe so. If I want be lazy and not work, I shouldn't be forced to - nor should I be cared for if I take that route in life. If I want to only eat junk food and avoid vegetables like the plague, the FDA shouldn't be there to put broccoli on my hamburger. I'm not suggesting that all regulations cease; it's nice to know that there can be no more than one rodent hair per 100 grams of chocolate produced in the US and I don't want that to go away. What I'm saying is that too often, we want to be protected from ourselves.
I for one do not see Dr. Oz as a villainous person that is taking advantage of his show to hock sugar pills to unsuspecting saps. I also don't see him as a victim who was duped into selling worthless crap. He's a guy that got caught up in being a celebrity. People say that as an actual doctor, he should know better. I say that we should know better than to treat an advertisement as medical advice.
I realize that I'm at an advantage when compared to the average American: I'm a member of a church that teaches it's members to look beyond the surface and gain a deep understanding of the truth for themselves and not to simply take someone else's word for it. With that kind of outlook, it's a lot harder to get swept up in lies and half-truths.
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