Skepticism

Dave Chappelle on The Secret

“Bitch, that’s the secret of life to you? Then kill yourself. . . . Positive imagery? Bitch fly to Africa and tell one of them starving children that shit.”

(Sent in by Mario)

Rebecca Watson

Rebecca is a writer, speaker, YouTube personality, and unrepentant science nerd. In addition to founding and continuing to run Skepchick, she hosts Quiz-o-Tron, a monthly science-themed quiz show and podcast that pits comedians against nerds. There is an asteroid named in her honor. Twitter @rebeccawatson Mastodon mstdn.social/@rebeccawatson Instagram @actuallyrebeccawatson TikTok @actuallyrebeccawatson YouTube @rebeccawatson BlueSky @rebeccawatson.bsky.social

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11 Comments

  1. Society really needs comedians like this to point out the absurdity we wade through each day. Common sense comedy.

  2. I do not ordinarily care for Chappelle, but he is right on with this one. I know some otherwise normal, intelligent folks who think “The Secret” works. When I gently refute them, I am asked, “you haven’t read it, have you?”

    I have been thinking about this since xmas (when the conversation first came up). I think I am going to have to read it soon, just so I can respond that I have read it, and it is still wrong.

    *sigh*

  3. I had a friend who was a physicist (he passed away a few years ago) who lamented to me once that life is so easy in our society that you no longer have to have any common sense to survive.

  4. I tried to read “The Secret.” I really did. I tried.

    I couldn’t. I bailed. It just kept saying the same crapola over, and over, and over. “Famous Person knew The Secret! And Andrew Carnegie knew the Secret! And Einstein knew The Secret! So did …”

    For pages, and pages, I searched for, … and idea. Something new. Anything remotely interesting. It never showed. After a valiant effort, I gave up.

    Apparently they weren’t aware of Andrew Carnegie’s rather heavy-handed business tactics, or how he treated his employees. But he knew The Secret!

  5. @DataJack: I don’t think you have to read it or even get into much detail to argue with people who subscribe to it, just turn it around. Is your family starving? Did you get Cancer? Did you get raped? IT’S YOUR FAULT! You didn’t think positively enough!

    I mean, it’s basically just right-wing, pull-up-yer-bootstraps rhetoric and victim blaming with a hefty dose of New Age mumbo jumbo.

  6. Chappelle makes the same point I did with respect to the silly ass “secret”, although he doesn’t have a clever Oprah diss in there too.

    Damn him and his millions of dollars.

    Oh, and the “black white supremacist” skit was seriously classic. Amazing.

  7. Someone sent me “The Secret” advice for weight loss. You’re supposed to only think about the good aspects of being thin and only look at thin people. Um, thousands of obese Americans spend hours looking at skinny actors and models every day. It doesn’t seem to be doing them any good. Plus, by that logic none of the people on “The Biggest Loser” should be losing any weight because they spend their days looking at their overweight competitors.

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