Do NOT Buy the Homophobic Brainwashing Trash Book "The Power of Positive Thinking"

[Frosty]

I've been fooled into buying it because i've heard about it many times before even in an interview from Will Smith (WTF Will, I've lost all my respect for you!) and someone saying such great things about it so I got excited and went straight to Amazon and bought a copy right away without reading any reviews. It was only $8 so I thought why not especially since it sold 5 million copies. I'm telling you, biggest peace of garbage i've ever spent money on.

Just reading the intro i was noticing him saying God every other sentence. That annoyed me since I don't like being preached to but I was still going to read the book since it was a self help book and I thought it might be useful anyways. After reading the intro i flipped through the book and every single page in the book is full of God, Jesus, the lord, Christianity, the bible, the church. I tried to find a page that didn't have one while flipping to random pages. I finally found one that didn't but that was the worst page of all. The fucking cunt author gives an example of a guy coming to him for help being miserable because of his "sick thoughts" and being queer and getting rid of these "diseased thoughts" and snapping out of it and how he "remains snapped out of it". I've flipped to random pages to read excerpts and although the book promotes itself as self help and how you can be the happiest person in the world by training your mind but the whole thing is just a scam to try to convert people to Christianity and that that's the only way to be happy.

FUCK YOU NORMAN VINCENT PEALE AND YOUR FUCKING DISEASED MIND!

End of rant. I'm sure many of you have heard and will continue to hear about this book throughout your life. If I can save you money and prevent you from handing your hard earned money to this homophobic lowlife then it was worth it.

 

[Frosty]

Oh and the author claims all his bigot opinions are scientifically proven. The product description and cover don't mention anything religious. I know I'll get over it in a while but I'm just pissed!

 

[rareboy]

Well, next time maybe you'll do a bit more research on the author.

You should look up the bio of an author first. It would have been this simple.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Vincent_Peale

Dr. Norman Vincent Peale (May 31, 1898 – December 24, 1993) was a minister and author (most notably of The Power of Positive Thinking) and a progenitor of the theory of "positive thinking".

He was a christian minister for fuck's sake.

In an era before homosexuality finally was accepted by science and medicine as another type of normal.

So slow the fuck down.

And I can't imagine why you would have ever had respect for Will Smith.



It came out of the Ike and Mamie era.

 

[pat grimshaw]

Will Smith is a star, a billionaire and a role-model for millions; he knows how to win friends and influence people.

 

[Frosty]

Well, next time maybe you'll do a bit more research on the author.

You should look up the bio of an author first. It would have been this simple.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Vincent_Peale



He was a christian minister for fuck's sake.

In an era before homosexuality finally was accepted by science and medicine as another type of normal.

So slow the fuck down.

And I can't imagine why you would have ever had respect for Will Smith.



It came out of the Ike and Mamie era.

Don't have to be a dick about it, I'm only trying to help other people. Who the hell researches the author before buying a book? It promoted itself as a self help book and I've heard good things about it about a dozen times but none of those people ever mentioned anything about religion.

 

[Frosty]

Not.

Really? Sounds like no one needed to bother with fooling you, as you played the part willingly.

Norman Vincent Peale is a name as famous as Billy Graham, and you somehow feel deceived or cheated because you bought a book by a religious author without being informed enough about popular culture to even know who the author was.

It might be an innocent mistake if your were buying a novel, but you were buying a self-help book. Dyanetics much?

If you are willing to receive lifestyle and thinking advice from anyone without bothering to learn anything about the source, you may as well join a cult. They love it when you park your brain at the door.

I won't defend Mr. Peale's attitudes toward homosexuality, but he lived and wrote in a different day, and, true to Mr. Smith's critique, his writing has helped MILLIONS of readers, many of whom would never term themselves religious.

Perhaps your antipathy for religion prevents you from being able to understand how others who are not so biased are helped.

No i've never heard about that jackass before only good things about the book. And the messages of the book is that you can only be happy if you establish a connection with Jesus and that you're a Christian who prays and only things about God all the time. Every other sentence is about God. What's up with everyone being bitchy about this? Pull the stick out of your ass and realize when someone is trying to help other people.

 

[Frosty]

*ahem*

People who READ.

What the fuck is your problem really? Did your mommy not love you enough when you were little? Really what causes someone to be come such a fucking asshole to other people for no reason?

 

[Ram]

I thought it is normal for people to at least read a page or flip through the book before purchasing.

Thanks for the tip.

*starts a bonfire for self-help books*

 

[Frosty]

Don't buy books a celebrity recommends.

I didn't buy it because a celebrity recommended it I just said I even heard Will Smith recommend it in an interview. I bought it because I heard a ton of other people recommending it, it was cheap, had sold 5 million copies from fundies all over America.

 

[Frosty]

I thought it is normal for people to at least read a page or flip through the book before purchasing.

Thanks for the tip.

*starts a bonfire for self-help books*

Unless you're buying it online. I did read the product review and it said nothing about being religious. Didn't know people were so mean here.

 

[Frosty]

Well, at least it was only 8 bucks.

Yeah, reading the reviews on Amazon a third of the reviews talk about how misleading the book is. And I usually do read the reviews first. This was the first and only book I bought based on word of mouth. An author of another book I really like that I just read was one of the people pushing peole to buy this piece of shit.

 

[Ram]

Frosty, clearly your problem here is that you are reading the wrong book. You need to move away from The Power of Positive Thinking book and start on The Power of Thinking book first.

I don't think Hard-up and Rareboy are trying to be mean. You need calm your ass down. You are too pissed off to be reading any kind of posts here.

 

[TickTockMan]

Send it back. Just tell them you didn't know it was religious in nature.

 

[Frosty]

And there is where you fail.

Mr. Peale wrote in an era in which Christianity had previously only been fire and brimstone or otherwise dourly proclaimed for some time.

His approach was positive, as the title plainly declares.

His audience was not the staunchly anti-Christian and rarefied atmosphere of a gay porn site. His audience was looking for a reason to be positive and optimistic in a jaded world.

Whether you concur with his faith in Christianity or not, his writing was in no way deceptive, only a fresh and welcome revisitation to a 2,000 year old religion.

Contrary to the book being shitty, it did a lot of good at the time. You have chosen a foolish target to suggest was damaging to society. Try again.

Ignorance masquerading as activism isn't anyone's idea of a hero. Learn.

Uh did you read anything I said at all? Do you know how to read? I said

I'VE NEVER HEARD OF THIS AUTHOR BEFORE!

I also said

HE PUSHES HIS HOMOPHOBIC BELIEFS ON HIS READERS WHICH YOU ARE SOME HOW OKAY WITH!

HOW IS PREACHING HOMOPHOBIA NOT DAMAGING TO SOCIETY?

I don't like talking to idiots who defend homophobia so i'm putting you on ignore. Buh bye.

 

[Frosty]

Thanks for the people who were nice in this thread. I really do need to just calm down from being pissed right now so i'll just return to this thread later today. As for rareboy and Hardup not trying to be rude? I don't believe it. I've seen them make snide remarks to countless people on here calling them dumb and stuff for no reason. They don't give a shit if they come off as rude and bitchy or not. They're not nice people.

Another thing that probably fed my anger was after reading the thread about Zachary Quinto coming out he mention a 14 year old who killed himself because of homophobia. I read all about that suicide for the first time and watched his "It gets better" video and that got me depressed so I decided to start reading this book thinking it would be positive but instead it's brainwashing people to be homophobic and it triggered my anger.

I wasn't born in the 50's so forgive me if I haven't heard of the author before.

 

[Ganoderma]

And the messages of the book is that you can only be happy if you establish a connection with Jesus and that you're a Christian who prays and only things about God all the time. Every other sentence is about God. What's up with everyone being bitchy about this?

hi Frosty,

I have some problems to understand what you mean by this quote.

I mean. do you try to tell me that you agree with the statement that a christian (definition according to your quote) is 'a better human being' ('can only be happy') / 'a superior human being', etc. in comparison to a non-believer (=me), stated that all other circumstances are equal in any aspect?

Thanks in advance for providing me for some insight.

Best wishes.

 

[paintact]

Frosty, I feel ya. I understand you're mad, and you have a right to be. And I'm with you that just because the book, the message, and the writer has helped a lot of people doesn't excuse his bigoted, uneducated thoughts on sexuality (and how it may be used in the book, or not). Yes, it was from a different time period, but I can still see why that would be upsetting to you, and stuff like this is to me as well.
It reminds me of those 'mega-preachers' these days like that Joel Osteen, that sell Christianity like self-help pop psychology and make their millions from it... and then state their unfortunately ignorant beliefs on human sexuality and how it works (even those like Osteen that do with a smile on their face, which I think is even more condescending.) Sure, they help a lot of people, and that is a positive thing...doesn't excuse the ignorance though. And I wish more buyers of their products were educated on that. So I understand how you feel.

Perhaps a few posters here thought you were outright attacking Christianity/religion...and maybe they were rubbed the wrong way from it. You don't seem to be down with the whole religious thing, and that's fine...and I can understand how the book repeating that kind of rhetoric, when you certainly weren't expecting that, can throw you for a loop. True, it's good to be educated about what you're buying, but we can't all be perfect...and like you said, you bought it on a whim and it didn't put the religious message right out there. Just make sure you know now for the future, cause I've had the same thing happen. Religious products quite often these days masquerade as self-help products (I suppose in a way they are)...but some hide it really well until you get into it, particularly when you didn't go into it knowing anything about the author. I've had it happen. Just be cautious next time and always do your research. Lesson learned. Take care.

 

[sixthson]

While I would likely buy a work of fiction without knowing anything about the author, I would never buy non-fiction without researching an author. Of course, I never buy self-help books anyway.

Norman Vincent Peale would be considered the spiritual father of guys like Robert Schueller who is definitely not a homophobe. They are considered to have a form of "feel good" Christianity like Joel Osteen. I have not read The Power of Positive Thinking for many years, but I can't recall it talking about homosexuality, specifically. But I could be wrong.

 

[rareboy]

Frosty.

Get a grip on yourself. And stop getting so defensive and nasty.

You apparently are very young and do not have a strong reading background or any inquisitivesness to research before you plough into something.

Peale was a man of his times. With biases and prejudices of his time.

Yes, Will Smith, one of the fakest people in Hollywood, recommended the book. Yes, you can question his judgement.

You spent 8 bucks on it. You learned something. Sometimes it is good to read the seminal works of your opponents to be able to help strike down their logic and arguments. Simply screaming at people not to read a book because you found its Christian bias and the logic faulty is no reason to not read and understand the message the author was trying to convey.

So.

Let's be a little more mature, shall we?

Good.

But the book is not widely read any more and most people look on Peale as being one of those quaint artifacts of the last century.

 

[mbamike]

Well, just take this as a lesson learned. Next time you will at least read the bio on the back of the book.