Once again, this morning 9/13/2026, I heard Oprah Winfrey saying that you truly can be in control of your life. Once again a sanctimonious millionaire is talking about pulling yourself up by the boot-straps in order to have “your best life”.
I feel like I’m cursing Jesus when I say, “How dare she?” How dare Oprah Winfrey preach to the masses that we really can make things okay, we just have to make it happen?
Did Oprah ever have to nurse a child through an expensive terminal illness that broke the spirit of the parents and then took their bank accounts and their home? Did Oprah ever have to deal with wishing for a promotion to vice presidency but instead was shoved into a closet and raped and there went the vice presidency along with the job? Did Oprah Winfrey ever go through a husband who just won’t stop using her as a punching bag and her looking at the awfulness of living on minimum wage with two children without a supportive family?
She should be validating the hardships and talking about how to create structure to make change. America is an international embarrassment on the world stage. Seven dollars and thirty-five cents an hour for minimum wage? Even poor nations are laughing at us. Why? Because we can, but we don’t, all the money goes up and none comes down. But sure, “live your best life.”
There is another trite little saying that makes my blood boil. “Everything happens for a reason.” Are you kidding me? Explain to me what the reason is for a ten-year-old pregnant girl who has been continuously raped by her brother? Some one help me with the reason for this?
What about the kid on Reddit who talked about how when she was seven the pipes froze and she lived without water or electricity in her trailer/home until she moved out. How about the hoarders choking on their own dust? They force their children to survive a hellish childhood – why?
I am one of the lucky ones, poverty stricken, but we always had power and water.
But I would never perch on the back of my pony and tell anyone, “oh hey, you can have a nice life if you try.” “Just pull yourself up by your bootstraps.”
