Dr. Oz's campaign and the hidden danger of woo woo cranks

Oprah's woo woo army tries to sneak into the Senate

Dr. Oz.
(Image credit: Illustrated | Alamy Stock Photo, iStock, Getty Images)

Television personality Dr. Mehmet Oz is running for Pennsylvania's open Senate seat in 2022, promising that as "a world-class surgeon, fighter, and health care advocate," he's "stepping forward to cure our country's ills." And though he's unlikely to win, Oz's candidacy is a reminder of the underrated danger of woo woo ideology.

What do I mean by woo? One way to start defining it is to examine the long career of Oprah Winfrey. Granted, Oprah is more woo-adjacent than a full-blown adherent, perhaps because she's too business-savvy to go totally nuts, at least in public. But, as Kurt Anderson writes at Slate, she's done more than any other American to popularize this doofy nonsense.

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Ryan Cooper

Ryan Cooper is a national correspondent at TheWeek.com. His work has appeared in the Washington Monthly, The New Republic, and the Washington Post.