The new liberal cause—obesity
In the early ’90s, a New York City liberal hostess of mine was very angry about people going hungry in this country. I pointed out to her that the number-one health problem among poor people in the U.S. was obesity. She gave me a look fit to kill. But nowadays, even the liberals are admitting that obesity is a major problem among the “poor.” So, what are the liberals going to do? Switch from saying that hunger is a result of class oppression, to saying that
obesity is a result of class oppression?
Yes, that’s what they’ll do. And John Edwards, or someone like him, will be telling us in his dulcet Carolina twang: “There are two Americas, one America where people
have everything they want and eat good food and get lots of exercise, and another America where people
struggle every day just to get by and stuff themselves with junk food and spend all their time sitting in front of the TV.”
Posted by Lawrence Auster at February 26, 2004 08:04 AM | Send
Lawrence,
Great topic. The best book on the subject of the modern obesity problem is surely Michael Fumento’s “The Fat of the Land”. Also worth reading is the more recent bk., “Fat Land” by G. Critser.
Some people like to pretend obesity is not such a big deal. Au contraire. With the exception of the tiny South Pacific nation of Nauru, the American people are, taken overall, the most obese/overweight in the history of civilization. Fumento in particular debunks all the popular easy excuses such as glandular or genetic problems, and debunks the faddish diets that promise an easy way out. Quite simply, people are eating too much processed food esp. stuff loaded w/ high fructose corn syrup, AND, they are way too sedentary. If instead folks were eating more bulky high fiber fruits, grains & veg., they could more easily trick their apostate into feeling “full” while not overloading on carbs.
Liberals can’t resist blaming obesity on the abstract ‘class oppression’ thus absolving fat folks from the shame of their gluttony & laziness. It is worth noting that people who are self reliant & live healthily are subsidizing the obesity of others - $80 billion this year alone will be the cost of obesity related illness. Think about that the next time you pay your soaring health insurance premiums or have medicare & taxes deducted from your paycheque.