{"id":9632,"date":"2012-06-15T16:56:07","date_gmt":"2012-06-15T16:56:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2012\/06\/15\/popcorn-too-food-fascists-gone-wild\/"},"modified":"2012-06-15T16:56:07","modified_gmt":"2012-06-15T16:56:07","slug":"popcorn-too-food-fascists-gone-wild","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2012\/06\/15\/popcorn-too-food-fascists-gone-wild\/","title":{"rendered":"Popcorn Too? Food Fascists Gone Wild"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here<\/a>.  First soda pop, then popcorn, milkshakes . . . .<\/span><\/p>\n

The trouble with nanny-state liberals  is that they do not understand or value the <\/span>liberty of the individual , a liberty which includes the liberty to behave in <\/span>ways that may be foolish.  If you grant the state the power to <\/span>order your life there will be no end to it.  Right now, in Germany it is illegal <\/span>to homeschool one's own children!  Every day brings a new example of <\/span>governmental overreach.  We do not exist for the state; the state exists for <\/span>us.  Our wealth is ours, not the state's.  We don't have to justify our keeping; <\/span>they have to justify their taking. The same goes for such health-related issues as obesity.<\/span><\/p>\n

Please no liberal nonsense about an <\/span>'epidemic' of obesity or obesity as a public health problem.  True, we Americans <\/span>are a gluttonous people as witness competitive eating contests, the numerous <\/span>food shows, and the complete lack of any sense among most that there is anything <\/span>morally wrong with gluttony.  The moralists of old understood something when <\/span>they classified gluttony as one of the seven deadly sins.<\/span><\/p>\n

Obesity is not a disease; so, speaking <\/span>strictly, there cannot be an epidemic of it.  There are two separate issues here.  One is whether obesity is a disease.  Here<\/a> are some arguments pro et con.  But even  if it is classified as a disease, it is surely not a contagious disease and so not something there can be an epidemic of.  <\/span><\/p>\n

I know that 'epidemic' is used <\/span>more broadly than this, even by epidemiologists; but this is arguably the result <\/span>of an intrusion of liberal ideology into what is supposedly science.   Do you <\/span>really think that 'epidemic' is being used in the same way in 'flu epidemic' and <\/span>'obesity epidemic'?  Is obesity contagious?  If fat Al sneezes in my face, <\/span>should I worry about contracting the obesity virus? There is no such virus.  <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

Obesity is not contagious and not a disease.   I know what some will <\/span>say: obesity is socially <\/em>contagious.  But now you've shifted the sense  <\/span>of 'contagious.'    You've engaged in a bit of semantic mischief.  It is not as <\/span>if there are two kinds of contagion, natural and social.  Social contagion is <\/span>not contagion any more than negative growth is growth or a decoy duck is a <\/span>duck. 'Social' in 'socially contagious' is an alienans<\/em> <\/span>
adjective.<\/span><\/p>\n

Why <\/span>then are you fat?  You are fat because you eat too much of the wrong sorts of <\/span>food and refuse to exercise.  For most people that's all there is to it.  It's <\/span>your fault.  It is not the result of being attacked by a virus.  It <\/span>is within your power to be fat or not.  It is a matter of your FREE WILL.  You <\/span>have decided to become fat or to remain fat.  When words such as 'epidemic' and <\/span>'disease' are used in connection with obesity, that is an ideological denial of <\/span>free will, an attempt to shift responsibility from the agent to factors external <\/span>to the agent such as the 'evil' corporations that produce so-called 'junk' <\/span>food.<\/span><\/p>\n

There is no such thing as junk food<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

There <\/span>are public health problems, but obesity is not one of them.  It is a private <\/span>problem resident at the level of the individual and the family.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here.  First soda pop, then popcorn, milkshakes . . . . The trouble with nanny-state liberals  is that they do not understand or value the liberty of the individual , a liberty which includes the liberty to behave in ways that may be foolish.  If you grant the state the power to order your life there will be no … Continue reading “Popcorn Too? Food Fascists Gone Wild”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[154,34,163],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-food-and-drink","category-health-and-fitness","category-leftism-and-political-correctness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9632\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}