Do we live in a world of hyped morality, identity politics and form over substance? Everything seems to have been made political and a lot of people absolutely love one camp and absolutely hate the opposite side. Race, gender, freedom, ecology, diet, healthcare, everything carries a lot of strange, polarised emotions and related language that you better be careful to know how to master, or you might be associated with the opposite side, the enemy group.
When a left or right narrative is taken up with fervour and near absolute faith, it’s easy to give up any critical thinking and sense of balance. This is apparent in the media too, or possibly, this is led by the media which paints any issue in a binary form of black and white, good and bad, true and false. Major newspapers and TV run their narratives and political agendas with single mindedness and determination.
I wonder if it has always been this way, maybe I just came to realise it now, or if indeed it got worse recently. There is a lack of detail, nuance and depth, politicisation, cherry picking and I’d say near manipulation of the science behind any argument. Slogans and banners over independent analysis and common sense.
Because of this, a lot of people rather prefer to say nothing than to risk a faux pa. And even worse, many end up not being interested at all in having a debate about anything of substance, as debating is somewhat bad or socially unacceptable, very much discouraged.
People might get righteously enraged following a media led moral panic of sorts, but the simple act of conversing about certain subjects deemed not politically correct brings up a sense of unease and discomfort few feel like shouldering. Unless the conversation is held with like-minded people, according to established guidelines, closely mimicking a certain language that reinforces a group narrative, safely in the mainstream of a given side of the argument.
Indeed, there are subjects no-one is supposed to talk about at all, subjects that are taboo on both sides and these are the ones that interest me the most. I wonder why the media and general culture somehow decides to make certain topics unspeakable?
Writing of polarisation, hyped morality and identity politics is very difficult and as I do this, I wonder if I should make a post about the top 5 benefits of coconut oil, or the best 6 Yoga postures for 2021 instead. Talking of nothing is another trait of the modern world, media and social media alike are full of trivia and trifles and I strive not to do the same in this blog.
This preamble leads to a piece of analysis that is obvious to me, yet never seriously discussed. Keep reading or skip to the last 3 paragraphs if you have a short attention span. Nothing to do with wealth inequality or alien life, it is something I have a professional interest in, something that makes a lot of sense to me.
Communication and public relations are sciences and arts that fascinate me. Spin doctors, marketing gurus, journalists, celebrities and politicians are the true masters of communication. They are able to use symbols and associated subsconscious meanings to sell stuff, stir opinion, convince the masses. The essence of marketing and propaganda, it is as old as civilisation itself.
One of my favourite Italian stand-up comedians (and philosopher, I’d say), very well describes the function of the news as instigating fear, insecurity, confusion and hatred. He goes on explaining how popular entertainment programs have the goal to bring to the public consolation, hope and fatalism. True?
Time for true controversy now, here you are:
As someone involved in nutrition, trying to help people make better food choices for health and wellness, I can’t shy away from writing about this, knowing well that it might be perceived as a not appropriate subject of discussion.
It is pretty clear that major preventable causes of early death are diet, high blood pressure, obesity, and tobacco use.
I know many lives could be “saved” (as in prolonging life span) if junk food was not so widely available, if vending machines with ultra processed snacks were not installed in most public places. If millions of dollars were not spent to promote ultra processed food causing the obesity pandemic we are going through, since decades and it is getting worse of course. Advertsing revenues that end up paying media executives’ salaries.
This argument is very valid to me, although not politically correct apparently. I have been told it’s against people’s “freedom of choice”. In a world where you are not free to leave your home for health and safety reasons, you are free to eat junk food, as much as you like, and feed your children and elderly parents with it. You are very much encouraged by shiny ads and celebrity endorsements. Culture allows you to get offended if a colleague at work doesn’t eat your supermarket birthday cake.
40% of Americans are obese and a lot of the rest of the world is following. This largely because of their poor food choices, because of processed and ultra processed junk, the Standard American Diet, which enriches multinational food manufacturers, puts a huge burden on the health service, and lowers the life quality and ultimately the life expectancy of the victims of obesity.
Incidentally, a processed food based diet, obesity and related sickness means billions of revenues for the pharma industry.
If you are obese and over 50, you are more likely to be taking a cocktail of drugs including stuff for hypertension, cholesterol and tryglicerides, blood glucose, inflammation, maybe a painkiller? You’ll be more vulnerable to a myriad of health problems, from the flu to cancer. Misaligned financial incentives mean that if there was no obesity, the pharmaceutical industry would loose profit.
Forced social distancing, compulsory masks, vaccines and all that for people’s health. But doing anything meaningful to reduce the huge burden of junk food is illiberal and morally unacceptable?