September 25, 2010
The government keeps trying to get us to do something and we won't.
It happens to be something that would be good for us. (Eating vegetables.) But our resistance to doing things the government eagerly and earnestly promotes is a strength. Don't be disappointed. Be encouraged.
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Except that the government has the power to penalize us for not doing what we don't want to do that it thinks we should be doing. Perhaps there will be tax incentives put in place to reward those who at least buy vegetables and punish those who don't, a new deduction on the 1040 with receipts attached. Or who knows, maybe it will adopt the British approach to enforcing recycling rules, government workers crawling through trash cans and dumpsters at night checking to see if there's any veggie detritus and ticketing anyone whose garbage doesn't include any lettuce and cucumber peels.
First they try persuasion, then they go for coercion. We shouldn't shrug this possible threat off quite so easily. The government is not a benign force in our lives.
We are, by definition and tradition, a nation of rebels. Especially when the one telling us how to live has done such a lousy job in other areas.
It's understandable that the Michelle Obamas of the world want to tell other people what to eat, it's in their nature.
What I don't understand are the people who want to be told.
Lincolntf:
There are the Michelle Obamas of the world, or as my son calls them, The Concerned Mothers
Then there are the people who don't really like being told, but they like being a part of something.
Mostly, there are people who like knowing there are other people being told what to do. There are so many people who don't know how to live their lives (not us, mind you), and so it is satisfying to see the government telling them what to do/saving them/protecting us from them.
Yes, I love to eat my vegetables, but I won't because the government wants me to. I'm pretty sure that's everybody else's motivation too.
TW: canged...if it ain't a word, it ought to be.
I don't think it's the message but rather the medium. Government-funded scolding usurps the role of parenting.
Why should I be the one eating vegetables? I mean, I'm not the one with an enormous ass.
"Despite two decades of public health initiatives, stricter government dietary guidelines, record growth of farmers’ markets and the ease of products like salad in a bag, Americans still aren’t eating enough vegetables."
The answer, obviously, is the government needs even more power and more control! Ask Michelle Obama.
Vivir por el NYT, morir por el NYT.
There's little tested scientific evidence that vegetables are all that great. In fact, quite the opposite; when put to the test, vegetables fail to live up to their hype.
Of course, this isn't about science; the vegetable hype is based on the theory that nutrition from one source of food is morally superior to comparable nutrition from another.
There's little tested scientific evidence that vegetables are all that great.
Owsley concurs.
Lawler,
Don't you know that you're supposed to compost vegetable matter? You're not supposed to put it in the rubbish bin. You'll be fined if you do, just like if you put recyclables in the rubbish. Can't put those things in the landfills! /s
wv: immit
Well, if my kids won't eat their vegetables when I try, why should they do it when the government tries?
I didn't know Michelle Obama was pushing vegetables. Do I have to stop eating them now? I love vegetables.
Not doing things that the government proposes that are for our own good is of course a choice.
that choice separates into two columns: 1. I've thought it over and decided to go my own way, and 2. the government suggests it so my automatic response is "no".
One is healthy and perhaps the other not so much.
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