My article on this site yesterday - about the poor and misguided agruments against Lifestyle Fascism muddying up the clear waters - brought out exactly the kind of thing I thought it would. People (unhealthy types, other libertarians who have written on the topic of lifestyle fascism, etc.) actually took it personally, as if it somehow applied to them, and them only, as if nothing else existed that could have brought me to writing such a thing.
First off, it ain't about you. Sorry to disappoint. Over the last couple of years I have observed tendencies of writers, bloggers, etc. toward thinking that eschewing government edicts, in regard to its exercise-and-eating nannyism, is somehow valiant even if it means they fill their body with pure junk and superglue themselves to the couch all day, every day. This somehow is equated with rebellion? Isn't it just being lazy and noncommitted?
One reader brought up a great point, and that is that the state and the medical establishment share a common goal: to empower themselves at the expense of the poor, little peoples that they purport to want to "save" from themselves. One of the most obvious scams going on right now is the whole cholesterol swindle. It seems EVERYONE is on statins, with Lipitor being passed out like candy on Halloween night. I know people in their 30s and 40s being put on this crap - because their cholesterol was "supposedly" high - but they don't even question it. They don't look for flaws in the Dr.'s judgment nor do they seek alternatives to lowering cholesterol. They don't even bother to research whether or not their cholesterol is really at a level that should cause them alarm. They say "ok," go pick up the prescription, and there they are, starting their lifetime of filling the medicine cabinet with myriad drugs - and they don't even know why the heck they are taking them. They get sucked in to the mainstream medical establishment's drug-o-rama, and by the time they are 65 or 70, the only thing they can talk about is their prescription drug habit, because that's all they know and live by.
Hoodwinks like this are ignored by the public.
The fast-growing, multi-billion dollar business for cholesterol drugs is considered one of the most lucrative in the healthcare industry. Ryan of Deutsche Bank North America estimates the cholesterol industry at $25 billion. The dominating drug in this industry - and the world's top seller - is Lipitor from Pfizer, with $12.2 billion in 2005 sales.
Merck's blockbuster Zocor, which reduces LDL, also makes up a large chunk of that industry, but not for much longer. Zocor sales totaled $4.4 billion in 2005, but the drug loses patent protection June 23, and generic competition will cause sales to plunge by as much as 80 percent. Merck is trying to discover prospective blockbusters that could help fill the impending sales vacuum.
There you go......state patent protection, the AMA medical establishment, the government-pharmaceutical corporatocracy: what a great, pro-individual choice, pro-accountability, pro-health bunch that is!
The sheeple are right on board with whatever their Doc tells them. But, while cholesterol is the hot topic and cash cow (and supposedly our fast train to death), Merck stands to cash in big time, as analysts are predicting annual sales of $1 billion for the sale of this garbage. Merck will use junk science to support its fashionable claim, Big Guv will grant the patent, and millions will swarm to take it blindly.
The truth is, those in the medical corporatocracy want to see you sick and unhealthy. That's how you empower them and make them all bloody rich. It's no surprise that some of the most heroic people that fight the state and its worshippers on this issue are the nutritionists, bodybuilders, holistic doctors, chiropractors, and even those that make use of performance-enhancing products (and I don't necessarily mean just steroids). In other words, the healthy crowd, or at least those that strive for same.
Indeed, the medical corporatocracy wants to crush all of the above that dare to fight back. They want their cattle sickly, penned up, and taking their zillions of drugs, without a means to fight back.
As a pro-freedom advocate, you carry a gun to ward off both criminals and state tyranny, so why wouldn't you want to carry a strong body to defend yourself against the statist, tyrannical establishment that wants to see you both unarmed and unhealthy?