LIBERTY, EQUALITY, OBESITY

by Colin Liddell

The global economic crisis that has mired the world since 2008 can't be that bad as obesity seems to be everywhere on the increase. Recently the data agency Eurostat pointed out what we have long unchivalrously known, namely that Britain has the fattest women in Europe.

In the survey of 19 countries, British men were runners-up to tiny Malta, which, with its fatties and the large number of African invaders landing on its shores daily, must be in danger of sliding Atlantis-like into the sea.

The report declared that 24% of British women and 22% of men were classed as obese, and suggested that the UK should be eating five billion fewer calories a day.

Now, health issues like this are never neutral. They are political footballs, and the Left has been skilful in the past at spinning health issues their way. Obesity, starvation, anorexia nervosa, bulimia, and whatever are all presented as the result of the dominion of the evil White oligarchy with its toxic racism, sexism, and general all-round nastiness.

It is of course the duty of the Right to unspin them.

Starting with starvation, although the Left would love to blame any famine in the World on the haves refusing to share with the have-nots, leftist attempts to redistribute food have caused some of the most disastrous famines on the planet, even in places that were once considered bread baskets like the Ukraine and Zimbabwe.

The world's starvation belt today runs through Africa, and although this was not solely caused by left-wing lunacies, it was probably exacerbated by them, starting with premature decolonization, White genocide, statist attempts at economic control, and carpet bombing the area with Western aid. Without all this Africa would still have its problems, but would undoubtedly be better off than it is today.

As for bulimia, anorexia nervosa, or any other eating disorder associated with women, the Left invariably manages to link these to our inherently sexist society, with women – the poor dears – driven to diet, puke, and starve themselves in a desperate attempt to fit the apparent preferences of misogynist males for women who look like they've just emerged from a concentration camp. Strange, then, that these illnesses only came into fashion following women's lib in the 1960s.

Modern western society's emphasis on pushing women away from the family into the wider society, where image becomes an issue, and the endless pornographization of our culture ("bitches gotta look good nekkid"), both leftist initiatives, seem to be at the heart of these phenomena.

Next obesity: Traditionally associated with extreme exploitation that enables a parasitical ruling class to feast till it bursts, the Left might have been onto something here – if they had been around in the Babylonian Empire or even Georgian England! But as a modern phenomenon, this is something the Left is not in a position to critique as obesity has their fingerprints and stretch marks all over it.

In the USA, it is of course the most welfared demographics – namely Blacks and Red Indians – that suffer the most from this Leftist blessing, but even among the general population the Left's cultural celebration of low self-esteem and reluctance to criticize and mock no doubt gives fatties yet another reason to supersize, bargain bucket, and pig out.

In the case of the UK, now confirmed as the EU lardass champs, the rise in obesity has been marked. Back in 1980, only 6% of men and 8% of women were obese; twenty years later the figures were both 21%; and today, while male obesity seems to be levelling off, female obesity continues to surge.

A combination of welfare and immigration seems to be the main driver in the UK, with the 1980s marking the establishment of a large underclass of the permanently unemployed, made possible by leftist largesse and waves of immigrant labour to do the jobs abandoned by the underclass.

A YouGov survey from last year, using average Body Mass Index, found that people living in the East Midlands (BMI 28.9) are the fattest in the UK, with Scotland a close second (28.4).

While Scotland fits very well into the pattern of welfare obesity – it has long had high long-term unemployment and a larger than average percentage of public-sector-generated jobs (many of which can be viewed as merely another form of welfare) – the East Midlands does not. The reason probably has something to do with the large number of South Asians now living in cities like Leicester, which is well on its way to becoming the first city in Britain not to have a white British majority.

Obesity - along with diabetes - especially affects South Asian women who, in accord with their traditional values, lead relatively inactive lives outside the home, but have had trouble adapting to the high calorie society of the West.

Health data inevitably opens up arguments like this about all manner of things considered taboo in the multicultural state. The absurd way in which government departments skirt around such issues was demonstrated in a survey by the Department of Health last year, which claimed that men and women are equally likely to be obese and that there was no obvious connection between obesity and income, despite data to the contrary.

Dividing those surveyed into five equal groups based on household incomes, they found that the percentages of obese people from poorest to richest to be as follows: 23%, 27%, 24%, 22%, and 20%. Although there is a clear downward progression from the 4th richest quintile to the richest one, the poorest group does not fit into this simple scheme, allowing a tenuous claim to be made delinking income and obesity. However, once gender is introduced things become more interesting.

The middle three groups show obesity rates of men and women almost equal. However, the poorest group shows high female obesity with much lower male obesity (28% vs. 18%), while the richest group reverses this pattern (16% for women and 23% for men). This is basically the old-fat-rich-guy-with-young-slim-wife in graph form, something the Department of Health was reluctant to flag up.

The poorest fifth is of course the most welfared group. No doubt many of its members are part of the long-term unemployed. So, why doesn't it show a higher obesity rate for males? There are a number of reasons for this. Income is traditionally tied to age, with incomes rising as people get older. The poorest group is therefore also probably the youngest and yet to develop its full quota of obesity. Some of them may also be low-paid, hard-working immigrants (Eastern Europe), or recent waves of 'refugees' (Third World) who are still at or near their entry weight, although this is sure to change. Another factor is smoking, which is particularly effective in counteracting weight gain and which is much higher among poor working class Whites.

In its essence obesity is a symptom of dislocation that is caused by left-wing policies: Blacks and Red Indians on White guilt welfare; South Asian housewives unable to deal with the land of plenty; the White working class turned into a welfare class or employed in public-sector-financed sinecure jobs that leave plenty of time for snacking; all backed up by an indulgent culture where "Black is beautiful," "gay is good," "fat is fabulous," and anybody who trains like a Spartan is a Nazi.