The Big Picture: Arch-Villains

[thethingthatlurks]

Indeed, we are in agreement here. The concept of "obesity epidemic" bugs me to be honest. An epidemic is first and foremost a widespread disease, which obesity quite ostensibly is not. Yes, you could say that any widespread negative occurrence is also an epidemic, but then you're going to inadvertently end up comparing faux orange tans to polio. *sigh* stupid dumbass parents and idiotic people who would rather eat cheap greasy food than spend half an hour cooking something healthy. Whatever, we've already beaten natural selection, might as well completely self destruct as a species...

And I've never seen ads for Joe Camel. 'course, I grew up in Europe, where cigarets are sold in vending machines on street corners.

 

[Mr. Omega]

That guy who did the movie "Super Size Me" said a statement (I'm paraphrasing because it's been a while since I saw that movie) that sums up everything I think is wrong with the "fast food causes obesity" arguement: "At what point does personal accountability stop?"

Here's my answer: It doesn't.

YOU decided you wanted to have McDonald's
YOU decided to go get in your car and drive to that McDonald's.
YOU decided to go to the cashier or ordering thing at the drive through.
YOU decided to order a Big Mac and Large fries.
YOU decided to pay for that meal and then eat it all.
And YOU decided to do this over and over again.

And you know what? At any point during this process, you could have decided "You know what? I'll have a salad."

As for the "Kids whose parents feed them nothing but McDonald's" thing, I agree with Bob.

Good episode. Looking forward to next week.

 

[kab040]

Is it strange that now I have a craving for McDonald's?

 

[Orekoya]

How is it McDonalds fault? I watch plenty of child programming from time to time and haven't seen a single kiddie commercial with Ronald and his gang in at least half a decade.

 

[castlewise]

I have an idea for future episodes. I remember a write up where Moviebob said that the role of the critic was not to inform a person whether to see a movie or not, but to provide an analysis and that oftentimes a review is better read after you see the movie....

So I present, retro reviews. I would love to see Moviebob review a movie like Lord of the Rings or Blade Runner. He kind of already does this with the obscure movies and anime, but it would also be fun to see that applied to really classic titles.

 

[ssManae]

To a small extent, this calls for some Munroe: http://xkcd.com/603/

This is one of those sorts of debates that's just a powder keg. As Bob said, it's not black and white. You can take it a hundred different directions, such as deeper economic issues that lead to people eating more unhealthy foods, lifestyle issues leading to more sedentary lifestyles, et cetera et cetera. With the added fun that every side of the political spectrum has their own view on it and will put their fingers in their ears before listening to someone else's.

 

[MovieBob]

The food is cheap and thus low earning parents buy it. Its a shame, but thats life.

I've never entirely bought into that version of the argument. Fast Food is NOT automatically cheaper than food that's better for you. Water costs less than soda, as far as I've been aware a few days worth of rice, vegetables, etc. generally costs less or not much more than that same days worth of fast food - at least in terms of what's needed to sustain true hunger and/or malnutrition - that sort of thing.

The only advantage fast food has is that it's CONVENIENT, re: someone else is making it, and kids want it more than they want healthy food; and that second one is, frankly, "comes with the job" stuff for rearing children.

 

[KingGolem]

I'm right with you again, Bob. McDonald's is fine unless you eat it every damn day with no exercise. There's one thing I'm surprised you didn't bring up: McDonalds' sponsorship of all these "get active" campaigns. Pretty much every time I've seen Ronald McDonald on TV these days he's been playing with kids outdoors. That, and they like to put a spin on their food. They sure like to trot out those apple dippers and milk jugs. Anyway, I think everyone knows McDonalds as a whole isn't good for you, but it's not nearly as dangerous as tobacco, and you ought to know better than to eat too much of it.

 

[DevilWolf47]

I'm not so sure the Joe Camel comparison is entirely inappropriate. Some items sold in fast food restaurants are literally habit forming, but on the other hand i'm hardly in a position to criticize. For as much as i advocate the "Learn to cook healthy meals yourself you lazy fuck" argument, work rarely leaves time for cooking, gaming, and taking care of my two pets, my dog and my girlfriend, so i've often given to the dark temptations of Taco Bell or Chinese takeout. I would never go to McDonalds, i hate McDonalds, but yeah... on Rapture my girlfriend and i threw a small party on the off-chance the religious fundamentalists were right and we would finally get to settle a bet of whether or not the horseman Pestilence would cause a zombie apocalypse or if it would be a multi-cataclysm apocalypse like in 2012. We ordered pizza.

But you did hit one nail on the head, mind you the nail was the size of a fucking barn, and that is that the problem isn't so much with the kids being given copious amounts of money that they spend on McDonalds binges but with parents who never make the time to learn to make better choices with their kids diets, and merely being 50% genetically similar to the child and having pumped out the poor gargoyle does not make you an authority on that child's well being. But my hatred of stupid parents has been one deeply ingrained for a while, so i might be biased against the stupid fucking bastards who think fucking without protection and dealing with nine months of concentrated agony somehow magically grants them the knowledge of how to handle kids. But... yeah. In the end you're right. Personal responsibility of the parents needs to come into play. Parents who feed their kids that slop shouting at the clown is like a smack addict shouting at a poppy farmer who never once told the user to stick the needle in his arm. It's like the people who rage against Wal-Mart despite being regular Wal-Mart customers.

 

[Kursura]

That was a very interesting episode though it would have been better if you finished by blaming Johnny Depp for encouraging piracy.

 

[Random Argument Man]

I honeslty thought this was gonna be about Kefka when I read "We have met the enemy, and he is a clown."

But....good point

Also

"blame Master Chief for the lack of civility in online play," You seem to be doing that all the time.

I hate to be that guy but...

 

[Roberto416]

All I have to say is: The Media needs a scapegoat...and apparently McDonald's is IT for obesity.

Watching this video feels like that time when the newspaper said you can't (or can) have eggs because high cholesterol will lead to risks of heart attacks (...or not).

Remember just to take things in moderation.

 

[J.McMillen]

Actually eating fast food (even regularly) doesn't make you fat. There's a guy in Wisconsin who has averaged two Big Macs a day for the last 39 years and doctors say he's actually in good shape. If you don't believe me http://news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20110517/us_ac/8488959_25000_big_mac_gobbler_chews_holes_in_disciplined_dieting_1

As for the whole Joe Camel thing, it got blown way out of proportion. What happened was a survey was done among children and more of them were able to recognize Joe Camel over Micky Mouse. Of course the fact that, at the time, Micky Mouse hadn't been in a cartoon in decades and not everyone had access to the Disney channel was never brought up. But all the adults out there couldn't seem to get that there had been no real effort to expose children to Micky in years. I'm sure more kids would have recognized Barney or the Power Rangers over Joe but the survey was biased against the tobacco industry.

 

[Sylocat]

Cigarettes are also a special case, because of secondhand smoke.

Secondhand smoke, while not quite as dangerous as, you know, firsthand smoke, is dangerous in its own right, and yes, it is possible to get sick, or even to die, from spending too much time in the vicinity of a person who has a lethal habit that you cannot control. That sort of flies in the face of natural selection, since it can lead to death from circumstances outside your own control.

Now, as for fast food... I agree 1000% on your denigration of parental "expertise" and your complaints about personal responsibility. However, there are some untold sides to this: Namely, the fact that the primary reason the rainforests are getting clearcut is to make pasture to raise cows for McDonalds hamburgers.

 

[Drakmeire]

The only thing worse than companies telling you do buy something is the organizations that tell you not to do something.
The D.A.R.E program was and is a complete mess for this reason. Studies have shown that the program itself, which warned of the dangers of drugs and how to avoid peer pressure, actually increased the amount of schoolchildren that used illicit substances since it was basically telling them that "Everyone uses drugs and you should avoid them" which gave kids lowered self-esteem and more willing to give into peer pressure since they felt like outcasts.
Good job with that one guys.

 

[370999]

I agree with Bob here. Leaving alone his digs at some of the usual targets, his theme that their is a degree of responsibility that should be present when looking after children is true and I agree with it. People shouldn't be sheep, I'm pretty sure that it is not at all ahrd to find out that McDonalds isn't where you eat every day.

 

[NotR]

Yes, alot of the ignorance we have in our society today actually emerges from the competitive individualistic nature of the environment, wherein all elements are seen as assets, the sole purpose of which is to contribute to the validation and preservation of the element. It is the plague of the unenlightened, where the involantary and externaly embeded conflicts of the mind are passed off as part of the "identity", further supported by the stratification imposed throughout this self-diversifying ecosystem. In the end, the natural gravity of all within the universe to the illumination of its unite nature is distorted, its remnants deep within consciousness and the illusion of identity endorsed by our forming within today's society promoting a worldview of intellectual materialism. "There is only a choice, between fear and love" (-Bill Hicks).

Anyway, that is my penny in terms of proceeding on the path of causality in relevance to this issue.

And I actually enjoyed the new Pirates of the Caribbean. :<

 

[Schmittler]

It should be the parents fault, but like Bob said, the easiest "solution" in most peoples' eyes is removing McDonalds. Unfortunately, you can't fix stupid. Those parents are going to continue to feed their children McDonalds practically every day because it is easiest for them.

Although I don't think Ronald McDonald should be removed from the company, I guess I wouldn't mind seeing the Happy Meal Toys gone. When I was a child I wanted to go to McDonald's simply because they had awesome toys.

I worked at McDonalds for over a year, it's really sad to see children come in and get huge meals and a shake to drink. Once again, the parents could prevent this, but that won't happen. If it's an adult ordering that, I could care less, that's a conscious choice, but children really don't know better.

 

[Evil Alpaca]

I agree with the aspects of personal responsibility aspects of the episode. There are always going to be unhealthy habits and people need to be aware enough to recognize that certain habits are going to be harmful in excess.

Also it should be pointed out that cigarettes are also different from fast food in that no one ever became hooked on cheeseburgers. (No, the munchies don't count)

My one complaint about the episode is the mention of natural selection. It really bugs me when people talk about such social theories in the context of Darwinism. Darwin's Theory of evolution does not state that people, animals, or any other organisms are progressing to some sort of super being or ultimate stage of evolution. Its mainly about a species reacting to its environment

 

[MB202]

I loved this episode, good call.

The only thing I didn't like was the last thing you mentioned. Yeah, I saw the new Pirates movie, and... Well, I liked it. Maybe I don't see enough movies to see how much better it could have been, but aside from the convoluted story and motivations of characters and Blackbeard's undefinable powers, I rather enjoyed it.