(no subject)

[bitterlawngnome]

So an interesting concatenation in the last 24 hours.

Information correlating the consumption of diet sodas with weight gain and cardiovascular disease. It's interesting to speculate on whether there is causation, and which direction it goes. But of course the finger-wagging ... obviously it can't be the diet soda causing weight gain, it's just those gormless fat people making a meaningless gesture at weight loss.

Another wannabe-musclebear throwing around the usual crap about how fat people don't take care of themselves: @Crowderism: yep. there is just a lot of fat people crying out to use a gay label that justify a life without self care.

And this morning, someone repeating in all earnestness the myth about Mama Cass killing herself with gluttony. The cruel irony that she is remembered as binge-eating herself to death where actually she probably died as a result of trying to be thin.

Sometimes I visualise culture as a bloodstream, and these messages as toxins being excreted into it; and I try in my limited way to introduce antidotes. But some days, it feels hopeless.

Comments

[mellowtigger]

Wow, that bear-notbear is just so... wrong. I'll have to post about that sometime.

Yeah, memes are such a great metaphor too. All these little virus bits trying to replicate.

[brunorepublic.livejournal.com]

And this morning, someone repeating in all earnestness the myth about Mama Cass killing herself with gluttony. The cruel irony that she is remembered as binge-eating herself to death where actually she probably died as a result of trying to be thin.

That one kills me, and even though it makes me look like a giant smug douchebag, I always correct people whenever I hear it repeated.

There's a near-mirror of it in how we often hear that Karen Carpenter starved herself to death, but there's at least some truth to that: Karen was actually back to a healthy weight when she died, but the weight gain had been sudden, and her heart had been weakened from years of anorexia and thyroid medication abuse.

[auntysocial.livejournal.com]

Good for you for correcting people regarding Cass's death!

[canadad.livejournal.com]

Sigh. I'd heard of this Bear/Not bear thing, but never went there before (curse your hyperlinks!!). Awful, hate-promoting stuff.

[bitterlawngnome.livejournal.com]

is it real? is it a troll? whatever it is, it's toxic.

[fj.livejournal.com]

The current 'bear' is a guy that I know, lives in my neighborhood, goes to my gym. It feels weird to see him used this way.

[bitterlawngnome.livejournal.com]

it's incredibly disrespectful.

[dhpbear.livejournal.com]

I think he's got the word "Bear" confused with the word "hair" :)

[geometrician.livejournal.com]

The research is just the research. In this case, it describes a correlation and does not suggest that drinking diet soda causes obesity. The popular media grabs hold of it and makes it into something it is not. It becomes the word of the day, and the masses further twist it into something the study designers never intended.

[bitterlawngnome.livejournal.com]

I can't decide whose agenda it's serving ... it seems to exonerate HFC, which is a bit of a surprise and makes me very suspicious.

[detailbear.livejournal.com]

The fairly sane and conservative diabetes centre nutritionist I'm seeing has included caffeine as a substance to try to limit in my diet. I've been substituting with non-caffeinated as much as possible and this seems to have correlated with weight loss. I am falling asleep around 10 p.m. now, though.

I wouldn't be surprised if the HFCS manufacturers were supporting the research.

[bitterlawngnome.livejournal.com]

but don't you get up at like 6 AM or something? that would make 10 PM just about right ...

[detailbear.livejournal.com]

It's logical, but it just isn't right.

[bear-with-me.livejournal.com]

I keep wishing that someone would do a spoof website called "roids--not roids". I wonder how that website owner would feel about that.

[bitterlawngnome.livejournal.com]

well OK, see I don't think there's inherently anything wrong with wanting to look a certain way, and chemistry could be a part of making that happen; I see it as body mod in the same fashion as piercings or tats. but if someone started saying "untattoed people just don't give a damn about themselves" you'd know it was ridiculous without any further analysis, but somehow being fat is just the worst thing evar.

[progbear.livejournal.com]

There’s already a parody site. And deservedly so.

[bitterlawngnome.livejournal.com]

also
http://apium.tumblr.com/
and
http://portableporn.tumblr.com/post/7352760460
and
http://portableporn.tumblr.com/post/7045808623
and
http://portableporn.tumblr.com/post/6991666152
and
http://portableporn.tumblr.com/post/6987055878/devilbair-yay-ryan

[clever-doberman.livejournal.com]

I so appreciate your sensibilities at times like this.

[bukephalus.livejournal.com]

I shouldn't let it bother me, but that whole bear/not bear blog makes me crazy and did from the first nanosecond I saw it. What's next? Gay/not gay blog suggesting that if you're not hot, you're not gay? Sheer idiocy.

I shouldn't let it bother me. There are so many assholes out there.

[bitterlawngnome.livejournal.com]

I recommend mocking it.

[grandiva1968.livejournal.com]

But then we end up with "mocking/not mocking" tumblr pages…

[kevynjacobs.livejournal.com]

Ugh. That Bear/Not Bear site is vile.

[brass-cojones.livejournal.com]

First of all, fuck the idiot with the Bear, Not Bear site and fuck the other idiot who wrote the editorial in his bear mag or whatever it was about only hairy guys with muscles being bears. They're both fucktards. Bears are bears are bears!

Secondly, as far as I can tell there are two streams of thought relating to the diet soda issue. One is that the chemical sweetener increases systemic inflammation which contributes to blood vessel and organ damage and the other is that the fake sweetener still triggers insulin overproduction. Gods know what they are going to settle on. LOL

[grandiva1968.livejournal.com]

Semantic point:

I'd rather that neither of the fucktards ever be fucked again. Why should they have the fun of fucking?