Did you know that the term "obesity" was founded based on "cow math" created by "Western" white men seeking to colonize indigenous people in their "anti-blackness" by making society "fatphobic?"
If you didn't, then this person is more than willing to educate you:
If you're still confused, here's the full transcript of what this TikTok user named Eli just said:
"The 'obesity epidemic' isn't real, and it shouldn't be an anti-capitalist talking point. When someone unironically references the 'obesity epidemic' or even uses the word 'obesity,' it tells me they really don't know what they're talking about when it comes to fatness.
The use of the word 'obesity' stems directly from the BMI, which was created by a eugenicist with no medical training who only based the scale on white bodies and cow math.
Fatness is not an 'epidemic.'
Fat people existed before capitalism and before colonization. Fatphobia is a direct result of anti-blackness, and it has deadly consequences for many groups of indigenous folks and other POC as well as fat people. When you make the 'obesity epidemic' a real symptom of capitalism, you are not only ostracizing fat folks from anti-capitalist thinking, but also actively ignoring that the health outcomes related to 'obesity' are more accurately attributed to food deserts and fatphobic discrimination in healthcare.
The 'obesity epidemic' was created by Western medicine to avoid addressing the actual causes of health inequality, which is what we as anti-capitalists should be doing."
Credit where credit is due: Eli uses pretty much every term in the Leftist playbook except for "toxic masculinity," including:
- Anti-capitalist
- Capitalism
- Unironically
- Colonization
- "____ Desert"
- Anti-Blackness
- -Phobic
- Discrimination
- POC
- Indigenous
The point this person seems to be making is two-fold. First, that obesity has not had a drastic rise with severe implications for our health systems.
Second, that "anti-capitalists" apparently use the rise in obesity as evidence for the problems of the excessive wealth created by said capitalism (darn all that flourishing and prosperity!), and that "anti-capitalists" shouldn't use the term "obese" because it is colonialist, racist, and wrong.
Instead, this person argues that the real force driving obesity in America are "food deserts," which is a real brain scratcher.
Of course, because Eli lives in a free country, Eli is able to enjoy an abundance of cheap food, get medical treatments for anti-scientific beliefs, and voice Eli's opinions on Eli's smartphone through a worldwide network of interconnected telecom companies and devices.
