If you find honey, eat just enough—
too much of it, and you will vomit
Proverbs 25:16
CNN, hardly a paragon of veracity and journalistic integrity, has sunk to a new and comic low. In all their wisdom, they’ve determined that complimenting someone on recent weight loss is problematic. To wit:
“If your friend has recently lost weight, you might want to tell her how great she looks. Maybe you also say that you wish you had her body or self-control or you ask her how she did it. Perhaps you’ve been on the receiving end of such a “compliment” in the past.
Such comments are well meaning but can have unintended negative consequences.
If somebody said to me, “Oh my gosh, you look great. You’ve lost some weight,” I would find myself thinking, “What did you think of me beforehand? Was I not acceptable?” I could imagine the pressure the receiver would then feel to maintain the lower weight or lose more weight to receive more praise or be accepted. They might think, “What about me and the essence of who I am as a human being?” There are both physical consequences and significant psychological consequences that get perpetuated.”
This deserves a few observations.
First, CNN, being the mouthpiece of the modern left, hates virtue. They like vice. They like what’s easy and they detest, as a matter of consequence, anything that requires discipline. Losing weight is hard indeed. It takes sacrifice. It requires time. Anyone who’s ever been on a diet knows how slow time moves. It seems like weight came on in a matter of days but melts off in agonizing weeks and months. And more than that, it takes something that woke leftists hate more than anything else in the whole world: the denial of instant gratification.
Instant gratification is what good parents are supposed to teach their beloved children to avoid. A child, Proverbs teaches us, that isn’t disciplined, isn’t loved. In other words, we “hate” our children when we don’t give them the disciplined guidance they need. And they need guidance because immaturity makes it hard to see consequences that won’t come for days, maybe even years.
Second, the theology of the time is that “you’re god.” That’s the metaphysic of our time and the ethic that proceeds from this is hedonism. Follow the logic of CNN and you see hedonism at the foundation. This is the thing to know whenever you end up debating a modern leftist. You aren’t debating a particular point – in this case, weight loss. You’re debating their worldview, which is self-worship and hedonism. These things form the basis of everything else they think.
Of course, self-indulgence, which is what hedonism is, leads to dissipation. The virtues of self-control, patience, work-ethic and delaying gratification/consumption are the keys to long term stability and freedom. No person or nation can be independent if they’re consistently self-indulgent. Like a child, that person will need support. A self-indulgent, irresponsible young adult will need to live in Mommy’s basement. Or they might be a trust-fund kid. Just as with the individual, so with the nation. Hedonists need a basement from Mommy – and this is why wokesters love Big Government. They need someone to foot the bill for their vices.
You’d think that people who claim to be so independent wouldn’t want a nanny-state but that presupposes that the left actually wants independence. They don’t. What they want is indulgence without consequence. Independence requires responsibility and discipline, just like fitness, requires us to forego life’s desserts. Virtue leads to self-reliance; vice leads dependence. Discipline gives a man or woman power and freedom; sloth and indulgence produce shame and servitude. People don’t want to hear this in the same way that the fool despises correction (Proverbs 12:1). They want consumption without the personal responsibility of labor and savings to fuel that consumption. Listen to leftists talk about any social/political/ethical subject and you’ll notice this undercurrent. Leftism is a philosophy of complaint because it’s built upon the ethic of hedonism. It explains why those who say they desire personal freedom clamor for a Big State.
It all comes down to personal responsibility.
This is why CNN tells you that congratulating a person who put in the hard work to lose weight (assuming they did it logically) is wrong. Because they have an ethic of hedonism, they’re pulled to champion vice (in this case, gluttony) and not achievement. Obesity is a great killer. An obese person is likely to suffer from up to 70 different chronic health conditions. Yes, seventy. Obesity is unhealthy in the extreme and anyone who cares about you would never suggest that being obese is a good thing.
A rational and moral culture should and must extol the virtues of discipline because without it there’s no freedom. The great lie of CNN is that they make a virtue of modern pharmaceuticals (dependence), while shaming those who champion a good diet and consistent exercise. Modern dependence upon pharmaceuticals is appalling in light of how healthy lifestyle choices (diet and exercise that don’t cost billions and come replete with all sorts of side effects) mitigate against so many health conditions. For proof of their moral insanity and intellectual deceit simply look at how CNN views a fit person who has natural immunity against COVID (via previous infection) and refuses the mRNA vaccine.
CNN and its ideological allies preach science, science, science because they hope pharmaceuticals can stave off death.
The philosophy of hedonism causes us to love the things that destroy us and attack the discipline and self-control that make our lives orderly and beautiful. The philosophy of hedonism suppresses the fact that vice is an enslaver so, in order to perpetuate the lie, it encourages the oppression of others to maintain an irresponsible lifestyle.
Hedonism is at the root of this CNN head-scratcher. It’s at the root of our so-called culture war too because once you accept the lie that the world owes you something you must necessarily begin to look for ways to control your neighbor. In this case, make him celebrate obesity by switching the moral poles.
Now we note, because we must, that the CNN advocate will try and twist this blog. They’ll say that what they really mean is that we shouldn’t make fun of obese people or dehumanize them. That’s both a straw-man and an ad hominem. We’ve argued for nothing of the sort and it’s a slander to suggest that we have. We’ve merely responded to the proclamation they made. We’ve merely said that, no, obesity isn’t good and weight loss is better than being overweight. We’ve merely said that congratulations is in order for someone who’s displayed the character to take weight off because they’ve improved their health. To respond by saying that we now need to swear off making fun of or belittling an overweight person is intellectually dishonest since that wasn’t the topic.
This goes to show you how good some people are at deceit.
Love your neighbor as you love yourself. That’s everyone.
And love rejoices in truth, not lies. And it’s a lie to say that rejoicing in someone’s discipline and newfound health is a bad thing.
Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20
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