Posted 10/22/2004 09:25:00 PM by Douglas

I finally got around to watching a movie the blog has railed about in the past, Super Size Me, and while I stand by my original assessment that Morgan Spurlock is an unscrupulous media-whore, the movie, in a rather disingenuous manner, really paints a truly disturbing portrait of American culture. If you want to call it that.

Ok, we're all fat. McDonald's is everywhere. We get it. It's really a sad commentary for our country, that we're so obsessed with not only receiving instant gratification from food, but it has to be cheap, as well. Hence the "value" meal and the super-sizes that it spawned. The problem, which is totally obvious to the most casual observer, is that Americans are a victim of their own success, with no limits of how much they can consume. There was a part in the film when a guy (from Houston, natch) was getting gastric bypass surgery and describing how he went blind one day from diabetes. Then he confessed that he drinks "three or four 2-liters of soda-water" a day. Two freakin' gallons of Coke a day. How could anyone do that and live to tell about it?

What I find extremely disturbing about the media-whore's underlying subtext of his film is that it's somehow McDonald's fault that we're all hopelessly obese. Does McDonald's serve 40 Million people world wide every single day because the Broccoli council can't compete with McDonald's advertising budget? Of course not, but you're led to believe that from the movie. School kids are brain-washed by commercials to eat burgers and Pepsi, and there's nothing we can do about it.

To believe this, you not only have to believe that there's no such thing as personal responsibility anymore (which, as we all know, went out the window in 1998 with the historic Tobacco settlement), and believe that we, as Americans no longer possess free will. Of course I'm fat because of McDonald's! Have you seen their commercial for the new McGriddle?

The libertarian in me sees this as a very simple market issue. McDonald's are everywhere because everyone goes there. But then again, McDonald's is a victim of its own success, too, so is the government going to shut them down and open up a vegan falafel stand on every corner? Geez, I hope not, but considering what happened to the tobacco companies, McDonald's should be worried.

It's no irony that the "anti-fat" litigation sprang forth from the tobacco settlement. It's just a matter of time, I'm afraid. Since you claim it's McDonald's advertising that's responsible for making you fat, does that mean that the lack of advertising from sunscreen makers are at fault for making you sunburned? Hmmmmm.

I'm sure some bored attorney somewhere has already thought of this angle.