This is actually a great quote: “Freedom requires the death of our desires.” For example, we can free ourselves from slavery to fancy food through self-denial!
Wait. I'm so confused right now. Was is 1. the slave trade, 2. the Nazis or 3. the creation of the State of Israel?! Events 2 and 3 are somewhat self contradicting and are separated from event 1 by at least a century and half the world. Besides, photos and portraits from the time period show that none of the parties involved is/was particularly fat or skinny. Well, except the Jews at the Nazi camps...
Is this what she meant by "the Jewish body"? Someone help me out here.
I had similar questions when sitting at the talk. First Nazi invented fatness, then it was the slave trade. Where Nazi the first to realize the importance of fitness for military action? What's about the Romans? I think they need to dig deeper.
Unfortunately no. The students were asking many questions that had been given to them by profs in advance. They would say "my prof asked me to ask this..." And everyone was deferential to the speaker, stating what an honor it was to be in his presence.... Many had hands raised and it already 8:30pm, so I left... I regret now....
I bet that even if you tried they wouldn't let you ask any questions. They are not built for debate and they deliberately filled the time with pre-screened questions.
It is disturbing how quickly some speakers slipped into antisemitic tropes. This is the latest thing in the academic left, at least in its more radical expressions - and more and more seem to be radicalised. Surely someone should make a complaint about blaming the Jews for oppressing fat people. But then again, the Jews are behind everything! Who else got a gig? Alex Jones?
This rot, this toxicity, is so deep it’s hard to see how it has been permitted to flourish in academic institutions. But here it is.
It’s useful to examine the training of these speakers. It’s a combination of academic programs at universities and professional “development” programs offered by private sector DEI consulting firms for major corporations. So it’s not just academe but the private sector which has been infected by this virus.
This is profoundly disturbing. I am really fearful for science in the US now. There is just one teensy-weensy point I might agree with. Capitalism definitely is the origin of all the ads for GLP-1 drugs. Side effects are barely mentioned, but there are some, some serious. But I have an objection to drug commercials in general, and not because I'm anti-capitalist (I'm definitely not). I object because I think it makes doctors' and pharmacists' jobs harder by creating demand for drugs that might not be appropriate for everyone. The ads make the drugs sound so great and so harmless.
Yes, if they had raised this, it would be a fair point. But they didn't. The single comment on GLP-1 was that it makes fat people appear suicidal for wanting to remain fat....
Watching what passes for scholarship in academia, one does develop some sympathy for the solution the Khmer Rouge came up with to address academia's delusions.
I thought for a moment Tom Sharpe (British satirical novelist) had risen from the dead. But Muggeridge’s Law rules: no satirist can compete with real life for sheer absurdity. At this rate, humanity will soon drown in an ocean of derp and douchebaggery
I will present two quotes of the day. Extra points if you know them without using Google or ChatGPT.
Quote 1:“There is nothing, I think, more unfortunate than to have soft, chubby, fat-looking children who go to watch their school play basketball every Saturday and regard that as their week’s exercise.”
Quote 2: “One hundred and twenty years ago, when somebody was obese, they were sent to the circus.”
Amazing. It seems that all the idiocy of the other "Studies" disciplines (if one may call them disciplines) has leaked into this new "discipline." Perhaps the reductio ad absurdum factor will startle people enough to become more critical. (I doubt it.)
Needless to say, discourse like this is now all over the groves of academe. Here is an example from a Sociology department. " MSU Sociology Chair Dr. Carla Pfeffer has published a compilation of research relating to work on the social justice of fatness. Originally planned as a special issue of the journal Fat Studies, the book brings together “various pathways by which fat studies and activism have sought to create social change to better the lives of fat people and communities over time and across contexts, and the new directions that we might consider as we engage in the project of working toward fat social justice today.” "
If this trend continues, we may look forward to alcoholism social justice, drug addiction social justice, and perhaps even the discovery that curing a disease is colonialism. And isn't crime social justice already implicit in the "critical legal theory" found in some law schools?
These neomarxists are a danger to academia and sanity. And of course to science. Many like to criticize Trump for anything at all, but the fact is that the US is the only country effectively fighting the woke left.
Faculty and deans need to stand up against this movement. That takes courage, which is sorely lacking.
I think it is a huge error in judgement and science to ignore the context of nutrition and fat deposition. My lab has shown, for example that starving a mother rat results in obesity in the off-spring, and that that can be prevented by treating the mother with an anti-glucocorticoid (cortisol) [Sreekantha S, Wang Y, Sakurai R, Liu J, Rehan VK. Maternal food restriction-induced intrauterine growth restriction in a rat model leads to sex-specific adipogenic programming. FASEB J. 2020 Dec;34(12):16073-16085].
"Two years later, I decided to attend a second event, wondering whether the messaging had shifted in the age of Ozempic and following the 2024 elections."
Does the 2024 election reference refer to the idea that progressives might have other things to worry about, or an expectation of triumphalism after the election of a person of fatness?
It refers to the fact that the lack of trust in academic institutions became clear, and thus it was time to revisit the ideological capture. In some ways the 2020 peak ideology capture has decreased after the election: many DEI initiatives vanished and to some extent colleges responded (some returned SAT, some stopped segregated graduations etc). But this response was superficial - for parents to see - the core of many "studies" fields remains deeply ideological and I imagine they continue teaching these subjects in the classrooms (although the number of students in these majors has been decreasing).
This is actually a great quote: “Freedom requires the death of our desires.” For example, we can free ourselves from slavery to fancy food through self-denial!
Wait. I'm so confused right now. Was is 1. the slave trade, 2. the Nazis or 3. the creation of the State of Israel?! Events 2 and 3 are somewhat self contradicting and are separated from event 1 by at least a century and half the world. Besides, photos and portraits from the time period show that none of the parties involved is/was particularly fat or skinny. Well, except the Jews at the Nazi camps...
Is this what she meant by "the Jewish body"? Someone help me out here.
ARE YOU DEAF?!! Shut up and listen! Stop asking questions- it is literal violence!
I had similar questions when sitting at the talk. First Nazi invented fatness, then it was the slave trade. Where Nazi the first to realize the importance of fitness for military action? What's about the Romans? I think they need to dig deeper.
Did you ask it?
Unfortunately no. The students were asking many questions that had been given to them by profs in advance. They would say "my prof asked me to ask this..." And everyone was deferential to the speaker, stating what an honor it was to be in his presence.... Many had hands raised and it already 8:30pm, so I left... I regret now....
I bet that even if you tried they wouldn't let you ask any questions. They are not built for debate and they deliberately filled the time with pre-screened questions.
It is disturbing how quickly some speakers slipped into antisemitic tropes. This is the latest thing in the academic left, at least in its more radical expressions - and more and more seem to be radicalised. Surely someone should make a complaint about blaming the Jews for oppressing fat people. But then again, the Jews are behind everything! Who else got a gig? Alex Jones?
This rot, this toxicity, is so deep it’s hard to see how it has been permitted to flourish in academic institutions. But here it is.
It’s useful to examine the training of these speakers. It’s a combination of academic programs at universities and professional “development” programs offered by private sector DEI consulting firms for major corporations. So it’s not just academe but the private sector which has been infected by this virus.
Can we take some comfort from the fact that both panels were not very well attended?
This is profoundly disturbing. I am really fearful for science in the US now. There is just one teensy-weensy point I might agree with. Capitalism definitely is the origin of all the ads for GLP-1 drugs. Side effects are barely mentioned, but there are some, some serious. But I have an objection to drug commercials in general, and not because I'm anti-capitalist (I'm definitely not). I object because I think it makes doctors' and pharmacists' jobs harder by creating demand for drugs that might not be appropriate for everyone. The ads make the drugs sound so great and so harmless.
Fearful for science in the US? That's the one and only country giving the woke left a fight. I'm way more fearful for Canada, ...
If the US goes, it's over.
We're trying.
And doing pretty well, thank God.
Yes, if they had raised this, it would be a fair point. But they didn't. The single comment on GLP-1 was that it makes fat people appear suicidal for wanting to remain fat....
Reading this makes you think someone is making this up - that it’s all a silly satire.
I know… For that I added: “What I encountered may sound satirical, but it was not. The speakers were dead serious.”
Watching what passes for scholarship in academia, one does develop some sympathy for the solution the Khmer Rouge came up with to address academia's delusions.
I thought for a moment Tom Sharpe (British satirical novelist) had risen from the dead. But Muggeridge’s Law rules: no satirist can compete with real life for sheer absurdity. At this rate, humanity will soon drown in an ocean of derp and douchebaggery
I will present two quotes of the day. Extra points if you know them without using Google or ChatGPT.
Quote 1:“There is nothing, I think, more unfortunate than to have soft, chubby, fat-looking children who go to watch their school play basketball every Saturday and regard that as their week’s exercise.”
Quote 2: “One hundred and twenty years ago, when somebody was obese, they were sent to the circus.”
I cheated. Robert (2) and John F. Kennedy (1).
Amazing. It seems that all the idiocy of the other "Studies" disciplines (if one may call them disciplines) has leaked into this new "discipline." Perhaps the reductio ad absurdum factor will startle people enough to become more critical. (I doubt it.)
Needless to say, discourse like this is now all over the groves of academe. Here is an example from a Sociology department. " MSU Sociology Chair Dr. Carla Pfeffer has published a compilation of research relating to work on the social justice of fatness. Originally planned as a special issue of the journal Fat Studies, the book brings together “various pathways by which fat studies and activism have sought to create social change to better the lives of fat people and communities over time and across contexts, and the new directions that we might consider as we engage in the project of working toward fat social justice today.” "
If this trend continues, we may look forward to alcoholism social justice, drug addiction social justice, and perhaps even the discovery that curing a disease is colonialism. And isn't crime social justice already implicit in the "critical legal theory" found in some law schools?
I would like this timeline to shift to a less crazy timeline.
As loony as the 2024 event was, the 2026 one sounds even loonier. Not a good trend.
ofc the fat people convention is in Philadelphia
These neomarxists are a danger to academia and sanity. And of course to science. Many like to criticize Trump for anything at all, but the fact is that the US is the only country effectively fighting the woke left.
Faculty and deans need to stand up against this movement. That takes courage, which is sorely lacking.
Unfortunately, there are plenty of "convert wokeists" right here on HxSTEM. I am suddenly realizing this.
We are in big trouble.
I think it is a huge error in judgement and science to ignore the context of nutrition and fat deposition. My lab has shown, for example that starving a mother rat results in obesity in the off-spring, and that that can be prevented by treating the mother with an anti-glucocorticoid (cortisol) [Sreekantha S, Wang Y, Sakurai R, Liu J, Rehan VK. Maternal food restriction-induced intrauterine growth restriction in a rat model leads to sex-specific adipogenic programming. FASEB J. 2020 Dec;34(12):16073-16085].
Is "the context of nutrition and fat deposition" ignored though?
You might want to read the recent (2025) book by Kevin Hall (obesity researcher) and Julia Belluz (science journalist) on obsity today.
"Two years later, I decided to attend a second event, wondering whether the messaging had shifted in the age of Ozempic and following the 2024 elections."
Does the 2024 election reference refer to the idea that progressives might have other things to worry about, or an expectation of triumphalism after the election of a person of fatness?
It refers to the fact that the lack of trust in academic institutions became clear, and thus it was time to revisit the ideological capture. In some ways the 2020 peak ideology capture has decreased after the election: many DEI initiatives vanished and to some extent colleges responded (some returned SAT, some stopped segregated graduations etc). But this response was superficial - for parents to see - the core of many "studies" fields remains deeply ideological and I imagine they continue teaching these subjects in the classrooms (although the number of students in these majors has been decreasing).