I want to better understand the "Crunchy MAGA" right wing wellness phenomenon

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Biden should have ordered an immediate, full-throated ban on all gas and diesel vehicles the moment he was inaugurated. No exceptions.

Such a missed opportunity! Now look where we are.

Not a Biden fan, but he was a lot smarter than you.

[Anonymous]

RFK Jr has some things in common with MAGA, but isn’t really MAGA. He and MAGA are both prone to conspiracy theories because they’re out of step with the predominant culture and looking for explanations to fit their worldviews. I think RFK Jr would love to have been embraced by the Democratic Party, but he wasn’t so he got in bed with the people were willing to treat him like a credible person. He’s not part of Trump’s administration because he’s closely aligned with Trump’s views; he’s here because this is the only administration that would elevate him to this level and he’s in his 70s. He doesn’t have a lot of time left to reach new professional heights. Although I don’t doubt that he hopes he can help Americans get healthier, this isn’t about altruism. The man has an enormous ego and appetite for influence.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a crunchy wellness person. I'm a vegan, I live in Takoma Park, grow a lot of my own food, and I do yoga. I am vaccinated but skeptical of Big Pharma, I tend to use medications as a last resort if lifestyle modifications don't work.

I want to learn more about the people who agree with Trump and RFK's MAHA movement. I'm trying to make this a friendly question although I can't help but point out the logical inconsistencies.

For example - you want to get chemicals out of food and water - me too! So why do you vote for the party that wants to deregulate industries?
You're skeptical of Big Pharma - me too! But do you think Republicans don't take donations from pharmaceutical companies?

What about the environment? Most yogis that I practice with are very cognizant of climate change and sustainability and protecting wildlife. I would also agree with criticisms from the right about the global scale climate initiatives being a lot of feel-good greenwashing, and that wealthy elites are hypocrites when they fly on private jets to a climate conference. So does this mean throw the baby out with the bathwater and Drill, Baby, Drill? And allow corporations to pollute everything?

I also agree that obesity is a problem and that we should eat healthier. Again, why do you feel Republicans are the people to make this happen? Especially when their standard-bearer is obese himself? To be quite frank, a lot of this attitude I'm seeing seems to be less about Make America Healthy Again, but more making it an individualistic superiority complex about shaming people without the resources to live healthier (they live in food deserts, have long commutes and sit at multiple jobs all day, cannot afford a single family home to have their own gardens, etc) and bragging about your own ability to be healthy, rather than enabling the (gasp) government to make it easier for people to be healthy?

Why do you ask insulting/skewed questions as if you can't figure the answers out for yourself? Skip it, no one cares, and we aren't going to enlighten you.

[Anonymous]

One MAGA in my feed said she voted for RFK Jr because he would "get big pharma out of the FDA" - meaning that when industry insiders are part of the governing approval board, they can spin safety statistics to their own benefit.

I find this so ironic considering the administration is all about industry insiders in the EPA, deregulating to their benefit, and spinning safety statistics to their own benefit (while we all get cancer and more from PFAs in our drinking water, farming soil, and environmental exposures).

Utterly ironic from administration who states they want to increase our birthrate, all while PFA exposure is well established to decrease fertility.

[Anonymous]

This white reggae singer on IG seems to capture the crunchy-MAGA overlap.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DH8Xj3GuyDB/?igsh=MTcwM3B6dGNqem5teQ==

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DHOcj-5Ofp0/?igsh=YW91OXVtZzQ1MHQ5

It’s almost Dadaist in its absurdity.

[Anonymous]

There is a middle ground for any topic of what we know versus what we don’t and choosing to move on the direction of that which is likely to have the most benefit while also still having some negatives. This is what the whole green energy and eco-conscious movements are about. However, within and swirling about any movement are folks seeking to make a buck the quickest and fastest way possible with little to no care about who or what gets hurt.

Example: We can all agree that foreign dependence on oil is not a great thing. Doesn’t mean we should not have any oil trade just means that we should have some other options. Solution: Slowly move towards different methods of energy. Also, acknowledge the environmental downsides of oil and ensure the new methods create energy with less environmental impact while opening up different markets domestically and abroad.

The same is true for wellness. How food is produced, shipped, stored, and available needs to change as part of address American overall health. But that doesn’t mean that women need to go back to the idea of barefoot and pregnant. It does mean we need to acknowledge healthy work life balance. It does mean we need to evaluate community systems. It does mean we need to acknowledge how we’ve marginalized communities in the name of others thriving.

You have to be working towards a more perfect union for ALL and not just one.

[Anonymous]

Hey OP, eating healthier has nothing to do with lack of money or education.

It is LITERALLY aout passing the vegetable aisle and going for the Twinkies. It's a lack of will power by the individual.

No amount of money or government indoctrination will fix that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:None of it makes any sense.

MAGA and RFK should be polar opposites. RFK wants MORE govt intervention while they is the anithesis of that.

How can you MAHA if you allow PFAS and microplastics in everything because you gut the EPA? Makes zero sense.

Watch the show Apple Cider Vinegar on Netflix. The whole wellness industry is a cancer. It sells people snake oil. It doesn't matter if they're libs or MAHA, the wellness industry sells people what they want to hear. It's all super scary and devoid of any science.

I agree that the wellness industry is full of predators. MAGA is NOT about less government intervention! It wants to force more women to give birth, force religion, ban LGBTQ, force schools to stop admitting minorities and stop teaching history, ban books, and basically legislate white Christian nationalism into the culture. It’s insanely big government. Where MAGA gives its leaders a pass is in removing any government protections for individuals from corporations so corporations make more money.

Ma’am your tinfoil hat has fallen off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a crunchy wellness person. I'm a vegan, I live in Takoma Park, grow a lot of my own food, and I do yoga. I am vaccinated but skeptical of Big Pharma, I tend to use medications as a last resort if lifestyle modifications don't work.

I want to learn more about the people who agree with Trump and RFK's MAHA movement. I'm trying to make this a friendly question although I can't help but point out the logical inconsistencies.

For example - you want to get chemicals out of food and water - me too! So why do you vote for the party that wants to deregulate industries?
You're skeptical of Big Pharma - me too! But do you think Republicans don't take donations from pharmaceutical companies?

What about the environment? Most yogis that I practice with are very cognizant of climate change and sustainability and protecting wildlife. I would also agree with criticisms from the right about the global scale climate initiatives being a lot of feel-good greenwashing, and that wealthy elites are hypocrites when they fly on private jets to a climate conference. So does this mean throw the baby out with the bathwater and Drill, Baby, Drill? And allow corporations to pollute everything?

I also agree that obesity is a problem and that we should eat healthier. Again, why do you feel Republicans are the people to make this happen? Especially when their standard-bearer is obese himself? To be quite frank, a lot of this attitude I'm seeing seems to be less about Make America Healthy Again, but more making it an individualistic superiority complex about shaming people without the resources to live healthier (they live in food deserts, have long commutes and sit at multiple jobs all day, cannot afford a single family home to have their own gardens, etc) and bragging about your own ability to be healthy, rather than enabling the (gasp) government to make it easier for people to be healthy?

If you want the to read this you have to scream it at them on TV. They don't read or think. They just want conspiracy theories to make their lives feel exciting.

[Anonymous]

I appreciate the OP starting this thread. I’m interested and intrigued by how “wellness” has joined seemingly disparate groups together.

I’d love to learn more about this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a crunchy wellness person. I'm a vegan, I live in Takoma Park, grow a lot of my own food, and I do yoga. I am vaccinated but skeptical of Big Pharma, I tend to use medications as a last resort if lifestyle modifications don't work.

I want to learn more about the people who agree with Trump and RFK's MAHA movement. I'm trying to make this a friendly question although I can't help but point out the logical inconsistencies.

For example - you want to get chemicals out of food and water - me too! So why do you vote for the party that wants to deregulate industries?
You're skeptical of Big Pharma - me too! But do you think Republicans don't take donations from pharmaceutical companies?

What about the environment? Most yogis that I practice with are very cognizant of climate change and sustainability and protecting wildlife. I would also agree with criticisms from the right about the global scale climate initiatives being a lot of feel-good greenwashing, and that wealthy elites are hypocrites when they fly on private jets to a climate conference. So does this mean throw the baby out with the bathwater and Drill, Baby, Drill? And allow corporations to pollute everything?

I also agree that obesity is a problem and that we should eat healthier. Again, why do you feel Republicans are the people to make this happen? Especially when their standard-bearer is obese himself? To be quite frank, a lot of this attitude I'm seeing seems to be less about Make America Healthy Again, but more making it an individualistic superiority complex about shaming people without the resources to live healthier (they live in food deserts, have long commutes and sit at multiple jobs all day, cannot afford a single family home to have their own gardens, etc) and bragging about your own ability to be healthy, rather than enabling the (gasp) government to make it easier for people to be healthy?

Why do you ask insulting/skewed questions as if you can't figure the answers out for yourself? Skip it, no one cares, and we aren't going to enlighten you.

+1
I love the, “friendly question” BS. It’s the usual condescending LNNJ snark.

[Anonymous]

I suggest you ask your Republican friends face to face and see what they say.

[Anonymous]

I am not MAGA, principally because I dislike Donald Trump, his morals, his dishonesty, his racism, and his insistence on what feels like "dear leader"-style obsequiousness. But I have some views that I'm sure the DCUM crowd would be aghast at (e.g., opposed to abortion, believe trump has sometimes been treated unfairly by the press and prosecutors, skeptical of our strategy vis-a-vis Ukraine). So I'll give you my reaction for what it's worth:

I think it's a sense of skepticism of authorities. I think many people outside the Dem fold believe that the authorities are persistent perpetrators of obvious falsehoods-- e.g., that free trade would be good for the country as a whole, that an appreciable number of men are actually women and vice versa, that COVID came from a wet market, that inflation wouldn't emerge from the stimulus, etc. etc. (I get that most of you are probably rage yelling "those aren't falsehoods!" or "Trump is worse!", but accept the premise for purposes of this explanation). Then someone comes along and says that the experts are also wrong about our food additives and pharmaceutical products. Is it so hard to see why, in the face of people getting fatter and sicker, many people already skeptical of authorities would conclude there is something to that?

[Anonymous]

It’s Mother Nature’s way of thinning the herd. We’ve gotten very good at reducing death rates from communicable diseases, women generally survive childbirth, 23-weekers routinely survive, and children with genetic malformations are living way longer than in any other time in history. Kids used to waste away within years due to inborn errors of metabolism or things like CF. Now those kids can easily live to adulthood and pass those genes on to entire generations. Old people routinely live well past the time pneumonia or cancer or heart disease would have taken out their grandparents.

All of these things are great on the surface, and wow science! But there can be little doubt it’s bad for the planet and the fitness of the species to let our growth rates continue unchecked. Like when you see foxes killed off, there is an explosion of rabbits, until the coyotes are tempted to move back in and restore natural order.

So in humans Mother Nature starts with the stupid and the antisocial and uses them to move on to the vulnerable. She gets her way eventually, she always does. Think of how the plague spread. People running around spreading their disease everywhere even when under quarantine.

Kind of amazing when you look at it that way - she uses the stupid and the antisocial to do her work. Part of the programming built right in from the beginning. And she’s doing it now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hey OP, eating healthier has nothing to do with lack of money or education.

It is LITERALLY aout passing the vegetable aisle and going for the Twinkies. It's a lack of will power by the individual.

No amount of money or government indoctrination will fix that.

Well, GLP-1 medication seems to have quite an impact.