Will We Fall For It Again?
by tristero
Times reporter Michael M. Grynbaum has it exactly right:
Confronting a high-profile attack on its fizzy products, the American soft-drink industry is beginning an aggressive campaign to fight New York City’s proposed restrictions on large servings of sugary drinks.
Hoping for a debate about freedom, not fatness…The beverage association would not disclose its budget for the New York campaign, but Eliot Hoff, a spokesman for the coalition, said it was “prepared to utilize whatever resources are necessary.” [emphasis added]
In short, Big Food will seek to change the subject, specifically by transforming a difficult yet nevertheless quite tractable problem – the obesity epidemic – into sophomore dormitory bullshit.
Now we can master-debate “freedom of choice” all we want, but that truly serious question still remains: What are we going to do about obesity? A ban on big sodas isn’t my first choice – a tax on soda would be a more sensible start – but it’s better than nothing.
To change the subject from a complex, unavoidable social problem that must be confronted into a seemingly more serious, but actually frivolous, debate about a Big American Idea is a typical tactic of the right and large corporations. It prevents careful thought about progress and change by appealing to that old American desire to think grandly about the ultimate purposes of our country. But the con will only work if we allow it to.
We shouldn’t.