Chamblee54

“The White Supremacist Origins of Exercise, and 6 Other Surprising Facts About the history of fitness in America.” turned up on twitter this morning. The article was promotion for a book, Fit Nation: The Gains and Pains of America’s Exercise Obsession. The book is coming out February 2, 2023. There are no one star comments available.
Time magazine had an interview with author Natalis Mehlman Petrzela. “It was super interesting reading the reflections of fitness enthusiasts in the early 20th century. They said we should get rid of corsets, corsets are an assault on women’s form, and that women should be lifting weights and gaining strength. At first, you feel like this is so progressive.”
“Then you keep reading, and they’re saying white women should start building up their strength because we need more white babies. They’re writing during an incredible amount of immigration, soon after enslaved people have been emancipated. This is totally part of a white supremacy project. So that was a real “holy crap” moment as a historian, where deep archival research really reveals the contradictions of this moment.”
Hopefully, the finished book will have more information about who “they” is. Until then, we are stuck with those few sentences. Is exercise a white supremacist activity? It looks like WS has become another clickbait gimmick. Take a fluff article about an upcoming book, put WS in the headline, and get oodles of eyeballs. @TIME apparently is not concerned that the next headline to trumpet WS will have less impact. The wolf is back, bigger and meaner than ever.
Comments to the Time tweet included a link to Racist Roots of Fighting Obesity. This article was originally published in Scientific American. Authors include Lindo Bacon (formerly Linda), and Sabrina Strings, author of Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia.
“This heightened concern about their weight is not new; it reflects the racist stigmatization of Black women’s bodies. … In the eyes of many medical practitioners in the late 19th century, Black women were destined to die off along with the men of their race because of their presumed inability to control their “animal appetites”—eating, drinking and fornicating. … Today the idea that weight is the main problem dogging Black women builds on these historically racist ideas and ignores how interrelated social factors impact Black women’s health. It also perpetuates a misinformed and damaging message about weight and health. Indeed, social determinants have been shown to be more consequential to health than BMI or health behaviors. …” (Does BMI outweigh BLM?)
“Doctors often tell fat people that dietary control leading to weight loss is the solution to their health problems. But many studies show that the stigma associated with body weight, rather than the body weight itself, is responsible for some adverse health consequences blamed on obesity, including increased mortality risk. Regardless of income, Black women consistently experience weightism in addition to sexism and racism. From workplace discrimination and poor service at restaurants to rude or objectifying commentary online, the stress of these life experiences contributes to higher rates of chronic mental and physical illnesses …”
“A 2018 opinion piece in the journal BMC Medicine argued that bias against fat people is actually a larger driver of the so-called obesity epidemic than adiposity itself. A 2015 study … found that people who reported experiencing weight discrimination had a 60 percent increased risk of dying, independent of BMI (and therefore regardless of body size). … Simply blaming Black women’s health conditions on “obesity” ignores these critically important sociohistorical factors. It also leads to a prescription long since proved to be ineffective: weight loss. … This weight-focused paradigm fails to produce thinner or healthier bodies but succeeds in fostering weight stigma.”
When I tried to retweet the @sciam link, twitter shook a finger in my face. “Want to read the article first? You’re about to share an article you haven’t opened on Twitter.” As it turned out, I opened the article in another browser, away from Elon’s watchful eye. It will be interesting to see if this happens again, with a less provocative article. Pictures are from The Library of Congress.

This is a repost from 2019. Tulsi Gabbard and Return of Anti-Anti-Trump Left This link turned up on facebook. “I’ve read assertions from credible sources (Clinton et al) that Gabbard is a Russian asset. That and her anti-gay past that she suddenly disavowed are causes for concern.”
The “anti gay past” was news to PG. A quick trip to google turned up an article, Gabbard says deploying to the Middle East changed her views on LGBT rights PG replied, “Whatever her shortcomings, Ms. Gabbard has made opposition to regime change wars the focus of her campaign. I can see where this would be disturbing to “credible sources (Clinton et al)”. Remember who is financed by the military industrial complex.” The rest of the thread was facebook back and forth. It ended before anyone made a Hitler comparison.
@NYMag “The stage is set for Tulsi Gabbard to play the role of 2020’s Jill Stein. @jonathanchait writes” This turned up on twitter a bit later. PG decided to take the plunge, and read the article.
1163 words later, PG had a headache. The pastel prose went off on unfathomable tangents, like “Some anti-anti-Trump leftists see impeachment not merely as a distraction from the Sanders revolution but a deliberate effort to marginalize it.”
PG began to wonder. Where was the Gabbard anti-gay rhetoric? For that matter, where was Tulsi, period. PG copied the article into a word document. He replaced “Gabbard” with “GABBARD.” Out of 1163 words, Gabbard appears three times. The last Gabbard sighting was in the third paragraph.
The article is not about Tulsi Gabbard. It is a barely comprehensible @jonathanchait rant about the evils of the incorrect resistance. Tulsi Gabbard has become clickbait. Her candidacy struggles to stay afloat. She has become a renegade who must be shamed. At the same time, Ms. Gabbard is well known enough for her picture to harvest eyeballs.
Tulsi Gabbard preaches opposition to regime change wars. These wars have killed hundreds of thousands of Muslims, while enriching the Hillary military-industrial complex. The merchants of death can easily afford to pay pundits to slime inconvenient candidates. And to use this candidate as the attention magnet, for some half witted rambling on the 2020 election.
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.

I was introduced to “Loving Kindness Meditation” (LKM) a while back. It is fairly basic. You think of someone, who we will call Gnarlene Johnson. You say, or think, “I want Gnarlene to be happy.” You think about it for a breath or two, then you say “I want Gnarlene to be healthy.”
I took the concept, and made it a four parter. Breathing is essential to the process, as is taking enough time for the wishes to sink in. Inhale. I want Gnarlene to be happy. Inhale. I want Gnarlene to be healthy. Inhale. I want Gnarlene to be prosperous. Inhale. I want Gnarlene to be safe.
Does anyone really benefit from LKM? Outside of a certain sense of serenity/well being, not really. This is not being done with the hope of rewards, outside of feeling better for the time it takes to breathe four times. If you become happy/healthy/prosperous/safe (HHPS), that is a good outcome.
LKM has a few similarities with the dreaded “pray for you.” It is easy to see how one could confuse the two. The LKM breather is not consciously trying to impart blessings upon the recipient of HHPS. It is not necessary, or even desirable, to tell the recipient they are having HHPS wished for them. This person is a conduit, through which blessings might flow back to you. Humility is a gift.
One way I have been doing LKM is at the gym. A sauna is a good place to slow down, focus on breathing, and take in the heat. I will see a man, whose name I almost never know. I will chose a way to identify him. An item of clothing works nicely.
Inhale. I want blue shorts to be happy. Inhale. I want blue shorts to be healthy. Inhale. I want blue shorts to be prosperous. Inhale. I want blue shorts to be safe. You don’t need to tell him.
So this is the LKM practice. No claims are made, except that LKM will not hurt you. My guess is that God has more important things to think about than someone wishing HHPS on a total stranger. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.