In the YouTube Video "Truth About Steroids," Bryant Gumble makes a fascinating observation when he says "Americans, when drugs are concerned, rarely choose logic when they can opt for hysteria." That statement is more profound than the average person can appreciate.
In "Truth," researchers and bodybuilders proclaim that not only are there no long term studies into the side effects of steroid abuse, but that those who have been using them for decades have experienced no harm to themselves or the people around them. Unfortunately most people will ignore the strange absence of studies in lieu of believing the hype created around them by the media and Congress rather than absorbing the information and coming to their own conclusions. While it is probable that Gumble and his cronies believe they can capitalize on their pro steroid stance somehow with this report, a simple database search for steroid abuse long term effects turns up very little in the way of support for the anti-steroid position.
I happen to be a Libertarian, and as such I follow the tenets of old school Liberalism, which at its core believes that a person should have the choice to do as they wish to their body as long as those decisions do not directly negatively effect those around them through either physical or mental abuse. That means I support those who want to do steroids as long as they don't harm others. That also means that I support people who want to smoke marijuana, take ecstasy, use cocaine or any other thing so long as they don't steal from their parents to pay for their drug habit or beat their wives.
I support the stance that Gumble and company take in the video. However, the silence on some issues such as mood swings as a side effect, suicidal tendencies, sports injuries caused by overtraining, is disheartening. As someone from central Illinois, the steroid belt, who happens to know dozens of people who take steroids, the side effects can be much more negative than the video portrays. While the jury may be out on long term effects, short term effects should be addressed.
There are several major fallacies that the video uses to try to persuade its audience of the virtues of steroids. For one, their use of false expertise, their consistent interviews with body builders who are both biased and ignorant (as they like steroids cause bias, and their lack of medical degrees from accredited institutions as ignorance) to create false ethos may work on most audiences, but it does not stand up to scrutiny.
The video also noticeably doesn't feature any counterarguments. They have one argument, that steroids are not bad, and no dissenting opinions. That is the type of journalism that one would expect from first year journalism majors making YouTube videos, but not from NBC or Bryant Gumble. It borders on outright propaganda.
So TRUE: steroids are probably OK if you are a healthy adult male who did a little research into them before taking them. TRUE, most drugs or any lifestyle choice probably fit under the same principle. And it is TRUE that people would rather be "hysterical", give into their mania rather than make their own choices, but it is patently FALSE advertising for not being objective when reporting.
EVENTUALLY PEOPLE WILL RUN A 5 SECOND 100
So Texas plans on testing their high school athletes. Apparently they feel like cheating is so rampant in their system that it needs addressing. Either that or they are merely regurgitating the status quo, and stroking the egos of the morons in Congress who think everyone should be tested for everything (to the applause of middle America and the blue collar sycophants who think everyone is out to get them and everything is poisoned).
30% of students would be tested in this program (UIL), which is a huge number. I suppose this program makes sense, as Texas is known for excessive competitiveness in peewee and high school leagues. One could deduce that kids in Texas would do anything to stay competitive or excel in their sports. Plus, with as much money as people are making in professional sports today, there is a huge benefit to cheating to get that professional contract.
In my opinion this is a major violation of personal freedom and privacy, but I have no say (anymore) in Texas politics, so they are on their own. Last time I checked they were executing something like 50 people a year on death row, and they don't believe in evolution, so they are off doing their own thing anyways.
Obviously sports is entertainment. It isn't any more endearing or worthy than movies, theatre, professional wrestling or the circus. It is a spectacle, much like the gladiator fights of ancient Rome. People want to see huge athletes trouncing on each other and blood fall on their environment. We don't want to see things like the dead ball era in baseball, or nitty gritty 3-3 contests in football. We are Americans. We want raw power, we want 24 valve turbo diesel engines, we want double quarter pounders with cheese, we want 82 points in a basketball game from #24, we want 28 rushing touchdowns and 50 passing touchdowns, we want 9.69 World Record 100 meter runs, we want people bitten by alligators and hit by trains, we want constant input in the form of loud music and flashing lights, and we want guys hitting 60 or more home runs a year. We need these sports stars to be entertaining, and the best way they can do that is by injecting copious amounts of liquid strength into their asses twice a week. Maybe it hurts them, but we don't care, not really, which is why it took so long before anyone really noticed, and if it hadn't been for the media pushing some agenda down our throats, Congress and state legislators would have looked the other way.
In the end, we are all just sheep in some pasture being led astray.
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Friday, February 20, 2009
Pissing in the bushes isn't THAT bad.
College students like to drink. That is a fact of life. But at Georgetown University, one of the nation's finest post secondary institutions, partying it up and making bad decisions has become a livelihood. According to Kinzie, the students at Georgetown University are outraged over new campus wide policies concerning partying and drinking. Now, she further states, police will arrest any student caught violating the new policies, such as drunk and disorderly, public urination, or underage drinking, rather than issuing citations as they have in the past.
I can understand the outrage by the students in this case. They are already paying thirty thousand dollars a year to attend the prestigious university, and they already spend an inordinate amount of time studying, the students obviously need some sort of release come weekend that can take their minds off the rigorous academic life at Georgetown. Having the students register their parties with Georgetown Authorities and then having those authorities issue subsequent limitations on parties is akin to sacrificing underclassmen to the Donkey God.
These ideas are also a waste of departmental resources. District Commander Andy Solberg said, "This is not something we want to do. I think everyone in the community wants cops out here patrolling for real criminal behavior"(qtd. in Kinzie).
There are also a bevy of intangible problems that will arise with the new policies. By limiting students rights on campus, those students will merely move off campus for their extracurricular activities (Kinzie). Students in Kinzie's report are worried about the safety of traversing the distances between off campus bars back to their on campus housing, and I don't blame them. Washington DC is rife with criminal activity, criminal activity that should be handled by police officers whom are now handcuffed with arresting innocuous undergraduates because of a little public urination.
There are positives in this war on College Student partying. If I was a resident of Georgetown, walking outside to grab the paper in my bath robe, I certainly wouldn't want to stumble across a bumbling 19 year old Pre-Law student passed out in my gutter with urine dribbling down his leg. People are jumpy enough as it is
I can understand the outrage by the students in this case. They are already paying thirty thousand dollars a year to attend the prestigious university, and they already spend an inordinate amount of time studying, the students obviously need some sort of release come weekend that can take their minds off the rigorous academic life at Georgetown. Having the students register their parties with Georgetown Authorities and then having those authorities issue subsequent limitations on parties is akin to sacrificing underclassmen to the Donkey God.
These ideas are also a waste of departmental resources. District Commander Andy Solberg said, "This is not something we want to do. I think everyone in the community wants cops out here patrolling for real criminal behavior"(qtd. in Kinzie).
There are also a bevy of intangible problems that will arise with the new policies. By limiting students rights on campus, those students will merely move off campus for their extracurricular activities (Kinzie). Students in Kinzie's report are worried about the safety of traversing the distances between off campus bars back to their on campus housing, and I don't blame them. Washington DC is rife with criminal activity, criminal activity that should be handled by police officers whom are now handcuffed with arresting innocuous undergraduates because of a little public urination.
There are positives in this war on College Student partying. If I was a resident of Georgetown, walking outside to grab the paper in my bath robe, I certainly wouldn't want to stumble across a bumbling 19 year old Pre-Law student passed out in my gutter with urine dribbling down his leg. People are jumpy enough as it is
Monday, February 16, 2009
Paraphrasing an Original Passage
James D. Lester wrote that research papers by students are notoriously over quoted. He believes that a tenth of the final paper or less should be direct quotations from authors, but students usually have much more, and this is most likely caused by students relying too much on taking quotes verbatim for use in their scholarly papers. If you are writing a paper, your goal should be paraphrasing the source material and using your own words.(Lester)
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Blog #4: The Action Figure Dynamic
"The Insult", a motivational cartoon created to inspire young scrawny men worldwide, is fairly critical of the "natural" size of many young adult males. It depicts the taunting of a young loverboy and his girlfriend at a beach by an overaggressive, oversized bully. The comic means to sell a 32 page book on how to transform your body from one of simpleton weakling into a lethal muscle machine. The cartoon argues that if you are not ripped and fit, you cannot possibly protect the woman you love. It plays on the hallowed alpha male philosophy that if you aren't an aggressive silverback gorilla, you are not a real man. The woman, the young scrawny man's girlfriend, an attractive, skinny brunette, is elated when the man puts on several layers of muscle and turns the overbearing bully into a whimpering, falling tree with his feet cut out from underneath him. The story seems to portray Charles Atlas (the author of the 32 page book) as the scrawny man turned super hero. The exultation of the others on the beach after his knockdown of said bully shows the importance of creating a strong, masculine physique in the cartoon.
In "Evolving Ideals of the Male Body Image as Seen Through Action Toys," the authors, Pope, Jr., Olivardia, Gruber and Borowieki hope to draw attention to the fact that over the last 5 decades, action figures have evolved from skinny, expressionless seemingly insubstantial stick figure into a hulking, musclebound, unrealistic dynamo that children collecting these figures should aspire to. The figures have grown in bicep and chest size while losing much of the waistline that their earlier counterparts featured. The action figures are a grim reminder of the superficial reality that current generations are placing on masculinity. The most popular and long lasting toy lines, Star Wars and GI Joe, have consistently put more pressure on the children collecting them through subliminal and obvious means that they shouldn't look like the average person, but instead should exude confidence, anger, and the ability to grow to obscene proportions in the quest for the perfect body. Television, print ads, and magazines all support this notion.
In "The Insult," the author, the ad agency or Charles Atlas himself, seems to be taunting and tormenting young adult males through the use of the story. The tone is one of abject pity on the viewers of the cartoon, telling them that they aren't really a man. Sand kicked in the face of the protagonist and his girl screams "you are not good enough for the woman at your arm." The bully tells the protagonist that he would beat him senselessly except he isn't worth his time, and as an extension the advertisement is telling the reader that they(the reader) aren't really worth the time and effort to make lean and muscular, but they are going to do it anyways as a favor to them. His girlfriend calls him a "little boy," further inciting rage and violence (in the next frame) to inspire the man to become a "real" man. He uses Charles Atlas' program and becomes a big strong masculine individual capable of turning away all bullies. This sets the tone that any person reading the ad could become who they want to become, and that person that they want to become is a large muscular alpha male with the potential to secure any woman and win any fight. The audience is clearly pre-pubescent and young adult males who have not yet grown into their bodies. Many of them get taller and noticeably skinnier as they go through puberty, and that body image creates a negative impression on their fragile developing psyches. Young impressionable men do not realize that the period of being skinny and susceptible to bullying is a short one that they just need to bear through, and Charles Atlas looks to capitalize off of this fact.
In "Evolving Idelas of Male Body Image as Seen Through Action Toys," the tone switches from one of emasculating the audience to one of informing the audience how they are being manipulated by negative body images. In this case, the audience appears to be the parents of children who seek out to buy action figures. They use statistics of body size paradigms to show the gross change in proportions of popular toy brands that children gobble up to the extent that they remain popular for decades. The authors seek to connect negative body images from consumption of plastic toys with eating disorders in young adult males, though it is doubtful that such a logical connection can be made. Eating disorders are not a wholesale problem for young adult males, making the connection tenuous at best.
In the case of Charles Atlas' comic, he is a human being trying to make money off consumerism as everyone else is, and the fact that his article preaches that "YOU ARE NOT GOOD ENOUGH" is not enough for me to dismiss the article as trash. I understand the reasoning behind his method. He was at one time skinny and effeminate, and he made himself a successful alpha male through hard work and study, an attribute that could carry over into further success for those that read his book.
The other article seeks to blame toy action figures for eating disorders and other negative body images of young men by pleading with the parents of those men to look objectively at the toys they are buying. In this case, they fail miserably as no one in their right mind (ad hominem) would actually believe action figures influence anything outside of how children spend a few hours a day rather than watching television.
My parents never prevented me from reading, watching, or playing with anything. My favorite action figures growing up were GI Joe figures back before they grew to proportions that gave them masses equivalent to bodies floating in space capable of forcing orbits of smaller less massive bodies. While they were violent action pieces, I never grew up to be violent. While they had interesting clothing selections, I not once started dressing like them. The fact that they were expressionless and emotionless never inspired me to become a sociopath. The argument is weak at best, and outright propaganda at worst. My favorite cartoons were always my favorite action figures, and neither the cartoons nor the figures ever made me into some violent peon bent on assuaging my master's wishes. Expectations are realistic: blaming the expectations on toys is sophomoric.
In "Evolving Ideals of the Male Body Image as Seen Through Action Toys," the authors, Pope, Jr., Olivardia, Gruber and Borowieki hope to draw attention to the fact that over the last 5 decades, action figures have evolved from skinny, expressionless seemingly insubstantial stick figure into a hulking, musclebound, unrealistic dynamo that children collecting these figures should aspire to. The figures have grown in bicep and chest size while losing much of the waistline that their earlier counterparts featured. The action figures are a grim reminder of the superficial reality that current generations are placing on masculinity. The most popular and long lasting toy lines, Star Wars and GI Joe, have consistently put more pressure on the children collecting them through subliminal and obvious means that they shouldn't look like the average person, but instead should exude confidence, anger, and the ability to grow to obscene proportions in the quest for the perfect body. Television, print ads, and magazines all support this notion.
In "The Insult," the author, the ad agency or Charles Atlas himself, seems to be taunting and tormenting young adult males through the use of the story. The tone is one of abject pity on the viewers of the cartoon, telling them that they aren't really a man. Sand kicked in the face of the protagonist and his girl screams "you are not good enough for the woman at your arm." The bully tells the protagonist that he would beat him senselessly except he isn't worth his time, and as an extension the advertisement is telling the reader that they(the reader) aren't really worth the time and effort to make lean and muscular, but they are going to do it anyways as a favor to them. His girlfriend calls him a "little boy," further inciting rage and violence (in the next frame) to inspire the man to become a "real" man. He uses Charles Atlas' program and becomes a big strong masculine individual capable of turning away all bullies. This sets the tone that any person reading the ad could become who they want to become, and that person that they want to become is a large muscular alpha male with the potential to secure any woman and win any fight. The audience is clearly pre-pubescent and young adult males who have not yet grown into their bodies. Many of them get taller and noticeably skinnier as they go through puberty, and that body image creates a negative impression on their fragile developing psyches. Young impressionable men do not realize that the period of being skinny and susceptible to bullying is a short one that they just need to bear through, and Charles Atlas looks to capitalize off of this fact.
In "Evolving Idelas of Male Body Image as Seen Through Action Toys," the tone switches from one of emasculating the audience to one of informing the audience how they are being manipulated by negative body images. In this case, the audience appears to be the parents of children who seek out to buy action figures. They use statistics of body size paradigms to show the gross change in proportions of popular toy brands that children gobble up to the extent that they remain popular for decades. The authors seek to connect negative body images from consumption of plastic toys with eating disorders in young adult males, though it is doubtful that such a logical connection can be made. Eating disorders are not a wholesale problem for young adult males, making the connection tenuous at best.
In the case of Charles Atlas' comic, he is a human being trying to make money off consumerism as everyone else is, and the fact that his article preaches that "YOU ARE NOT GOOD ENOUGH" is not enough for me to dismiss the article as trash. I understand the reasoning behind his method. He was at one time skinny and effeminate, and he made himself a successful alpha male through hard work and study, an attribute that could carry over into further success for those that read his book.
The other article seeks to blame toy action figures for eating disorders and other negative body images of young men by pleading with the parents of those men to look objectively at the toys they are buying. In this case, they fail miserably as no one in their right mind (ad hominem) would actually believe action figures influence anything outside of how children spend a few hours a day rather than watching television.
My parents never prevented me from reading, watching, or playing with anything. My favorite action figures growing up were GI Joe figures back before they grew to proportions that gave them masses equivalent to bodies floating in space capable of forcing orbits of smaller less massive bodies. While they were violent action pieces, I never grew up to be violent. While they had interesting clothing selections, I not once started dressing like them. The fact that they were expressionless and emotionless never inspired me to become a sociopath. The argument is weak at best, and outright propaganda at worst. My favorite cartoons were always my favorite action figures, and neither the cartoons nor the figures ever made me into some violent peon bent on assuaging my master's wishes. Expectations are realistic: blaming the expectations on toys is sophomoric.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
What really makes me mad is...
What really makes me angry is communism. The idea that mankind in all its self consume, self absorbed selfishness would all unite to make their fellow people better off through hard work and effort is naivete at its finest. Economic science has come a long way in 200 years and to see such a large portion of the population proselytize communism out of some overly optimistic views is aggravating.
It cannot work. Communism is a fantastic utopian theory, but utopia isn't realistic. We need to use the best economic theory available to us, and that is free market capitalism.
It cannot work. Communism is a fantastic utopian theory, but utopia isn't realistic. We need to use the best economic theory available to us, and that is free market capitalism.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Blog #3: Thintimacy
- Main Entry:
- 1dis·or·der
- Pronunciation:
- \(ˌ)dis-ˈȯr-dər, (ˌ)diz-\
- Function:
- transitive verb
- Date:
- 15th century
1 : to disturb the order of 2 : to disturb the regular or normal functions of
Anti - Ana
So there are these websites out there floating in cyberspace that most people will find deplorable. There are websites where people dress up in leather and spank each other..websites featuring grown women dressed in fur costumes with whiskers and whiplashes, and there are even websites where Christian teenagers can meet others of the same ilk to try to find true love (disgusting).
Then there are websites whose sole purpose appears to be enabling the behavior of irrational young women almost to the point of death. These websites are labeled "Pro-Ana" (or pro-anorexia, as in FOR ANOREXIA).
Two such sites, Livejournals Pro-Ana Community and House of Thin, are pillars of the Pro Anorexia community and operate as a hive of information and activity among those that wish not to eat even a single calorie for the day. They hide behind the mask that they are not truly pro anorexia sites, but instead are intended to be a helpful place where anyone suffering from an eating disorder can go to learn helpful information about eating correctly again, therapy, and suicide prevention.
Unfortunately they don't work that way. On the front page of Livejournal's community is a list of recent comments by members. Most of them seem truly pro anorexic, as they speak volumes about their psychology as they list the meager amounts of food they have consumed that day, or simply profess their random, chaotic thoughts about their eating disorder, how they view themselves, how the people around them treat them knowing they have a disorder, and other things that are not innocuous to those reading them.
House of Thin is similar, but possibly more menacing. They have a comforting, warm website design, with thick velvet curtains draped over their logo and a warm, vibrant background reminiscent of the Victorian carpeting that insulated the grand mansions and castles of the mid 19th Century. It appears they are actually having a party, a binging and purging or starving party, right there on the website. They seem eager to lure in the minds of insecure, young females and ensnare them in the philosophy of thin. Their words on the front page warning people that inside their website you will find nothing like tricks, tips or "thinspiration" does little to actually repel any person from wandering into their forums to seek "help" from other deranged individuals.
These websites enable this type of behavior by showing those that suffer from it that others are going through the same thing, and the fact that most of them are perfectly happy with it betrays a naive assumption that it is OK to partake in such behavior. Pro-ana websites look to affirm that this behavior is perfectly acceptable, or that these girls are part of a group of special individuals who show the utmost willpower in their daily activities by preventing the consumption of nutrition or the ability to eat as much as they can before forcing them to vomit it back up. This is a lack of willpower, because it is their body image that is forcing them to do these things to themselves. True willpower is the ability to see that you are who you are without necessitating life threatening changes in your life so that you can be popular, fit in, or exceed limitations.
They make the logical fallacy that since they are a large community of people suffering from the same types of disorders, that somehow they know what is best for the community at large, and they are not truly offering help to their members by directing them to the proper authorities. They tell you that seeking help from family and friends is unnecessary, thus their members tend to hide their true feelings and psychosis from those around them in the false belief that those people will turn their backs on them. Worse, they air a feeling of self righteousness on the topic, stating that it is a way of life or a lifestyle rather than a disease. Because of that they are dangerous to the people who view the websites.
Pro-Ana
Americans are fat. There is no doubt about it. The United States has blown up to epic proportions thanks to the constant assault of fast food advertisements and cheap nutrition packed into inexpensive packages served to you at a moment's notice whenever you get an urge to gorge yourself with fat, cholesterol and calories. I find it quite refreshing that I see women dieting to the extreme and working out until all hours of the night.
People have problems. Most people in some area of their lives are not absolutely normal. The fact that we allow websites to gather these people in search of others like them is part of why America is such a great country to live in (most of the servers of these websites are based in America). To take away the abnormal would be akin to taking away people's humanity. These women with disorders should feel safe when they confess their problems, thoughts, and feelings in a web community of like minded individuals. If you want to cut yourself and show the pictures on the internet, that is your prerogative. If that is what you want to do, then do it, and don't let other people tell you you shouldn't do it.
Think about the amount of energy we save by allowing these women to consume as little food as possible also. That food can go towards feeding the poor, the dredges of society that no one cares about. Obviously people care about these girls with an ED, so it is time to spread around the care to others who could not possibly procure food even if their lives depended on it.
To Be an Ana Centrist
Obviously these eating disorders are bad. They are the most severe and most lethal of any psychological disorder known to man, from heart disease to suicide, more women die from anorexia nervosa and bulimia than of any other mood disorder. Someone needs to help these women.
That help can be found in these Pro-Ana communities, as long as they are strongly moderated by people who actually care for the members rather than those who will only enable this type of disorder. For me to claim a disgust of what these websites are trying to accomplish would be hypocritical. I am not perfect myself, and I should not judge anorexics or bulimics. I fear that their lives are in danger, that they need to eat in order to stay healthy and survive, but it certainly isn't my place to point a finger of blame at them when I do not know them, or tell them that they are worthless. Everyone needs to be willing to listen to these individuals and point them in the right direction towards a successful future. These Pro-Ana sites have the ability to do that as long as those running them are willing to be objective about the situation.
Anti - Ana
So there are these websites out there floating in cyberspace that most people will find deplorable. There are websites where people dress up in leather and spank each other..websites featuring grown women dressed in fur costumes with whiskers and whiplashes, and there are even websites where Christian teenagers can meet others of the same ilk to try to find true love (disgusting).
Then there are websites whose sole purpose appears to be enabling the behavior of irrational young women almost to the point of death. These websites are labeled "Pro-Ana" (or pro-anorexia, as in FOR ANOREXIA).
Two such sites, Livejournals Pro-Ana Community and House of Thin, are pillars of the Pro Anorexia community and operate as a hive of information and activity among those that wish not to eat even a single calorie for the day. They hide behind the mask that they are not truly pro anorexia sites, but instead are intended to be a helpful place where anyone suffering from an eating disorder can go to learn helpful information about eating correctly again, therapy, and suicide prevention.
Unfortunately they don't work that way. On the front page of Livejournal's community is a list of recent comments by members. Most of them seem truly pro anorexic, as they speak volumes about their psychology as they list the meager amounts of food they have consumed that day, or simply profess their random, chaotic thoughts about their eating disorder, how they view themselves, how the people around them treat them knowing they have a disorder, and other things that are not innocuous to those reading them.
House of Thin is similar, but possibly more menacing. They have a comforting, warm website design, with thick velvet curtains draped over their logo and a warm, vibrant background reminiscent of the Victorian carpeting that insulated the grand mansions and castles of the mid 19th Century. It appears they are actually having a party, a binging and purging or starving party, right there on the website. They seem eager to lure in the minds of insecure, young females and ensnare them in the philosophy of thin. Their words on the front page warning people that inside their website you will find nothing like tricks, tips or "thinspiration" does little to actually repel any person from wandering into their forums to seek "help" from other deranged individuals.
These websites enable this type of behavior by showing those that suffer from it that others are going through the same thing, and the fact that most of them are perfectly happy with it betrays a naive assumption that it is OK to partake in such behavior. Pro-ana websites look to affirm that this behavior is perfectly acceptable, or that these girls are part of a group of special individuals who show the utmost willpower in their daily activities by preventing the consumption of nutrition or the ability to eat as much as they can before forcing them to vomit it back up. This is a lack of willpower, because it is their body image that is forcing them to do these things to themselves. True willpower is the ability to see that you are who you are without necessitating life threatening changes in your life so that you can be popular, fit in, or exceed limitations.
They make the logical fallacy that since they are a large community of people suffering from the same types of disorders, that somehow they know what is best for the community at large, and they are not truly offering help to their members by directing them to the proper authorities. They tell you that seeking help from family and friends is unnecessary, thus their members tend to hide their true feelings and psychosis from those around them in the false belief that those people will turn their backs on them. Worse, they air a feeling of self righteousness on the topic, stating that it is a way of life or a lifestyle rather than a disease. Because of that they are dangerous to the people who view the websites.
Pro-Ana
Americans are fat. There is no doubt about it. The United States has blown up to epic proportions thanks to the constant assault of fast food advertisements and cheap nutrition packed into inexpensive packages served to you at a moment's notice whenever you get an urge to gorge yourself with fat, cholesterol and calories. I find it quite refreshing that I see women dieting to the extreme and working out until all hours of the night.
People have problems. Most people in some area of their lives are not absolutely normal. The fact that we allow websites to gather these people in search of others like them is part of why America is such a great country to live in (most of the servers of these websites are based in America). To take away the abnormal would be akin to taking away people's humanity. These women with disorders should feel safe when they confess their problems, thoughts, and feelings in a web community of like minded individuals. If you want to cut yourself and show the pictures on the internet, that is your prerogative. If that is what you want to do, then do it, and don't let other people tell you you shouldn't do it.
Think about the amount of energy we save by allowing these women to consume as little food as possible also. That food can go towards feeding the poor, the dredges of society that no one cares about. Obviously people care about these girls with an ED, so it is time to spread around the care to others who could not possibly procure food even if their lives depended on it.
To Be an Ana Centrist
Obviously these eating disorders are bad. They are the most severe and most lethal of any psychological disorder known to man, from heart disease to suicide, more women die from anorexia nervosa and bulimia than of any other mood disorder. Someone needs to help these women.
That help can be found in these Pro-Ana communities, as long as they are strongly moderated by people who actually care for the members rather than those who will only enable this type of disorder. For me to claim a disgust of what these websites are trying to accomplish would be hypocritical. I am not perfect myself, and I should not judge anorexics or bulimics. I fear that their lives are in danger, that they need to eat in order to stay healthy and survive, but it certainly isn't my place to point a finger of blame at them when I do not know them, or tell them that they are worthless. Everyone needs to be willing to listen to these individuals and point them in the right direction towards a successful future. These Pro-Ana sites have the ability to do that as long as those running them are willing to be objective about the situation.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Logical Fallacies: Non Sequitur
Programming: If we continue to support open sourceware, we leave ourselves open to external attacks and the software industry will become obsolete over night.
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