Pacific Islanders Undertake Grand Experiment Against Purveyors of Junk Food

Zero Hedge (ZH) ran a derisive article entitled “Government Knows Best – Junk Food Ban Goes Global” with which The New Nationalist (TNN) parts company. ZH — which TNN believes usually does very good yeoman work on a variety of real issues — decided to use the sham epithet “nanny state” to describe policy put in place by Pacific Islanders to protect the well being of their people who suffer from serious obesity and diabetes. TNN has an epithet for you on this particular issue: mindless libertarianism. With all due respect to ZH, why are you mocking this?

New York Times: Public health experts who study the island nations of the Pacific welcomed the ban, saying that bold measures were necessary for an impoverished and isolated region of 10 million people — one where the cost of sending legions of patients abroad for dialysis treatment or kidney transplants is untenable.

Imagine if 75 million Americans had diabetes — that’s the scale of the epidemic we’re talking about in Vanuatu,” Roger Magnusson, a professor of health law and governance at Sydney Law School in Australia, said in an email.

“Can anyone seriously say that Vanuatu doesn’t have the right to exercise its health sovereignty in every way possible to protect its population from an epidemic of that scale?” he added.

As the chart shows, while the “nanny state” has slumbered, an epidemic of diabetes has snuck up on the mainland U.S. as well, tripling in 20 years. With all the obese youth out there, this rate promises to triple again over a couple decades. These unaccountable people and purveyors in turn become a burden on the rest of the nation. Wake up, this is a national emergency and is a first line order of business for good governance. Yes, governance should defer to public health experts on this and in fact double down by including all prepared foods of little nutritional value.

This is also a prime example of third-position politics and social policy. The very job of government under new nationalism is to stand up to slash-and-burn exploiters and set the stage for encouraging a healthy people. Therefore, we follow this Pacific Island experiment with interest.

We would take it a step further and bring in the heavy hand of government against the People’s Republic of Walmart, where the land manatees cruise down the isles on electric scooters, and against companies like Pepsi, McDonalds and GMO purveyors like Monsanto. These companies fit the very definition of privatizing gains and socializing the losses. Yes, these are the slash and burners that are quick to whine about liberty when their ill-gotten profits are in question but ignore real liberty issues like police state surveillance, warmongering and free speech. It’s easy to see through this hypocrisy. TNN knows your game.

At the top of TNN’s “nanny state” agenda is killing subsidies for corn. Replace it with new subsidies for vegetables and purple/dark fruit, which have nearly become luxury items for rich people. The rest of the plantation is fed worse than hogs. TNN policy would provide public land for large-scale gardening and public markets and encourage rainwater collection.

TNN’s Youth Program and Owning the Nanny State: I’m Dead Serious

The TNN “nanny state” will provide a free one-month summer youth camp program in part funded by selected cooperating corporate sponsors, with junk food and electronics companies excluded. The State would also provide funds.

This would incorporate special “nanny state” instruction and courses on healthy living, dieting and back to basics. A “coaches cadre” will be developed. This will be non-professional in attitude and be inclusionary enough for all to compete and develop at their own level. The youth program would be quite heavy on physical play, sports, games, dances (no twerking), fun and competition. Activities such as squirt guns, dodge ball, tag, musical chairs, etc, that were banned under national pussification onslaughts will be brought back. The idea is to turn out fit razors. Electronic devices and TV would only be permitted after dinner hours and before lights out at 9 p.m.

Here are some examples of banned games that TNN would bring back:

Nannies and no-nonsense supervisors will be on hand to run herd over reprobates and criminal types. Shape up or ship out expectations are high and problem children will be booted out and shamed as losers. Criminals and serious disrupters will be “taken out of the game” and sent to detention centers run by Sheriff Joe Arpaio to be subject to an all-together “enhanced” experience.