Meet the New Narrative

I remember not too long ago when everybody was beautiful. At least that’s what we were told to say. We were told to say this because eating disorders were becoming a thing of concern, predominantly with girls who believed they were fat. But the narrative has changed. Now we’re all a bunch of fat fucks who are too stupid to buy food without being patronized by our grocery carts:

The panel came up with six preferred strategies: discount coupons for SNAP recipients; rebates of up to $60 for healthy purchases on EBT cards; buy one get one free deals for SNAP recipients; a targeted marketing plan to promote healthy food; a USDA loyalty card; and new specialized shopping carts.

The “MyCart grocery cart” would provide dividers for shoppers to make sure they are selecting enough items in each “MyPlate” category, the USDA’s food icon.

“MyCart is a nonfinancial approach that would use behavioral economics to encourage healthier purchases by any consumer, including SNAP participants,” the report said.

The cart would be color-coded, physically divided, and have a system installed so that when the shopping cart reaches its healthy “threshold” it would congratulate the customer.

“The algorithm would group the purchases to classify them using the MyPlate designations and to provide consumers with a message of support or encouragement (e.g., “You achieved a MyCart healthy shopping basket!”),” the report said.

As with most things, this idea is being aimed first at people on government assistance. It’s an easy category to target since the government can justify its targeting by claiming that it’s footing the bill. But it also knows that grocery stores aren’t going to ask customers if they’re shopping with food stamps and, if so, give them a different cart. Instead grocery stores would be more apt to just make every cart a “MyCart” or whatever other stupid patronizing name the government comes up with for its program.

I often wonder if the government’s sudden push to call us all a bunch of fat fucks is causing or will cause an uptick in the number of people with eating disorders. Maybe that’s the plan. After all, the government only cares about the statistics. It doesn’t matter to the bean counters if there are less obese people due to healthier eating and more exercise or anorexia.