[December 11, 2022] Recently, Dr. Jordan Peterson got into hot water with social media commentators throughout the West regarding a plus-sized model on the cover of Sports Illustrated writing “Sorry. Not beautiful. And no amount of authoritarian tolerance is going to change that.” The topic today is not about beauty but about fat people, or more precisely, obese people.
I am 6’1” and 205 pounds and defined as “obese” by medical personnel. I know, I can read my own chart while in the hospital a few days ago. In this article, I’d like to bring up a TEDx MidAtlantic Talk by U.S. Army Lieutenant General Mark Hertling from ten years ago (link here). His talk about obese people is as relevant then as today. Hertling has similar concerns as Peterson, but for very different reasons. They both come to similar conclusions.
Hertling speaks of a significant emerging threat that the U.S. Army leadership is seeing that will have an effect on our future, our economy, our youth, and is a national security threat to America. Late in his career, he was assigned as the commander of all initial entry training for civilians coming into the U.S. Army and what he saw startled him.
His job was to train approximately the 160,000 civilians the Army takes in annually. What he found upon taking command was “disturbing” to him. First, 75 percent of civilians aged 17 to 24, who wanted to join the Army were not eligible and the number one reason was obesity. Of the 25 percent who could join the Army, they discovered on the first day of training that 60 percent could not pass a simple physical fitness test (much less restrictive than the official Army test).
After some analysis, Hertling discovered some things had changed in the last several decades in the U.S. The main reason was that most public schools no longer required physical education. Only 5 states mandated PE between Kindergarten and 12th grade. Those joining the Army could not run, dodge, roll, crawl, and show those skills that a Soldier might need in combat. He also realized that our diet had changed radically. Portions are much larger.
A scientist on Hertling’s team told him that in the last 15 years, Americans have added an extra 30 calories per day and about 15 pounds more of sugar in their diet per year. He believes that the combination of a lack of a physical education and increased poor nutrition were causing second order effects. One of the second-order effects was an increase in stress-fracture injuries in the pelvis. The cost to fix it costs about $100,000 to $300,000 per Soldier to fix. Another reason he was seeing problems with civilians was an increase in technology use that was used in a sedentary way. And, adults are terrible examples for their kids; use of fast foods, too much television time, etc.
Hertling changed the way the Army was training. Much of this change was an attempt to prevent injuries and a departure from the old way of feeding troops. This began to work. Average weight was in the decline.
Those serving in our military today, in all services, makes up less than 1 percent of the total U.S. population. Hertling is worried about the other 99 percent. To him, this is a national security issue. I’ve made this comment before. Obesity rates continue to increase dramatically and today there is no difference as the rates of obesity are increasing.
There is a health care cost to America and is a national security issue. If there were to be a major war requiring mobilization of large numbers of civilians into the military, the effect would be catastrophic. The injuries would not be from combat.
This is a serious problem that our government cannot fix. It is up to us.
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Please read my books:
Fat is not beautiful. That is the way it is. All the moral posturing and lecturing us about not fat shaming women (or men) will not change reality or history. Beauty is a marker for good health. That is why men prefer beauty; they want a healthy woman. Why not? Well, I guess a few college snowflakes want weak, fat, ignorant women and that is okay with me. I hope they don’t have kids because these marxists will not be good parents.
Fat – yep!
Stupid – maybe!
Beautiful – nope!
I enjoyed another post by Gen. S. Let’s hope he is protected by the gods.
Yes, my friend, yes!
Yep, well written and to the point. I never heard of LT Gen. Hertling before. I dearly hope he is not one of those “woke” political generals we’ve all been hearing about.
Now there are memes showing “fat” women on Sports Illustrated covers. Sweet!
Fat is unhealthy, obesity is the number one problem for Americans and most Westerners. I wonder why? We no longer value physical fitness because it is “toxic masculinity” and we need to remove anything toxic. I know the logic is deeply flawed but tha t is what we have. Be fat, be unhealthy. Period.
That is what Dr. Peterson is talking about, IMO. And, that denying reality will get you nowhere except maybe feeling a false moral superiority for the moment but wait until the crash comes and, be aware, the crash will come.
I’m new to this leadership blog, having read it now for a few weeks and now posting my first post. I do like what I read here and the variety of articles is charming. I hope to make a contribution to the thinking of those who write in the forums and can gain a best understanding of critical ideas.
Hey, welcome Ice Man. Feel free to run ideas past us and ask for comment.
Gen. Satterfield, great description of LTG Hertling. What I’d like to see you write about is the point that Dr. Peterson makes on why “fat” is NOT beautiful. I believe he is saying that beauty is a biologically determined trait and that while culture has an impact on it, biology still drives it. We men are attracted to beauty because beauty is a maker for health and fertility in women. Just a fact that the snowflakes in college will get triggered over. But that is the way of the world and nothing like a little tyranny can change.
Well said Max — again. And, I like your suggestions. 😎
Thumbs up on your comment Max. Yes, I’d like to see another article on it.
Yep, me too. I think the biological argument is quiet strong. And it has many possibilities and also explains a lot to me too.
Hard to deny the cultural or biological explanation, the question then becomes, what and when and how do each influence.
Dr. Jordan Peterson is da man. ✔
Fat is beautiful.
Obesity is beautiful.
Yeah !!!!!!!!!
Commie Red is back and, not unexpectedly, taking the viewpoint that anything goes that doesn’t go against the communist state where people don’t matter unless they are against the state.
This is why communists throw bodies at a problem and don’t give a damn whether they live or die. Case in point, the Russian tactic in all their wars to throw bodies at their enemies. Take a look at the Ukraine War, classic Russian tactic.
👀👀👀👀👀 Dont use logic or say they are hypocritical. Those arguments dont work.
Come on, man! You know the thing!
Pow, thanks for injecting a little humor. But Commies don’t like humor …. because we are making fun of them and like a 6 year old, they don’t like being made fun of.