A European eyeglass retailer published a screen time index based on data gathered in mid-October 2020 (i.e., during coronapanic).
Americans were champions at watching TV, dominating all other nations (175 minutes/day compared to 119 minutes in Ireland and 113 in Switzerland). Colombia and Mexico were the only other nations that came close to matching our couch potato achievement.
And, before we wisely decided, in response to a virus that attacks the obese, to lock ourselves into our apartments and park next to the fridge, how were we doing with obesity? Our government loves to sort us by race:
Keep in mind that this is based on 2018 data and Americans are likely much fatter now.
What about “fat” rather than “obese”?
If you’re a white guy whom United Airlines doesn’t want to hire, there is a 75 percent chance you’re “overweight” (i.e., fat). If you’re a Black woman whom United Airlines does want to hire, there is an 80 percent chance you’re “overweight”. Maybe after a few of these quota-arranged training classes graduate it will be time to un-mothball the Airbus A380s (1,265,000 lbs. max gross weight)!
[My recollection is that taking an average within the NHANES data reveals that American “women” (whatever that term might mean) actually have a higher BMI than American “men”. That’s not necessarily inconsistent with the above tables, which look only at those who’ve exceeded a threshold, but maybe it is worth exploring.]
Sirs,
These are, of course, sobering statistics, and the explanation can surely be discovered with careful appreciation of our historic attempts to rebel against authority – regardless of how wise and prescient it may be! Americans have been trying unsuccessfully for all of these years to prove that I was incorrect when I advised Mr. Dorfman:
“Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son.”
Very truly yours,
Dean Vernon Wormer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1hnwvWhbJw
P.S. I was also a union-busting exploitative landowner in Season Two, Episode 8 of “The A-Team” and Mr. T taught me a thing or two about worker rights!
@Alex, the days where a teacher can say-it-as-it-is or discipline his/her students are long gone.
For younger readers, here a tiny sample of what TV used to be like “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson” insulting fat people [1]. “The Benny Hill show” insulting women [2].
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wRVVGQTp_I&t=418s
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pc6z0nK6vsE
@Philip, I’m no longer concerned about the lockdown, Covidmania, the many more side effects on Americans from the lockdown or Americans giving up their freedoms. I’m more concerned about how Americans have become small and narrow thinkers. We have far more serious problems than COVD-19 death (I don’t care about the infection rate) in this country but yet no one, our government, our scientist, our media or our elites care to bring up. Let’s start with out education system. Despite spending [1] far more than other countries on education, we still are far behind [2] other countries.
When will our government, our scientist and educators, our media and our elites start to tackle the dumbing of Americans?
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/sep/07/us-education-spending-finland-south-korea
[2] https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/02/15/u-s-students-internationally-math-science/
George:
I regret to say that some of the actors you mentioned, i.e. “our government, our scientist and educators, our media and our elites” are the direct or proximate causes of “the dumbing of Americans”.
I fear that the idiocratic processes are already irreversible thanks to the efforts of what passes for “elites” in this country today There are some islands of resistance but they will be ruthlessly suppressed in due course:
https://bariweiss.substack.com/p/the-miseducation-of-americas-elites
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9481745/Father-pulls-daughter-Brearley-cancerous-antiracism-policies.html
The level of self-destructive lunacy exhibited by this country elites far exceeds that of their spiritual forefathers, the Soviet commies’, who were smart enough to preserve decent education system, science and technology – they were evil but not suicidal.