By David Futrelle
Alt-rightish YouTube “philosopher” Stefan Molyneux doesn’t much like fat people or women who don’t have babies when they’re, by his standards, sufficiently young. So I guess it’s not altogether surprising that he’s managed to work both of these bugaboos into a conspiracy theory suggesting that the fat acceptance movement is part of a nefarious plot to lower (white) birthrates in the west.
At least that’s my reading of this recent tweet of his:
Molyneux has not (yet) elaborated on this suggestive tweet, but presumably the, er, “logic” behind it is that
- obesity can lower fertility
- nefarious cultural marxists want to lower the white birth rate because reasons
- fat acceptance leads to more obesity
- therefore the fat acceptance movement is a plot by these nefarious cultural marxists to lower fertility
This “logic” is not actually logic — the conclusion doesn’t follow from the premises, and the premises themselves are dubious as hell. Yes. there is some evidence suggesting that obesity can lower fertility, but the other premises are nonsense. “Cultural Marxism” is an imaginary movement invented by antisemites to make their antisemitism sound more intellectual. And there’s evidence that fat shaming, not fat acceptance, can lead to weight gain.
I looked around online to see if I could find others putting forth similar conspiracy theories about fat acceptance and fertility, but I couldn’t find anyone. So this may be a Stefan Molyneux Original.
Not that people in and around the manosphere aren’t coming up with their own equally crackpotty conspiracy theories about fat acceptance. Andrew Anglin of The Daily Stormer, predictably, thinks that fat acceptance is
part of a propaganda campaign of the Jews … Instead of looking at fatness as a form of sick degeneracy – not to mention a dangerous health hazard – which should be shamed, fat accepters believe that fatties should love their fatness, and force it on everyone else …
[T]his embracing of degeneracy is par for the course. It is part of the whole equality doctrine of the Marxist Jews.
In an old video, Matt Forney — remember him? — railed against fat acceptance as
basically an extremely retarded version of identity politics, [which] is one of the biggest legacies of cultural marxism and one of the the biggest reasons why our society is falling apart at the seams. ..
And yeah, I’m overweight. … yeah, I know I have fucked up. I have not worked as hard as I should have to lose weight. That’s not the issue, that’s not, that’s not the issue here.
Then there’s the gal on Reddit’s PurplePillDebate who thinks that fat acceptance “serves as a way for women to gain power over men … .” And there’s the guy on Reddit’s PurplePillDebate who thinks that the
fat acceptance movement is cultural marxism supersized. This is about using bad science and laziness to justify their disgusting lifestyles and bodies. This movement will have consequences in lifespan and depression.
I also notice how these fat acceptance bullshit is 99 percent about women, cause these fat princesses won’t accept anything lower than a sex god because they start believing their own lies about being beautiful.
Weird how all of those coming up with conspiracy theories about fat acceptance are terrible human beings, if not actual neo-Nazis.
At some point, presumably, all these conspiracy theories will join together into one big messy mega-theory, like a fatphobic Nazi version of Voltron. I can’t wait.
H/T — All the people on Twitter who helped me remember the old cartoon I was thinking of.
Send tips to dfutrelle at gmail dot com.
We Hunted the Mammoth relies entirely on readers like you for its survival. If you appreciate our work, please send a few bucks our way! Thanks!
I hadn’t heard from PurplePillDebate in a while. IIRC that was the subreddit that was ostensibly a middle ground for red pillers and people who aren’t misogynistic fascists to debate, but for obvious reasons it immediately just became an extension of TheRedPill subreddit.
Do they realize their Dear Leader is a bit fat himself? Presumably they don’t care because he’s a man.
Wow. This is some next level shit. So the idea that fat people should be allowed to exist without shame is actually fat people shoving their blubber down the throats of others and demanding shrilly for them to like it–and by “fat people”, they mean “fat women” because fat is only ever really.offensive when it’s on a woman–and all of this is a Jewish plot to…something something birthrates something, I kind of lost track?
These are the kinds of people who stalk and harass and make entire websites dedicated to hating Ragan Chastain of DancesWithFat fame, because how dare she peddle scientific fact about the actual success of dieting and chances of keeping it off (which is almost nil) and the serious health problems caused by all forms of discrimination and stress, all while having the unmitigated gall to be active and athletic while not being “fuckable” by their standards (ie: being fat)?
I swear, these people make my wildly antisemitic father with his diabetes-ravaged increasingly-irrational brain seem tame.
Beep boop, I have finally compiled the basics of the alt right beliefs system:
1.) everything is part of a vast conspiracy against white people
2.) orchestrated primarily by Jews
3.) but we will get extremely angry if you compare us to Nazis
Molyneux isn’t exactly a stunner. Kind of reminds me of a bumper sticker I saw decades ago:. “I may be fat, but you’re ugly, and I can diet.”
This was ages ago, long before fat acceptance was a ‘thing’.
Not even mentioning Molyneux’ horrendous personality and social views.
I wonder if this guy is aware that most people do get heavier after giving birth
@Lainy
He probably isn’t aware, he never struck me as someone who would actually know much about reproduction. Of course, they would probably spin that into yet another form of misogyny: they hate women who aren’t virgins and in pretty much all cases pregnancy means a woman is not a virgin.
Please tell me Stefan doesn’t have kids.
@Naglfar
He has a daughter around my age I believe. so she is an adult.
@Lainy
I can only hope she has the wisdom to do what her father advocates others do and deFOO herself.
The fertility argument seems like a baffling one to me, considering that the “ideal weight range” that these assholes seem to consider for women is spectacularly unhealthy and would probably result in worse impacts to fertility than people being fat.
Potential TMI
Like, I’m normally pretty slim, and when I lose weight because I get sick or have stress/depression messing with my appetite, my period will just disappear for months until I get back to a healthier weight. The 100 lb 5’7″ women of these dude’s fantasies are almost certainly not fertile.
Granted, there are some conditions that are related to both infertility and being heavier, like PCOS, but the weight is not what causes the infertility, they just have the same underlying cause.
Not that it should effing matter anyway, because a person’s worth isn’t defined by how many babies they can produce.
I think the error is to say that Molyneux think. I think he isn’t equipped to do that. He do show how far someone can go in life without a brain.
As Catalpa said, underweightness is much worse for fertility than overweightness, so, as usual, the conspiracy is a non starter to begin with. (which make sense evolution wise, since reproduction when a women is underfeed was a spectaculary bad idea for 99.9% of the human race existence)
And fat acceptance for men is much better for men than for women currently. That’s plainly evident for anyone who have both men and women in their friend circle ; I don’t think I know a single women my age who never tried to diet, while maybe one men in five have done so.
It also respect the time-honored form of “I hate [random non-mainstream thing] because it’s pushed by [random political opponent] and [random discriminated ethnic group]”. Probably one of the reason for which I don’t lose time and energy trying to see the details of their bigotry, in the end they are all the same.
I’m the type of person who would have been involuntarily sterilised, if not outright killed, by the nazis.
The type of woman these asshats hold up as the pinnacle of health are all in the underweight to severely underweight range. And if you’re that thin the body stops running the reproductive organs at full power and switches them to standby mode, rendering you mostly sterile until you gain weight.
Also, all those models and movie stars who are rail thin? Need tons of fillers in their face so they don’t look like skeletons.
@Naglfar
It’s a shame it got to that point, although I guess repressive people and mindsets aren’t open to change or liberation or emancipation. I hear the left being accused of totalitarian but the legislation they propose almost always entails more freedom and help to a society compared to what the right generally try to pass.
This is part of what makes me believe this world is doomed and deserves a lot of bad things, and probably why I’m sympathetic to anarchism too – many people are practically sympathetic to fascism, they won’t let go of their beliefs and compromising with them legitimizes fascists.
Shouldn’t fat acceptance lead to more babies, as the definition of attractiveness expands to include a wider range of people?
These guys keep narrowing the range of acceptable motherhood traits (white, skinny, long hair, uneducated, conservative, virgin yet sexually uninhibited, under 25, trained to unconditionally worship men no matter how awful and abusive). That’s not going to boost the white replacement cause. Young Nazi men already have trouble meeting women who pass all the filters, let alone getting to the part about marriage and babies. Why make it harder?
If you’re going to model Nazi marriage after an exclusive country club, where only the few are worthy, then there’d better be some awesome rewards for joining. All these guys have to offer is contempt and marital rape.
It’s only a moral failing and Marxist conspiracy when other people are fat.
@Dormousing_it
When I was in the eighth grade, a kid made fun of me in gym class for not wearing matching socks. I remember thinking, “I can go home and change my socks, but you’ll always be an asshole.” Wish I’d had the courage to say it out loud.
Ugggg…so Molyneux has a daughter.
@Knitting Cat Lady:. I’ve noticed that trend among female celebrities. They’re not much more than bags of bones, with breast implants, at least in the US.
Right now, I’m about 10 pounds over what I would consider a good weight. I may have to just accept it, now that I’m middle aged. I’m not ‘evolved’ enough to the point where I’m OK with it.
@Buttercup
I was thinking a similar line. It seems like if the intention is more white babies, refusing to marry any available women is rather counterproductive. Then again, for us I think it s a feature that white supremacists aren’t getting married or having kids, because we all know they’d be abusive husbands/fathers.
@Dormousing_it
In more recent times we are seeing more celebrities who are more diverse in shape and size (for example, Lizzo). I think that’s good, as it will lend more support to people of all body types.
@ buttercup
You were a social influencer!
https://www.yesstyle.com/blog/2015-07-30/trendspotting-the-new-sock-trends-yay-or-nay/
https://apnews.com/4c0467faf9c945868fa0e4a4431115b9
@Alan Robertshaw: Finally! It only took 40 years for haute couture to catch up.
We have a class reunion coming up later this year. I’ve never been to one, but I’m tempted to put on a pair of clashing cat-patterned socks and do the can-can on Gym Jerk’s table.
Alan – I’ve always made my knitted socks (back before my carpal tunnel made knitting too painful to do) at least subtly different. Usually, I’d switch up toe/heel colors or knitted patterns in the cuffs because I’ve never been a fast knitter and doing ANOTHER sock exactly the same way as the first seemed like such a bore!
I also experimented with the earring thing years ago, too, when I was working at the craft chain. They had silver plated charms and I wanted two sea horses for earrings, but they never got another after I purchased the first. So, I got a sea turtle and painted them both with nail polish. I’ve always gotten compliments on them.
Since nazi recruitment depends on aggrieved entitlement among privileged young men, letting them date whoever they like is counterproductive. It’s more important to create grievances wherever possible. You like Suzy and Suzy likes you back? There’s a chance at a mutual relationship there? Can’t allow that.
Suzy isn’t good enough for you! She has things like desires and bodily processes. She eats food! She has relationships with people who aren’t you! She’s degenerate! And what’s more, she’s only doing it to spite you!
Truly worthy women only ping into existence, fully formed and perfect, with a tamper-proof freshness seal, when you want them. Anything less is a personal insult.
Yes! But for a long time I thought he and Mike Cernovic were the same person.
@Yutolia
I don’t blame you, the whole far right starts to blend together into one awful glob after a while.
IIRC, Stefan Molyneux’s wife is a psychiatrist.
What do you want to bet that he married her so he could get it for free?
I think Weasel-Rah nails a good bit of the rationale for declaring simultaneously that lots of babies are required and that all women are horrible don’t touch them. These leaders only get power (and donations) if their marks are angry. So, make sure the initiates to the cult believe themselves to be downcast and make sure they don’t find solutions.
(@Hambeast and re assymetry – back before my ears decided they didn’t like earrings any more, I always used to wear studs on one side and long earrings on the other. Or two dark red studs on the left and two emerald-green ones on the right for port and starboard 🙂 )
Moulinex and his ilk are horribly addicted to their anger and grievances. Regardless of what any of them look like on the outside – even if some of them look like models – they are unimaginably ugly (Zappa was right).
Looks like Stephy the Bigot Molerat* is at it again with his weird obsession with women’s fertility. Funny how he never, ever addresses male fertility. It’s like Margaret Atwood was on to something when she wrote The Handmaid’s Tale… can’t help but pity his daughter, and I hope he hasn’t crammed her head full of his toxic ideology, else she’s probably dealing with a whole lot of self-loathing.
Also, RE: Matt Forney:
*With apologies to molerats, but you gotta admit, with the regression of his hairline, the progression of his wrinkles, and his evermore myopic views and tendencies to encourage eusocial behavior (i.e. unquestioning groupthink) in his cultis-uh, I mean fans, you gotta say the comparison is only growing more apt over time.
Anyway, like I said before in another thread, I know I’m too fat for my own good and I have to find some way to safely shed a few dozen pounds; unlike that coward though I’m not about to blame others who’re fat, given both my own case and the simple fact that current general socio-economic conditions encourage becoming overweight, nor will I try lazily deflecting any attempts at criticism of my hypocrisy by claiming those things can’t be related (probably helps that in my case there isn’t actually any hypocrisy involved in the first place).