Eat the Bugs
Bug-eating is a racist conspiracy theory and also a beneficial cultural practice which we should totally adopt en masse
Nothing makes me gladder than obvious political hypocrisy… and it’s happy days for me, since many journalists now only take breaks from Twitter long enough to copy-paste from Chat GPT or throw subjective and misleading opinions into their articles.
The idea that the elites want us to eat bugs is apparently a deranged right-wing conspiracy theory. The media mouthpieces of those elites actually do want us to consider eating bugs, but they also want to portray the people with whom they disagree as unhinged “right-wing” people (probably racist too, obviously). As a quick solution they have simply decided to publish both narratives, more or less simultaneously. Instances like these are contributing to an ever-shrinking chunk of the populace who trust the mainstream media. At this point it’s mostly just comprised of progressives, the uninformed, and idiots (and those categories have significant overlap).
As I’ve already written, asking people what THEY want breaks through a lot of nonsensical back-and-forth. Many of the same people who label disgruntled parents as part of an ‘anti-LGBTQ’ movement for showing up to schoolboard meetings with explicit quotations from middle school-library books actually want kids to be exposed to ideas of ‘transgender’ and ‘non-binary’ and safe, pleasurable sex at fairly early ages… OR they support educators/academics/activists who want these things. Just ask these people ‘what do YOU think should be taught to young children in public schools?’ You will leave all of the name-calling and attribution wars to the side and you will often still get damning and unpopular answers to your questions.
The point is that many people on the Left have frankly unpopular views about the ways and directions which American society should change. They’re comfortable in a space in which they can broadly and negatively label their opponents and make every effort to keep those opponents’ REAL views silent and hidden. When was the last time one of those angry parents was interviewed in one of the hundreds of legacy media articles about ‘anti-LGBTQ+’ sentiment? The Left doesn’t want to discuss details and they don’t want to explain their ideas. They wand to execute policies written by bureaucrats and specialists in opaque and secretive processes and have their changes cheer-led by Twitter journalists. They do NOT want to have to explain their proposals. Force them to verbalize their ideas rather than getting stuck in an endless loop of obfuscation and euphemism and ad hominem.
The difficult part will be getting them to verbalize their ideas clearly (see the ‘motte and bailey’ strategy, or almost any Critical Theorist’s love of opaque and vague writing). Eventually, though, every Leftist should have to explain exactly what they want, and why. I think their answers would shock and displease most people.
The screenshots below are ALL taken from Coddled affluent professional’s Twitter.
»»» Coddled affluent professional
As you can see from the grabbed headlines above, the idea of ‘eating bugs’ as a major social change is purely conservative hysteria, fed by irresponsible demagogues. NO ONE is advocating that we eat bugs, and claiming otherwise is simply irresponsible misinformation.
Also, eating bugs is a pretty good idea, as the articles below point out. Many mainstream figures, scientists, and policy makers are exploring the idea of eating bugs. It would have beneficial environmental effects and would provide cheap, green, delicious sources of protein for the masses. If we could just surmount our cultural blocks against this practice it would be a great practice to adopt!
No one wants you to eat bugs. Eating bugs is a great idea and we should start doing it.
Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them. The Party intellectual knows in which direction his memories must be altered; he therefore knows that he is playing tricks with reality; but by the exercise of doublethink he also satisfies himself that reality is not violated. The process has to be conscious, or it would not be carried out with sufficient precision, but it also has to be unconscious, or it would bring with it a feeling of falsity and hence of guilt. Doublethink lies at the very heart of Ingsoc, since the essential act of the Party is to use conscious deception while retaining the firmness of purpose that goes with complete honesty. To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then, when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just so long as it is needed, to deny the existence of objective reality and all the while to take account of the reality which one denies -- all this is indispensably necessary. Even in using the word doublethink it is necessary to exercise doublethink. For by using the word one admits that one is tampering with reality; by a fresh act of doublethink one erases this knowledge; and so on indefinitely, with the lie always one leap ahead of the truth. Ultimately it is by means of doublethink that the Party has been able -- and may, for all we know, continue to be able for thousands of years -- to arrest the course of history.
-George Orwell, 1984