Mark Morford- One sandwich to kill you all

[n2doc]

There are many horrible jobs in this life. Emergency room janitor. Sow inseminator. Earwax collector. Sarah Palin's grammar checker. Glenn Beck's fluffer. Republican. New Jersey.

But when I sit back, sip my scotch and scan the newswires for sundry effluvia indicative of our culture's joyful hellbound deathspin, the realization soon dawns that I can think of few gigs more nightmare-inducingly, soul-deadeningly horrible than being an executive for garbage food megacorp.

That is to say, a VP for McDonald's, Taco Bell, Burger King or their ilk, someone who sits around all day trying to discover new ways to manipulate, coerce, poison, and otherwise flagrantly kill millions of humans worldwide by convincing them to eat mass-produced, industrial feedlot, chemical-blasted garbage you should not feed to your dog unless you totally hate him and want him to get heart disease and die.

Hell, even the oil titans right now raping Canada can claim to be supplying a commodity that runs the engines of the world. Even Wall Street ogres can claim to be partaking of a time-honored tradition of gutting the U.S. Treasury at the expense of the ignorant masses. But head of marketing for, say, Kentucky Fried Chicken? Oh, you poor soul. Hell hath a special room for you.



Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2010/04/09/notes040910.DTL

[JHB]

1. A rare unrec from me -- Morford's spending a column on this?

Did we suddenly run out of real outrages to rail against?

[geckosfeet]

3. It's an allegory that echoes the underpinnings of our fabulously successful capitalist system.

It also reminds one of how tea party movements of perhaps several thousand people (maybe less) becomes in the eyes of the media, a national movement.

[patrice]

5. Nailed it!! This IS what "We" are.

[Javaman]

8. Your unrec has been canceled out, by my rec. nt

[geckosfeet]

2. A little more...

Maybe it's all a silly, futile argument, a fool's game to point up the obvious evil of such products. These items are legion. They just keep right on coming. What's more, it's just capitalism at work. It's about giving the people what they want, right?

And if they don't really want it -- if, deep down, most humans sense this garbage is hugely unhealthy, that it's a form of slow poison and there are far better and wiser options out there -- well, you do what companies like KFC, Coca-Cola, Kraft, McDonald's and all the rest have done since the dawn of the free market.

You convince the less educated and the gullible that they are wrong, that this crap is actually a good value for your family, nutritious and safe to feed to children, even as you manufacture all the flavors, smells and meat-like textures in a giant lab and sell truckloads of the crap to the poorer classes, until they get fat and sick and die.

MM's SF Gate column: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2010/04/09/notes040910.DTL#ixzz0kbNvLeCb
One sandwich to kill you all

[saltpoint]

4. If it don't come with greasy fries and sugar pop throwed in, I don't want none.

[Froward69]

6. I like to live dangerously...

so to tell the truth... I just might have one, two Aspirin before and after (to thin out the blood) Life might be short but just one wont kill me today (will it) :P

the doughnut bacon cheeseburger didn't kill me and it was yummy.

[patrice]

7. Good gonzo journalism.

I enjoy a passionate snarky voice and this is a legitimate point.

[paulsby]

9. what a bunch of crap

people LOVE denigrating these restaurants, but they serve a DEMAND.

mcd's fwiw, on several occasions in the past came out with healthier alternatives that did not do very well (e.g. the mclean).

some fast food restaurants do have healthy choices, to include mcd's and wendys (wendys chili is quite nutritious)

and people make their choices.

i LIKE mcd's and i choose to eat it on occasion. and i have 12% bodyfat.

it's MY fricken choice, and good for mcd's. don't like mcd's? don't eat there. choice. it's what's for dinner (or breakfast. or ...)

[gratuitous]

10. They serve a demand?

I'll take you at your word: Where is the demand for this heart attack on a plate? I'm not talking about once it's introduced and through a combination of marketing and all-American thick-headedness there are people who actually want this, but where was the demand for this (or for deep-fried Twinkies and Snickers) before they came along? Because it completely got past me.

And just because the pusher creates a craving in the junkie, that's hardly a "choice."

[paulsby]

11. it IS a choice

and nannystaters will always infringe freedom out of a desire to protect people from themselves. i hope you wouldn't go that far

it's endemic amongst leftwing and rightwing statists, sadly enough.

the proof of the demand is in the success of mcd's. i like mcd's. i eat it. i had a big breakfast the other day (with hotcakes)

that's MY fucking choice

i maintain 12% bodyfat, because i use discipline. people who don't have themselves to blame, not mcd's. mcd's is not stuffing food down people's throats. feel free to drive on by.

the DUTY to teach kids about nutrition, etc lies primarily with parents, and also community groups, churches, etc. my friend's church for example gets together for canning nutritious foods, and teaches all sorts of nutrition stuff and provides help with recipes etc.

i respect that.

mcd's took a basic american staple - meat and potatoes and ran with it.

good for them.

i LIKE choice.

lots of choices are crap, and i'm free to ignore them or use them in moderation

[CakeGrrl]

12. That's what the test markets sussed out for them

Not everything takes off, but apparently this did.

I'm fine with "innovations"; as the previous poster suggested, I'm not programmable enough to succumb helplessly to whatever these executives dream up and Frankenstein into existence.

At some point, people have to exercise their own mind over substance - unless there are studies proving that this really IS akin to getting someone addicted to free samples of crack...

[paulsby]

13. the body has natural desires to stuff its fat face

that's how we evolved. in times of plenty, our body WANTS to store fat for times of hardship

modern society with salt, processed carbs, and fat laden foods plays into that natural tendency

but it's still a matter of choice.

there are few things in life we have MORE control over than what we stuff down our gullets

[Rage Inc.]

14. "...our culture's joyful hellbound deathspin..."

Simply excellent, though I believe that you're being a tad Pollyanish.

[cherokeeprogressive]

15. Morford writes like Dennis Miller talks. And I can't wait to try one. n/t

[MisterP]

16. bringing us to these abominations

http://www.cracked.com/video_18133_8-great-foods-explaining-why-terrorists-hate-us.html

[arikara]

17. That makes my stomach hurt

just to look at it. Disgusting!