Busybodies Are Offended

On the surface, this is just another of those “fat-shaming” stories, which will become ever more frequent as the U.S. population grows in body size and is psychologically still back in the days of size 6. And it’s so sad. She “really felt cute” in her crop top, and then she experienced this humiliation at the restaurant. The NBC News story by Janelle Griffith is very poignant, and our hearts go out to Ms. Emke.

But the story is really about something else. It’s about busybodies, like the busybody who complained to the restaurant manager at Golden Corral (thus ensuring nationwide bad publicity for the chain).

U.S. society seems to be full of busybodies today who feel offended or threatened by everything.

Busybodies on Patrol

A twenty-five year-old overweight woman in cutoffs and a crop top? Complain! Overweight people aren’t allowed to dress like that.

A black family having a picnic in a park by the river? Complain! Black people aren’t allowed to have picnics in lovely settings.

A young black student having a bit of a snooze in a college common room? Complain! You can never tell what these people will do when they wake up!

And so the busybodies bustle around, fat people one minute, and blacks the next. Who’s  next? Women who look like they might be seeking abortions!

It’s no one’s business, of course, but if you outlaw abortion, the busybodies will be going on patrol. Some states will criminalize the woman as well as the provider. It will be lovely. Like being in Salem, Massachusetts at the end of the eighteenth century.

What will really deal with these pesky blacks is the ducking stool ….