Television pundit Bill O’Reilly hosted public-health-legend-in-her-own-mind MeMe Roth on The O’Reilly Factor last night to discuss what so-called “Twinkie taxes” can do to reverse the obesity problem in America. The trouble is not just that she’s ignorant about the negligible health impacts that such a tax would actually have, but that she believes most Americans are too dumb to know how to feed themselves.
O’Reilly introduced his guest by informing his audience that she thinks a tax on snacks and soda would be “a good idea because it would maybe discourage people from eating this stuff. And everybody would be healthier.” No surprise there – after all, this is a woman who thinks overweight kids are better off in foster care.
But then she used her opinion as a platform for why punitive taxes are the best way to browbeat Americans into eating the way Roth thinks they ought to eat:
Bill O’Reilly: I’m a pretty healthy guy, I think. I worked out in the pool this morning. I’m trying. But I eat some Fritos, I drink some cream soda.
MeMe Roth: I have a perfect blood panel and I indulge occasionally, too. I even occasionally drink Coke! Which is disgusting, I’ll never give into it again.
O’Reilly: But here’s the deal: I don’t want to be taxed because I’m responsibly eating some food that is what they call “comfort food.” It’s an intrusion.
Roth: But you are an anomaly, I am an anomaly. Most of America is fat and sickly and we’re becoming a nation of invalids.
Hear that, America? Roth knows how to eat junk food in moderation, but the rest of us are too gluttonous and stupid to know the difference between a banana and a banana sundae, or to enjoy sprinkles.
Does anyone other than Roth thinks that’s a fair assumption to make?