As George Orwell once noted, "The worst advertisement for Socialism is its adherents." According to Orwell, the typical socialist is "either a youthful snob-Bolshevik ... or, still more typically, a prim little man with a white-collar job, usually a secret teetotaler, and often with vegetarian leanings." Orwell wrote those words in 1937, but they're entirely recognizable today, especially the line about vegetarianism. There's something about the left that makes them highly neurotic about food. That's been true for generations, but there's evidence the impulse is getting worse.
During CNN's recent marathon climate change debate, the hosts asked the Democratic candidates if they would support changing our country's dietary guidelines, known as the food pyramid, to reduce red meat and thereby reduce global warming. Sen. Kamala Harris quickly agreed. So did Andrew Yang, who said: "It's good for the environment, it's good for your health if you eat less meat. Certainly, meat is an expensive thing to produce." Sen. Elizabeth Warren agreed: "Look, there are a lot of ways that we try to change our energy consumption. ... Some of it is with lightbulbs, some of it is on straws, some of it, dang, is on cheeseburgers, right?"
Catch that? Warren says you eat too many cheeseburgers -- as if it's any of her business. But that's the thing: She actually thinks it is her business. They all think that. The activist left seeks to control everything you do, including what you put in your mouth. For the last few years, they've been pushing you to eat bugs. Recall this headline from The Washington Post: "Eating bugs can help the environment." Or this one from The New York Times: "Why aren't we eating more insects?" Bizarre. Why would they want you to eat insects? Because it's repulsive and un-American, of course, and therefore, in the eyes of the left, it must be awesome. The more perverse and unnatural the better. That's always been the left's standard.
Given that, we shouldn't be surprised by what recently happened on Swedish television when a researcher and professor named Magnus Soderlund unveiled his plan to fight climate change. According to Soderlund, eating insects isn't enough. Cutting greenhouse gas emissions may require us to develop a taste for human flesh. Yes, it is time to practice eco-cannibalism. Soderlund noted that, unfortunately, many people might balk at cannibalism. They're just too uptight and middle-class. He suggested baby steps to open their minds: They can start by eating their own pets. Have a cocker spaniel burger. It's for the planet. The Swedes, we should note, are several years ahead of us in their climate-consciousness. We'll get there soon. And when we do, it'll be due to the tireless evangelizing of eco-prophets like Father Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana. As Buttigieg noted the other night, God himself strongly agrees with every word he utters:
Buttigieg: "You know, if you believe that God is watching as poison is being belched into the air of creation and people are being harmed by it, countries are at risk of vanishing in low-lying areas, what do you suppose God thinks of (SET ITAL)that(END ITAL)? I bet he thinks it's messed up. ... At least one way of talking about this is that it's a kind of sin."
Got that? Disagreeing with Father Pete is a sin -- or as Episcopalians like Father Pete put it, "a kind of sin." Whatever. It's bad. What apparently is not a sin is flying on private jets, which Father Pete does more than any other Democratic candidate. Of course, if you wound up within 50 feet of a chartered airplane, the left would denounce you as a heartless plutocrat who's killing the Earth. But when they fly private, it's different. It's necessary, virtuous even! Two standards: one for them, another for everyone else. They're like that about everything. This, for example, is Father Pete needling the rest of us proles about our naughty plastic straw habit:
Buttigieg: "I think we're thinking about it mostly through the perspective of guilt. From using a straw to eating a burger, 'Am I part of the problem?' And in a certain way, yes, but the most exciting thing is that we can all be part of the solution."
When you use a drinking straw, says Father Pete, you're part of the problem. Unless you happen to be Pete Buttigieg himself and you find yourself at the Iowa State Fair, in which case you can eat all the meat you want and, yes, drink from a plastic straw.
Straws for me but not for thee. Don't like it? Tough. Stop whining and eat your insects. Or your pets. Or your neighbors. We're heading out to get a cheeseburger.
