John Oliver — Bless His British Heart — Highlighted a Snippet that Shows the Bottomless Nitwitism of American Culture — Will We Smile in Self-Recognition?

© 2014 Peter Free

 

24 June 2014

 

 

An illuminating portrayal

 

In reference to Congress’ 1993 contemplation of authorizing the FDA to regulate health food supplements — after 38 people died from L-tryptophan formulations:

 

 

More people wrote to Congress about the supplement bill than wrote about the Vietnam War.

 

© 2014 Carol Hartsell, Watch John Oliver Verbally Pants Dr. Oz Over Dietary Supplements, Huffington Post (with embedded clip from John Oliver’s Last Week HBO show, context begins 5:55 minutes into the segment)

 

 

If this is true, then

 

More Americans got upset enough to get off their sofas during a few months of legislative consideration of the health supplement bill — than did during the 9 years of the United States’ most active involvement in Vietnam. Where more than 58,000 American troops died — as well as perhaps 3.1 million Vietnamese, Cambodians and Laotians.

 

Preventing government from telling us that our “health” supplements were either harmful or useless was more important than expressing opposition to killing our troops and 3 million other people during a misbegotten war.

 

Nothing (of course) has changed since.

 

 

The moral? — American exceptionalism may just be the hubris of colossal self-involvement

 

The rest of the John Oliver clip is worth watching, if you want a glimpse of how lobbying money tramples truth and sane priorities in a culture beset with a lack of concern for either.