Try as I might, I’ll never be funnier than a woman entering Instagram-induced psychosis.
“As someone who is both fat and queer, I can’t help but wonder if the providers who are encouraging, prescribing, selling, promoting, etc. intentional weight loss, are the same providers who are/would encourage, sell, promote, prescribe, etc. conversion therapy,” reads an Instagram post shared to X.
Points for creativity to the original poster. Ozempic converts you from being fat to being thin. This conversion is a sort of physical and mental therapy.
So, then, I agree. Ozempic is conversion therapy.
But why stop there? Ozempic is conversion therapy, and so is “eating broccoli,” and so is “not eating like a water buffalo.”
Exercising — with aesthetic goals in mind — is conversion therapy. Exercising without aesthetic goals in mind might be conversion therapy, too, as it brings about physiological changes regardless.
Conversion, in and of itself, is not bad or good. When A becomes B, our judgment of that change depends entirely on what A was and what B is.
When a fat person becomes thin, that is, of course, a Good Thing™.
But “conversion therapy” is usually used in a gay context.
The Human Rights Campaign condemns conversion therapy as a “range of dangerous and discredited practices that falsely claim to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity or expression.”
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The HRC claims there is “significant anecdotal evidence of harm to LGBTQ+ people resulting from attempts to change their sexual orientation and gender identity.”
Discussions of conversion therapy follow from a central, usually unspoken, question: Is there a true self?
The HRC says, Yes, definitely, when that true self is two-spirit or trans or bisexual.
Abnormal forms of “sexual orientation” or “gender identity” are taken to be inherent. Being a straight, heterosexual person is a costume you can shed at any moment — to great adulation.
The HRC would never suggest that a parent, or a school, might be able to influence a child towards expressing same-sex attraction, or towards identifying as the opposite sex. But this does occur.
On this point, and perhaps this point alone, leftists reject the tabula rasa.
So the logic goes: Same-sex attraction (or desiring to be the opposite sex) is inherent. Because it is inherent, and weird, it constitutes a true self. Trying to repress someone’s true self is evil.
This is clearly false. Transgender identification is socially contagious. The other letters of the MMIWG2SLGBTQQIA+ are too, to varying degrees (you either are or you aren’t a missing and murdered indigenous woman, typically).
In any case, the origin of a certain characteristic — or identity — does not matter so much as whether that characteristic is good or bad or neutral.
You could, in your heart of hearts, want nothing more than to drown a bucket of kittens in a lake. You could identify as a guy who wants to drown a bucket of kittens in a lake. You still should avoid doing it.
Let’s say this kitten-killer can do nothing to change his desire. He can still avoid acting upon it. He should avoid acting upon it.
Living life in pursuit of one’s “true self” seems fruitless at best and evil at worst. What does it mean to arrive? Giving in to every little desire?
Rather, one should aim to improve the rational mind’s governance of the irrational mind. A useful self-assessment is not: “Does this action honor my authentic self?” It is: “Is this action wise or foolish?”
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I have been on Ozempic for a few years. I was given the prescription by my doctor for my type 2 diabetes. It has helped me lose a considerable amount of weight, kept my A1C levels normal and helped me avoid insulin by monitoring my diet and exercise. This is what Ozempic was meant to do. It was not prescribed as a weight loss drug but, unfortunately, the effects on weight loss made it very popular among the elite who could afford the outrageous price. The reality is that obese people are much more likely to contract type 2 diabetes which causes many very unfortunate medical difficulties. There is nothing about "conversion" that is related to Ozempic. It is, for diabetics, life saving. If you are concerned that you are going to be converted, diet and exercise or it is probable that you will need it as a life saving medication.