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Culture War Roundup for the week of January 1, 2024

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In addition to the comments below, it's also worth noting that there is a massive disparity in how much people interact with medical institutions. Some people do have the misfortune of either personally having been struck by chronic conditions or having a close family member that has, but the more common situations are people that just eat themselves into it or medical their neuroses. About 15% of adults have diabetes, about 6% have sleep apnea, about 20% take some sort of psych meds, and so on. Sure, many of these things could be cured with diet and fitness changes, but for many people there is a culture of medicalization and it seems entirely normal to them that they are permanently dependent on medical institutions to remain alive and physiologically regulated. They can't control blood sugar, they can't sleep, they can't even focus on basic tasks without repeated visits to medical professionals and prescriptions for daily drugs.