Last Thursday I came upon this link to an article in Raw Story (a website which has drifted so far from its original premise it really ought to consider a name change):
President Donald Trump eats like a 6-foot-plus, 240-pound petulant child…He’s set to embark on his first official trip overseas…with pit stops in Saudi Arabia, Israel, Belgium, Italy and the Vatican—something he’s reportedly pouting about, huffing and puffing that the nine-day excursion is far too long. Worse yet: none of the places he’s visiting have a Trump-branded hotel with workers that are duty-bound and practiced at serving him his favorite meals. A quick rundown of a few things we know about Trump’s dietary habits: He likes his $54 dry-aged steak charred into beef bricks so well-done they clank and rattle the plate. A healthy slather of ketchup serves as the finishing touch…Trump is a noted lover of fast food: McDonald’s burgers and Kentucky fried chicken are staples…Trump appreciates the salty, fatty, uncomplicated food for taste but perhaps even more for its uniformity in preparation and cleanliness standards…He once ate a pork chop on a stick at the 2015 Iowa State Fair, and while it’s not fair to call the delicacy a staple in Trump’s diet, he seemed to really enjoy it. That in mind, this trip is going to be a nightmare for Trump’s stomach. While some might consider trying other cultures’ foods a valuable and exciting experience, the president is a man of routine who is about to lose control over his meal plan…
There are so many real things to attack Trump about; do we really need to waste time on his having an immature palate? I know lots of people who are finicky eaters; even some of my own preferences (I don’t like uncooked or undercooked food and I despise green, leafy vegetables) trigger the smugness of food snobs. In food as in sex, people like what they like and that’s OK; nobody, not even a narcissistic sociopath, should be shamed for having tastes others deem “abnormal”. Really, y’all, I get the desire to attack Trump in every way possible; I feel that about all politicians. But this scattershot approach hits a lot of innocent targets & makes y’all look like hypocrites if you support people’s right to be individuals; preference shaming is as odious as queer-shaming and slut-shaming.
Furthermore, there’s this weird and Puritan-smelling attitude that being a picky eater is somehow fun, because all adults must force themselves to eat food they find disgusting, or something; dominatrix Emma Evans debunked that ridiculous notion in this Twitter thread last Friday. My own aversions are much less pronounced and far less numerous than hers, but I recognize much of what she writes here and can attest to the misery she describes. The only thing I need to add is that, when the food that makes you puke most is green, leafy vegetables, expect everybody to insist that it’s all in your head and/or that you’re being childish. A person can say, “Oh, I don’t eat meat”, and that’s OK, or he can say, “Oh, I can’t eat white carbs”, and everybody respects that. But say you can’t eat crap that smells like cut grass & tastes worse and people insist you’re a case of arrested development. I’ve actually, on MANY occasions, had people violate my consent by sneaking green shit into my food and then crowing triumphantly when I consumed it, as though my not reacting to something I couldn’t see, smell or taste magically proved some profound insight. Now just imagine the things people would say if you were to sneak almost any other kind of food into the plate of someone who had clearly expressed that they wouldn’t consume that food (a vegan, an observant Jew, whatever); people would correctly brand you an asshole. But not for “veggies”. The truth is that Westerners have some kind of sick religious attachment to the supposed magical health-giving properties of leaves and they take it as sacrilege when a heretic like me refuses to participate. They get even more annoyed because I’m so healthy in most ways (few colds, no weight problems, etc) despite my refusal to channel Elsie the Cow when sitting down to enjoy a nice meal. So as you can imagine, I’m not exactly patient with arguments that a thoroughly awful person is somehow even more awful just because he has a narrower range of preferences than the average person; by that argument, we bisexuals are clearly superior to all you heteros & homos, and should therefore mock you as “petulant children” for not fucking people you aren’t attracted to.
I’m with you on greens, think people’s defenses are down because they are “natural”, but of course farm products are pushed with marketing and lobbying
Brava, Maggie, for yet again hitting the nail on the head. What adults eat, or like to eat, is their business, and should not be subject to mockery, peer coercion and the like. But Trump is an easy target for people to mock over his various offbeat (and “unsophisticated”) tastes, and so people do it endlessly. It is akin to bullying in highschool – hey, here is an unpopular kid (unpopular in your circles, that is), why not gang up on him. Unfortunately, this reduces the impact of criticisms of acts, speeches and personality traits that he well deserves.
Spinach isn’t that rich in iron: they reported the figure incorrectly.
Popeye is a lie on at least two levels.
Another fun fact, I might add, is that Elsie Segar intended Spinach to be a one-shot gag; Popeye originally got his powers from the Wiffle Hen.
They were bribed by the spinach lobby!
IMHO, what a politician eats (or whether his wife wants to hold his hand) is unimportant. What’s important is the policies that politician promotes. I’m perfectly happy to attack Trump’s awful policies, but bagging on him because he and his wife aren’t getting along, or because he likes a Big Mac? Can we all grow up?
[…] Source: Picky | The Honest Courtesan […]
As we get older, our senses of taste and smell, like sight and hearing, deteriorate and we need stronger stimulation; more salt, more fat to mediate fat-soluble flavours, more highly spiced food. Maybe slightly burned meat. More worrying is that mental power too deteriorates; if you didn’t start with much, where does that leave the unfortunates whose destinies you control?
Boom! Well said!
Thank you Maggie for saying this. And also thank you for the comments supporting Maggie.
I have flashbacks (maybe mild PTSD) from my childhood of being forced to eat foods that turned my stomach. I never forced my kids to eat anything they didn’t like.
Part of the problem with this sort of attack is that it gives fuel to the fire (on the right) that the press is just out to attack Trump, no matter what. Its stupid and immature to do this sort of hit piece.
By green leaf vegetables I guess you mean spinach, cabbage, lettuce etc.
Do peas, beans or broccoli have the same effect?
Peas and beans are legumes; they’re fine. Broccoli is very closely related to cabbage (they’re both forms of wild mustard, as are kale, Brussels sprouts & cauliflower); they have the same effect.