Penn & Teller: Bullshit! Forums

The opinion espoused in the Fast Food episode is as follows, black and white, clear as crystal: Take responsibility for your own food choices because the government shouldn't have the right to dictate what you can and can't eat. Never in the episode did they say that people who refuse to eat fast food are wrong. It's when those people try to impose that lifestyle on other people through laws that they drift away from the plot.

It is not possible to do an episode of ANYTHING without telling someone how to live. That is what expressing an opinion is. Describing how you feel you should live. That is why it's an opinion. When laws and legislation enter the mix and attempt to remove personal responsibility from the equation because we're "not smart enough" to realize what we're eating (which as was proved in the episode by the scientific tests, yeah we are smart enough and know exactly what we're eating nutritionally regarding fast food), then being against that is not "telling someone how to live", that's advocating for people to have the right to CHOOSE how they live.

The greatest irony to me of all of this is that an episode like "Recycling" which breaks down what is, to me, a far more taboo subject to be against, is praised (as it should be) while an episode about fast food LEGISLATION and the theory behind it, not fast food itself, gets torn apart.

Now if you honestly think their word is for sale, I'd love to hear your evidence of that fact since the vast majority of their ideas that could be construed that way break down into "legislation should not be being used in this area or in this way" (Secondhand Smoke, which they've admitted they got wrong scientifically but stand by the idea that it's not something that should be legislated; Handicapped Parking, Fast Food, Endangered Species, Big Brother, etc.) which is the core belief of a Libertarian, which they are.

And as a side note, they called the episode "Big Brother" but it was about the Patriot Act and it's usage, not the idea that there is a shadow government that controls and watches us all the time (i.e. Big Brother in 1984). It's quite easy to believe in the Patriot Act when I can hold it in my hands and read it and simultaneously realize that many conspiracy theories are bs. At the same time, I also realize that conspiracy theories in and of themselves are a human defense mechanism against things that are so massive that we need an explanation for why they happen. Thank you for your opinion. And if you've just about had it with this show, then I'm pleased to inform you that, because we don't have laws that force you to watch certain shows, you can CHOOSE to never watch it again if it annoys you that much. Have a nice day.