You seem like a caring person, so perhaps this will help guide decision-making. When you make major decisions that deeply impact another person, or even just get real far in evaluating options and imagining outcomes, asking strangers, etc....when you do these things without communicating with the other person at all, the end result is you protecting yourself, not them. Even if it feels like you're carefully considering their interests.

No matter your intentions, if you're not communicating with them and letting them participate in big decisions that affect you both, you are not acting in their best interests. There are many times (like abuse) when that is 100% the right approach, but you need to be very clear eyed about that choice to remove the other person's agency. The way you're going about this protects you at their expense, and in this situation it sounds kind of cruel, rather than justified. I'm not judging you harshly, your intentions seem good, but you need to understand that this is not a loving way to treat an adult.

One of our political parties discovered they can reliably achieve short term goals by politicizing facts and science. The success of this strategy points out that it's available to anyone who wants to use it, which over time has meant that group of voters just got continually flooded with nonsense, until we got here.

There's (almost) no one pushing back from that side - the strategy is too successful, the margins of victory for the party are too small, and most politicians in general want what's best for them and would put the long term health of the group they're representing as a distant priority, if at all.

Doesn't even really require coordination/cooperation. With enough people willing to employ this strategy for enough time, by now the distrust of science and official communications is extremely entrenched.

If you're looking for the "why" we're susceptible to it, it's the same old story - people angry at how things are going can often be manipulated into blaming people and things other than the true causes, with obvious advantages / incentives for those doing the manipulation.

Heard anything about Mullvad's browser? You seem knowledgeable about the topic. I use their VPN already, still using Firefox for my browser though. I'm further behind the curve than you are, lol.

Fair enough. And there's enough variation in us that few rules truly apply to everyone. Hell, I know an adult woman who eats almost nothing but sweets, no physical activity, stays thin as a rail (though likely not healthy, to be clear).

Ah bummer, I had that happen when I was younger. Completely unenjoyable, was ruined for many years. It sure seemed permanent for me, but for whatever reason edibles after all that time off worked great.

What are you using for your browser now?

Thanks for sharing this, hope ya continue 🤙

Could never be me lol, I'm fairly active and have gotten somewhat serious about diet, but man cannabis + ice cream...phew. Good stuff lol.

I'm gonna make what I consider to be an important distinction here, but I also want to say I mostly agree with you and I'm bummed by the downvotes.

I think we can lump the middle manager into two broad "types". And you seem to be exclusively describing one of the two types - the one that's, frankly, smart and "aware" enough to realize that middle management is trash, rank and file is trash, and they know precisely why they are aiming to get above everyone. It ain't cuz they want to help, of course, and they never intend to. Fuck those people every possible way, because not only do they understand that the purpose of middle management is to be the buffer between the owners and the laborers, they also have decided - with full awareness! - fuck the laborers, I want to be good with the owners.

But there's another, sadder kind of middle manager, and I think maybe your hostility is unkind and unfair to this type. This middle manager still has the wool pulled over their eyes, they really think if they work hard and do well, they'll be rewarded! And hey, isn't the fact that they've been promoted (!) to leadership a clear indicator that they're doing things right? Just gotta keep at it, the really important people keep telling me this is what they like to see, I'll finally be able to get all these bills paid / improve my life! I'm on the way up, finally.

And then that person says "YEESH managing this store is really hard, I've gotta get better at this. My leadership doesn't seem to think this should be a struggle..."

Etc., etc., for 10, 20 years as the wool gradually falls from their eyes. Not everyone is able to see things as clearly as you are. Most middle managers, I think, are basically suckers. Naive and exploited. The rest, tho, are basically monsters without enough power to be monsters. No argument there, and fuck those people.

I just think it's really conflating two separate things. Weight loss (or gain) is primarily, overwhelmingly controlled by diet. The ~10% influence exercise has just doesn't leave much room for exercise choice to influence the weight loss goal much. In fact cardio and especially HIIT can really make the brain feel super hungry, and work against dietary goals. Anecdotally and I believe supported by literature.

So for the things that exercise and choice of exercise really contribute to, sure, choose them wisely so that they align with your goals.

But in general, people who want to lose weight should focus on diet almost entirely. And separately, almost anyone looks better with more and stronger muscle. But yeah, they're distinct goals with very different strategies. Sounds like you do agree about that.

This advice is so incomplete as to be pretty unhelpful at best. Not trying to be a jerk, but A) the kinds of workouts you're doing don't have much at all to do with weight loss, and B) the number of people for whom too much protein powder is the reason they can't lose weight is...I mean, it just must be vanishingly small. These are not the reasons most people who want to be slimmer are not, even the ones who are real active.

Can confirm, I've worked for a company doing govt contract work and I really don't know what it'd take for us to have walked away. They can dictate whatever terms they like and still expect to find plenty of companies happy to bid for contracts I think.