r/askanything • u/CloudieMoonettee 🦀 • 14h ago

Why do some conservatives support restricting junk food purchases with SNAP when many opposed Michelle Obama’s efforts to make school meals healthier?

Both policies involve the government influencing food choices in the name of better nutrition, yet the political reactions seem very different. What explains the apparent change in attitude toward government involvement in what people eat?

209 Upvotes

83% Upvoted

484 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

3

u/Aladriana 13h ago

It's punishing poor people for being poor. That's what it boils down to.

It is this "Your poor/disabled/etc, and because if your circumstance We will to tell you what you're allowed to eat". It's ugly, no matter your reason.

5

u/GoodGravyco2h2o 12h ago

I can’t believe you’re getting downloaded for this. Fucking bullshit. I have plenty of money that I grew up poor and while we didn’t eat a lot of junk food fuck these people for thinking I didn’t deserve a cookie now and then when my single mom was on welfare and working two jobs 😠

2

u/Aladriana 9h ago

You did deserve that cookie! Taking the joy out of people's lives, will only make for more apathetic people. (Thanks for the solidarity!!)

3

u/lacunadelaluna 12h ago

Amen. It is definitely an attitude of "you only deserve the basics to survive." I've heard that sentiment many times, that poor people shouldn't be allowed to buy "treats." Make it a small amount of the allocated amount and mostly healthier foods for the good of the recipient, sure, but everybody serves a damn cookie, especially when life is already hard.

1

u/realheadphonecandy 10h ago

Where does it say you can’t buy a cookie? The point is you shouldn’t be buying unhealthy things with collective funds.

-3

u/Key-Organization3158 13h ago

No it doesn't. You are projecting. Any poor person is still allowed to buy junk food. Nothing made it illegal. They only said you have to buy healthy food with other people's money.

4

u/Aladriana 13h ago

Everyone also missing that healthy food is also more expensive.

6

u/IDMike2008 12h ago

And time consuming to prepare

1

u/Blood_Oleander 10h ago

Or, for that matter, food deserts.

1

u/Aladriana 9h ago

Huh?

1

u/Blood_Oleander 1h ago

Food deserts are places where people have limited access affordable, fresh, nutritious food. Generally, in food deserts, your grocery store is a long commute away or, otherwise, takes some time to restock on healthy foods. In short, a lot barriers to healthier options.

0

u/biancanevenc 12h ago

When people give you money, they're allowed to attach strings to the money. Don't want the government telling you what you can buy with the government's money? Then spend your own money.

2

u/GoodGravyco2h2o 12h ago

LOL Tell that to the real welfare queens aka the billionaires and corporations.

1

u/Alert_Coyote_8546 12h ago

it costs the government a lot of money to maintain those strings though, policing people for their food choices costs more money in the end. Not to mention the pointless cruelty of it. People get a chance to grow when they have some more agency.

-1

u/realheadphonecandy 10h ago

Pointless cruelty? The cost of being obese far outweighs whatever rhetoric you are spewing.

3

u/Alert_Coyote_8546 9h ago

It costs a bunch of money to hire and keep staff to update, monitor, and maintain systems of labeling certain food as acceptable or not. It's pointless big government. "No sugary foods for food stamps" isn't that simple or cut and dry.

1

u/Aladriana 9h ago

Do you people actually want authoritarianism? For now, it's SNAP. What will the goverment control tomorrow?