My kids are probably sick of me saying that. Their diets are not the best. (I have one who still refuses to eat vegetables!) Funny thing is, I was never referring to the food they eat. My husband, The Emperor, has a sweet tooth like he was Willy Wonka in a former life! That battle was lost before it begun!
No, I’m always saying it in reference to the games they play, & the content they consume – on line. The more violent the video games… yadda yadda yadda… You all know the studies and statistics. This is news to no one.
So I, personally, don’t watch too much TV anymore. I haven’t really in years. I used to though! From about 8:00am on 9/11, until a few days after Fukushima in March of 2011 – I was a certified news junkie! I had a strange, but strong, need to be constantly informed. If anything came up, I was going to be the first to know. I don’t know why. I think maybe it gave me a small sense of control, in an suddenly, out-of-control world.
As the years have progressed, especially after covid, I find myself being less and less able – to even be in a room with the television frequency on. Don’t get me wrong, I can still binge a Bridgerton season – very happily, I might add! – but mostly, I just enjoy tv time when I’m feeling under the weather.
So it was about 6 months ago, that I found myself sitting on the couch, recovering from my first surgery of the year, and looking for a light-hearted RomCom distraction. I settled on a movie I had always heard good things about, but had never made the time to see: ‘Love, Actually.’
It’s got a great cast, and it may have a cute story line, I don’t know. I couldn’t tell you, because I couldn’t get past the appalling amount of ‘fat girl’ comments said from, to, or about – every female cast member! (Except for the lovely Keira Knightly – who looks like she weighs about 90 pounds.)
No wonder so many of us women who came of age in the 90’s & early 00’s – have struggled with body dysmorphia and eating disorders!
We were conditioned to!!
For decades, everyone blamed unrealistic body expectations on fashion magazines & Victoria’s Secret models, but it wasn’t just the fashion world. Watching that movie, opened up my eyes to just how deep the manipulation went.
So who’s responsible for this? Who benefits from sickly, skinny women walking around believing they aren’t good enough?
(Hmmm…. Lemme think…. I’ll have to get back to you on that…. 🙄 /s)
I used to believe it was the gross, old-white-men-who-run-everything. You know, the ones behind the desks. The ones you don’t see. Maybe brain-washed & stick-figured women was just their type? Who am I to judge?
But then I asked myself – who really benefits from this level of manipulation?
The dark side?
The weight loss, diet, and pharmaceutical industry, maybe? (Speaking of which- can someone please explain to me, how we live in a society where vaccines are bad, but pharmaceuticals that shut down your digestion – are totally acceptable? – even if you don’t have the disease they are intended for??). **Not throwing shade. Been there. Done that. I’m the former queen of feeling like my body was never good enough. Sometimes, it’s still a struggle on the daily.
I have no idea who was behind all this, or what their motives truly were, but watching Love, Actually was like waking up to ice cold water thrown in my face. How were we ever so blind to the level of mind-control and manipulation we were under?
Are under still??
I remember learning in the aftermath of the Ferguson Riots in 2014, that other countries governments were directly involved in using social media to enflame tensions between American citizens. A tactic that worked again and sadly, even more efficiently, after the death of George Floyd in 2020. I guess it makes sense that someone, somewhere along the way – would figure out that United we stand and Divided we fall.
So in the Summer of 2024, I was hopeful that if I could just explain that in my neighborhood FB community forum – I could get them to stop posting political things, and keep posts relevant to living in our neighborhood. (You know, can we just get back to your regularly scheduled bitching about teenagers, and dog 💩 left in someone’s yard?)
Man, was I wrong! I was not prepared for the thrashing I got about ’first amendment rights’ (remember those?) And I was banned from posting for 48 hrs!! All just for pleading for peace? 😢
That was the day I came to the somber realization what we are actually up against, here in this country. It was also the day I deactivated my socials. (I permanently deleted them back in January, when Meta changed their policy on Hate Speech and Fact Checking. Because hate speech is hate, and facts still matter, to me at least.)
Cut to this fall, and sadly, this season I find I can’t even stomach football anymore. 😢 Like even a little bit, and I used to love football! I’m a big Detroit Lions fan!💙🦁💙(Have been for years! I was at the game when Barry Sanders broke the record. And the Thanksgiving game, the year we went 0-16!) My family still really enjoys it though, and their joy – when we win – makes me happy.
And so it was this past Sunday, I found myself in a bit of an unwilling viewer situation. My body is slow moving, recovering from another, more recent surgery, and I was forced to watch about 20 mins of NFL, before I could make my escape out of the room.
I really hope it was just the x-strength Tylenol that made me imagine it: But I looked up long enough to catch a commercial for an upcoming game show on Fox. Rob Lowe is the host, and I think the theming has something to do with ‘state vs state’ – & I 💩 you not, I think the name of the show is “America Duels”. (Please someone tell me this was a hulucination?)
Then I remembered the fact that Fox News had to pay over $780 million in a defamation lawsuit to Dominion for consistently and knowingly reporting false information in the rigged election lies. This is not the only case against them either.
I’m definitely not naive enough to think this is a one-sided issue! I’m sure other news outlets are guilty of similar things! But that’s not the ‘Other Countries are to blame’ narrative I had assumed either. ??
There are those old-white-guys-behind-the-desks, again. And I wonder why? What’s really going on behind the scenes?? Who benefits from keeping us so divided? Why is there now a tax free status on all guns, ammo, and crossbows here in FL till the end of the year? Like what the actual fuck is going on here people? And why???? Who benefits from this??? Why are the rich building bunkers – is that really even a thing?? Are the resources in our Country really so limited?
I definitely don’t have the answers, but don’t you think it’s time we at least start asking the questions?
They have you/me/us believing we are against each other, for what? Families have been fractured, but why? We are not each other’s enemies!
They even are so bold, as to have some people so conditioned -thinking that being awake is considered an insult! They have people believing it’s better to stay half asleep and easily controlled.
(You do you, boo-boo, but that’s not the timeline I choose to live on!)
Maybe if we could all turn off the background noise, and televisions, and stop the doom scrolling on our pocket idols for just 30 days, we might look up long enough to find the community we’ve been missing.
If You Are What You Eat, what can you cut out of your diet to have a healthier, more peaceful, mind?
Lucky for us, the Bible actually gives us the perfect recipe!
Turns out, you just have to check your fruit!! 🍇 Galations 5: 22-23 tells us, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”
In Paul’s letter to the Galatians, he explains these are the qualities one would have, and how you would know that the Holy Spirit is at work in someone’s life! So if anyone out there is promoting or preaching hate, anger, division and violence – it’s an easy tell – that the spirit they are serving – is NOT a Holy one!!
Check your fruit! 🍇
It’s as simple as that!!
Even the Bible will tell you, You really are what you eat!!
💗Big Love & Many Blessings🌸
~Amanda
©09/2025
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