One need not look very hard to find evidence of leftist/Marxist/Islamist insanity these days. Whatever Normal Americans do or find good, they reflexively oppose and seek to destroy. Among those things is physical fitness.
Read more The SEALs clean up
I’ve been an athlete my entire, long life. I’ve maintained varying levels of fitness largely because I liked fencing, running, and other activities. Sure, I read the research, which has always revealed that exercise is good for you and likely extends your life, or at least makes what life you have easier and more vibrant. But mostly, I’ve worked out because it is enjoyable.
My patterns have changed over the years. I do little fencing—just Kendo warm-up exercises—because there is no one where I live with whom to fence. I don’t run anymore, because all those marathons, all that mountain trail running and shorter races wore out my knees, so now I bike. Outside in good weather, inside in bad. My fitness level made it easier to recover from knee and shoulder replacement surgery. Weights? Sure. Good for me, and still reasonably fun–most of the time.
But as I’ve aged, exercise has become essential because damn, it’s easy to put on the weight, but awfully hard to remove it. Those are lessons they haven’t learned at the “Socialism 2026 Conference” in Chicago:
In this one, a masked woman explains why socialists must reject the idea of fitness, because to do otherwise would play right into the hands of fascists. Is this some sort of bizarre reaction to RFK Jr. and MAHA? No one would be surprised.
You will notice that this woman is masked. In 2026. In fact, it looks like almost everyone at this event is wearing masks. These are the people who loved the Covid-19 lockdowns. They’re pining for the return of those glory days.
Graphic: X Post
Wow. I certainly don’t feel very fascistic when pumping iron or at the end of long, hard rides. And now we discover—actually, this viewpoint is common among the Left—that trying to help folks avoid obesity is racist. Of course, what isn’t these days?
Graphic: X Post
At the risk of being insensitive, racist, and all-around icky, I can see why that person, who appears female(?), might be averse to exercise and rather prickly about their weight.
Keeping in mind that Socialists are either larval Communists who haven’t seized enough power to go full Communist, or are Communists hiding their true beliefs until the right moment, the masked whatevers at the conference in Chicago, and presumably at every other Socialist conference, are extending the reach of the utopian worker’s paradise they plan to build into every area of human existence, thought, word, and deed.
Read more Mamdani’s 9/11 pen: A socialist’s contempt for the dead
I was about to suggest that kind of thing is self-defeating, because they’d need fit workers to build their collective, but silly me, that’s not the way it has ever worked.
Workers are interchangeable, expandable, and the state doesn’t care about how long or how they live. They’re not going to have the time or money for pursuits like exercise. They’ll get plenty of that in the mines, tank plants, reeducation camps, and gulags. Sure, they demand fitness of their military and internal security forces, but those proles don’t have a choice. And the only people in communist nations who get fat or wealthy are the elite classes, who get the food, medical care, including anti-obesity drugs, and leisure time denied to the workers Communists pretend to support until they have enough power and guns to show them what they really think about them.
People who struggle every day for mere survival tend not to think very much about running marathons or riding centuries, and the weaker you are, the heavier AK-47s get.
On the one hand, I’m going to keep exercising as long and hard as I can. I’m determined not to be one of those old folks who must use every ounce of their waning strength just to get out of a chair or lift a spoon.
On the other hand, perhaps these masked communists are doing us a public service. First, by being masked and sparing us the sight of their raging visages, and second, by telling us exactly what they’re going to do to us if we’re stupid enough to vote Communism in. I suspect they’re hoping we’ll be too weak to shoot our way out.
Become a subscriber and get our weekly Friday newsletter with unique content from our editors. These essays alone are worth the cost of the subscription.
Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, lifelong athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer, and high school and college English teacher. He is a published author and blogger. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.
Read more Talarico’s cynical rebranding is here