Holy shit. Why have I not seen this before. Thanks.Originally Posted by stef
Member
Sure. I get more than pissed when someone lies to me. Any reasonable person should be pissed if they're lied to. However, I'm not convinced that the authors of most of the articles on "fitness" know what the fuck they're talking about...so it's more ignorance, laziness or stupidity than outright deception. Granted, there are some folks that benefit from selling the new and improved bowflex v38 or the Ab-blaster 16a that have a financial incentive for deception...but in general, I'm more willing to bet on intellectual laziness and/or stupidity over deception.
I spent 20 years wasting time fart-arseing around at the local gym with no meaningful results until I heard about Starting Strength. Shame on me. I was one of the mentally lazy public that didn't question what I was being told by the trainers in black t-shirts strutting around the gym like peacocks...or what i saw in Mens Health every year when I'm at the dentist reading it.
I feel like there is a bit of a self-selection process to the great community you have built at starting strength...people have to do a bit of work before they really take in what you say...because its really different to what (pretty much) the rest of the fitness industry has been saying for a long time. I love what you guys do, and the time you take to educate the gen pop in a digestible format. I hope you keep doing it for a long time.
Member
Holy shit. Why have I not seen this before. Thanks.
Member
That's just as bad as lying insofar as the effect it has on the adoption of effective strength training and the promotion of health in the general population. Anyone who gains a public platform gains with it a grave moral responsibility to be well-informed and to tell the truth. Failing on either of these points is a serious problem.
And although what's said in bad fitness articles might not be outright lying, as in the deliberate communication of something the author knows is false, it's still deceptive in that by writing the article the author is suggesting to the readers that he has an understanding of the subject matter which he does not have. The honest response would be to refrain from publishing articles on topics you don't know anything about. 'Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.'
Member
Finally got around to hearing this podcast. Too funny. You should make it an annual where, once per year, you lampoon the foolish media. Only stick to the allegedly seriuous news outlets like AP, Reuters, Gannett, NY Times, WSJ, etc. Low hanging fruit like "PopSugar" is too easy. Of course they are all fatuous, but destroying the veneer of respectability that comes with those more "respectable" sources of traditional media is whats most fun.
Agree x 1,000 about not caring about sports.
Member
I don’t mind so much when people lie to me, as I’ll figure them out. But then they turn around and lie to my entire family, and I find myself on the sidelines of conversations about how presses are bad for your shoulders and some skinny guy is pretty strong because he can do ten pull-ups or walking is resistance training or maybe someone already does weight training with pink dumbbells and a video so everything is fine. If you haven’t had to deal with everyone you care about being misinformed into bad decisions, then good on you. I have a friend - as tall as I am - who recovered from a serious bout of cancer, is now 160 pounds, and told me he wants to lose some weight. These people are informed by people who are informed by people who talk from a position of authority and get paid for spreading misinformation. Should we not be mad about that?
Member
Precisely.
Although it may not be due to holding a government issued license (although it may be in the case of TV and radio broadcasts), these media outlets are vested with authority. And they abuse it horribly. "Fake News" was a powerful meme that, unfortunately, could have meant so much more than it did/does.
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