Getting too heavy and chin-ups

[Lupo]

Hey there, I'm not from the US but I still read the book (SS) and liked it.The concept of getting brutally strong appeals to me, maybe genetically induced, as the country from where I'm from, is responsible for the start of both World Wars (and no it's not Germany).
Anyhow the general direction of exercise within my social surroundings is endurance-based (mostly aerobic) and I do find myself in an argument of getting too heavy, obese and sick (supposedly just short of dying at the spot), when lifting heavy weights and eating much. Apparently it was not possible to separate the words "Starting Strength" and "GOMAD" from one another, when communicating them over the Atlantic. Recently a more sophisticated debater added the argument of relative strength decreasing, which I guess refers to the quotient of the respective lift and body-weight.

My general response to both, getting too heavy and relative strength is: if your chins go up, it doesn't happen. Neither are you getting too heavy nor is your relative strength decreasing. I never met a person doing 3x15 chins who was "too heavy" or relatively weak, it just doesn't happen.
If you do not survive the first month of not doing chin-ups, and consequently got too heavy and died, well I guess you didn't deserve to be strong (I might moderate this last argument from time to time). So if the repetitions of chin-ups I can do, do not increase, I know I need to perform a course correction most likely nutrition-related. And for Gods sake I do not drink f***ing four and a half liters of milk (with all due respect: learn the damn metric system over there).

Now this usually shuts people up (although they don't seem convinced), but the 666th discussion made me read the book again and search trough the Q&A in this forum and the videos. What I found was something in the ballpark of: body-weight doesn't matter only force production does. Which in my mind doesn't do the program justice, because it contains a regulative exercise (I almost wrote "corrective" exercise) to monitor progress as a function of body weight.

My actual question (after a maximally un-concise introduction): did I misinterpret the use of chin-ups within the program, or is Rip just tired of the question?

[Mark Rippetoe]

That's an interesting interpretation of the role of chins, and I do not disagree. In fact, we've always said that as you gain bodyweight, if your chin reps stay the same, you are getting stronger. I think 12 chins is an adequate number for this purpose.

But the chronic misunderstanding of the GOMAD thing is a function of social media, a horrible invention that encourages the formation of strong opinions in the absence of the ability to understand even the simplest aspects of the topic. Indeed, social media has quite effectively damaged our attention spans to the point where most of us are completely uninformed on the subjects we feel the most strongly about. Might as well repeat this:

A Clarification | Mark Rippetoe

And this is new: Everyone Should Drink a Gallon of Milk a Day | Mark Rippetoe