Dalrymple writes:
The NEJM does not want to court unpopularity, or notoriety, by suggesting that millions of parents are failing their children. It is safer, from the point of view of gaining the esteem of the intelligentsia and of avoiding censure, to blame those in authority or large corporations.
But
to absolve ordinary people of blame for the obesity of their children is to deny them agency as full human beings. Far from being respectful of ordinary people, it is condescending. They are but putty in the hands of television companies and the food industry. If the only mentionable locus of responsibility for the diet of children is the government, we have accepted the premise of totalitarianism.
