Over the past few months, the provincial hive-mind of the mainstream media has turned its battleship collective around to wage war against soda pop. In an article released Tuesday, CBS News.com’s health director, Ryan Jaslow, grabs hold of this latest attack on individual liberty to declare the annual worldwide deaths attributed to soda pop as “staggering,” even though they add up to a statistical zero:
Sugary drinks are often in the crosshairs of public health advocates, with studies and campaigns often spotlighting the links between drinking soda and risk for diabetes and obesity.
Now, a new study puts a staggering number on the toll that drinking these beverages takes on the world: Researchers associated 180,000 deaths each year with soda and other sugar-sweetened beverages.
Listen, like it or not, we’re all going to die of something. But even if you buy into this study, 180,000 worldwide deaths per year is nothing. That’s not hyperbole on my part, that’s a fact.
According to the CIA World Factbook, the annual worldwide death rate is 8.37 per 1000. With a worldwide population of around seven billion, that means that every year around 60 million people die. If you divide 180,000 soda-caused deaths into 60 million total deaths, the answer is a statistical zero.
The only thing “staggering” is that like the fraud that is Global Warming, the media is now jumping on this new anti-science train only because leftists love to control our lives. They also see a potential new source of tax revenue, similar to the tobacco suits of the 1990s. But like the tobacco suits, the result will only be an increase in the price of a product people who don’t work in media enjoy.
The real hypocrisy of CBS News and its leftist ilk is that they apparently have no desire to stigmatize other forms of behavior that kill many more people.
Alcohol kills 2.5 million worldwide per year. But leftists enjoy Long Island Ice Tea and wine, so alcohol is not a target.
AIDS kills 1.7 million worldwide per year. But leftists enjoy loveless sex, so no one is trying to ban that.
Another argument the left uses against soda is the cost of obesity to taxpayers in the form of higher health bills. First off, I’m willing to pay for liberty. Secondly, few “lifestyle choices” cost the taxpayers more than unwed motherhood, but again you don’t see the left attempting to ban sex.
This soda attack is no different than the left’s push to ban certain guns. The elitist, provincial media doesn’t drink soda or shoot guns, so they want bans.
The anti-soda movement is just one more culturally bigoted attack that ignores the left’s much more deadly lifestyle choices (cocktails and one-night stands) while stigmatizing ours.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC