Phone Alienation, Body Optimization, and Make America Healthy Again with Maya Vinokour
Jan 15, 2025
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Maya Vinokour, an Assistant Professor of Russian Studies at NYU, dives into the curious intersection of wellness culture and right-wing politics. She unpacks the concept of 'lifestyle fascism' and how everyday health choices can lead to radical beliefs. The conversation navigates the evolution of wellness since the 1970s, poking fun at modern food trends, and critiques the anxiety surrounding health narratives in our tech-driven world. Plus, she highlights the psychological toll of the optimization craze and the nihilism creeping into youth political engagement.
Lifestyle fascism intertwines wellness culture and right-wing political ideologies, revealing how health trends can shape personal beliefs.
Anxiety around health and societal instability drives individuals toward optimization practices that often align with conservative ideologies.
The rise of misinformation in health discourse has diminished trust in medical expertise, leading to radicalization and alienation from established institutions.
Deep dives
Lifestyle Fascism Defined
Lifestyle fascism merges elements of American individualism, wellness culture, and tech optimization, creating a distinct right-wing political orientation. The concept stems from the observation that certain health trends, when examined collectively, often reveal shared political ideologies among their followers. Maya Vinokor highlights figures such as Brian Johnson, who epitomize this blend of wellness and optimization culture, reinforcing connections between seemingly innocuous lifestyle choices and more extreme political beliefs. This phenomenon illustrates how personal health preferences can become politicized, influencing broader ideological views.
Anxiety and Individualism
A key driver behind the rise of lifestyle fascism is the pervasive anxiety individuals feel regarding health, lifestyle choices, and societal instability. As individuals strive for self-optimization amidst a chaotic political and social landscape, many turn to trendy health practices that promise control over their well-being. This anxiety often leads to a mindset where personal decisions regarding diet and exercise become political statements, aligning with conservative ideologies. Ultimately, this search for reassurance in an unpredictable world can push individuals toward ideologies and communities that seem to offer certainty and tangible solutions.
Tech and Wellness Interconnection
The convergence of technology and wellness culture plays a significant role in shaping contemporary political beliefs. Influencers in the wellness space often promote lifestyles that emphasize diet choices, exercise routines, and natural living, which can slip into right-wing ideologies. Figures like Joe Rogan exemplify how discussions around optimization, health supplements, and exercise become intertwined with libertarian and conservative politics. This entwinement raises concerns about the normalization of radical beliefs within communities that initially focus on health and wellness.
The Role of Misinformation
Misinformation around health and nutrition has significantly influenced public perception and trust in medical expertise. With the advent of social media, individuals can find themselves entrenched in echo chambers that promote alternative views on health, leading to diminished trust in traditional medical advice. This shift has resulted in some individuals opting for unproven treatments or rejecting effective ones altogether, driven by a belief that mainstream science is misleading. As a consequence, a cycle of skepticism and radicalization emerges, fueling further alienation from established health institutions.
The Path to Extremism
The journey from health-centric ideologies to extremist beliefs often follows an incremental pattern of radicalization fueled by personal dissatisfaction and anxiety. Individuals seeking control over their lives may initially adopt seemingly harmless health practices, which progressively lead to radical political ideologies. As individuals explore these practices, they can unknowingly drift toward exclusionary beliefs that emphasize elitism in health and fitness, advocating for an 'us versus them' mentality. This trajectory, characterized by a rejection of societal norms, emphasizes the importance of addressing the underlying anxieties that contribute to such radical shifts.
Today’s episode is a lively one! We talk about optimization, working out, RFK Jr., and how health and the woowoo New Age trends of the 1970s somehow got right-coded and then turned into a pathway to becoming one of the worst people on earth. Our guest to discuss all this is Maya Vinokour, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Russian Studies at NYU. Her first book, called Work Flows, focused on labor discourse in Soviet Russia came out last year.
Her thoughts on all this can be found in the Nation and Jacobin.
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit goodbye.substack.com/subscribe
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