Latest & Breaking News on Fox News
· collected 2026-09-07 · by Joshua Nelson
An activist at the Socialism 2026 conference in Chicago slammed the "diet industry" for policing "Black fat flesh," characterizing modern health standards and weight management as forms of "body fascism".
asserted
activist → slam → fascism
During a session on "Health Fascism" on Saturday, author Da’Shaun L. Harrison said that the policing of "Black fat flesh" is foundational to broader "entire systems of governance."
asserted
policing → say → governance
"Black fatness is made meaningful through suffering, through surveillance, and through control and the policing of Black fat flesh anchors entire systems of governance.
asserted
policing → make → governance
Without a population to discipline, there would be no BMI, no obesity epidemic, and no medical or scientific institutions organized around managing fatness," Harrison said.
asserted
Harrison → discipline → fatness
"The diet industry reflects this logic.
asserted
industry → reflect → logic
It operates through what I once defined as formal and informal relationships among major food corporations, the medical-industrial complex, and individual wealthy benefactors to sustain a social order in which fat people are monitored, restricted, guilted, stolen from, and punished.
asserted
people → operate → which
Diet culture has always linked food to morality, framing restraint as virtue and pleasure as danger through language like 'guilty pleasure,'" Harrison said.
asserted
Harrison → link → pleasure
The four-day Socialism 2026 conference, held at the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place and organized by Haymarket Books, brought together activists, organizers, and communities from across the country and around the world, featuring over a hundred participatory discussions, lectures, and workshops, according to the event's website.
uncertain
conference → hold → website
Harrison was one of three panelists — alongside podcast co-hosts Beatrice Adler-Bolton and Artie Vierkant—who spoke during a session titled "Health Fascism, Body Politics, and the Anti-State State".
asserted
who → speak → session
Over 200 people attended the discussion, which formed part of the conference's broader "Health Fascism" series.
asserted
which → attend → series
Clips of the conference were shared on X by Manhattan Institute investigative analyst Stu Smith.
asserted
Clips → share → Smith
"As governments retreat from care, and health increasingly becomes a signifier of discipline—rather than provision—fitness, disability, fatness, illness, Blackness, impairment, and bodily capacity are mobilized into measures of moral worth and political belonging.
asserted
fitness → retreat → worth
This panel examines how health, disability, body size, and race are instrumentalized by the state and being reorganized under health fascism," according to an event description.
uncertain
health → examine → description
In the session, Harrison argued that diet culture conditions "obedience," "self-denial," and "discipline" before framing those concepts as central components of "body fascism."
"Abstaining from pleasure becomes a way to train obedience, to train self-denial, and to train discipline in service of a broader political order.
asserted
Abstaining → argue → order
It's an active feature of modern imperial regimes," Harrison explained.
asserted
Harrison → explain → regimes
Harrison also criticized GLP-1 weight-loss drugs like Ozempic, contending that efforts to treat fatness as a public-health issue are intrinsically connected to racial control.
asserted
efforts → criticize → control
"Every time a government decides whose body must be protected and whose bodies must be erased for the sake of national imagery, this is body fascism.
asserted
this → decide → imagery
Every time there is a call for sovereignty by state powers with the intent to maintain borders, this is body fascism.
asserted
this → be → borders
Every time Black flesh is wrangled, dismembered, abused, this is body fascism.
asserted
this → wrangle → ?
Understanding this clarifies exactly how fascist ideologies operate through the body, not only by glorifying a narrow ideal, but also by violently repressing the Black fat," Harrison added.
asserted
Harrison → understand → fat
Jonathan Alpert, a psychotherapist and author of "Therapy Nation," told Fox News Digital that Harrison's comments are a byproduct of ideology infiltrating everything.
asserted
ideology → tell → everything
"There are fair criticisms of BMI and how it’s used.
asserted
it → be → BMI
But calling it ‘body fascism’ is what happens when ideology gets inserted into almost every part of life," Alpert said.
asserted
Alpert → call → life
"We’re seeing more and more ordinary issues viewed through the same lens: Who has power?
asserted
Who → see → power
Who’s oppressed?
asserted
Who → oppress → ?
How does race factor into it?
asserted
race → factor → it
Now even a conversation with your doctor about weight or diet can be framed as a form of oppression," he added.
asserted
he → frame → oppression
"That fits neatly into the worldview being promoted at a conference like this.
asserted
That → fit → this
Instead of seeing people primarily as individuals who make choices and have some responsibility for their lives, everything gets explained through systems, identity and power," Alpert said.
asserted
Alpert → see → systems
"Socialism may be an economic philosophy, but the culture surrounding this version of it goes much further.
uncertain
culture → surround → it
Personal problems become political problems, and individual responsibility gets pushed aside in favor of identifying the system or group supposedly responsible," he explained further.
asserted
he → become → system
"As a psychotherapist, I think there’s a psychological cost to that.
asserted
I → think → that
If you teach people to interpret uncomfortable information as an attack, they become less willing to hear things they may need to hear.
uncertain
they → teach → things
Sometimes a doctor telling you that you need to lose weight or change your diet isn’t racism, oppression or an attempt to control your body.
asserted
you → tell → body
It’s medical advice," Alpert added.
asserted
Alpert → ’ → ?
Harrison and representatives for the Socialism 2026 panel did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.
asserted
Harrison → respond → comment
