This article originated in the kitchen belonging to my friends, Craig and Ann Sykora, who live in the temperate paradise of Hudson, Wisconsin. Hudson, the seat of St. Croix County, lies just across the river from the Twin Cities, and struggles to break into the nineties even in the middle of summer. Summertime in the Northwoods provides a welcome respite from the hell-hot surface of the sun type weather found in the Sun Belt, where I have spent most of my life to this point.
I make it a point to visit the Sykoras when in this region, and later today, I’ll be attending a rally put on by the Barron County Republican Party and attended by several of my Patriot friends. Before that event, however, Craig and I are going to lift weights in his home gym. Craig is 47, and built like a brick shithouse, 5’11” and 225 pounds, which defies his history as a cross country runner.
Our conversation this morning started out mocking the idiotic push by radical leftists and statists to vilify, of all things, physical fitness. I have written about the very topic of fitness in this journal, highlighting the importance of incorporating a good routine, but have withheld opinion about why, all of a sudden, lifting weights, running, and partaking in recreational sports is now in the crosshairs of cancel culture.
My physical fitness journey varies from Craig’s, and substantially. I lacked confidence as a kid and didn’t start to put it together in that arena until I was in college. I weighed about 250 pounds as a high school senior offensive lineman but couldn’t bench press 135 pounds (a standard barbell with two 45-pound plates). I had been unable to make our school’s nationally ranked baseball team, primarily because I was terrible at the game I love, but also because I couldn’t run a seven-minute mile, which was a requirement for securing a spot on the roster. Today, I can bench press 225 pounds eight times straight, and max out at 265, with a body weight of 230 pounds, and a wingspan that provides a natural disadvantage for success at that exercise. I couldn’t run a seven-minute mile today, at 38, but finally made that mark when I was in the Army, and with a little training could come in under eight minutes.
Around the table this morning, drinking coffee and solving the world’s issues, we decided on the following three reasons for why the cancel mob is trying to squash gym culture before it takes off further:
I. Societal Rot and Grift
Everything the cultural left opines on is part of a psychological shaping operation designed to win a long-term war. Freedom lovers, unfortunately, too often have a short-term mindset and, as such, struggle to cope with momentary setbacks. A sick society is a dependent society, and Americans have become sicker and sicker. If you don’t believe me, look at your grandparents’ yearbooks. Where was all the rampant obesity in the 1950s?
Big pharma and its prosperity, as well as the prosperity of those who shamelessly champion their cause rather than that of the people, depends on a weak, sick society. The United States military, even if it were not hellbent on instituting a woke agenda, would still struggle to meet recruitment goals today because too many young people aren’t even fit enough to potentially meet fitness standards. This requires the military to lower those standards to meet basic staffing requirements, thus weakening the readiness of the force itself.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Captain K's Corner to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.