Liberal columnist warns that having a fitness routine turns you into a ‘right-wing jerk’

A recent column from “The Guardian” warned that getting fit can turn someone into a “right-wing jerk.”

The warning comes from liberal writer Zoe Williams, who wrote the mindset of self-improvement that comes with a consistent fitness routine can lead to self-righteousness and being judgmental, akin to right-wingers.

“The more self-actualised you become, the higher you are on self-righteousness, blaming other people’s problems on their failure to be as healthy as you,” the subhead for the U.K. column stated. She added in the piece, “There is a dark side to wellness, which I always, for shorthand, thought of as political: getting fit makes you more right-wing.”

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In the piece headlined, “Getting fit is great – but it could turn you into a rightwing jerk,” the author claimed people who become healthier will eventually get “high on self-righteouness.” 

“You embark on this voyage of self-improvement, and more or less immediately see results. You feel stronger and more energetic, probably your mood lifts, and pretty soon you think you are master of your own destiny … There you are, high on self-righteousness,” Williams wrote. 

According to the columnist, this mentality starts affecting how one views other people at the gym, especially those not as fit as themselves.

“Inescapably, you start to situate other people’s problems within their failure to be as fit as you. This is particularly true if you don’t know them and they’re just a bunch of numbers,” she stated. “All those statistics – depressed people, obese people, people with IBS – imagine how much better they would be if only they took responsibility for their health, the way that you have.”

Williams also argued that “fitness has a capitalist logic,” pushing people to achieve never-ending goals of achievement which involves more criticism of others and themselves.

“So nothing is ever enough. As soon as you can run 5km, you want to run 10. Before you know it, you’re swapping Strava stats with people you used to think were tossers but now, miraculously, you find you have a lot in common with. Always competing, always striving for growth, even if by ‘grow’ you mean ‘shrink,'” she wrote. “You have internalised the market, unfortunately. Also, you’re getting on everyone’s nerves.”

She continued, “I realise it’s not really a question of an unwitting slide into fascism, hastened by a treadmill. It’s more that there is a fixed amount of excellence in any self, and the more you spend on your biceps, the less you have for your personality. Wellness could turn you into a bit of a jerk, is what I’m saying.”

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An MSNBC column from 2022 warned that fitness group chats introduced people to right-wing talking points and commentary. (Kira Hofmann/picture alliance via Getty Images)

Williams has criticized becoming too worried about getting fit in the past. In 2018, she wrote another column titled, “Do you boast about your fitness? Watch out – you’ll unavoidably become right-wing.”

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Other liberals have also linked fitness to being a conservative. 

In 2022, an MSNBC opinion piece claimed some fitness group chats are communities “where far-right content is shared.”

“The intersection of extremism and fitness leans into a shared obsession with the male body, training, masculinity, testosterone, strength and competition,” Cynthia Miller-Idriss wrote at the time.