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If your plan for reducing obesity is for everyone to "rise above their instincts" and just eat less, people will still be fat. Though these parts are critical of the most prominent example of a "systemic" issue (racism), there is something to the idea of the system being to blame. Even the idea that our instincts, which have served us well up to this juncture, are to blame is suspect. Instincts are lindy; smartphones, and many other things, are not.
If the plan is everyone rising above their instincts as an atomic individual, purely on their own effort, sure. If the plan is deciding what outcomes we want, and then structuring our social system to punish the bad and encourage the good, as every society always does, then no, I think you can absolutely rise above instinctive outcomes. That means compromising individual freedom, though, so people don't want to do it.
We get what we incentivize, whether it's obesity or promiscuity.
We agree. I just wouldn't say your latter proposal is properly described as "rising above instinct."
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