The personal should not be political

One of the things I kind of hate about internet forums (and about the way our society is right now in general) is that (for example) if you happen to mention you shop at wal-mart, you immediately have to note that (a) it is the only large grocery store in the town where you live and (b) the other option for groceries is driving an hour's round trip, to avoid some people calling you ugly names.

(And even at that...there will be people who will tell you to suck it up, do the hour's round trip once a month and...I don't know, not have fresh vegetables for three weeks out of the month?)

I grow very weary of how every stupid little choice we make becomes fodder for people to examine, discuss, and criticize. I suspect it's related to the whole zero-tolerance thing, the whole "everything is equal" ideology: "If it's OK for people to criticize someone for torturing puppies, it's OK for me to criticize you for shopping at a store owned by a corporation I happen to disagree with."

(It occurs to me that this is what people always used to complain about when it came to living in a small town. But often then the things people gossiped and judged about at least had more of an arguably moral basis, like who was having affairs with whom.)

This is even considered OK by some in government; the whole "shake your finger at the kids until they stand up and start exercising frantically." The whole "We want you to eat less salt, because we think that's best for you" mentality.

Just leave me the (expletive deleted) alone. I'm a freaking adult; I can make my own choices and deal with the consequences of those choices.