More Fat Than a Farm Animal, Watched Like a Dissident: Welcome to the American Dream

Matyas Koszegi
May 30
4 min read

Imagine waking up one day and realizing that you, a supposedly advanced and free-living Homo sapiens, are fatter than a pig and just about as monitored as a North Korean blogger. Congratulations. You’ve arrived. This isn’t satire. It’s science, surveillance, and bacon—served on a cold, uncomfortable plate of irony.

Let’s unpack this. Carefully. Like unpacking your internet cookies or your childhood trauma.

🧈 The Modern American Body: Thick, Tender, and Highly Processed

The phrase “you eat like a pig” used to be an insult. Now it’s practically a compliment.

Modern pigs, thanks to the magic of agricultural optimization and consumers demanding “leaner cuts,” are walking (okay, waddling) around with a body fat percentage of about 16%. That’s less than the average American man, whose soft-and-salty frame carries around 28% body fat. The average American woman? A proud 40%. That's double the pig. We're not body-shaming. We're fact-sharing. (In Japan, where I have been for the past 16 years, these numbers are lower, around 24% for men and 31% for women.)

Think about that. We’ve reached a level of evolutionary irony where the animal we used to mock for gluttony is now—by measurable standards—in better shape.

Pigs eat garbage. Americans eat DoorDash. Who’s winning? Hard to say.

🕵️ Surveillance Nation: As Free As a Chinese Firewall

“But at least we’re free,” someone might mumble, between sips of pumpkin spice latte while scrolling TikTok. Ah yes, the freedom to be tracked by Facebook, Google, Apple, Amazon, your smart fridge, and probably your vacuum cleaner if it connects to Wi-Fi.

You think you’re not under surveillance?

Your phone logs your location every few seconds.
Your browser history is sold like candy at a Halloween party hosted by advertisers.
Your smart TV knows when you binge, cry, and skip intros.

And while you may comfort yourself that only shady governments do “real surveillance,” let me introduce you to Exhibit A: You. You, statistically, are less aware of digital surveillance than a Chinese citizen forced to memorize firewall rules. According to a 2024 study by Security.org, only 22% of Americans could correctly identify what data their phone collects. The rest? Blissfully clueless, smiling into their Ring camera.

📉 The Freedom Illusion: Data Colonies in Disguise

We tell ourselves that we live in a democracy. That we are informed. That we’re in control. But data says otherwise.

A Pew Research report found that 71% of Americans are concerned about how the government uses their data—but most still hand it over daily, eagerly, like a toddler offering a frog to its mom. You “accept all cookies” faster than your metabolism accepts trans fats.

You say, “Well, I have nothing to hide.” Which is ironic, considering you also use incognito mode to Google weird symptoms at 2 a.m.

And let’s be honest: even pigs get a break. Nobody tracks their snout movements 24/7 and uses that data to sell them a snout moisturizer.

🧠 When Ignorance Isn’t Bliss—It’s a Feature

Surveillance, like saturated fat, is sneaky. It builds slowly. And by the time you notice, it’s already choking something important—your arteries or your autonomy.

The problem isn’t just that we’re being watched. It’s that we don’t care. Or worse—we joke about it. “Haha, my phone heard me again!” Yes. It did. And it took notes. And sold those notes to a third party who will now sell you cat food because you mentioned a cat near your smart speaker.

This isn’t paranoia. It’s called surveillance capitalism, and it’s the backbone of our economic model. Your preferences, your insecurities, your political leanings—they’re not private anymore. They’re product features.

🧪 Let’s Talk Science, Not Just Snark

Because yes, this blog post is ironic, but the data isn’t.

Body fat comparison:

American Men: ~28%
American Women: ~40%
Pigs: ~16%

Digital surveillance awareness:

Only 22% of Americans know what data their phone collects.
71% are worried about data misuse, but less than 10% change their behavior.
(I don't have any reliable data on Japan, but in my experience, the vast majority of the people just doesn't care about data collection and digital privacy.)

Surveillance tech:

The U.S. uses facial recognition in airports and urban spaces.
Over 70 million Americans are in facial recognition databases—without consent.

These are real numbers. This is not a sci-fi plot or a Black Mirror episode. It’s Tuesday. Just another day in a world where your phone knows you better than your therapist.

🧂 So What’s the Takeaway?

We are physically overfed and informationally starved. We have access to every book, every documentary, every tool to resist, and yet most people can’t name three data brokers. They can, however, tell you which Kardashian is pregnant.

You’re not a pig. Pigs have limits. They don’t use Instagram. They don’t have their snorts recorded and algorithmically analyzed. They are still free-range, in a way.

You? You're clicking 'I Agree' faster than a pig running from a barbecue.

📢 Call to (In)Action

So, what do we do?

Well, most people won’t do anything. But you, dear reader, now have two options:

Continue down the path of porcine passivity, uploading photos of your dinner to Instagram while your digital self is auctioned off like pork belly futures.
Start asking questions. Learn what your apps know. Use privacy-respecting tools like Proton, Signal, GrapheneOS, Tor, Firefox, and Linux (yes, it’s hard, but so is getting diabetes). Demand that your online life is treated with the same dignity as your offline one.