Quote Originally Posted by Tiamatty View Post
Right, because fat-shaming has been so frigging successful in combating obesity. Treating it as bad has just been such a big help.
The fact that you can only frame arguments in terms of "absolute support" and "absolute oppression" is entirely revealing. And yes, growing up realizing that being fat was unhealthy and unattractive helped me realize it was a good thing to lose weight.

That some people don't want to put forth the effort is irrelevant to me. That is on them.

Did you know there are cultures today that actually do view fat as desirable? That many cultures throughout history have viewed it as desirable? Yeah, the body types people like to look at change a lot. Sometimes, thinness is valued. Other times, fat is valued.
Did you know some culture value child brides? Did you know that some valued not bathing?

Cultural relativism nonsense is not an argument. It's ignorance of science and obfuscation of the point of the discussion. We know that being overweight is unhealthy. That less advanced civilizations did not is irrelevant to the conversation.

And, again, treating fat as something bad, something to be avoided, has done jack **** to actually reduce obesity rates. All it's done is made people emotionally unhealthy, which makes them eat more. Poor emotional health results in poor physical health. That's not complicated. When people feel like they're garbage, it'll be that much harder for them to take care of themselves. When people like themselves, they're more likely to take care of themselves.
When people are satisfied with themselves they have no impetus what-so-ever to change. When we tell them it's A-okay and not unhealthy and not unattractive we are lying to them to spare their feelings. It creates narcissistic monsters that require constant emotional validation or they throw tantrums like children.

Being fat is bad. It is unhealthy. If someones emotional and mental health is also bad that is a separate matter. Saying "This makes people feel bad" is not a valid argument.

Schizophrenics feel bad when you don't reinforce their delusions. Reinforcing their feelings is not a valid therapy. It makes them spiral out of control. They need a more complete approach to their mental health.

A fat person that feels bad that they're fat because they're unattractive and unhealthy as a result of being fat is in line with reality. They are less attractive and they are less healthy. What they do with that information is up to them.

Giving fat kids fat role models isn't going to make the kids fatter. It's going to make them feel like their weight doesn't make them less of a person, or less deserving of respect and happiness and love.
Being overweight is a result of bad decisions. Full stop.

Not everyone is deserving of respect, happiness or love. Being fat or not is irrelevant to that. It's behavior that matters. Ironically, insisting people make YOU feel better about YOUR decisions is bad behavior that reduces how much I respect you. If their decisions were good, they wouldn't need to be commended or supported in them.

They should lose weight. They should get healthy. If they choose not to? Fine. That's on them. Society should not warp to reinforce that as being a good decision, however.

It isn't.

People are allowed to make bad decisions. No one is required to make good decisions. At the same time, no one is required to act like those bad decisions are actually good.

Question:

Do you argue that we should have a bunch of superheroes that smoke and support it as a valid decision that has nothing to do with health? Just so smoking teens and others can have smoking role models? Cuz guess what? Society looks negatively upon smokers as well.