Can Blaming People for Being Fat Help Curb Obesity?

US News and World Report ^ | May 22, 2008 | Katherine Hobson

[elkfersupper]

Including all too frequently right here on FR.

You mean like this?

[GOPJ]

While the authors' intent was probably not to make the obese feel worse...

Ummmm, I was born - but not yesterday. Yes, the authors' intent was to make the obese feel worse. This same "author" probably would gush over the rights of pedophiles to live near schools.

[JustaDumbBlonde]

"Including all too frequently right here on FR."

Are we supposed to be celebrating obesity diversity and I didn't get the memo, or what?

[SuziQ]

A lot of factors figured into the decline since smoking's mid-20th-century peak, but the sense that smoking is disgusting as well as unhealthful and socially costly has certainly contributed to many people's decision to quit.

The difference between smoking and obesity is that with smoking, the anti-smoking folks were successful in creating the notion that others would die from second-hand smoke, so the smoker was supposedly harming others, not just him or herself.

That argument can't be made with folks who are obese. And the idea that the obese should be shamed because they are going to put too much of a strain on the health care system might just blow up in the faces of those who want to make that argument. There are other lifestyle choices that do the same thing, so if the anti-obesity crowd were to try to attack the obese, the question could be asked why isn't anyone telling homosexual men that they shouldn't be engaging in sexual activity because it could kill them, and anyone with whom they have sexual relations? After all, their care puts a strain on the health care system, too, and whereas obese people can lose weight, people with AIDS don't get cured, they can only extend their lives a few years with medication. But since AIDS is the only disease that seems to have it's own civil rights, and obesity doesn't have that same protection, I don't think that subject will be broached.

[GOP_Lady]

Sir Eric, when I go to Vegas in July (where hubby can once again enjoy a cigar with his adult beverage with other like-minded adults), I, being UNDERWEIGHT, will skip the creme brulee at the end of finishing my buffet, in honor or OBAMA, of course, who said we can't be expected to eat as much as we want, because the rest of the world doesn't like it.

[Revolting cat!]

The fat sweat, stink and overflow. Let them do it all out of my presence!

[Dr.Zoidberg]

Including all too frequently right here on FR.

There are more than a handful of crypto-liberals on FR.

They front as conservative until something comes along they disapprove of, then they would give the scumbags at DU a run for their money.

[Eric Blair 2084]

Substitute __________ (fill in the blank, whatever you want), into the anti-tobacco playbook, it will work.

Why should my tax dollars go to pay for the lard ass who can't stay away from BK Whoppers and the KFC drive thru window. As a taxpayer, I am paying for his/her diabetic testing equipment and high blood pressure meds.

I won't stand for it. Then these stinky people have the nerve to stick their fleshy elbows in my ribs for 3 hours on an airline flight. I want action. Second hand obesity is not only annoying, it's a killer to my wallet.

[GOP_Lady]

That’s the truth — no true principles. Dishonesty.

[Marie2]

I think they are trying to make the obese feel as though they are harming their fellow world citizens with their carbon footprint, excessively large to to their excessive size.

Of course smokers weigh less. Perhaps smokers will start getting some rights back, while the obese get to be targets for a while.

Personally I think we should ostracize homosexuals (bad for your health, spreading disease), jet setters (carbons polluting my air etc.) and organic farms (decreasing the overall food supply.) But that’s just me.

[The Ghost of Rudy McRomney]

And the rights of butt humpers to have unprotected anal sex in bath houses.

[bill1952]

Its way down.
Back when I was a kid in the late 60s & 70s everywhere you looked you saw people smoke.
Smoking was cool. I smoked.

Now, its nowhere near that common.

[sheik yerbouty]

All it will do is guive the food facists and other apparatchiks the power to make people miserable. it will only raise the rate ouicide..

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

How about some good ol’-fashioned shunning of gun-grabbers?

[gidget7]

That too Eric! And you play the part so well! It’s a psoition we have all been in and I can see some taking it that far.

[sheik yerbouty]

Even Rosie O’donnell balked at that, exclaimning; “Did you ever see the size of my a*s?”

[Mr. Mojo]

There are more than a handful of crypto-liberals on FR. They front as conservative until something comes along they disapprove of,

Only if they demand government action to "solve" the "problem." But obviously the mere expression of disapproval or disgust for something isn't a liberal attribute. Every last one of us does that all the time.

[TheWasteLand]

Man, reading all that whining made me hungry. I think I’ll get me a burger.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

I, for one, would eat a double helping of creme brulee to honor OBAMA’s pronouncement.

[GOP_Lady]

Tisk. Tisk. OBAMA has told you that you can't. You had better mind him.