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Can Blaming People for Being Fat Help Curb Obesity?
US News and World Report ^ | May 22, 2008 | Katherine Hobson

Posted on 05/23/2008 7:17:18 PM PDT by Eric Blair 2084

Stigma can be a powerful force in changing behavior. Just ask smokers, whose once accepted habit is now so marginalized that the prevalence of smoking has dropped to about 19 percent of U.S. adults from nearly 24 percent just a decade ago. 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.

Now that smokers have been taken care of, the obese are the new scapegoats for a lot of our ills. Last week, a letter published in the Lancet noted that the obese contribute more than their thinner compatriots to food scarcity and global warming, given that they eat more and require more transportation energy to move themselves around. While the authors' intent was probably not to make the obese feel worse, the media translations of the study in my quick Google search turned up headlines such as "Fat People Cause Global Warming, Higher Food Prices" and "Scientists Blame Fat People for Global Warming."

You might think that the obese could use some blame. As obesity increasingly becomes the norm, maybe society has grown too accepting. Perhaps what is lacking is the same thing that helped smokers lose their butts: a healthy dose of social stigma. If only there were more shame in being fat, maybe more people would be motivated to lose weight. But in fact, researchers say, stigma does very little to motivate overweight or obese people to change.

(Excerpt) Read more at usnews.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: blamegame; carboncult; carbonfootprint; diet; dieting; nannystate; obesity; pufflist; stigma
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To: Don W

LOL! I am FAR from perfect..that’s why I can say what I am saying. I know what it’s like to have a weight problem, so I work VERY VERY hard to keep fit and trim. Any overweight woman who tells you they love their body is LYING. I have been on all side of vices...I have been fat and thin...thin is better. I have been drunk and I have been sober..Sober is better.

And yes, it is hard. There is nothing wrong with calling vice out and making people ashamed of their lack of self-control. WHATEVER the vice is. Shame is what keeps you from making mistakes over and over again. A compassionate society would understand that. We used to. But somewhere along the way we told people that they had diseases and they shouldn’t be ashamed of their lack of self-control. Are we a better society all around for that? NO.

All of the great societies died when their people gave into their vices...and we’re on that road.


101 posted on 05/24/2008 6:26:22 PM PDT by Hildy
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To: Gorzaloon
The SUV caravans await the school bus so the kids do not have to waddle a few hundred feet.

Probably so that the parents don't have to worry about pervs snatching their kids.

102 posted on 05/24/2008 6:28:35 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks (To the liberal, there's no sacrifice too big for somebody else to make. --FReeper popdonnelly)
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To: MinuteGal

Liberals claim to be compassionate. They have nothing but contempt for individuals.

If saving the STATE and their Universal Healthcare programs billions on diabetic testing equipment by coercing the fat sheeple to lose weight, they don’t care.

Welcome to Socialism and Collectivism.


103 posted on 05/24/2008 8:09:37 PM PDT by Eric Blair 2084 (Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms shouldn't be a federal agency...it should be a convenience store.)
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To: Hildy
I have been drunk and I have been sober..Sober is better.

So have I. I've found that being drunk is better. People like you are very hard to take while sober.

104 posted on 05/24/2008 8:12:46 PM PDT by Eric Blair 2084 (Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms shouldn't be a federal agency...it should be a convenience store.)
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To: Eric Blair 2084

Second that.


105 posted on 05/24/2008 8:14:52 PM PDT by elkfersupper
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To: Eric Blair 2084

You know, I don’t really care about how people feel about fat people or smoker, as long as the government does not get involved.

This smoking thing is getting ridiculous. I saw a man driving today with his arm on the window holding a cigarette and I had a passing thought that he was in danger of gettng arrested.

That’s not actually true now ... but wait.


106 posted on 05/24/2008 8:18:05 PM PDT by altura
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To: elkfersupper

Glad it’s not just me. Like in Catch 22 it seems that the only sane people in an insane world are the insane.

When did coercing people to change their lifestyle in order to save the STATE taxpayer funded healthcare dollars become a legitimate Government function?????


107 posted on 05/24/2008 8:25:27 PM PDT by Eric Blair 2084 (Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms shouldn't be a federal agency...it should be a convenience store.)
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To: altura
This is what the fat asses (that's a term of endearment) don't get when they whine about the guy smoking a cigarette while they dive into a plate of chili cheese nachos and wave their sausage like fingers. They're next. It's all about "preventative health"....IOW, we can't cut healthcare programs but maybe we can figure out a way to coerce the sheeple to stay healthy through Gubmint social engineering. .....

Big Brother Will See You Now : Dr. Elizabeth Whelan from ACSH will explain in serious terms where this is all headed...

"Earlier this year in New York City, a public health regulation went into effect that set a new and very troublesome precedent, one that insinuates government agencies into personal medical matters. In mid-January, the City began legally requiring laboratories that do medical testing to report to the Health Department the results of blood sugar tests for city residents with diabetes -- along with the names, age, and contact information on those patients."

"When the government's phone calls and letters nagging people to eat better, quit smoking, and be more physically active don't work, the next phase of the war on chronic disease may be a harshly punitive one, with fines and other restrictions on those who fail to heed the health warnings. The message will be: live a healthy life or the government will punish you."

108 posted on 05/24/2008 8:33:20 PM PDT by Eric Blair 2084 (Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms shouldn't be a federal agency...it should be a convenience store.)
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To: Eric Blair 2084
When did coercing people to change their lifestyle in order to save the STATE taxpayer funded healthcare dollars become a legitimate Government function?????

It's actually worse than that. Our federal overlords have intentionally restricted our mobility.

As soon as the 7-11 customers don't see the 7-11 employees because they are all trying to walk there to view and man a retail establishment with nothing to sell, we will have chaos.

It is coming sooner than most people think.

109 posted on 05/24/2008 8:48:23 PM PDT by elkfersupper
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To: elkfersupper

Ahmed can still bike to the 7-11 store (carbon footprint thing) to sell the only things allowed by liberals....condoms and the NY Times.

No cigs, beer, or Ding Dongs allowed.


110 posted on 05/24/2008 8:52:35 PM PDT by Eric Blair 2084 (Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms shouldn't be a federal agency...it should be a convenience store.)
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To: Eric Blair 2084

I guarantee you that if you keep drinking and have that attitude...you’ll be BEGGING for the help of people like me. Good luck till then.


111 posted on 05/24/2008 9:53:34 PM PDT by Hildy
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To: USFRIENDINVICTORIA

it is not anymore.j


112 posted on 05/25/2008 6:42:05 AM PDT by Hildy
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To: Eric Blair 2084

>>healthy dose of social stigma.

F*******g f*t B******s.

Charge by weight, for airline tickets, train tickets to offset increased fuel costs.

Higher taxes for increased strain on the medical system.

Increased use of sewage and water services should call for higher rates.


113 posted on 05/26/2008 11:03:54 AM PDT by swarthyguy (Osama Freedom Day: 2500 or so since September 11 2001! That's SIX +years, Dubya.)
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To: Hildy

OK, you got me. The curiosity is killing me.

What do you do that is so important that I would beg you for your services?

Unless you are an SI supermodel or work for a brewery I find it hard to find anything I would beg you for.

My guess is you are one of those counselors who the dumbasses who could convicted of DWI have to pay money to talk to as part of their plea agreement.

I could be wrong.


114 posted on 05/27/2008 4:40:02 PM PDT by Eric Blair 2084 (Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms shouldn't be a federal agency...it should be a convenience store.)
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To: Eric Blair 2084
Yes...you are wrong. My original post which you responded to was speaking specifically about excessive drinking. I'm not against drinking at all. This thread was about excessive/compulsive behaviors. Since you were so "protective" of your drinking, I was thinking maybe one day you would have a problem and I wanted you to know that people like me, people who have drank excessively and then couldn't stop without help, would be there to help you should you need it. That's all.

My original contribution to this thread is that we have become a nation that has given in to our vices, and we are being told, through society, that it is not our fault. People are way too fat in this country and I think a bit more of a sense of shame wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing. Shame is a great motivator. Unfortunately, that word is being taken out of our vocabulary.

115 posted on 05/27/2008 7:31:47 PM PDT by Hildy
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To: Eric Blair 2084
A few observations on obesity.

Perhaps all those people who stopped smoking gained weight. I know I did.

Why does the farm bill include all that money for food stamps? And Free breakfast, lunch, and dinner at school - ever know a growing teenager to turn down free food?

Why is it OK to be fat if you a lesbian, but not if you are normal Hetero? (Think Rosie vs Kirstie - different treatment? I think so.)

Read that obesity was becoming a problem in Africa. Who knew - guess we can stop sending all that food their way.

Ever know a really fat person (300 lbs or more) who worked a 40 hour work week? How do they afford all that food?

What about those guys that grow so big they can't get out the door in their room? Just how do they grocery shop? Or did they lay in a huge supply when they could still get through the door?

116 posted on 05/27/2008 7:47:25 PM PDT by w1andsodidwe (Jimmy Carter(the Godfather of Terror) allowed radical Islam to get a foothold in Iran.)
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To: SuziQ
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.

Now that the Lancet has published a study claiming that obese people add to global warming, that little obstacle has been removed.

117 posted on 05/28/2008 7:05:35 AM PDT by A_perfect_lady
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To: A_perfect_lady
Now that the Lancet has published a study claiming that obese people add to global warming, that little obstacle has been removed.

It's not as much of a connection, like breathing someone else's second hand smoke. Folks considered that a direct threat to their lives, based on the hype in the media.

You could make the argument that skinny people contribute to Global Warming because they don't have enough fat on their bodies to keep warm, so they either have to use more clothing, which uses up natural resources and needs energy to create, or turn the heat up in their homes, which uses more energy and pumps out CO2.

See how that argument can be turned around, and how it sounds just as silly as the "Lancet" contention?

118 posted on 05/28/2008 8:53:24 AM PDT by SuziQ
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To: SuziQ

Of course it’s silly. But that won’t stop the Left. Wait and see.


119 posted on 05/28/2008 9:08:24 AM PDT by A_perfect_lady
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To: Hildy

What you are talking about here is STATE sponsored shame and PSAs designed to achieve a political objective.

Do you believe that legislating shame and is a legitimate government function?


120 posted on 05/29/2008 6:54:46 PM PDT by Eric Blair 2084 (Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms shouldn't be a federal agency...it should be a convenience store.)
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