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