Should We Help Fat People?

MayCaesar

Something that happened in Western cultures is that the "people have the right to do whatever they want with their life" attitude (which is healthy) has been widely reinterpreted as "nobody has the right to criticize anyone's life choices" (which is unhealthy). Some of the wackier forms it takes is so-called "body positivity", where some people seriously argue that obesity is not an issue, is that obese people are as healthy as lean people.

I do not think anyone should force "help" on anyone else: if someone wants to eat like a pig and does not exercise, it is their business. However, they should not be free from social repercussions of this choice. If they take up two seats on a bus, it is perfectly reasonable for someone to complain about it. If someone's obesity makes by bus ride really uncomfortable, then perhaps the company owes me some compensation for failing to deliver a proper service (comfortable ride, as advertised) - and if it wants to combat this issue, then, perhaps, it should start charging really obese people for two seats.

No matter what anyone says, obesity is one's own doing. Physics cannot be defied: one's weight changes according to the balance between calorie intake and calorie outtake. There are no medical conditions that violate this, although there are medical conditions that make it harder for people to exercise and easier to overeat. And no matter what those conditions are, ultimately the decision to eat more food than what is required for a healthy physique is made by the person and no one else.

Now, I do not advocate for being mean towards obese people: their life is hard. Whenever I see an obese person in a gym or trying to run on a sidewalk, I feel mad respect for them. Obese people turning their lives around and becoming lean are heroes, and I want to encourage them to keep crushing it.

But compassion does not imply lack of judgement. Much like you can have infinite compassion towards a serial murderer stuck in prison for 30 years, but you should not simply excuse them for it and say that they should be let out. Mistakes do not make you a permanently terrible person, but you do have to be held responsible for them. If you have been eating junk for the past 5 years, then people's condemnation of your life choices should not surprise, let alone upset, you.

Barnardot

@MayCaesar ;Now, I do not advocate for being mean towards obese people

Well that would not help at all I agree. 

What gets me is that there is this push to treat every one as equal. And sure, racial and sexual discrimination have come a long way. But trying to promote fat as being acceptable or normal? What the? 

You get undies ads showing fat women and you get more and more fat people appearing in movies as if there trying to give the message to fat people that somehow it is okay to have unhealthy ugly bodies.

We should not encourage fatties at all and the same goes with anorexics. Both conditions are serious physical and mental health problems and should be dealt with that way. Not glorifying them.