http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x4514093Oh my.
The fat's really on the fire over there.
really annoyed (650 posts) Sat Nov-22-08 05:42 AM
Original message
It's so easy to hate fat people, isn't it?
Judging by a very popular thread here at DU tonight, it's obvious that fat people seem to be a thorn in the side of otherwise tolerant and caring liberals.
I know the arguments that are going to follow, so I am just going to leave. I remember why I left DU in the first place. I am not surprised that the fat acceptance forum was gone when I got back.
A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine showed that weight is 70% genetic. This study showed that those who are genetically prone to extra weight have to WILLFULLY FIGHT their genetics in order to be thin. Gee, has anybody ever asked you to do that?
A study done at Yale University shows that discrimination against fat people is MORE RAMPANT than discrimination against race, religion, and sexual orientation. Yes, you read that right. And MANY of you here are PARTICIPATING in that discrimination.
By the way, for those of you whining about your health insurance? Well, healthy people cost more to treat overall. When will you start discriminating against them?
I could ask WHY your hatred of fat people is so rampant, but I always know the answer. All of them are lies, of course. I am not unhealthy. I am not lazy. I am not stupid. However, it is easier to believe these things - it makes the justification for hating fat people much easier, doesn't it? It's very easy to imagine OMG 500 POUND people taking over your precious airline seats, isn't it?
The "obesity" statistics are overblown, and a very small amount of people in this country fall under the "morbidly obese" column. The reason so many "normal" American suddenly became "obese" is because the BMI (body mass index) was CHANGED to a stricter standard that does not scientifically hold weight. It has been proven that people with an "overweight" BMI are healthier than those in the "normal" category. Anyway...
I am really at a loss for words here. I don't know what to tell you - maybe you could check out a fat acceptance website or two. The majority of them are run by your fellow liberals - yes, the ones you bash are the ones on your side. Many of them have intelligent things to say, such as:
Health is not a moral issue. This means being healthy by an arbitrary government standard does not make you a good person. Being "unhealthy" by that same arbitrary standard does not make you a bad person. Health /= morals.
You don’t, no matter what your size, need to conform to the mainstream societal ideal of beauty to be a person worthy of respect, love, dignity, and all those other things we’re told are only really for the pretty people.
It's been said quite often on the fatosphere that liberals are often the most fatphobic. I can't help wondering if it's because they're so mired in political correctness fat bashing is one of the few pleasures left to them. Don't misunderstand me.
I have nothing against political correctness, which is after all, just a long winded way of saying "respect". But it seems that even white, well-educated, middle class left-wing types still have the need to put somebody down for sport. The hypocrisy burns almost as much as the bigotry.
You know, dude, progressives really don’t have that many people on their side that they can afford to alienate people who would otherwise agree with them just because they don’t look right to you or you think they have bad habits. I mean, you don’t WANT millions of people to sit on their hands during the next election and risk electing another Republican because people like you think you’re superior because you’re thin... do you?
I realize that fat people are among the only groups left who it’s widely acceptable, even on the left, to publicly shame, humiliate and discriminate against.
I realize that a lot of us fear fat, and that it’s a pretty good defense mechanism to pretend that fat people are just lazy over-eaters, and as long as we have self-control we won’t be like them.
I realize that a lot of us have been brought up with the privilege of not having to recognize the numerous social and political problems that contribute to our so-called “obesity epidemic,†and to the framing of that supposed epidemic.
I realize that a lot of people talk about fat on the internets and forget that they’re talking about actual people — people who are reading their words and becoming all the more hurt, frustrated and angry. But no matter how many times we call them out, it continues.
I’m getting really, really ****ing sick of it. So please, fellow feminists, knock it off.
Anyway, I have nothing more to say. Goodbye, and good riddance.
This bonfire is enormous, simply enormous, fat flying all over the place.
Skins's island used to have a fat forum (bold area in original post above)?
The doc primitive, recently promoted to first-tier primitivity, takes a lot of grief.
Some morose primitives try to compare homophobia with fatophobia, and guess which one's worse.....according to the morose primitives, they're more persecuted than any other class of people, past and present.
The part-time taxi-cab driver in upstate New York, the literary wannabe:
shadowknows69 (1000+ posts) Sat Nov-22-08 08:58 AM
Response to Reply #10
29. Good post Gentile Giant
And I'd probably be in the running for largest DUer too. I've always been a bit overweight but it went out of control after being on a couple various meds my Dr. was trying and although they were doing what they were supposed to they also made me gain like 70 pounds in less than 6 months.
I've managed to whittle off about 25 of those in the six months since dropping those meds. I got to the point I considered suicide if I actually reached a particular weight, but luckily we haven't gotten there to test my resolve in the matter.
Long story short I guess is this: Personally I've gotten over being insulted one on one for it by some idiot with low self esteem himself but for some reason it does hurt to see fellow progressives engage in "fat jokes" or hatred.
wolfgangmo (239 posts) Sat Nov-22-08 02:49 PM
Response to Reply #19
80. I used to live in the tropics...
... amebic dysentery can melt the weight off of you. I lost 20 pounds in 2 days once.
I looked great. But I almost died.
When franksolich came back from the socialist paradises of the workers and peasants with free medical care for all, franksolich, who is 6'3", tipped the scales at 147 pounds.
Come to think of it, perhaps wandering around socialist paradises of workers and peasants with free medical care for all, might both lighten and enlighten primitives.
Chief Sitting Bull butts in:
Redstone (1000+ posts) Sat Nov-22-08 01:31 PM
Response to Original message
68. Oh, Gawd, here we go with this again. Sure your DU name shouln't be "ReallyAnnoying?"
The bonfire's way too large; it took ten minutes just to scroll down the list of primitives posting, much less their comments.
Anyway, a great part of it involves blaming genetics; the usual stuff.
But does anybody recall when there was the fat forum on Skins's island?
Any recollections of what it was like?
