Be nicer to fat people!

amen

I was always nice to fat people, just like I am nice with everyone else. They should still get used to it though, people judge and are mean to people, something that will never change, that you are big, small, skinny or runner skinny. If this bothers fat people too much a lot of them (except the ones with born health issues) have a choice to change that and they know it. I think people born with a handicap are the ones to care for and be nicer to.

The writer's points are good ones. The problem with being overweight is more its visibility. Yet no one lacks faults or weaknesses, but some can be better hidden from public view than others. For instance, abusive online comments might be hidden pretty well, and the person making them might look wonderful face to face. But maybe if everyone appeared in public with all their faults visible, we'd be less likely to humiliate one group of people.

My experience: I have friends and family members of different sizes all with qualities I admire--generosity, creativity, intelligence, and so on. I seek for myself qualities I admire in friends, whatever they may be. But if we only look at body shape, we miss out on a lot.

If someone specifically asks me for help, I'm glad to offer it, but even then in a supportive, encouraging way, not dictating what they should do/not do. I wouldn't want someone dictating to me what to do with my life and what I should change, and I feel I owe others the same respect.

IN my opinion, this is also why elitist people on letsrun.com hate the changes coming to healthcare in 2014. The idea I see people post here is "why should I have to pay for people who are obese and have health problems just because they're obese?" They say this until one of them gets cancer in their late 20s while training 100mpw....and wishes they had coverage.... (God forbid i dont wish it upon anyone here)

We owe it to society to insure everyone...prevention is key when it comes to health...it's not only the right thing to do, but it will save money in the long-run.

if you have private insurance now, you're allowed to keep it (no mandate).

but it's pathetic that 28% of people in the 26-35 yr old age group don't have health insurance. WHat do you think that means for the future of the United States of America?

Obesity isn't necessarily due to laziness, sometimes it is, but sometimes it can be due to a disease

You don't look at a person injured in a car accident and paralyzed from the neck down and say "that persons lazy, it's his own damn fault"...yet when we see the morbidly obese, we assume it's due to their own damn fault.

Who is mean to fat people?

That last paragraph is unbelievably dumb.

Ask a few Holocaust survivors just how "genetic" obesity is.

Concerned Citizen wrote:

Who is mean to fat people?

YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That last paragraph is so misinformed. The are obviously some exceptions of fat people who have been dealt bad hands in life but the majority are the result of a lifetime of unhealthy habits. The biggest(pun intended) problem is diet, as a country we are have terrible eating habits. Another problem is exersize, 50 years ago kids would go outside and play for hours, now the majority of young kids grow up in front of a tv or computer. It's pretty sad seeing those "60 minutes of exersize a day" commercials.

The reason I am okay with making fun of fat people is because our generation seriously lacks any self-accountability and making fun of fat people likely leads them to feel bad about their state of health. While many people shout and say that's mean, it is also the best motivator for making changes in their life. I'm sorry but I will never support a person being overweight, no matter how close I am with that person. To do so is simply irresponsible, if you care about that person you should encourage them to make changes for the better.

Love the comment: "For instance, abusive online comments might be hidden pretty well, and the person making them might look wonderful face to face." Keep up the posts.

Saying that obesity is a largely voluntary condition that has serious negative consequences for the country is not being mean. It is being factual. It's a serious and legitimate public health problem that needs to be addressed, just like smoking, alcoholism, disease, sanitation, or any other public health issue.

All of the things the author is complaining about are attempts to get people to pay attention to a serious public health problem, not attempts to be mean to anyone. It's too bad if people take it personally, but pretending that the problem doesn't exist to spare people's feelings isn't the answer.

rain, pourin. wrote:

http://jezebel.com/5908787/being-mean-to-fat-people-is-pointless-a-good-old+fashioned-plea-for-civility

Coddling, that's exactly what they need.

Attitudes won't make a difference either way. Obesity is more accepted now than ever and, in any event, people seem pretty oblivious to shame.

That said, the author has a point--clearly whatever methods we're using to highlight this problem are incredibly ineffective.

The remedies are, frankly, economic. Health insurance needs to cost more for people with high-risk, self-induced, and utterly preventable conditions like obesity. Agricultural subsidies need to be rearranged (or, better, eliminated) to bring the cost of low-quality, fattening foods in line with the rest of what's out there.

That's just a start, and even if obesity rates failed to fall these measures would mitigate financial burdens all of us share.

concerned.. wrote:

Concerned Citizen wrote:

Who is mean to fat people?

YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Where did that come from?! I could BE a fat person for all you know!

I'm a hat person and I get made fun of all the time. Fedora, fez, coonskin, beaver top, beret--doesn't matter, the folks in Starbucks make fun of my all the same. But you know what? I've learned to throw on the deerstalker and live with it.

-Jason

rhat wrote:The remedies are, frankly, economic. Health insurance needs to cost more for people with high-risk, self-induced, and utterly preventable conditions like obesity. Agricultural subsidies need to be rearranged (or, better, eliminated) to bring the cost of low-quality, fattening foods in line with the rest of what's out there.

That's just a start, and even if obesity rates failed to fall these measures would mitigate financial burdens all of us share.

Except that neither of those solutions is practical. People will just go without insurance (depending on what happens with Obamacare). Do we close the emergency rooms to fat people? It's not going to happen. Let employers drop coverage for fat people? Again, it's not going to happen.

Agricultural subsidies are not going to change what people like to eat (sugars and fats) or, in a free market economy, change what companies will market to people, and intentionally driving up food prices is not politically doable.

No one will make TV, Facebook, Xbox and all of the other gadgets that encourage sedentary behavior more boring.

That leaves education, which fat people apparently will complain about as "shaming."

I'm a hat person and I get made fun of all the time. Fedora, fez, coonskin, beaver top, beret--doesn't matter, the folks in Starbucks make fun of my all the same. But you know what? I've learned to throw on the deerstalker and live with it.

-Jason

I agree that we shouldn't be 'mean' to fat people, but it's really clear that there's more to the article than that. The author is definitely obese and clearly has an 'acceptance' agenda.

There's never a reason to be hateful, but pretending fat and morbidly obese 'muricans aren't a huge inconvenience (I should say their 'condition' is a huge inconvenience) to our healthcare system, everyday lives, etc. is wrong.

I would be more sympathetic to fatties if they're not at fault. I would think at least 3/4 of fatties are fat because they eat too much, shiiit too much and are simply lazy.

rhat wrote:

rain, pourin. wrote:http://jezebel.com/5908787/being-mean-to-fat-people-is-pointless-a-good-old+fashioned-plea-for-civility

Coddling, that's exactly what they need.

Attitudes won't make a difference either way. Obesity is more accepted now than ever and, in any event, people seem pretty oblivious to shame.

That said, the author has a point--clearly whatever methods we're using to highlight this problem are incredibly ineffective.

The remedies are, frankly, economic. Health insurance needs to cost more for people with high-risk, self-induced, and utterly preventable conditions like obesity. Agricultural subsidies need to be rearranged (or, better, eliminated) to bring the cost of low-quality, fattening foods in line with the rest of what's out there.

That's just a start, and even if obesity rates failed to fall these measures would mitigate financial burdens all

of us share.

Agricultural subsidies are a tiny portion of the Dept. of Agriculture's budget. Food stamps take up about 75% of its budget. So, if you want to prevent people from stocking up on junk food, perhaps such foods should not be covered under the food stamp program.

Being fat is like a mental disorder...so Why would you make fun of people for being fat? Would you make fun of people who have a mental disorder?

I realize letsrunners have no problem with weight, but who knows...judging from the posts of some people here, some of you probably have a form of mental illness, be it depression, bipolar, schizo, OCD, eating disorder and/or low bone density. These are not uncommon in distance runners, yet most of you know a fellow distance runner struggling with one of these issues, and they alone are enough to exclude someone from obtaining individual health insurance due to preexisting conditions.