Why Fat-Shaming Is Wrong.

[Binkie The Clown]

18. Is smoker shaming wrong? Is ignorance shaming wrong?

Is it wrong to shame someone for being a redneck bigoted Trump lover?

Is it wrong to shame someone for making a bad choice?

Yes, it's clearly wrong to shame someone who has a birth defect, or is born Jewish, or black, or gay, crippled. More than wrong, it's shameful! People who shame others for simply being what they are, are deplorable.

So the question is, is being fat a choice or an unavoidable condition? I guess that depends on who you ask. But I can only speak from my own small sample of observations:

I once worked in a downtown retail store and I watched people walking by the store windows every day. The trim, athletic-looking people were always walking empty-handed, or with a shopping bag. The obese people were always, and I do mean always, walking by with a soft drink in one hand and a donut, or roll, or hamburger, or some other food item in the other hand. So my observation was that it is, indeed, a choice.

Now I may be wrong, but that time when I put on 35 pounds too many, it only took me a few months of prudent eating to take that excess fat off. So for me, at least, it IS a choice. Your mileage may vary. However, the plain fact of biochemistry is that if you eat more calories than you burn you will gain weight, and if you eat fewer calories than you burn you will lose weight. Everything else is an "explanation" of why the laws of physics don't apply in your case.

As for studies, don't forget that the AMA once endorsed smoking as harmless, and possibly even beneficial for some people. But no matter what raw epidemiological data you look at, obese people die younger. The more obese, the younger they die. The truth will set you free, but first it will really piss you off.

And, for the record, I'm not arguing with you. I'm explaining to you why I'm right.