Why it is acceptable to criticize smokers, but not fat people?

[manic_depressive13]

Until fat people start giving off poisonous gases that kill the non-fat people around them, even having this discussion is ridiculous.

Actually, to become overweight or obese you need to consume absurd amounts of unsaturated fat, which is mostly found in red meets such as beef. So:

1. Most fat people over-consume meat, thereby propagating unsustainable factory farming including the cattle industry.
2. Cattle are one of the leading contributors to global warming as they emit large amounts of methane.
3. Global warming is disasterous to the environment.
4. Fat people are indirectly giving off poisonous gas that negatively affects non-fat people all over the world.

/vegetarian moralising

I'll give up smoking when you give up meat.

 

[Fasckira]

If you're fat, it doesnt affect me (unless perhaps you're blocking my way to an emergency exit) whereas if you're smoking near me then you're potentially giving me breathing issues while making me stink of smoke.

Thing is though, smokers can stop smoking right this second if I ask them to put a cigarette out. I cant ask someone to stop being fat though, thats just unfair.

 

[Saulkar]

Christ on a CRUTCH! How many people actually read the OP before posting a comment? Jesus! It is clear many people read the title and went: "OMG! YOU HATE FAT PEOPLE! Not all fat people are unhealthy and they do not hurt anyone you smoker!" The OP already made several (but not all) of these points clear. While it seems that he is in fact a smoker and neglected to criticize it, many of his points are valid. Something he forgot or neglected to mention however is that being fat does not necessarily mean you are unhealthy BUT he did mention that obesity is not always a choice and that obesity, not being fat (but he did use the two words interchangeably and carelessly) taxes the healthcare system. Even though he kept saying fat, it was clear he was targeting morbidly obese.

 

[Roggen Bread]

Also, fast food is cheap. So, if you're working and getting paid a low income, and fast food is the only feasible way to eat in terms of time and money, then it's really not fair to judge them and blame them.

I think this is quite interesting.
In Germany we do actually have quite a f*ckload of obese people. But fast food is not cheap.
While I do understand the appeal of not having to cook for 30-ish minutes when I get home, going to the golden arches is not cheap. To be full, you have to pay like 10 USD (about 7 Euro) if you chose to eat a menu, not just 4 cheeseburgers and a coke (still costs 5 Euro, about 8 USD). For 5 Euro I am able to cook a tasty meal with vegetables and stuff for my girlfriend and myself, of course, only if I do not buy at the most expensive supermarket in town. And this suffices for 2 persons.

Of course I do eat fastfood; every now and then it tastes good and cooking sucks after a long day of work/lectures.

So my question to other countries.

A Big Mac Menu (Big Mac, large fries, 0,5 litre of soft drink) costs about 9 USD (6 Euro). The size of the food got smaller over the years.

How much does a Big Mac Menu cost in your country?


To Topic: We actually do critisize being fat.
Especially adolescents and children tease each other (quite brutally) for being fat. but also in a "grown up" social enviroment it may get you in social crossfire.

 

[TheLaofKazi]

Criticizing people won't necessarily stop them. In fact, it may just build resistance.

It's really not going to do much. Sure, some anti-fat social pressure might make an overweight person feel kind of shitty and not eat fast food for a few days, but overall, the effects aren't going to last long enough for any sort of real progress to occur.

If you really want to get people to shape up and care about their health, your goal to be pushing for a social movement based out of inspiration, not fighting for your right to kind of be a dick to fat people so they feel bad about their dietary choices.

Pointing fingers at fat people and telling them to "stop eating so much" isn't going to do next to nothing to solve the obesity epidemic.

People behave in certain ways for reasons. It's much more then 'just a choice'. Find those reasons and address them.

 

[The Rainmaker]

As it stands, I'll continue hating on fat people until they all leave me alone

This is a troll post, right?

 

[Win32error]

Smokers have a big impact on the health of people around them. That's why it's prohibited in certain public areas, because it'll kill people. Being fat doesn't. Both have negative and positive effects on society as a whole. Fat people and smokers stimulate the economy (big taxes on cigarettes depending on the country), and they usually die early. This is a good thing, they'll usually work more during their lives compared to others. At least they won't be in retirement for long. I'm pretty sure this'll overcompensate the extra need for medical care.

Conclusion: Economically speaking, we ought to all smoke and get fat. And die the minute we retire. But that wouldn't make for a nice society, so we better discourage both. On the other hand, we shouldn't dig too far into other's lives, regulations should only regard the effect people have on their environment.

 

[Vicarious Reality]

Addiction discrimination is rife throughout society.

 

[Waddles]

Fat people have no excuse. None at all. Smokers have no excuse. None at all. Hang them all I say

 

[Sandytimeman]

lol am I the only one laughing because the OP really just wants to make fun of fat people without being criticized for it.

Your insurance argument is lame as well. Lots of people have health problems that cause insurance premiums to go up. IE smokers pay more, all those people with cancer can't be helping the cost of insurance, what about those dumb asses that work high risk jobs...all those people are costing me more.

In the end fat people, smokers, drinkers, drug users. They are all just abusing themselves. Sometimes that abuse comes with the side-effect of hurting others.

That being said I'm a 100 lbs overweight, but at this point in my life changing the fact that I'm overweight is gonna be a 2-3 year journey. And when you try and diet, or exercise and your overweight. You get assholes like the OP that just laugh you out of the gym, or off the jogging path, or make fun of the fat guy with a salad.

In the end people are all dicks, they like hurting each other and themselves. Everyone should just get over it.

 

[RobCoxxy]

I will get a tuba.

Fat people and smokers are disgusting, I don't want either in my face in a restuarant. ;D

 

[Sunrider]

This thread smells to me like a "I am annyed by *insert phenomenon*, why aren't YOU?!".

Personally, I don't care. Fat people don't affect me, I don't like or dislike them more than anyone else. I'm neutral.
But by my experience, FUCK cigarettes.

 

[alinos]

Clegane]
No it isn't you numpty, use some common sense before you spam a wall of text.

A doctor who offers plastic surgery is a plastic surgeon, he offers no other services. However a cardiologist / orthopedician / Pulmonologist who's working in an operation room / emergency ward doesn't need some fat ass rolling in with a self inflicted heart/bone/lung problem when there could be poor souls who are in need of medical attention through no fault of their own. - Now I'm not saying that the doctors shouldn't treat fat people, only that it shouldn't be an issue in the first case.

As for genes, sounds like their being used as a excuse here, yes there is a genetic disease that makes it virtually impossible to lose weight but as I sid, it is extremely rare. As for metabolisms, eating healthy will keep you at a healthy weight regardless of you're metabolism, doing exercise will allow you to further indulge yourself. I there was such a metabolism that caused you to put on weight daily despite healthy eating and excersise it would kill you. End of story.

ironic you talk about spamming a wall of text when your post is just as big as mine if not bigger.

Yes a doctor who is a plastic surgeon, does plastic surgery. But maybe just maybe if we didn't offer all sort's of vanity treatment's, these plastic surgeon's might actually be doctor's which could help with useful thing's like cancer and other diseases.

As for genes there are 3 different body type's to start out with ectomorph which basically stay skinny no matter what they eat, Mesomorph who have a tendency to pack muscle on easier and endomorph's whose bodies essentially suck up and store as much fat as they possibly can.

And then there is still the fact that weight loss isn't instantaneous. If you attempt to quit smoking the next day you aren't going to look like a smoker unless you give in to temptation. A smoker can only be called out on being a smoker if they are caught smoking.

A fat person can take a year to loose their weight. They can do all the exercise in the world for a couple of month's and still by your glorious standard's be overweight.

Sure the one's that are so big that they can't find a shirt that cover's their bellies have issues. But harassing them generally isn't a method to motivate them into doing something about it.

If we truly want to prevent obesity instead of harassing them people should be working together to get thing's done. Trying to loose the weight by yourself while people are insulting you on a day to day basis isn't going to end well. But having someone else even if it's a random stranger to help them get motivated(even just to pull them out of the house when they think they have earned a break) will do more good than yelling at them ever will

 

[Phisi]

Why on earth do you criticize smokers? They help the public, there are taxes imposed on cigarettes (at least here is Aus) which raise revenue and the premature deaths cause by smoking don't cost as much as other illnesses that come later in life that need full time care e.g. dementia. Yes it smells terrible and the litter is annoying but to criticize all smokers because some are pricks is like criticizing someone because their race commits the majority of crimes isn't it?

Source:
http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/pubs/2010/pdf/social_cost_of_smoking.pdf

Yes, but when the majority of them get lung cancer for literally breathing smoke into their lungs the health care industry pays, so we pay. Not sure if the cigarette taxes that go to the government really help our health care costs.

I think you missed the point, it IS cheaper to have smokers in the healthcare system because the treatments for or lack thereof are cheaper than treatments for illnesses that develop later in life (e.g. full time care for dementia). The money from taxes I think just joins other taxes.

You made me think of an interesting question, what would be more expensive to the health care industry, someone dying early of lung cancer/heart attack, or them living and dying of old age at 95?

It is not the individual that matters but the group as a whole. Some people do remain healthy until they die and don't require medical treatment but the vast majority don't. Let me counter your question with anther question; What would be more expensive to the health care industry, someone dying from lung cancer that was diagnosed too late for an operation to be a success and has been on drugs and painkillers for the past 2 years and in a hospital bed for 6 months or someone who needed a carer to do their housework or has lived in a care facility for the past three years and has had a hip replacement and has required frequent blood transfusions for the past 6 months.

 

[Laurie Barnes]

You know why? Because a smoker can stop smoking tomorrow, and never ever smoke again. It doesn't matter what a fat person does they'll still be fat tomorrow. It takes months of hard work to lose weight, and all it takes is some insensitive douchebag to open his smart mouth to ruin all that hard work and send tubby back to a bathtub full of ice-cream.

 

[Stu35]

That being said I'm a 100 lbs overweight, but at this point in my life changing the fact that I'm overweight is gonna be a 2-3 year journey. And when you try and diet, or exercise and your overweight. You get assholes like the OP that just laugh you out of the gym, or off the jogging path, or make fun of the fat guy with a salad.

And the fat people who allow those people to get to them need to grow a thicker skin, and a spine, and keep at the Gym, keep at the Running, and keep at the Salads... Because, given a few months of effort, they'll be in a position to laugh at the dicks who made fun of them.

In the end people are all dicks, they like hurting each other and themselves. Everyone should just get over it.

True.

all it takes is some insensitive douchebag to open his smart mouth to ruin all that hard work and send tubby back to a bathtub full of ice-cream.

All it takes is for that one unhealthy person to man the fuck up, and accept that the best things in life don't come without effort.

 

[Jake the Snake]

All I can say is this: I don't ever want to be fat. And that's about the most I can do about the issue. Of course I don't find overweight/obese people attractive, and yes, most of them do develop serious medical conditions they could avoid by losing weight, but this doesn't make them bad people. Attacking people because of the way they look is a damned good way to piss a lot of people off and create more social anxiety than its worth. I guess we can only encourage healthy eating and exercise, and point people in the right direction.

P.S. My mum is overweight, but she has a thyroid disorder. She works out literally everyday and eats healthily. You simply cannot be blanketing with an issue like weight.

 

[KAPTAINmORGANnWo4life]

People nowadays are often forced into sedentary lifestyles. Commute, to a desk job, which you had to work your ass off behind another desk to get, abusing yourself in the process, then commute home, to do more work, and collect an inadequate paycheck, not for your lavish lifestyle, but for an ordinary modern one. People have so little money, being stretched so far by mortgages, insurance, stuff the insurance doesn't cover, etcetera, not everybody has it in them to monitor their food intake. Being overweight in the First World is for just as many reasons as starving in the Fifth. Society herds people down a certain path. Whether that's high up on Maslow's hierarchy or not, it's what happens.

I think most stress disorders (like hypertension and heart disease) could be fixed by losing the blinders most people have from a very young age. Support the poor, and middle-class, workhorses and you'll not only see these problems decline, but the economy pick up.

 

[DSK-]

You can criticise anyone you want; you just have to ignore socially acceptable norms.

 

[IndomitableSam]

People are generally assholes when it comes to smokers or overweight people. I've been overweight since childhood. As a child, I walked to and from school, 20 minutes each way every day and went home for lunch. I played basketball and baseball a few times a week, and rode my bike everywhere. As an adult, I am not as active, but I now cook for myself and eat much healthier. I am still overweight. Every single woman on one side of my family is overweight, all with the same shape - mostly proportional, but with a big roll around the stomach. How do you explain 30+ women of all ages and lifestyles having the same stomach? Genetics. My sister and I have done it all, cut carbs, gone on dangerous weight loss pills, exercised an hour a day, and the most we have ever lost is 15lbs.

I took a class this summer, couple hours 2x a week. I lost a size, but gained weight. Muscle, yes, but I weighed even more. I was a size 16, but weighed 270 pounds. "Plus Size" begins at size 14. XL clothes are size 14-16. Genetics play a huge part. My cholesterol is fine, no diabetes, blood pressure is great, and I can participate in any activity without feeling sick.

Life is tough enough without people judging you with no understanding. Smoking is an addiction, and I am allergic to smoke. No one is allergic to fat people, just don't associate with them if you don't want to. Both parties. Just don't be a dick about it.