# Rant: the War on Fat **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 7, 2006, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rant-the-war-on-fat/347329 "2006-03-07T01:28:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![threemae](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f9b8f/32.png) [@threemae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/threemae)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2006, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rant-the-war-on-fat/347329/21 "2006-03-07T06:04:07Z")
> [@Zoe](#): > > What works well for one person does not necessarily work for another person. Preach it, sister. Diet and excercise are a fad. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2006, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rant-the-war-on-fat/347329/22 "2006-03-07T06:26:10Z")
> [@duffer](#): > > Considering the time spent in The War on Drugs I’m tempted to reply > > “…then they came for the Dopers.” > But I’ve learned to mistrust hanging curveballs. Someone else hit this one out of the park. 😃 The first thing that came to mind was “Then they came for me, and I was too fat to run away.” Although I’m not sure that quite works. ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2006, 7:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rant-the-war-on-fat/347329/23 "2006-03-07T07:34:15Z")
> [@Digital Stimulus](#): > > First they came for the smokers, then they came for the fat people… > > Someone else end it with something witty. And made _lots_ of soap and lampshades. ---
**Author:** ![Imasquare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Imasquare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Imasquare)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2006, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rant-the-war-on-fat/347329/24 "2006-03-07T08:03:33Z")
> [@deevee](#): > > …You will not get my sympathy because the simple fact is you are weak willed… Why are the weak willed undeserving of sympathy? ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2006, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rant-the-war-on-fat/347329/25 "2006-03-07T08:12:37Z")
> [@](#): > > **Imasquare** : > Originally Posted by **deevee** : > > > [@](#): > > > > …You will not get my sympathy because the simple fact is you are weak willed… > > Why are the weak willed undeserving of sympathy? Now, **masquare** , you and I know that your question is perfectly logical, but one must show patience with the simple-minded who know only the “simple facts.” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2006, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rant-the-war-on-fat/347329/26 "2006-03-07T08:16:24Z")
[quote] **threemae** , I dare you to specialize in bariatrics in med school! I see a fortune in your future --oh, and great service to humanity too, of course. ---
**Author:** ![Cerri](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3bc359/32.png) [@Cerri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerri)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2006, 8:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rant-the-war-on-fat/347329/27 "2006-03-07T08:31:21Z")
> [@Ensign Edison](#): > > Hey Miller, is the right to marry important for queers? > > Why? People are starving. 😕 Wtf does gay rights have to do with this? ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2006, 9:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rant-the-war-on-fat/347329/28 "2006-03-07T09:04:35Z")
> [@Cerri](#): > > 😕 > > Wtf does gay rights have to do with this? For fuck’s sake, don’t you know that being starving or gay is a _personal_ choice? Geez. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2006, 9:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rant-the-war-on-fat/347329/29 "2006-03-07T09:09:38Z")
> [@Imasquare](#): > > Why are the weak willed undeserving of sympathy? Because sympathy is for the weak. ---
**Author:** ![Dubious\_Weasle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b782af/32.png) [@Dubious\_Weasle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dubious_Weasle)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2006, 9:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rant-the-war-on-fat/347329/30 "2006-03-07T09:32:11Z")
> [@Scylla](#): > > … > My suggestion is to hunt down and kill a skinny person. The challenge and exercise is just what you need to throw off that post-evolutionary malaise. By the time you’re done, you’ll be strong and lean. > > Then you can eat the skinny person. > That is **The Way** of evolution, and the only reason that you’re fat is because you’re denying your inner reptilian psychotic hunting and killing machine. > > Let that bad boy loose. You’ll be ever so much happier. Turst me. Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant! ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2006, 9:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rant-the-war-on-fat/347329/31 "2006-03-07T09:57:36Z")
> [@Scylla](#): > > Let that bad boy loose. Or several bad boys, as the case may be. ---
**Author:** ![Ensign\_Edison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ab992/32.png) [@Ensign\_Edison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ensign_Edison)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2006, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rant-the-war-on-fat/347329/32 "2006-03-07T12:19:41Z")
I can see my joke wooshed some people. My point, about gay rights, to Miller, was what does starving people have to do with fat people? Do you actually think fat people are the reason there are people with too little food, like they’re snatching it away from the famished? What does the fact that this is a new development change? ---
**Author:** ![chiroptera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@chiroptera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chiroptera)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2006, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rant-the-war-on-fat/347329/33 "2006-03-07T12:25:08Z")
I think the WOF is mainly directed at parents, no? Parents should take some control & not let junior get fat in the first place. That is stupid, irresponsible parenting. And yes, some of my best friends are fat, obese even. Come to think of it, every single one of my friends are overweight. I don’t think less of them because of it. (Oh, I can hear the derision now. Guess what. I don’t give a shit.) Why? They eat too much junk and don’t exercise! Duh. :rolleyes: I really don’t get whining about being overweight. If you don’t like that you’re fat, do something about it. If you are comfortable being fat, wonderful. Not one single person I know wants to be overweight, though. They just don’t want to enough to make the effort. Mostly I see fat people settling into complancy and acceptance of it, while bitching. Nobody I know has any medical reason they’re fat, and none as far as I know have a food adiction. I’m alcoholic (recovering) and would truly empathise with true addiction, that would really suck. And as a regular (no, not Ethiopian or model skinny) weight person (at least what the general population would agree is ideal) I am getting pretty fucking tired of getting “Oh I hate you” when I order dessert and hearing “Oh, you’re so lucky.” I’m not fucking lucky, I eat right and walk my dogs every day. My best friend lives 3 blocks away; I’ve tried getting her to join me on walks, but she’s always got some excuse. Nobody thinks anything of poking fun at non-fat people. I’m middleaged, when the inevitable pound creepage starts, I eat a bit less and it goes away. It’s not that bloody difficult to do. Get the fuck over it. ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2006, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rant-the-war-on-fat/347329/34 "2006-03-07T12:44:29Z")
> [@Scylla](#): > > Being fat means that in the words of Neal Stephenson, you are a collossal badass of evolution. … > > Then you can eat the skinny person. > That is **The Way** of evolution, and the only reason that you’re fat is because you’re denying your inner reptilian psychotic hunting and killing machine. > > Let that bad boy loose. You’ll be ever so much happier. Turst me. **Great answer** 😃 It reminds me of that comedienne who talks about Skinny Bitches. She says “See that skiiny bitch sitting next to you? Ball up your fist and smack that skinny bitch right on the head” 😃 Hell. I’m thin, always have been. I eat like an starving animal - far more than my “fat greedy, more highly evolved” friends. But, they are putting on the weight and I just don’t. Maybe I could outrun the “hunters”, but if they ever cornered me, I’m dinner - the big guys are stronger and hit a lot harder 😃 ---
**Author:** ![chiroptera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@chiroptera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chiroptera)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2006, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rant-the-war-on-fat/347329/35 "2006-03-07T12:55:51Z")
> [@SteveG1](#): > > It reminds me of that comedienne who talks about Skinny Bitches. She says > “See that skiiny bitch sitting next to you? Ball up your fist and smack that skinny bitch right on the head” 😃 My favourite aunt in the whole world mutters “knock her down and force-feed her” whenever she sees a thin person. Well. Seems like all kinds of violence against non-fat people is being suggested here, from cannibalism to punching. Great. ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2006, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rant-the-war-on-fat/347329/36 "2006-03-07T12:58:23Z")
> [@woodflute](#): > > Billions of dollars are spent each year on diets (mostly ineffective), medications (often toxic), and even body-altering surgeries (often detrimental to long-term health, and occasionally even immediately lethal). How do those billions compare to the money spent on heart disease, diabetes, and the costs of helping people [fused](http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/martin_stlucie/epaper/2004/08/18/s1a_mcbody_0818.html) to their couches? ---
**Author:** ![Ensign\_Edison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ab992/32.png) [@Ensign\_Edison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ensign_Edison)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2006, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rant-the-war-on-fat/347329/37 "2006-03-07T13:01:04Z")
> [@Trunk](#): > > How do those billions compare to the money spent on heart disease, diabetes, and the costs of helping people [fused](http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/martin_stlucie/epaper/2004/08/18/s1a_mcbody_0818.html) to their couches? Yeah, we really need to look at cutting our decouchification budget. Maybe then we could cram another couple billion a day into the war. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2006, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rant-the-war-on-fat/347329/38 "2006-03-07T13:01:56Z")
It won’t be a problem much longer. As our war on fossle fuels will mean a shift to bio-fuels, which will compete with food crops. So the price we pay for food will skyrocket so only the rich will be able to eat enough to get fat, while they drive their hummer around, the poor simply won’t be able to afford to eat that much and won’t be able to afford to drive, so they will walk - problem solved, well except for the few rich fat people, but then again that might be seen as attractive again. I have to admit that in a relationship fat people are a major turnoff for me. ---
**Author:** ![Ensign\_Edison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ab992/32.png) [@Ensign\_Edison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ensign_Edison)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2006, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rant-the-war-on-fat/347329/39 "2006-03-07T13:26:58Z")
> [@kanicbird](#): > > I have to admit that in a relationship fat people are a major turnoff for me. I’m not sure I understand you here. You’re such a prize they should diet to get your attention? Or are you just admitting to a bias? If so, I’m sorry for implying otherwise. I’m not skinny or fat, I’m just average, but I’m often attracted to people who are heavier than me, or taller, or who have more or less melanin, or whatever. I’m not blind to appearances, I just enjoy many different kinds of them. Of course I have preferences - I’m queer, for one, so I can’t exactly claim there’s no such thing as an inherent bias. But I don’t personalize it; I don’t actually feel hostile towards people who fail to ring my hotty bell. The degree of hysteria and hatred I see around here puzzles me - I mean, when talking about normal people, not people fused to couches. The normal fat people I know are not getting around on forklifts. They’re not morbidly obese, or even unhealthy, they just have slower metabolisms and better things to do than diet, especially when they already don’t eat any worse than most skinny people. Some get plenty of exercise, more than I do; some would rather do something cerebral, and why does that piss you off so bad? The money thing is bullshit, because there’s so many ways people create expenses with their habits, and this hyperfocus on one of them - when we’re at war, for Chrissake, as I said before - is baffling. Yeah, people who complain about their weight and do nothing are annoying. I hear this more from skinnier people, though, and I’ve been guilty of it myself, in the past. The big folks I know, anyway, seem fine with their size, and aware that it’s a result of their priorities, which generally I share. If/when their doctors tell them they need to make some changes, they do, at least from what I’ve seen. Oh yeah, and a few of them have sex lives many people could only dream of. 😉 I’m curious - you fatphobes, since some people are naturally skinny no matter what they eat, do you hate them too when you find out they don’t diet and exercise? ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2006, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rant-the-war-on-fat/347329/40 "2006-03-07T13:27:46Z")
> [@bonobo\_jones](#): > > Well. Seems like all kinds of violence against non-fat people is being suggested here, from cannibalism to punching. Great. Ummm it’s called humor. Nobody is expected to actually DO it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rant-the-war-on-fat/347329.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rant-the-war-on-fat/347329.md?page=3)