Comment by chiefalchemist | Hacker News Reader

Comment by chiefalchemist | Hacker News Reader

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> o actively shaming and criticizing fat people for being fat is of negative health utility overall.

Fair enough. But then what do you suggest we do as an alternative to normalizing diabetes and obesity?

To your point - kinda - about losing weight. Changing behavior isn't any easier when there are too few environmental signals to nudge behavior in a more healthy direction. As humans, we are wired to assume the norm we see around us. How do we reverse the tide when abnormal (and unhealthy) has been normalized? When everywhere you look, there are people just like you?

I do agree. Mental health is important. But a component of that is (dealing with) adversity. I'm certainly not condoning repetitive malicious bullying, but the current climate has outlawed any/all references to traits connected with being unhealthy. At this point there are no social deterrents, are we really better off?

Have we robbed Peter to over-feed Paul?

I think that it's also important to realize that maximizing "health" is not some kind of absolute goal. Not every aspect of life needs to be optimized to the highest level.

Of course, obesity is a huge issue (especially in the U.S. compared to many other "developed" countries) that can affect people's lives negatively and causes further medical issues such as diabetes, and ultimately can prevent people from leading a life that is as fulfilling and meaningful as they would have liked.

But we are still dealing with people here, not rats in a laboratory experiment, and I think the issues that directly follow from being obese are already bad enough that it does not help to pile on more shame by treating those people as being "weak-willed" or something of the sort, or denying them basic human dignity and respect for being outside the sacred norm. Do we really have to add artificial negative consequences for being overweight? Does that help those people have a more fulfilling and meaningful life?

I don't think people will just forget the direct negative physical/social consequences of being overweight by not being reminded of them all the time in a moralistic tone (and even just reminding people of such information can be moralizing, depending on the context in which the information is provided).

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