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Comment by timcobb | Hacker News Reader

> You lack accountability.

Accountability for what? To who? And for what purpose?

> in 99% of cases, they are the problem, not genetics

Where'd you get that number? What are you basing it on?

> Your claim that "trying harder" is "akin to insanity" is such an overreaction that it's misleading exaggeration, not worthy of further not worthy of further dissection.

What does this even mean? How is my claim an overreaction? An overreaction to what? In what context or reference frame for appropriate reaction is my claim an overreaction?

In my comment above I am basically just saying "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

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Yeah, I think accountability is a straw man.

If you make it cheaper, easier and more socially acceptable for a group of people to eat low quality processed foods, even a portion of the time (as is the case where I live), that group of people will be more likely to eat processed foods.

It’s not impossible to follow the advice in the in the article, it’s just harder than it should be for some groups of people. Unfairly so, I think.

You lack accountability to yourself. Read this comment you wrote:

> People should also talk about the volition trap. I'm 40 and it feels like I've had more than a life's worth of people talking about how "you can do it if you just try!"

"People should" instead of "I'm going to". "It feels like" instead of making a direct statement.

Nobody here knows your situation or why you formed the way you did. But also, it doesn't actually matter. We always want some deep explanation but understanding is often just a way of dealing with impotence.

Just do it. No excuses.

> Just do it. No excuses.

This just sounds like you got brainwashed by Nike ("advertising signs that con / you into thinking..."). I'm not a person who makes excuses, and I'm not making excuses here. I'm not even obese.

I'm just observing phenomena. And the question I want to know is how is it that so many humans, who came this far evolutionarily, are all of a sudden so messed up? I mean, literally every single person alive today stands on the shoulders of giants. We are progeny of the winners, the tenacious, the survivors, the killers. What happened??

You live in an imaginary world.

> We are progeny of the winners, the tenacious, the survivors, the killers.

You are a progeny of a chance, nothing more.

People who don't have the will to live die. And they usually don't procreate, especially under adverse conditions.

Whether you live under adverse conditions or not is essentially a matter of luck. It's a variant of the birth lottery problem.

What happened? My morbidly obese coworker eats almost an entire pizza for lunch. That's really the whole thing summed up.

We allowed the normalization of incredibly calorie and sugar dense foods. We got kids hooked on the diet young. We made cartoons showing that kids hate vegetables while demonizing Michelle Obama got wanting good meals.

At some point, the social pressures got removed. Being severely overweight and eating more than a normal share stopped getting ridiculed. And then doctors started getting pushback because patients would rather giggle about their obesity and pretend it's okay than accept they're killing themselves. And those people fed that attitude to their kids, who are now dealt a losing hands when their parents raise them fat. Our culture's "iconic breakfast" is a bowl of milk filled with marshmallows and sugary carb bits.

But the unpleasant reality is that if my coworker just stopped ordering the pizza, they would start losing weight. It's hard, especially once in the hole, but everyone who isn't morbidly obese does that every day.

Accountability for putting food in your mouth.

And then claiming it's not your fault.

It 100% is.

Of course it's your "fault", obviously. But why do you think so many people are so messed up then?

Like let's say all of a sudden wolves started getting super obese. What happened to wolves that they evolved for millions of years just fine, and then whoop all of a sudden they were all diabetic and obese?

What, do they need to try harder at being wolves?

This would be a useful analogy if humans were unable to think more abstractly than wolves.

We have no idea what wolves think.

They're certainly not discussing it online.

Aoooooooooooo

Wolves know nothing about the horrible consequences of being fat. Most people do.

Because food is cheap and they have no self-control.

And because certain groups promote fatness as a virtue, or that fatness is healthy.

Just a few comments above you claimed "The sheer scope of the obesity pandemic should make it clear that we are not the problem", and now you admit that it's your fault. Which one is it?

I see it the same as with alcohol, tobacco and other substances. Lack of self-control. Modern food is specifically engineered to be addictive and easy to get. Full of starch, sugars and fats.

There will be no obesity if person maintains a low calorie intake.

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