Fat Shaming

To start I am a fat person myself.  I weigh upwards of 300 lbs but have been working to lose weight so I believe I am uniquely qualified to talk on the subject of fat shaming. 

First.  I am sick of people talking about obesity and an unhealthy lifestyle like it is something to be proud of.  It's not.  Is anorexia something to be proud of? No it's not. I am sick of people trying to make obesity sexy or acceptable, that's no different than telling someone whose a suicide risk to be proud of their threats.

I am proud that we as a species come in all shapes and sizes but we should not celebrate sickness.  My obesity is due to laziness and food addiction and it is a constant struggle to fight this addiction, but it is just that.  An addiction.  We don't look up to heroin addicts or drug dealers we should not look up to or idolize someones poor lifestyle choices.

There are people in this world who have genuinely no control over the weight they gain due to physical or mental conditions but the vast majority of obese people are obese due to their own reluctance to make the changes necessary to live live a healthier more physically productive life.  Be happy with the skin your in and don't let the societal norms of the world control a healthy body image.  People are big and small, skinny and tall but once we begin to celebrate the illness of obesity we begin to create a society were we accept and idolize poor health.

I know there are many who may disagree with my opinions and they are just that. Opinions.  But lets look at this logically there is a far difference between loving the skin you're in and being complicit in your own neglect.  We need to stop idolizing people for the choice of being unhealthy.  Being obese is not equal to differences in skin color or religion or sexuality and the moment we begin to associate obesity with these things is the moment when we begin to deny what so many find to be obvious.  Obesity is most often a choice not a genetic defect.  Although genetics play a role in weather or not we have the potential to gain weight more easily than others it does not alleviate us of responsibility in how we handle those genetics.

We have now created a culture where people are trying to convince us that obesity is OK and even beautiful yet we shame the anorexic. If we are going to celebrate the illness of obesity should we not also celebrate the illness of anorexia or the illness of alcoholism?  No we should not, it would be considered insane  yet it seems to be accepted to celebrate obesity.

I must say that we should not shame these people but we should also not mistake genuine concern for their health for shaming either.  So with this post I am going to issue a challenge for myself.  Over the next year I am going to attempt to conquer my addiction in an effort to prove my point.  Together we will see if I am being wise or just blowing smoke about this addiction.  I will post status results of my weight weekly and will post before and after photos of my progress.  Wish me luck.

The Lazy Rain

I sit today by a window writing this entry.  The rain is trickling down the window pane in lazy lines.  The past few weeks have seen such violence and pain wrought on the world, yet all I see is a call to arms to prolong the suffering of the masses.  Why do so many seek to create misery for those weaker than them.  Is it systemic of our evolution that the strong survive and thrive?

We see the world through a lens of perceived civility.  But is civility what made modern humans powerful or was it survival of the fittest?  Are we just fooling ourselves into thinking we can be a civilized society.  Are we on our way up or down?

Collectivism is the natural course of evolution.  We started as a loose conglomeration of tribes, we graduated to villages, towns and finally cities.  From there we created states, nation's and unions, it is  a surprise to me that people are fighting globalism and monopolies.  These are the natural courses we as species have always taken and must continue to take.  I cannot say where this road will lead but by prolonging the inevitable we are in turn prolonging the suffering of the masses.  I know how this sounds and I myself hate the idea of a collectivized world of one government and one corporation, but this is an inevitability we cannot avoid.  We must then ask ourselves the question of where this will lead our race. What is the end?  What is the finality of our species when we achieve the state of pure collectivism.

Once this state is achieved our society may very well crumble.  Completion is important for the advancement of knowledge and technology.  War has been a driving force in human technological advancement since the beginning of our time on this planet.  So the question is, when there is no more competition, will we die out?

That brings us back to the ideas of the strong taking advantage of the weak.  This is a trait in our evolutionary pattern that weeds out those who cannot propagate the species. If all the weak took over, society would crumble.  We must have strength as a species to advance and evolve.  I wish we could live in a world where this was not a necessity but it is.  From the bully in school to the dictator on the hill, this brutality has pushed us forward as a species.  It is a necessary evil and when we lose it we may very well lose what made us the dominant species.