LotsRegret
3d ago
Oh wow, my first QC. Thanks everyone, I am humbled.
LotsRegret
9d ago
You're fine but I do appreciate the apology even though I don't feel it is truly needed. I'm not offended, I just wanted to speak about something I actually understand since I normally lurk as most of the time the topics are more eloquently covered by others.
There are absolutely overweight people who are stupid, ignorant, or entitled. Reality TV will be highlighting these people as it is more dramatic than just an otherwise well-put together person who can't overcome eating too large of portions because it would be boring as hell.
But at the end of the day, it was my poor choices that brought me here and only better choices will get me out of it. I deserve being looked down on for those poor choices; it just isn't through stupidity, ignorance, or entitlement - just weakness in the face of a vice.
Firstly, you are judging an entire group of people on the basis of reality tv - something I wouldn't recommend anyone do at the best of times. People on reality TV are hand picked to get viewers eyes, not for showing reality. Imagine if I judged everyone from New Jersey based on Jersey Shore.
So I will lay my cards on the table and say I am obese and probably fall under the "morbidly obese" category.
I am not ignorant: I know fully well about the food pyramid. I know how to count calories. I understand nutrition basics fairly well, how to read nutrition information, etc. I eat fast food maybe once a week before tabletop night and eat out once a week for date night. Other than that either I or my wife cook our meals - and we eat well - last night was tomato artichoke bisque soup with a croque monsieur. The night before was pan fried walleye with a chickpea and avocado salad. I admittedly have a more peasant palette than my wife, but she's really taught me how to cook better tasting and healthier meals.
I am not entitled: While I am married, I am fully capable of taking care of myself and could live alone without issue. I take a shower every day. I work a fulltime job and have a healthy career. I have two hobbies which require at least some level of activity (fishing and woodworking). I walk my dogs several miles multiple times a week to make sure they stay healthy and at the appropriate weight (irony, I'm aware). I try to make sure I am never taking too much room anywhere I am and try to constantly stay alert for anyone who needs to move by me.
I am not stupid: I am fully aware my biggest hurdle is portion size control. I'm not happy being fat, but clearly I am actively making the decision to continue being so as I have helping sizes that are too large. Now, I'm not looking to get any surgeries for weight loss, and am otherwise in pretty good health - but I also know being in good health is only temporary and I am a time bomb waiting to happen.
So why am I replying? Sympathy? No. I don't deserve sympathy. I've made my own poor choices and that is entirely on me.
Maybe for some sort of understanding. Everyone has their vice: alcohol addictions, affairs, drugs, video games, porn, etc. I wear my vice in public every day; you and everyone else can see my vice on me. That fit person walking down the street that beats their spouse everyday and is a functional alcoholic? You would never know their vices without getting to know them, and maybe not even then. Does that excuse me being overweight? Of course not. I'm trying to fix it; I've failed in the past and may fail for the rest of my life, but I'm still going to try.
I don't want special accommodations.
I don't really care if people think worse of me because I am overweight: I think worse of me for being overweight.
I hate the "healthy at any size" movement and its derivatives.
All I would like to do is point out some of us overweight people don't fall into how you are observing a reality TV show.
LotsRegret
1mo ago
To take a Red Tribe issue of note; the idea that the Federal government could ever confiscate already owned guns is fantasy.
Can I be skeptical that this is so far fetched? Unlikely, sure, but all it would take is a 5-4 SCOTUS decision to claim the 2A does not confer an individual right to own guns. Right now, with the current SCOTUS lineup that won't happen, but give it a generation or two, some unlucky deaths/retirements, or court packing and we could quickly be there.
It may be bias on my end, but I also feel the more conservative members of SCOTUS who are textualists (and to a lesser extent originalists) are less partisan and more consistent with their rulings on the whole than the more liberal side whose motivating principle seems to be more about how they think society should be.
LotsRegret
1mo ago
We'll see how that goes now with Chevron deference no longer being the law of the land.
LotsRegret
1mo ago
I'm trying not to be overly negative and cynical, but there will always be funding available for anyone with credentials to tell people in power what they want to hear.
LotsRegret
1mo ago
Durant, and musk, and bill ackman, prove that shit posting is one of life's great joys.
I actually think it is less one of life's great joys more than a modern drug; and like most drugs you build up a tolerance the more you use it and it will turn you into a real bastard and husk of a man if you let it.
LotsRegret
1mo ago
Or, like a lot of people, consistency matters much less than vibes and being right™
LotsRegret
2mo ago
but those guys are weird and I’m a normal person
It also doesn't help the online right has just returned the charge with pictures of a Biden cabinet members surrounded by people in dog masks, Harris with a drag queen (or possibly a clearly non-passing trans woman in woman coded dress), etc etc. It is very difficult to celebrate "queer identities" and then call your opponents "weird" when they are, at least publicly quite normie, (with exceptions of Trump's bombastic used car salesman style speeches, which are at least "normal" in the cultural context of people being used to used car salemen).
LotsRegret
2mo ago
I don't wish to be this cynical, but I have a feeling white guys would only be able to publicly organize towards a left-wing candidate in these times. Doing so for a right-wing candidate would likely be pointed to as evidence of white supremacy in action.
LotsRegret
3mo ago
As mentioned in part of the oral arguments in the case, would you like to look up impeachment through history and how quickly political parties will play tit for tat?
LotsRegret
9mo ago
The Colorado GOP was already threatening to go to a caucus system before this; there's near certainty that they'll try to do so now.
To what end? Assuming they had the caucus system in now and Trump were to be win the nomination (regardless of if he won in CO's caucus or not), the same reason for stripping him from the primary roster is also true for the general election roster.
LotsRegret
10mo ago
I think this is the other side of the mind-kill coin you see out of media analysis through a feminist/queer/whatever lens. Suddenly the lens becomes blinders and it becomes simple to find any grievance, perceived or otherwise, to condemn the show (or praise it if you can claim certain characters are X-coded)
LotsRegret
1yr ago
You have to feel for BU here - after all, the guy won a MacArthur genius grant and wrote a NYT bestseller. There was no way to predict he had no idea how to run an academically rigorous enterprise.
Absolutely not. Firstly, Kendi's entire philosophy could be summarized simply that "any difference in outcome is caused by racism, we just need to find the racism". That isn't academic or rigorous, it is a conclusion looking for targets. Secondly, receiving accolades and awards for saying politically flattering things to those people who are granting those awards and are part of the cultural and political elite isn't impressive.
LotsRegret
1yr ago
In sociopolitical contexts, what is your personal, off-the-cuff definition or interpretation of the term NPC?
LotsRegret
1yr ago
Seems space exploration and colonization could be a good outlet for the dangerous world desires.
LotsRegret
1yr ago
Which is why you don't need everyone to choose blue, just over half the people, which is a much more tenable solution.
LotsRegret
1yr ago
I'm not sure I'd consider this a "conspiracy" outside of the most trivial sense of the word as the FBI, and law enforcement in general, tend to be loathe to reveal details on active investigations or even if there is an investigation going on.
So people not revealing they are investigating Hunter Biden and they have his laptop is just standard operating procedure, the same behavior they'd do for essentially any other crime they suspect went or is going on.
While I generally agree with you about Trump being elected allows DEI groups to unite and point to him as evidence of their correctness, one thing to consider is the difference in SCOTUS makeup (and other judiciary appointments) Trump (or another Republican president) versus Biden (or another Democratic president) would institute. The only reason affirmative action is dead is because of Trump getting three nominees in SCOTUS, which is likely one of the few things which can really attack DEI policies.
LotsRegret
1yr ago
Are you sure about that?
Was Fifty Shades of Grey a well written product?
Was Jersey Shore a well produced TV show?
I'd never suggest the quality of the product and the sales figures are anything but loosely correlated.
LotsRegret
1yr ago
Do people on both side of the debate actually care about women's sports, or is it just an excuse to wage the culture war?
I care insomuch as I have a daughter who wants to compete in sports as I did when I was young and be given a "fair shot" at becoming an athlete worthy of scholarships, etc.
As a compromise, I think trans women should compete in sports where there testosterone does not give you an advantage, such as long-distance swimming, fast climbing, equestrian sports, shooting, etc.
Something to consider is it isn't just current levels of testosterone which gives one an advantage. Going through male puberty grants additional bone density, height, muscle mass, etc. than had they of been women going through puberty. So while their muscle mass may regress some, the advantages of extra height and bone density do not disappear
LotsRegret
1yr ago
Obviously not the OP, but I'd point to the myriad of women empowerment messaging you see almost everywhere whereas the same messaging doesn't exist for men or boys. From "The Future Is Female" to "Women Get It Done" to positive affirmations on yogurt (this annoyed my spouse enough for them to rant about it to me).
I'm not sure I'd include the complaint about indifference of the universe towards being a man in the email, as I think it distracts from what should be focused on and could rankle sensibilities of the person reading it who may believe the world is set up for male benefits.
LotsRegret
1yr ago
I think the existence of the ability to travel faster than light which is known to at least one alien species drastically worsens the fermi paradox. With faster than light travel, massive galactic empires can form in (astrologically) insignificant timescales and why we haven't heard/seen them is more inexplicable.
LotsRegret
1yr ago
This is my understanding as well, but if the laws are challenged, how long would it take to go to SCOTUS? By the time it is deemed unconstitutional, well, the election season is over. "Oops"?
Absolutely, I think your views here are matching my own.
In my post I was leaning more into my acknowledgement that my vice is not good or healthy, it is something that deserves at least some shame by me. This was because of the beliefs espoused by the OP as well as the "healthy at any size" / "anti-fatphobia" activists; I was looking to distance myself from them and show the OP that my current state does deserve at least some contempt. I did try and bring in the fact that it is a vice like many others, as you bring up, though one that is always visible to everyone unlike almost every other vice as a way to help them better contextualize how I think fat people should be viewed.
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