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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.
Yes! But also no. I think that the thing which people consistently get wrong (in both directions) about obesity is whether or not it should be shameful. IMO the correct answer is "yes, but not any more than we shame all the other vices".
We all have some vice or other that we struggle to overcome. Every single person on this earth is flawed and has to fight past those flaws on a regular basis. I try to give grace to my raging alcoholic brother in law because I know that fundamentally, I'm not that much different than he is - I just have a different vice (like you, I also struggle with my eating habits greatly). But I also don't excuse him (or myself) for our poor choices either.
So, you have to strike a balance between the two extremes here, or it's not just. There's a Bible verse I'm fond of which says "all have sinned, and all have fallen short of the glory of God". I like it because it reminds me of two equally important things. First, I'm flawed, and second, everyone is just as flawed as me. So while I need to work to get better, I also shouldn't feel like I'm uniquely bad. Which is why I agree that you deserve to be looked down upon in the sense that you have serious flaws, you also don't in the sense that others have flaws just as serious in other areas.
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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