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Culture War Roundup for the week of August 7, 2023

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I'll give the pushback while mostly agreeing. There are two sides to the fat people hate.

Yes, there is some latent contempt for fat people. But it didn't come from nowhere, and is not frequently directed at people who just happen to be fat. Nearly every conversation I've seen or heard of people trashing fat people has been in the context of delusional fat people making outlandish claims about how it's impossible to be healthy and the people trashing them nearly universally praise fat people who are recovering by working out and fixing their diet. And this makes sense because the loudest contingent of people who hate on fat people are former fat people where the pushback is against ideas that they see as having hurt them. They see the shame they are heaping on fat people as trying to instill in them the same mentality that got them out of the hole. And in a world without semiglutide, a world we've all had to live in for the majority of our lives, the experience of having your coping about how you're "big boned" or have a "slow metabolism" is bullshit and that there exists a clear, if difficult way out. And once you've found your way out and seen what that mentality was doing to you it can be infuriating to see other people transmit those memes.

Am I saying there is no limit to how much cruelty fat people should endure? Am I saying that it isn't harder for some people than others? No and no. But overcoming them was worth so much more than I can really express. It is simply true that it is much much worse to be fat.