is this true

It kinda becomes a strawman when the meme presents "healthy at every size" people as the average "body positivity" person.

But the nature of straw man arguments is that since you are not citing someone who's actually making that argument, there's also not any way to refute it. "Somene somewhere is making a bad argument" doesn't really mean anything. (What's extra ironic is that this is an ad hominem attack against no one in particular)

That argument is likely a distortion of the medical argument which goes something like, "People who are overweight by the medical definition of BMI between 25 and 30 are not necessarily unhealthy. There are some circumstances such as being an athlete or genetics that are associated with denser body compositions. BMI is a crude tool that is useful for some things but should not be used on its own to indicate health status."

fat jokes are funny

Every time people talk about this, they always envision the most morbidly obese example that they can think of, when we're really just talking about the average slightly overweight/obese people. Those people often have their actual medical needs ignored by doctors and are given "lose weight" as a cure all. There are literally hundreds of millions of people who experience this.

There's more to it than just "develop healthy habits" though. There are psychological reasons one could have for overeating like having eating disorders or using food to treat depression which could require psychiatric assistance. My brother died at 600+ lbs after breaking two lap bands. He required some serious intervention, but we couldn't afford what he needed, he was homeless and he couldn't hold down a job, so he died instead.

Mind you, being overweight wasn't the only cause for his death. He was eating very unhealthy foods because they were a cheaper means to fill himself up since his stomach was huge. His severe ADHD prevented him from being able to hold down a job despite being a fairly intelligent person.

He did some shitty things in his life, so don't give too much sympathy, but in retrospect doing something to help his ADHD early on could have helped to prevent the train wreck that became his life. Maybe that would have helped him do better in school, be better to our parents, be able to hold down a job, etc. which could have prevented overeating to treat his depression.

That's not what they're talking about. Doctors will attribute anything they can to your weight instead of actually testing and treating you. There are a lot of problems with being over weight but there's also legitimate illnesses being missed.

I'm just shocked Lemmy hasn't gone full incel. The TwoX sub some poor hopeful tried to start looked like that meme of Jerrys talking to each other.

I think anyone addicted to the dopamine rush of food to the point they are an unhealthy weight has a mental issue, same as someone addicted to tobacco, alcohol, or any drug where overuse is unhealthy. It's incredibly common, it's just that obesity seems to be the most outwardly visible of those addictions and therefore gets shamed more. I don't think shaming people into quitting an addiction is an effective strategy, but I also don't believe affirming their choices with misinformation is favorable either. I think promoting awareness and giving compassionate support are the only real effective strategies, and while I think that's commonly understood and used by most caring people, that doesn't seem to be a viewpoint that gets attention on the Internet.

Not to mention the fact that mental health issues are not handled well by the general public at all. I have seen so much vitriol, dismissal, and skepticism towards anyone who talks about their mental health journey. And in my experience those who will shame me for being overweight will often insinuate that I made up my diagnoses or doctor shopped until I got what I wanted. You really can’t win for losing.

…what? People shame others for drinking and smoking all the time. Bad example.

What are you on about? We've literally kicked smokers out of public spaces and increased their insurance rates. Alcohol in excess will also get thrown in jail.

It's not shaming anyone, to point out when something is objectively unhealthy. No-one is going around hounding people for eating an extra slice of pizza or having a drink with dinner.

But,when you are eating a whole pizza a day or are drunk at 8am people should point out that hey maybe that's not the way to go.

I smoke cigarettes and drink alcohol. I'm an unhealthy addict. Obesity is a disease that shouldn't be shamed, like any other addiction/ condition. It should definitely be acknowledged/ treated, though.

Most smokers I know are well aware of how unhealthy their habit is, and would quit if it was easy. They don't make excuses.

Are there advocates telling people it's okay and healthy to smoke? Oh, it's universally shit on with more laws every day on who can smoke?

I'm not shaming all fat people. Just the ones that only make excuses for their weight or pretend that it is healthy.

I couldn't be prouder or more supportive of an overweight person that decides enough is enough, takes ownership of their body, that they're going to lose weight and stick with it until they reach their goal.

To use your analogy, I don't care if someone drinks or smokes, but if they start pretending that it's not a choice they make it or that it's healthy, then yh, that's a problem and I don't think it's a bad thing to call them out for that.

To your hypothetical: no one talks bad about a consumer until they do so at an excessive level.

If shame was the answer, nobody would still be obese. There is always an underlying cause, and it isn't because of a character flaw. Often people use food as a maladaptive way of coping with emotional abuse or neglect, SA, or other things.

It's another example of people being shallow, self-righteous assholes with a narrow perspective and no willingness to understand or empathize with fellow humans.

Sort of like how some people are anti-trans (usually anti MtF trans). Often these people are so pathetic they have to bash others to feel better about themselves. It's the same mentality as blaming poor people for not having more money. Or dismissing drug addicts as subhuman garbage rather than fucked up people with a disease.

This kind of shit makes them feel like it's not even okay to be seen because of this shit.

That's exactly their intent. They don't see fat people as equally human. They see them as people who aren't as good as they are and they would just as soon fat people "go away".

People born on third base thinking they hit a triple. As if having well adjusted parents and not having a mental disorder and not experiencing CSA and so on was somehow all their own doing and not just the luck of the draw.

People love to seek flaws in others so that they have to see their own flaws. Or shame others because they can't fathom that those are happy how they are while the shamers are constrained in their own thinking.

The whole meme is just shitty and not funny. Maybe do something about it?