Life expectancy and quality of life suffers, we'd have a nation of manically depressed people with very little productivity. I very rarely see morbidly obese people in work, behind the counter, serving you in restaurants or behind a desk. They're always the ones hobbling about the shops, sometimes in electric scooters acting like *****
You might be wrong there. Life expectancy vs obesity line of defence is wobbly at best. In fact, there are a lot of researches suggesting overweight (to a degree) people actually have marginally longer life span. In any case, the obvious answer is - they are adults, it's their life and they knowingly trade life expectancy for living up to their earthly desires. One meatloaf at a time. Not dissimilarly to adrenaline junkie trading his life expectancy for a short rush of blood to the head. One parachute/bungie jump at a time.
Quality of life, this is very much anecdotal too. It's a choice. One person choses life of sport, at the risk of suffering activities related strain and discomfort, injury, possibly wear and tear in later stages of their life. Other person choses life of tastes and culinary pleasures, at the risk of suffering activities related strain and discomfort, injury, possibly wear and tear in later stages of their life. There is nothing more to that. Nothing more than "oh, my way of ageing and eventually dying is better than yours".
As for productivity, I'd be careful there. Obesity does not make person lazy in terms of mental abilities. Majority of office workers in western countries are overweight or obese. Those who work long hours, sitting, the more they work, the less time they have to maintain calorie burning activities, the fatter they get. They wake up from lying down, they jump into their cars to sit a little on their way to some more sitting on a train. They take a seat on tube, to do 8-12 hour sitting session in the depths of their office Aeron. They follow this routine in reverse to reach homes at 8 or 9 pm, sit some more with their family in front of Simon Cowell's latest TV malarky, then retire to their beds after hard working day. Armchair workoholic does not equal couch potato.
What about if we applied the same logic to smokers, alcoholics and drug addicts?
First of all. What if we actually did? What if we stopped being judgemental sons of female dogs and just let others live life they want?
Smokers is a fine example. Britain by any western standards is a country of high functioning alcoholics with substance abuse issues. A country that has statically very long working hours, very little "life", incredibly high consumption but very scarce uptake of any hobbies, even compared to other workoholic countries like Germany.
And yet we somehow managed to arrange a situation where one group of substance abusers demanded blanket ban of other substance abusers from public places dedicated specifically to addictions, just so they could pickle their livers and survive another adrenaline rush induced by watching 22 grown up man angrily chasing piece of pig skin across grass field on TV, because they managed to convince themselves all of the above was somehow better for their health without their clothing being exposed to byproducts of nicotine addition. I found it absolutely bizarre and I don't even smoke.
Second of all. You are still presuming lifestyle choice, such as overeating or moving less, is equal to addition. That it is something bad, something that needs fixing, something that "they" have to be rescued from. Just because YOU don't like it.
This obsession with others not living lives we would agree with or approve, that last century "It's bleh, I don't want it around me"-izm - perhaps that is the true disease, the anchor of our society.
Once you come to terms with the above and understand that each life is a journey of an individual, rather than some sort of soap opera background to enrich enjoyment of your life, you will quickly arrive at the conclusion that beside simply not being any of your business and not requiring your input at all, being anti-fat is just a prejudice. And a prejudice as bad as any other.
Don't get me wrong, it's not like prejudice against race or sexual inclination. Being fat is not something you are born with, although there is a strong gene element to it. It's more of cultural or social prejudice - like being against religious faith or xenophobia.
From now on, in this rant I'll be using "You" as a royal/in general "You", not "You" as in "poster I'm replying to -You".
And just like
if you are one of those people who just cannot help but despise foreigners - you look at "the others", the "aliens", the "outlanders", they are human like you, their language contains syllables, words and sentences, just like yours, there is undeniable biological familiarity as a species, but some people just can't help but dislike everything about them. And you'd like to think it's the clothes, their posture, the tone or tembre of their voices, but it's not. It's you. The disease is you.
The presumption that you are better and they are worse. The inexplicable entitlement that makes you think they come to "take" something that is "yours". The unspoken dictate that should allow you and yours to live, travel, exist in any geographical, cultural and social space, if not greeted as master and commander, but they should stop at the gates and turn around, because it is "yours", "belongs to you". It's all in you.
And looking at someone overweight and instantly presuming they are somehow affected, out of norm, in need of rescue, help, if not outright disabled, is the same diseased state of mind. It's just like any other prejudice. It doesn't please YOU. It's unsightly to YOU. YOU don't like it. YOU don't want them to be around YOU. YOU feel it needs to be stopped. How dare they not be like YOU, not live like YOU, not do things YOU do. They need to stop themselves, so YOU don't have to be exposed to them and their roundness, bulging under their clown oversized clothes. How dare they impose onto YOUR personal space. Spoil perfection of YOUR world.
Sorry mate, if that's how you see it - it's is still you. You are the problem. You make your life uncomfortable, you make their lives uncomfortable. What for? Why? They are not like you, they don't have to be. some people are fat, get over it. Oh wait, where did I see this slogan before?
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