'TWO BIG PIGS': Rude woman kicked off flight after fat-shaming meltdown

rgambs said:

mace1229 said:

HughFreakingDillon said:

mace1229 said:

Thirty Bills Unpaid said:

Meltdown99 said:

I just wish those people who have cancer and heart disease and other ailments just suck it up...

Not even close to the same thing.

Are people apologists for obesity right now? Is this what I'm getting from reading the last few pages of this thread?

Sort of what it sounds like. 
I don't know if this was intended, but it almost sounds like obesity itself is a mental disorder. It isn't. 
I agree there can be genetic/mental factors. But that is going to be in the minority. Culture and discipline are the biggest factors when it comes to America's obesity problems. Pretending otherwise isn't going to help anyone. Something like 1/3 of Americans are significantly overweight. And then look at our culture and eating habits as a country. Those 2 aren't linked?

it can, however, be a by-product of mental illness. self-satiation in the form of alcohol, drugs, food, consumerism in general for that instant high, however one gets it. 

my mental illness onset and significant weight gain happened at the same time. while there are also other factors at play (aging, metabolism, activity), there is no question many of my bad habits contributing to my weight can be traced back to my illness. 

It definitely can be.
I just don't think that is the biggest factor. Bad eating habits and culture exist without any sort of disorder. It just sounded like obesity was some sort of protected class based on mental illness, and its not. For the majority of people, obesity is a list of conscious life-ling decisions.

Which is really a parallel to addiction in general.  It's crazy, people will trash an addict (not helpful, not cool) from a damn mobility scooter. 
Society has no problem villifying addicts to inebriating substances (again, not groovy) but bends over backwards to pretend obesity isn't addiction based and serious.

HesCalledDyer said:

My aunt had a heart transplant in her 30s.  The way her body reacted to it and the medications she had to take, she ended up having thyroid problems and gained a bunch of weight.  She was skinny all her life up until then.  She ate healthy, exercised as much as she could muster, but only gained or maintained.  I know she was an anomaly and doesn't represent 99% of obese people, so there is no need to jump down my throat with a bunch of counter arguments.  Just understand that some people simply do NOT have the ability.

The same goes for mental health.  It is a chemical imbalance in the brain.  Some folks just don't have the capacity to get up out of bed and go about their day.  It's ignorant to think otherwise.  I have been lucky that I do have that mental fortitude to keep going, so it is even hard for me to understand at times why some people can't just "suck it up," but I try to understand.  The fact is that they simply can't do it. It's not that they don't want to. No one wants to have mental illness and not have the capacity to go about their day and "deal with it."  If it were just about sucking it up, mental illness wouldn't exist.  Suicide and addiction would be eradicated.  Some have the ability to deal with life, some have it less than others, some more, some just don't have it.

what dreams said:

Just to be clear, I'm not an apologist for fat people. I just think differently about problem. My understanding from reading the research on food addiction and other eating disorders is that the whole "willpower" argument IS part of the problem. People with anorexia, for example, tell themselves all the time that if they just had the willpower, they will be thin, so they starve themselves and exercise to death. Then when they eat, they beat themselves up for not having willpower, and then they purge. The cycle is just vicious. I understand the desire to urge people to overcome and survive and just keep going when it gets tough. But for people with an eating disorder, there IS a component of mental illness. I would not be surprised if a significant number of obese people also suffer from mental illness, which for most people is an invisible disease. None of us know for sure what other people carry around.
For three years, I had a side gig at a meal planning company. I learned that it is 99.9% impossible to change people's beliefs and habits surrounding food. There is no money at all in trying to help people put nutritious meals on the family table. Food costs are through the roof, for one, so the profit margin is quite small -- and very few people want to do the work to prep meals. They're busy and stressed the fuck out so they short-cut their diet to save time. Most people are thoroughly confused about what's healthy and what's not, even though the science is pretty consistently clear on some basic principles. Nutritional studies get misrepresented in the media all the time, so one week something's good, the next it's bad, then it's good. Of course people give up. I'm not saying it's right to give up. I'm just saying I can understand why they do. 
Knowing how absolutely hard it is to maintain my current health in my 137 pound frame, I'm inclined to want to help a 250 pound woman in whatever way I can. That's just me.