Disclaimer:

This post is going to use some behavioral traits of others to make a point. No true hatred is intended; this writer has been involved in helping those with substance abuse problems in any possible way quite often in my career. Any apparent disparaging remarks are not meant to hurt, but to make a very strong point about the last people in the US who can be victims of vitriolic hatred.

Thank you.

So, is it illegal to smoke or be fat?

It must be. Especially the fat part.

In fact, when it comes to describing obese or overweight people, we have a single word now: fatandugly. At least, it’s said as if it’s one word.

Jay Leno is famous (infamous) for having endless 10 minute monologues condemning fat people for how much of the world’s room, resources, and healthcare they consume. I think he’s a good comedian – but please, can we vary the material, Mr. I Have a Ton of Very Expensive Gas Guzzling Cars That Have a Huge Carbon Footprint? It’s not like you’re a saint. And there ARE other topics for comedy.

Oh, maybe not; after all, the only ones left that won’t get you sued are smokers.

Misconception:

Fat people never stop eating, ever. You don’t want to get behind them in an all you can eat buffet, by the time you get there, it’ll be empty.

Truth:

Most thin people at an all you can eat buffet get 5 – 6 plates per visit – stacked as high as possible. Most fat people have one, maybe two. 

An observation: Every single eating contest champ I’ve seen has been thin. They practice gluttony daily as “training” for their eating contests. There are a few fatties in those competitions, but not many – and they don’t win. The thin people do.  

Misconception:

Fat people are never hassled at work, they’re jolly so they get along with everyone.

Truth:

Fat people are bullied at work, held back from well-deserved promotions, considered stupid and incompetent even when they’re the only people who are holding a department together. They are rarely recognized for their contributions. People openly steal their work and get promoted ahead of them. They’re the brunt of jokes, excluded from get-togethers by people who are pretty on the outside but ugly as sin on the inside. Due to that, most fat people don’t complain about being excluded; they’re relieved. They work with the ugliness all day and prefer not to have it after hours most of the time.

Misconception:

No one hits or threatens fat people, they just make fun of them from a healthy distance. After all, you wouldn’t want a fat person to sit on you and squash you, so you’d better be quiet.

Truth:

In public, fat people are not just assaulted (threatened by gesture or word) as “taking too much room” or “being in the way,” we’re often battered – battery being actual physical contact intended to harm. Fat people are jostled, poked, smacked “accidentally” on purpose, even pushed off buses or other public transportation. But, after all, they’re fat, they deserve it, and even hefty sized cops will laugh if they try to protest. The perpetrators even get away with blaming fat people for getting hit.

Heaven help the fat person who tries to defend themselves, too – automatically, they’re labeled as bullies. And arrested, while the thin person often presses charges for what THEY started.

More facts:

Unlike others whose expensive (to the cost of healthcare) habits are protected and against whom slurs are Hate Crimes, most smokers and fat people work, pay taxes, are responsible citizens, because what they have as a habit does not impair their ability to work.  They’re courteous to others and tolerant of people’s addictions and sexual preferences and religious convictions (including the religious convictions of atheism and secular humanism). They know how it feels to be belittled; most of them won’t do it to others. They rarely, if ever, engage in hate crimes (keeping in mind that every group has a “lunatic fringe).” They fight for what they believe in, and recongize ther rights of others to fight for their beliefs. Fat people may protest their treatment, but they don’t shake their big “booties” in people’s faces whether they want to look or not, with rare exception – something I can’t say about, oh, Mardi Gras and gay pride parades (I have no problem if you want to participate in those events – just, please, keep your clothes on, OK? I don’t care how beautiful you think your body is, I don’t want to see it naked and jiggling in my face. I believe most people, thin or fat, feel the same way). 

And I have yet to see a fat person hold someone up at gunpoint for enough money to go to an all you can eat buffet.

Smokers get a lot of guff, too – they get blamed for causing cancer in anyone passing within a 5 mile radius of them when they light up. But they don’t shoot people or threaten them to get a pack of cigarettes – even the most hard core smoker can usually hang on in the face of deprivation.

What’s very obvious is that plenty of people are being robbed at gunpoint by addicts or alcoholics who want a fix or a drink (or both). But apparently, that’s OK; we can’t say anything bad about them; they’re victims. They’re poor, unfortunate souls who can’t help it that they have an overwhelming desire to drink and/or drug. And if they smoke in addition to those habits, well, that’s OK; they are addicted to something (nicotine, too, people), and it’s not their fault for the drugs or alcohol. Cigarettes, yeah, but we can wait to bash them about that after they get clean/sober.

If they ever do get off the booze/drugs, that is. We have a new type of thing going on that’s changed from the 80s – career outpatient drug rehab attenders. As long as they’re getting treatment, they can often get disability, welfare, Medicaid in many states - so many keep failing, going back, pretending so they can stay on the dole.  And from what I’ve heard, they just go to another state when the gravy train runs out in the current one.

It’d be nice if some courtesy were extended to those fat people who are compulsive overeaters; it’s an addiction for them. Not all of them are in that boat, but there are some. But since they’re fatandugly, too bad. No quarter given. And it would be even better if someone would acknowledge that for the older fatties out there, years of extremely low calorie diets have stalled their metabolism to where eating over 1000 calories a day makes them fat, or at least doesn’t allow any more weight loss. They’re not lying. Everyone binges once in a while. But I’d bet that most thin people binge more often than most of the fatandugly crew.

The poor alcoholic, the poor drug addict, has a lousy life, it’s no wonder they want to escape, we have to be considerate of their feelings. Fat people, however, all have wonderful lives and only eat to celebrate how good they have it – especially the absolute delight of seeing how many slurs you can come up with in a short period of time. We seriously do need to help these poor addicts/alcoholics have a better life at government expense so they can have a chance to stop, but we must never forget how much of a burden fat people are on the healthcare system and how much they cost us. And smokers. And if the addicts fail the first rehab, put them through another. If they fail the second, put them through a third, and if they fail the third, move them to the fourth. Keep going until they quit. Give them prescription drugs to ease their detox so it’s painless, even if they die still addicted. But for fat people? No mercy. None for smokers. Every disease out there is the fault of being fat or smoking.

We claim that fat people should exercise, but just let them try it – other than in the privacy of their homes, drapes shut tight and doors locked. It’s OK to try to run fat people off the roadside, sidewalk, or track; they’re ugly on those bikes, they waddle when they walk, and all that jiggling fat when they try to run or jog – well, who should be expected to have to look at that? We need to bar them from exercise classes; who wants to look at fatandugly in a leotard or sweats? Who wants to smell their B.O.? (only fatandugly people have B.O.; thin people never reek so badly that you use a can of Oust or Febreze a week trying to escape the smell of B.O. overlaid with cologne). The only possible reason to stop short of wiping the fatandugly exerciser off the road with your vehicle is the possible damage to your ride, right? 

OK, that’s enough for now, and hopefully you get the point. We ALL have something we do that’s thoughtless, careless, that might even burden the healthcare system. When we point a finger at someone else, we point 4 back at ourselves (counting the thumb, for the OCD types out there).

Which means, if everyone else is protected by Hate Crimes legislation, we need to protect smokers and fat people, too.

Let’s get rid of the last bastion of directed, feral hatred. Let’s quit blaming others, look to our own lives, and be kind to one another for a change.