edit: tl;dr - we've lost perspective on what fat is, and fat people want to keep it that way.
I've come to accept that most people have an incorrect mental picture of the appearance of the overweight, obese, and morbidly obese classifications. I've been guilty of this myself in the past. I'd say most people probably think an overweight person looks totally normal, an obese person looks mildly overweight, and a morbidly obese person is slightly in the bottom to middle of the obese range. They probably only think of the mega hams like boogie2988 as truly obese, and they definitely think that morbidly obese means you're pretty much permanently stuck in bed, because I've seen people saying that way too many times.
Nearly everyone has the wrong idea of what these categories actually mean and what people who fit them actually look like, while people who are an appropriate weight get called skinny and anorexic. It really shows how bad the situation has become. With over half the population being overweight or obese, and the number 1 killer being heart disease followed by a slew of other things that are also strongly correlated with being fat, it's not a surprise to find out that people's perspective on what a healthy weight looks like is skewed so badly. It fits the bigger picture. It's a symptom of the health crisis we're facing, the obesity epidemic.
BMI measuring of students in public schools has been done, but that's clearly not enough. What needs to happen is to have it made standard for kids to be educated about BMI as part of their grade school health class curriculum. It wasn't part of mine. More than that, we need to have them see what people within each category look like, so that they have an accurate view. The problem I foresee with this is twofold. Firstly, fat students and fat parents will complain about body shaming. Whale songs full of fat logic, fat excuses, and tales of oppression will be sung endlessly. The second problem is that you will have people fighting against BMI being taught in schools in much the same way that you see people fighting against the teaching of evolution in science classes.
In other words, the biggest obstacle we face in trying to conquer obesity is the obese population itself. The fat shits don't want to get better, and they also don't want anyone else getting proper information about obesity. Fat people actively put out disinformation about the subject in much the same way that christians and mulsims put out disinformation about areas of science which appear to contradict their own interpretations of their holy books.
The first step to a solution is admitting there is a problem. Giving people an accurate view of BMI categories and what they look like seems to be an important first step. Unfortunately, there are movements like Health At Every Size which blatantly contradict established studies on the relationship of excessive fat and health risks/conditions. We can't collectively take that first step when you have so many people actively fighting to deny reality.
view the rest of the comments →
[–] DelusionalHominids [S] 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
Destroy humanity? Nah. But I do think that if the obesity epidemic continues to worsen, they will eventually help to bring about a societal collapse which results in hams experiencing one of the following fates:
Obviously if we reach the point where these scenarios are happening, it isn't just fat people who are going to suffer. Almost everyone to some degree would be having trouble. But the good news is that being fat won't be possible anymore for the vast majority of people for at least a good long while.
[–] Carsandsarcasm ago
Maybe "destroy humanity" was a little dramatic. When this collapse happens, and I agree that will happen, I fear there won't be enough capable people to keep the world ticking over otherwise. This collapse is likely to happen at around 85-90% overweight and maybe 60-70% obese. There is going to be a significant portion of the population who are bed bound, "disabled," claiming benefits, unable to do the physical jobs, and unwilling to do the less physically demanding jobs well. Realistically, the world won't be able to completely ignore them. We will be unable to adequately support them, but huge resources are going to be sunk into them during this transition/collapse. The amount of money being drawn to them and not being produced by them will affect everything else that needs money. It will have the economic effect of a war. Coming through it will be a tough recovery.
[–] DelusionalHominids [S] 0 points 3 points 3 points (+3|-0) ago
I wouldn't absolutely say that a collapse is inevitable. The obesity epidemic may miraculously begin to lessen, or perhaps some new technology, shift in policy, or other development will somehow change the world enough to make the problem irrelevant to our economic and geopolitical well-being.
Assuming a collapse does happen, the way to come through something like that is for those who are able to work to be able to collectively and individually refuse to support those who cannot work because they have a debilitating condition which is totally preventable and reversible. Right now, we could easily save hundreds of billions of dollars annually if we simply stopped accommodating and caring for fat people. We're currently feeding the tumor that's slowly killing us. If we reach a point of societal collapse, at that time, we will be simply unable to support the overweight population any longer. So it won't be a question of "should we be helping them?". It's not going to be a viable option any more.