Half-ton Man Dies, family blames government

I think the family had a case for asking for help right up until the guy got bed-ridden. After that, as he's clearly unable to get his own food, they had to be feeding him and obviously they weren't just feeding him the 1,000 or so calories a day a recumbent needs. I'm pretty sure you don't have to be a doctor to realise that when someone weighs a fucking ton, they could do with eating less yet they kept feeding him until he died. If you did that to a dog you'd get prosecuted for animal cruelty in this country so I fail to see how doing it to a person allows you to blame someone else when that person carps it. Anyway, it's not like he was unaware of his situation. The fat fuck was in the Guinnes book of records which means someone called them to show him off, more than likely a family member or even himself. I have no sympathy for fatties at the best of times, the ones that eat themselves into the grave are especially pathetic.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I think a major contributing factor to the amount of fatties around these days is that schools are cracking down so hard on bullying. When I was a kid, the fat kid got picked on, mercilessly, all day every day. What this did was encourage them to lose some weight so they wouldn't get picked on (Either that or point out there was someone more deserving of a kicking, normally the ginger kid). This then set in all the kids minds that being a fatty is a bad thing and as such, nobody wanted to be one when they grew up.

These days you've got all this bullshit about how kids aren't allowed to hit the fat kids or even call them names. All this does is make excuses for the chunky fucks, makes them think that it's in any way socially acceptable to be fat and does nothing to encourage them to lose weight. It's only when they grow up a bit they realise that being fat is incredibly socially debilitating and means you're far less likely to find gainful emplotyment, form meaningful relationships with anyone other than other fatties and that you'll die young and leave a blubbery, greasy corpse. By the time they realise this though they're already locked into the cycle of comfort eating and the realisation that they're going to be a social outcast forever only makes them eat more, rather than having the effect it would have if they'd realised earlier of making them, you know, actually try to lose some fucking weight.

Basically, fat people are pathetic and the faster they die off the better it is for the rest of society.

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Originally Posted by Rotorblade

LOL at the idea of bullies only messing with the fat kids.

Your forehead's sloping, Shin.

I'd like to see you point out exactly where I said bullies only messed with fat kids. Bullies pick on lots of people, including fat kids. Fat kids are a much easier target than many groups however and crucially, are in a position to do something to stop being bullied, lose some weight.

The ginger kids could shave their heads I guess and most of the ones I knew did just that, the kids with thick glasses coud get contacts and the fat kids could lose weight. I have a bit of sympathy for the kid who lived on a farm and got bullied for smelling of shit, there wasn't a lot he could do about that. I also felt sorry for the kid with a lazy eye, again, not a lot he could do about it. The fat kids though were and still are masters of their own destiny and deserve everything they get.

I'd appreciate it if in future you'd do me the courtesy reading what I write, not what you want me to have said.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

All I have to offer in the field of educational psychology is my personal experience and that is that the kids who got bullied for being fat at school when I was a kid took steps to lose weight and are now not fatties whereas these days, there's a nonsense culture of telling kids that you can't laugh at the fat kids, implying that it's ok to be fat, which, as we all know, it isn't. What you're saving them in short-term anguish, you're more than making up for by condemning them to a lifetime of social exclusion and an early grave.

The world's a pretty horrible place generally and if you let kids grow up soft they'll just end up being a pathetic drain on the system in later life. We need to break kids out of the cycle of dependence early on and make the fat fuckers fend for themselves, they'll thank us for it when they're older.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by Rotorblade

It's not bullies we rely on to teach our kids or govern them with order, it's the teachers we employ or the mentors we give them. By your logic, we should all carry guns or learn a martial art because it's our fault if we get beat the fuck on the street otherwise, instead of expecting some common human fucking decency. I mean, we're all adults, right?

It doesn't take some miserable piece of shit wrecking a person's mind to teach them lessons, Shin. You have a fucking point in that fat people shouldn't be allowed to be fat, shouldn't expect dates or jobs, or preferential treatment. But bullies don't provide order, they spit in the face of it. Again, "Free Market" socializing doesn't fucking work in the same way that "less government" or "libertarianism" don't work, because you're relying on the chance that human beings won't actively try to stretch it to the utmost limit they can get away with.

Charging fat people extra for the food they eat or the space they inhabit? Great. Only offering them manual labor jobs, and allowing the actual realities of a civilized society to dawn on them early on? That's life right there, and it can easily be facilitated by a society about people. If bullying was such a great method, why were there so many fat kids way back when? I imagine it has something to do with the fact that bullying shuts a person into social recluse rather than encourages them to obtain something they can't have. You don't have to respect a fat person, but you certainly don't need to give bullies free reign in doing the shit they do.

Bullying isn't a fucking answer, and it doesn't make kids hard, it just encourages them to lay down and fucking die because no one wants their fat ass around. That's natural order, after all. And yes, there's a difference between life's social challenges, like standing up for yourself, and a person getting stomped on by worthless little shits.

I agree that there are occasions when someone getting bullied will further contract into their shell but let's face it, if a couple of kids calling them fatty is enough to send them hermit, they're basically destined for a life on benefits anyway so boo-fucking-hoo, where's the net loss to society?

I'm not suggesting that we abandon rules and principals in schools, far from it, anarchy serves nobody. What I'm suggesting is that we stop making excuses for weak-willed. lard arses, thereby not giving them false hope for the rest of their lives.

If you had a blind kid, you wouldn't tell him that one day he might get to become an astronaut would you? That'd just be cruel, the kid's going to work really hard at school to get the grades he needs to pick up all the doctory shit you need to get on the space programme, only to find that actually, despite his three Phd's, there's no way he can be an astronaut because HE CAN'T FUCKING SEE ANYTHING. The kid will be crushed, lose all meaning in his life, hate you forever and probably become a crack head or some shit like that.

In the same way, telling kids they can't call the fat kid names makes the fat kid think that it's ok to weigh twice as much as everyone else, that society will accept him for the value of his mind, ignoring the repulsive, blubbery exterior and inherent weak-will on show for the world to see. It's only when he gets a bit older, say high school age that the kid finds out that actually, people are shallow motherfuckers and being fat is not ok, it's fucking wrong and nobody will ever like you now. By this time, he's spent so long stuffing his porcine face with cakes and sweets he knows no other way of life and rather than taking stock of his situation and sorting his life out, he'll just go to the nearest KFC for a Bargain Bucket and cry into his fried chicken.

What I'm saying is, you can waste millions of dollars on touchy-feely psychobabble, or you can just call a spade a spade and let the fat kids know that being fat is shit. The net social outcome may be the same but my way has a slight chance of reducing the number of fatties around and your way costs a fucking fortune and achieves nothing.

Anyway, how is letting a few kids give a kicking now and then any worse social exclusion than making them pay more for food or use different seats on the bus? It's just as ostracising only it requires a mountain of administration to achieve, and kids have short memories and deal with rejection far better than adults.

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Well I wasn't suggesting encouraging bullying so much as turning a blind eye when it happened. I agree the actively pursuing fatties with sticks would be going a little far and obviously, one doesn't want to affirm to the bullies that that kind of behaviour is how to get ahead in life (Even if it is, let's keep that a secret until people join the work force). I do think that treating fat people and kids in particular with kid gloves is morally wrong though and they should be made to stand up to their responsibilities.

Like, they've now started printing pictures of diseased lungs on cigarette packets and that's fine. I choose to smoke and I'm perfectly aware of the damage I do to myself in the process. In fact I think the pictures are counter-productive as they make you want to collect the set but I digress. Why do burgers not come with pictures of someone dying of a heart attack on the side? Why do we stop kids under 16 (Actuall, 18 now) smoking but let them eat all the crisps and sweets they want? It smacks of double standards frankly, if you're going to make steps to stop people harming themselves in one way, why allow the wanton self-destruction in other ways?

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by Shorty

While I agree the bullying may create some initial desire for the fat kid to do some exercise and lose weight or run away from the bullies, it's one of the most psychologically damaging experiences a child can go through during school.

What if the child had the opposite problem? What if it was the scrawny tiny little shrimp that was being picked on? Should she/he start drinking milk to the point where they'd puke so their bones would grow? What happens or who is it to blame if the shrimp became depressed and fell to a psychological distress point that she/he started dieting and became anorexic (or the opposite, over-eating).

Of course, the cynical response for the kid being bullied is "grow some balls and tell the bullies to fuck off."

While I agree that physical activity will do the kid better, the psychological damage that it does may even have an opposite effect than intended (i.e., the fat kid getting depressed and over-eating to deal with his depression). At that point it really isn't helping the fat kid, is it?

These people have a physical disorder. Their bodies physically cannot process nutrition properly. Some of these people eat less and still gain weight, so it's likely not a problem of eating habits or amount of exercise at that point (that is, if they are physically active and are eating properly but still gain weight). It's too late to deal with if it gets to the point if they're bedridden. The disorder has to be dealt with before that and proper health care / attention needs to be administered. In the case of the the man described in the opening, he called for help a bit too late, but at least he called for help. The fact that the people whom he called out to did not respond in a constructive manner is still disturbing.

Shorty, honey, the instances of someone having a genuine metabolic disorder that causes them to be a huge blubbery mass, despite eating hardly anything and jogging a lot are so few and far between as to almost have gained urban myth status. It's just an excuse fat people use for being lazy, greedy bastards. "It's my metabolism, it's really slow" and I'm sure it's your metabolism that makes you drive to Burger King and stuff your face with cow sinews twice a day too right? What the fuck ever.

And yes, there is a chance that some gentle ribbing as a child will push someone into a circle of depression and ruin their life but frankly, if that's all it takes to break them then they'll have a shitty life anyway. With that little self esteem they'll never get a decent job, they'll rely on some placebo medicine to get through the day and people won't want to know them, they'll be a drain on society and we're all better off without them.

I mean yeah, let's crack down on fatties is an obvious move for society but I reckon we should crack down on weak-willed, self-esteemless pussies who can't take a bit of criticism without running to the doctor and claiming they need medication because they're depressed. Pull yourselves together, losers. If an employee came to me and said they needed time off for depression I'd say "You think you're depressed? I'll give you something to be depressed about, you're fucking fired you useless malingering cunt". Fuck depresssion and fuck fatties.

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Originally Posted by Hachifusa

My god, man, you're an adult; do you really want the adult community to turn a blind eye to harmed children?

At no point have I suggested that actively beating fat kids was a good idea. All I said was that if it wasn't for wishy-washy, bleeding heart types like you wanting to wrap cotton wool around kids and we stopped the misguided efforts by a lot of people to stop kids teasing the fatties then we wouldn't be in a situation where people think it's ok to be fat.

Quote:

Although I can't rightly blame the fast food companies for marketing an addictive substance that I am, well, addicted to, I can acknowledge that I live in a society that encourages it. And don't tell me it doesn't, either.

If you live in a society that encourages eating junk food then you live in a very different society to the one I live in. Anyway, eating junk food is not in itself the root cause of obesity. The problem is a simple one of taking in more calories than you burn off. Granted, saturated fats are harder to burn so you blast through all the carbohydrate in your system first which is why fatty foods require a lot more effort to burn off than decent stuff but the fact remains, vitamin deficiency aside, there's nothing to stop you eating burgers twice a day if you do enough activity to get rid of the calories. Go ahead and stuff your face with Big Macs 24/7 if it makes you happy, just try jogging to Macdonalds rather than driving there. You can blame the fast food companies for making their food look tasty in their adverts and drenching the shit in fat to make it taste nice but you can't blame them for your own inherent lack of exercise. I went to Burger King yesterday myself as it happens and had a Whopper meal. I didn't "Go large" and I had diet coke and prior to that I'd spent 40 minutes strolling around town. I also walk at least an hour every day as part of my journey too and from work and I only eat shit like that occasionally. It tastes nice, sure, but I know how bad it is for you.

If you choose to live an unhealthy lifestyle without taking steps to mitigate the damage you're doing yourself then you have only yourself to blame. Maybe if when you were younger you'd been called a few more nasty, fat-related names then you might have had the epiphany that nobody likes fat people early enough to make the lifestyle shift a bit less painful?

On a similar subject, you know the reason kids these days are basically lawless is that parents are banned from smacking them, right?

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?