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Old 18th October 2019, 09:20 AM   #144
dann
Penultimate Amazing
 
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 19,539
Originally Posted by Distracted1 View Post
What does "involuntary Obesity" mean?, and What percentage of obese individuals would you describe as being "involuntarily" obese?

It means that the vast majority of fat people don't choose to be fat and don't enjoy being fat.

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Is fat shaming similar to "smoke shaming"?

Only to the extent that it doesn't work at all. Banning smoking in most public rooms, however, affected smokers and made many of them stop. So does the alternative, vaping, apparently.

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It seems we have no compunction as a society with "shaming" smokers, and attempting to make it more and more difficult to engage in that lifestyle even though we recognize that stopping that behavior is particularly difficult.

We used to have no problems with the tobacco industry's obfuscation about the dangers of smoking or with its attempts to make smoking look cool, i.e. the opposite of shameful.
I don't think that "stopping that behavior is particularly difficult." Stopping any addiction is difficult. That's an important part of the definition, I think. I also don't think that 'we' are doing much to make the 'lifestyle' of smoking difficult. It has just been banned from places where smoking irritates and sometimes even harm other people. Photos of cancerous lungs on cigarettes don't make it difficult to smoke. They just remind smokers of the consequences to themselves.

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Are smokers "involuntary smokers"?
Not at first. But when they become addicted, you could argue that it's no longer entirely voluntary.
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/dann
"Stupidity renders itself invisible by assuming very large proportions. Completely unreasonable claims are irrefutable. Ni-en-leh pointed out that a philosopher might get into trouble by claiming that two times two makes five, but he does not risk much by claiming that two times two makes shoe polish." B. Brecht
"The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is required for their real happiness. The demand to give up the illusion about its condition is the demand to give up a condition which needs illusions." K. Marx

Last edited by dann; 18th October 2019 at 09:21 AM.
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