Norman,
I'll have to go look at that again before I respond to what you wrote. It's been a while, I *think* some of p0ink's posts got deleted over there, and the whole thing upset me so I don't go back and peruse. I've forgotten exactly what was said.
As far as inviting people, I said that after hoss and jennifer said they might be coming over. I wanted these people to feel welcome. I also went over, as you may have noticed, and let people know they were coming and tried to help things go a little more smoothly.
It's a free country and if people want to go over there and post they can, unless they get themselves banned. I think overall we are open-minded over there and if not insulted or put down we listen to a lot of different viewpoints from a lot of different people.
Robert Jan, what was your screen name over there?
I see the name calling and put-downs are starting again. I'll just answer p0ink's, as he seems the most angry and the most ... eloquent, I guess, and the rest of you are saying the same thing anyway.
am i mean spirited cause i dont think it's right that they should bitch and moan and get 2 airline seats for the price of one?
they do? I'm not big enough to know, myself.
should i be happy that when i see them eating out in a restaurant i lose my appetite?
p0ink, this is a matter of personal choice. You are deciding to react that way, and you can change it if you want to. Saying that you are completely at the mercy of the mere sight of a fat person eating, and can do nothing to change your reaction to it, is the same as me saying that I woke up this morning definitely not feeling like going to the gym, and I am completely at the mercy of that feeling, so I won't go. In my case you'd tell me that I most certainly can change my mind if I want, and so can you.
Of course, one way to do that is to develop some sense of that person as a fellow human being, with a life and a soul and a mind and a heart, as well as a simple body.
should i be ok with knowing that i pay taxes to pay for their healthcare?
I thought this had more to do with one's income level than their size? Yeah, some of your taxes go to help with the health care of poor people. Some of those people are large. But you know, if I were ever low income and in a bad health situation, I'd be really grateful that it was there for me, and it is also there for you if you should ever need it. Are you saying that certain people should be denied health care just because they are low income and large? Yeah, it is unfortunate that some people are large and they have health problems, but until we are able to prevent the problems altogether, they are human beings and they deserve health care. It's too bad that they got that way however they got that way, but the system is there for all of us. And the best way to prevent the problems is to have a helpful attitude in solving them. I don't think, for my own self, that hate has ever helped me deal with my weight, so I refuse to indulge in it any more.
should i be fine with being cramped between the last seat on the bus and a person so fat that my pants get soaked through with sweat from sitting next to them for so long?
Again, this is a matter of your own personal attitude toward the situation. You don't have to be anything. But if you want to look at it in a way that makes that ride 10 times worse for you, it is, I suppose, your prerogative.
I am trying to change my attitude toward things in a way that helps me move through life. For instance, I could focus on how difficult weights can sometimes be. As long as I did that, it sucked to go to the gym, and I had a hard time making myself go. But when I noticed improvement, I focused on that, and I have a much easier time getting there these days. Similarly, if you are waiting in a coffee shop for a date that doesn't show, you could sit there and steam, or you could bring some work to do or a book to read, thus having a completely different attitude.
Your attitude seems to say that you find yourself and your state of mind to be completely dependent on the presence or absence of fat people!!! If they are there, you have absolutely no control over your feelings or state of mind after that. That's a bad place to be. You are always in control of how you think abut something and react to something.
should i be thrilled that legitimate companies may have to reward laziness with money?
Well, you don't have to of course. I'm sure there are lawyers who are, as they are making the fees! I'm not thrilled about it personally either. But you know, it isn't just fat people doing this. There are frivolous lawsuits every day from all kinds of folks. I'd be happy if it all stopped.
should i like the fact that they try to peition the FDA to regulate OTC diet aids?
I do. Some harmful stuff has been taken off the market that way, plus some companies don't practice good quality control and what they say is in the pill isn't what is actually in the pill. People are paying for stuff they are not getting.
am i a mean person because i dont like hearing about fat people being the paradigm for fitness
I don't think anyone over there will claim to be the fittest person on earth. But you know, if you hate fat people so much, why argue with someone taking the time to work up to a certain level of exercise, and encouraging other large people to do the same? It's only gonna help. I don't think the girl who is trying to get hired as a fitness instructor and banned because of her size, means to suggest to anyone that her shape and size should be the goal of everyone. I see it more as, If I am this big and I can do this workout, so can you! Come work out with me where there is no need to be ashamed. I don't think she is suggesting that everyone thin put on weight to look like her! It seems to me that you hate fat people and don't want people to be fat, but anything that might help, you are also against.
when other people have worked much harder, look much better,
This is a matter of personal opinion.
and are overall more competent than them?
More competent at what?
When I was thin, I was more competent at running 5 miles than I was at running my life. I was lower in self esteem than I was in body fat. I allowed myself to take jobs that I would never even consider today, put up with crap from other people that I would never take today, and had such a general level of low self-confidence that I had very few friends and was miserable much of the time. I may not LOOK like what you consider that a competent person LOOKS like, but I am so much happier now and more functional in my life. I gained some weight along the way. But if I were offered the choice, to go back to the way I was then, thin and a mental mess or larger and well-adjusted, I'd be larger. You couldn't pay me to go relive those years.
You can't judge competence by how a person looks. And do keep in mind that there are many different ways a person can be competent in their life.
how horrible of a person am i that i don't believe that extremely fat people should have children because it will only pass it on to them and in turn, continue the cycle of being fat and disgusting.
Now, this is interesting. If you feel this way, you must believe fat IS genetic, when you have started this whole hullaballoo by telling folks, in an extremely punitive and hateful manner, that it is the fat person's fault.
Also, no matter what people look like, they are still human beings with feelings. If I said that extremely narrow-minded people shoudn't have children because it will just get passed down to them and in turn, continue the cycle of mean and hateful people in the world, and then I included you in that group, how would you feel?
should i be willing to take people seriously when they demand more fat models to sell clothes?
Why is this such a problem for you? Obviously somebody does want to see these models ... the people who actually buy the clothes!! Since you are not a woman and will never be in the market for this type of wear in the first place, why do you care what other people's tastes may be? You keep going, "Other people don't want to see that," but you were hearing right there from a few folks who did. And if your real point is, "Other people SHOULDN'T want to see that," why is it so important to you that other people think the same way you do, like the same things you like? Why?
am i a tasteless person because i dont like to hear people bitch and moan because their lives are shitty because they bring it upon themselves?
Well, I don't like to hear that either. My mother is that way and I have endured many countless hours of, "If only this person would do things differently, then I could be happy. I'm unhappy because this person acted this way to me and I thought they should have acted that way. This person didn't hug me. That person didn't smile at me and they usually do. The other person over there wrote me such-and-such in her letter." I try increasingly not to live like this because I see where it has gotten her and that is nowhere. But I don't get all up in her face about it either, because having been there myself, I KNOW THAT IT WON'T HELP.
When people are in that frame of mind, getting all malignant and ugly doesn't get them out of it. Hatin' 'em just keeps it going. Perhaps there are a FEW exceptions, such as Sebass, who says he got in shape because he hated the way he looked, but by and large people in this frame of mind don't respond to hatred.
Also, you are assumming that just because a person is fat, their life must be shit. Just as with any other person, some fat people's lives are shit ... but there a good many who don't fall under that particular stereotype. You can't boil a life and all the issues in it down to only one thing: Percent Body Fat. My life is just fine, thank you, and many other fat people's are as well. We are just tired of the hazing that comes at us all the time and feel we deserve to be treated with as much respect as a black person, or a handicapped person.
because they are lazy
Lazy at what?? Some fat people have worked harder at losing weight than some rich people have ever worked a day in their life. They're still fat. It may mean that what they've tried didn't work out so well, but that doesn't mean a hell of a lot of effort didn't go into it.
Also, you are making a judgement that just because a person has X body fat they must be lazy at everything. Some of our bestselling authors are overweight. If they were lazy they wouldn't be bestselling authors. Some of my professors at vet school were overweight. If they were lazy they wouldn't be full professors at a major university. I could go on about this. Just because a person carries excess body fat doesn't mean they are lazy at everything in life.
and the fucking list goes on and on and on.
Yeah, it does, and I can go on as long as you do.
I wish the world were as simple as you want to think it is. Everything and everyone would actually be just what it looks like on the surface, and problems would be a lot easier to solve.
But the more you act as if this is actually the case, the harder you make the problems TO solve.
Please Scroll Down to See Forums Below 
