Sorry, He's not a Victim. He's a Fat Bastard

Today's post started with Paulius. Last Friday, he started a rant, which brought a comment from Kelly, which brought about another Paulius rant, and another Kelly comment. Now I've got enough fodder for my own complete post. Please bear in mind though, I never saw the original Oprah interview that Paulius is talking about, so I may be speaking a bit out of turn. This doesn't negate my overall opinion though.

Sorry Kelly. I agree with Paul. I think that one of the largest problems with American society is that we lack any sense of personal responsibility... we're all victims, and everything negative that happens to us is somebody else's fault.

Your comments on both of Paul's articles underscore my point. I will happily concede that mom contributes to fat bastard's problem, but at some point he's got to take responsibility for his own actions.

Saying that he doesn't know any better is a fallacy, because the media, schools and the government all spend countless dollars and hours preaching the benefits of a healthy diet... even going to the extent of recommending a general daily caloric intake (2000 calories) and the number of servings of specific types of foods for a healthy diet. I find it difficult to believe that this kid's never heard of or seen the food pyramid.

Again, I'm not absolving mom of her part in this... obviously any mother that would feed her kid ten fried chickens per day deserves to have her parental rights revoked. But I'll bet this kid thinks he's ready to drive a car. How can you be responsible enough to drive a car, but not be responsible enough to eat sensibly?

And since the double-standard was brought up, let's compare this to smoking. I started smoking when I was 17 years old. I've smoked off and on (mostly on) for over 20 years. I've quit so many times that I've lost count. I was raised with the knowledge that smoking is unhealthy, but I made a personal choice to try tobacco... and I got hooked. I knew the risk. I took the chance, and I will pay the price for the rest of my life. Assuming I'm lucky and my willpower is strong, my most recent quit will stick, and the only price I'll pay is that I'll have nicotine cravings for the rest of my life. If I'm not lucky strong enough, I'll fall back into my tobacco habit and I will actually purchase the carcinogen that gives me cancer, providing me with a slow, agonizing death.

That's right. I am an addict. If you follow the twelve-step mentality, I am a recovering tobacco addict... blah, blah, blah. Backing up to your "double standard" though. Yeah, people revile fat people and make jokes. Nobody's trying to outlaw being fat though. If you think that being fat is frowned upon, try being a smoker! I can't think of a more scorned group of people than smokers.

"Why don't you just quit?" Ummm... non-smokers don't get it. The addictive properties of tobacco are so strong that asking someone to "just quit" is like asking someone to "just not drink water." Yes. It's that powerful. Going back to my original point though... I made a choice to start smoking. And each successive cigar or cigarette that I smoke (or don't smoke) is a personal choice. Just like fat bastard's decision to stuff another chicken in his tubby little face is his decision. Yeah, mom may make the chicken, but ultimately, it's the kid's hands picking up the chicken. It's the kid's teeth chewing the food, and it's the kid's throat swallowing the shit.

It's easy to call overeating a disorder and think of the kid as a victim. It's also easy to say I'm addicted to tobacco, give up and smoke until I die. At some point though, personal responsibility and accountability has to kick in. If the kid's never held accountable, then we as a society are doing him a greater disservice than his enabling mother.