You stole my thoughts, in that stigmatizing individuals leads to mental issues. Aggressively assaulting someone's already fragile self image will most certainly lead to depression problems. I want to believe that Daniel Callahan is hoping that the shaming will lead to suicide, fat people culling their own herd. This shit pisses me off. People like this look at an obese person and judge them instantly. She's not hot enough, he's a couch potato, they must eat a ton and do nothing but watch TV. These people have no idea if or how that person is trying to get healthy. They have no clue if they suffer from a thyroid or some other ailment. They think it is easy to simply stop eating so damned much and exercise for at least an hour a day. Part of the problem is our diet. We eat food that is bad for us because it is what we can afford. When our monthly food budget forces us to decide between a month on canned food, budget meats, and other cheap ingredients, or a weeks worth of healthy foods from a whole foods market, we tend to go with what we can afford. What about the activity side of the equation? We work at least 8 hours a day at "Some Corporation", few of which provide an onsite exercise facility, calculate in a commute, help children with homework, get children to sports practice and or boyscouts or other extracurricular activities, and before you fu­cking know it 9:30 PM is ticking off and you haven't had a moment to yourself. What we need is cooperation between employers and the health of their workers. A [url=http://www.cdc.gov/workplacehealthpromotion/businesscase/benefits/productivity.html]healthy workforce is more productive[/url], so employers should hire onsite certified conditioning and nutrition experts while maintaining a fitness facility, or if that isn't possible subsidize memberships to gyms, or even subsidize products like [url=http://www.fitbit.com/]fitbit [/url]. Employers with onsite cafeterias should lower food prices and serve a higher % of healthy foods while leaving the burgers, fries, and pizza at normal prices. But mostly, that 15 minute smoke break you get every 4 hours should be converted to a 15 minute walking break every 2 hours. Given that activity and healthy eating improves workforce productivity, reduces turnover, and saves money from insurance plans, it is an investment that returns. Frankly, it is stupid not to. EDIT: Then there is the "how do we eat" question. For the most part, we eat when we are hungry, bored, or participating in some social venue where eating is encouraged. Over the deacdes "marketing" has shown that larger portions are more desirable, and a plate with no empty space is preferred. What portion of the layman actually knows how often they should eat, what they should be eating, and what the portion size ought to be? I doubt it is a significant portion. The ignorant should be educated, not shamed. EDIT2: This topic rustled my jimmies.