alt Hacker NewsThere are 110,000,000 overweight people in the USA and another 110,000,000 obese people. Is it really closer to reality that everyone is a two-jobs no time for exercise, or is it more that Starbucks Mocha Frappuccino has 500 Calories and Starbucks has 15,800 stores in the USA and $36Bn annual revenue? And McDonalds, KFC, and all the rest. Is it closer to reality that people are snacking on some snack food on the couch out of habit and not paying attention to how many calories that is in a week, because it's just habit and gone in seconds? Is it closer to reality that Uber Eats and Door Dash and Domino's advertise to manipulate you into believing that you don't have time to cook at home and they are a good option? Is it closer to reality that there are food deserts with only junk easily available?
> "That sounds very judgmental of you, like if they were skipping school. Bad truants!"
It is judgemental of me, like if you want to pass your exams but skip studying, that would be bad. If you aren't exercising and are eating terribly and are obese, this lets you silence the alarm bells while saying "I don't have time to exercise". That doesn't seem as good as eating better and changing your life to include movement.
I don't perceive health as a reward for virtue, so even though I understand your analogy with exams, I cannot really accept it.
Ask yourself where fast food comes from. It is a) fast, b) cheap. Of course it is going to suit people who a) don't have time, b) don't have much money. A union of those two wants covers a big part of the contemporary Western population.
Composition of food is another biggie, I agree with you on that. Too much sugar everywhere. That said: we are naturally wired to crave sugar, only someone more and someone less. If fentanyl was legally sold on every corner in fancy packaging, starting with kids, would you blame the resulting junkies for being weak-willed? Or acknowledge that the environment is really fucked up?
I personally don't respond to sugar that much and I can go weeks without it, but that's not my virtue. It is blind luck of my genome or possibly microbiome. I don't drink much either, but again, that's blind luck of my genome or possibly microbiome which makes me dislike the taste of alcohol. Not my iron will, which I don't have.
It is my experience that a lot of people are judgmental about the fatties because it increases their own perceived self-worth. ("We are the virtuous ones, unlike them.") Pretty arbitrary, but humans be like that.