The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

You Need Some ‘Fat Positive Activism’?

Posted on | July 25, 2018 | Comments Off on You Need Some ‘Fat Positive Activism’?

Some readers may remember Ali Thompson, the bisexual queer fat activist who declared, “Just being around men is exhausting.”

Ms. Thompson runs a Tumblr blog called “OK2BeFat” where she offers her readers “fat positive activism,” i.e., sloganeering like this:

 

“Diet culture is capitalist violence”? What does this even mean? It is a rhetorical appeal to left-wing prejudice — capitalism is bad, and therefore associating “diet culture” with capitalism is a way of demonizing anyone who suggests you eat a salad instead of a double cheeseburger. Fat people are engaged in “a form of resistance” if they eat the cheeseburger with a large order of fries and a strawberry milkshake.

And is it even necessary to say Ali Thompson is a feminist?

 

The hijacking of civil-rights rhetoric — “discrimination” and “fat rights” — is as obvious as it is offensive. It is absurd to claim that fat people suffer “discrimination” analogous to Jim Crow, and what can feminism do to eliminate the “policing of fat bodies”? The self-evident purpose of this sloganeering is to convince fat people that their misfortunes are essentially political, that they are victims of oppression, in order to mobilize them to do . . . what? Vote Democrat?

 

The self-declared “Mean Fat Girl” wants to guilt-trip people for their alleged “fatphobia.” Stigmatizing ordinary preferences as irrational “phobia” is a tactic borrowed from gay-rights activists. “Homophobia” is a word coined for political purposes, implying that a preference for heterosexuality is wrong, and you see how Ali Thompson uses “fatphobia” to imply that the mere existence of thin people is oppressive.

 

The “pain,” “suffering” and “agony” of fat people is “inflicted” by thin people who are motivated by fear, Ali Thompson informs us. You see what extraordinary rhetorical jiu-jitsu is required by this effort to stigmatize thinness, to depict thin people as oppressors inspired by malign motives, responsible for “the pain inflicted on fat people.”

This is the “fat positive activism” that Ali Thompson solicits contributions for via Patreon, but it doesn’t seem very “positive,” does it?

She is now producing videos like this one, accusing critics of “hate” and claiming that “fat haters” are denying her humanity.

 

When fat activists point out that fat people are routinely discriminated against in our culture, the inevitable response is — well, if you don’t like being discriminated against, why don’t you just lose weight? . . .
I object to the entire framing of the issue that fat people should somehow have to prove to the people who hate us that we don’t deserve to be hated. It’s not my job to prove to you that I’m a person.
To even agree to debate my humanity is to lose, because I would have to agree that fat haters have any right to pass judgment on me.
I absolutely reject that idea. I will never agree to a framing that positions me as less than human or as somehow having to prove my humanity to anyone.

Who is questioning her “humanity”? But never mind — this rhetoric is merely preamble to Ali Thompson’s argument that dieting is futile, that there is no point in fat people even trying to lose weight: “Dieting doesn’t work. That’s simply a fact.” And you see this is essential to her argument that fat people, like gay people, constitute a special political class as victims of unjust discrimination: They’re born that way.

What is actually being targeted here is personal preference. If you think it is better to be thin than to be fat, you’re a “fat hater” and, because this preference is quite general in society, fat people are victims of “very obvious and public suffering,” according to Ms. Thompson. Her logic is entirely analogous to the LGBT lobby’s claim that gay people are oppressed by rampant societal “homophobia.” In both cases, activists seek to shame normal people for entirely normal preferences.

The victimhood mentality of “social justice warriors” (SJWs) is leveraged to bully people into silence. Characterizing a belief as “hate” is a way to make it impermissible to express that belief — a totalitarian project which seeks to prevent people from forming their own opinions and defending their own values, free from political coercion.

SJWS always require scapegoats to blame for their unhappiness.

 

Who is inciting “hate”? Unless you accept the liberal definition of “hate” (i.e., disagreeing with a liberal), you see that the real hate is coming from people like Ali Thompson, who have embraced an ideology that encourages an attitude of resentment and self-pity. Her entire worldview is based on believing herself to be a victim of “fat haters” and “cis men” with their “rudeness and aggression.” It is no coincidence that this attitude is integral to the identity-politics formula that is the organizing principle of the Democrat Party, whose 2016 presidential candidate has spent the past 18 months blaming everyone else for her defeat.

What’s an angry obese SJW to do?

 

Y’know, if Ali Thompson started a GoFundMe to leave America — $800 for a one-way ticket to Caracas, Venezuela — I’m sure it would succeed. Hunger is rampant in Venezuela and there’s no capitalism there.

Only socialism can cure the obesity epidemic — vote Democrat!

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My relentless exploration of the craziest fringes of feminism is funded by the generous support of readers who remember that the Five Most Important Words in the English Language are:

HIT THE FREAKING TIP JAR!



 

 

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