I'm still not seeing how going to the gym and then riding the bus home automatically makes someone an asshole who hates fat people. If I whack you with my bag, I'm an asshole whether it's a gym bag or a Target bag or a briefcase. My personal views on health have nothing to do with it.

And in a way, I come from the opposite end of the spectrum-- I'm not designed to be overweight. And I've been there. I weighed, at my heaviest, 250lbs on a 5'2" frame and looked and more importantly, felt all wrong. Much more than 150lbs, actually, and I start feeling bad, physically. But having been both extremely overweight and extremely underweight (as a kid, and again, as a young adult), I would never dream to presume that someone's unhealthy simply because they're overweight. Even with me, overweight (for me) that I am right now, my blood pressure is still good, my heartrate is excellent, oxygen levels are at 100%-- only thing "wrong" with me was that my blood levels were at 5.5 (normal is 12/13) presumably because of the fibroids and subsequently, I had no energy, no matter what I ate or how I exercised or anything.

There are just too many factors that go into a person's physical makeup for society to judge on one thing only.

Which... I guess is my rant. *g*

Don't get me started on what the ADA considers the best diabetic diet... 3-5 servings of carbs every meal. If I stick to their plan I would be eating more carbs each day than I have ever eaten all my life.

I haven't drunk sugared soda for 30 years, I have always eaten a variety of fruits and vegetables and protean foods. Since becoming diabetic I have had to eat more starches and carbs than ever to help regulate my insulin.

Sometimes I feel the ADA wants me to manage my diabetes like someone sitting an a boat with a motor going full blast and trying to navigate by alternating a single oar as a rudder on one side or another, hoping to make forward progress without capsizing.

I'm still not seeing how going to the gym and then riding the bus home automatically makes someone an asshole who hates fat people.

Did somebody say it did? I think I missed that, if so.

I'm still not seeing how going to the gym and then riding the bus home automatically makes someone an asshole who hates fat people. If I whack you with my bag, I'm an asshole whether it's a gym bag or a Target bag or a briefcase. My personal views on health have nothing to do with it.

Yeah, this bothers me as well.

Which... I guess is my rant. *g*

Pfft. Far too reasonable to be a rant.

There are just too many factors that go into a person's physical makeup for society to judge on one thing only.

Yes, but our culture will anyway. I don't see our culture's pathological obsession with dieting and weight to be the same thing as "health."

Healthiness is well-being, and fitness and eating sensibly and not being sedentary. It's not the same thing as fat-bias.

And, as Jessica notes, having a gym bag doesn't make you douche-nozzle.

The point of a virtue is not to judge people who fail that standard, but to have a standard to reach for. We articulate our values so we can be mindful of them.

I don't see a single problem with saying: "I should do things that promote my health. It is good to do those things."

That doesn't equal: "I should despise and mock people who do unhealthy things."

Because advocating education doesn't mean you hate people who are uneducated. Unless you're just an asshole. Which is separate from the whole pro-education agenda.

The conversation started here:

Toddson "Spike's Bitches 44: It's about the rules having changed." Apr 10, 2009 9:16:52 am PDT

So to answer the original question, no, I don't think there's a connection between health nuts and assholes except that some people are both. People with overinflated senses of entitlement will apply it to just about anything.

Did somebody say it did? I think I missed that, if so.

That's where the conversation started. Toddson's question (specifically linked to obnoxious, gym-bag wielding people) was whether there had been a shift in cultural values to advocate Health as a virtue at the expense of other virtues, like Civility.

I took it kind of personally because I'm a person who exercises who is also kind of clumsy and flaily. But I'm generally polite I hope!

But I'm generally polite I hope!

I can speak to this point: You are! Also, I don't think of you as clumsy.