Well said.

First They Came For the Smokers…Then They Came For the Overweight

August 31, 2007

By Jacqueline S. Homan

It’s funny…well, maybe not so funny…that every time there is a group of people whom it is legally, socially and politically acceptable to discriminate against for jobs, deny all around equitable treatment and abuse with impunity; there is some “study” concocted by “intellectuals” and “experts” to justify it.

When overweight people, especially middle-aged overweight women, are denied jobs and consequently end up poor; they are then berated for “not doing anything” about their appearance. Fitness clubs aren’t cheap. Neither is fitness equipment often advertised on the shopping channel by fitness gurus. They cost a lot of money – money that low income or unemployed people simply don’t have when paying the rent, mortgage and utilities is of paramount importance and there isn’t any discretionary cash to be had.

For those who are overweight and who are fortunate enough to have enough economic security and financial stability to belong to a fitness club, keeping up with an exercise regimen is often fraught with abuse by the “pretty and thin” people who treat them with disdain, or as one poster put it: the attitude of “How dare you bring your obese body into MY gym where I have to LOOK at you!” Those who are overweight who are trying to do something positive for themselves by going to the fitness clubs to swim or work out get treated so disrespectfully and cruelly by those who enjoy thinner leaner figures that it’s too mentally and emotionally exhausting to continue going. Thus, they often never return to the gym after being discouraged by the shabby treatment from inconsiderate and judgmental people. It is these same superficial and judgmental people who, ironically, are always the first to admonish the overweight to “get off their fat asses and exercise”. No one wants to willingly subject themselves to such abuse – unless they have masochistic tendencies.

Some of the discrimination and poor treatment the overweight, the smokers and those over age 40 experience is because of personal preferences, but more often it is a problem compounded by the media. The media plays the whore by pandering to the special interest groups funding these “studies” – which are largely based on junk science as fancy excuses to marginalize a given target group of people, be it the overweight or those who smoke.

What is more reprehensible about this is that these special interest groups who are causing untold pain and misery for those targeted for vilification are doing so for a profit. With all the appetite suppressants, nicotine replacement therapy drugs, antidepressants, botox shots, liposuction and plastic surgery; there is a lot of money at stake. Trillions of dollars in wealth would literally vanish if there actually was a proven means of curing weight problems, preventing aging, or preventing people from smoking. Despite all the medical technology and wonder drugs, there are still people who are overweight, there are still people getting old, and there are still people who won’t quit smoking. In the end everybody dies – regardless of how good they looked before being shot up with formaldehyde and crammed into a pine box.

Obviously, the diploma’d elite are not omniscient and do not have all the right answers. The definition of an “expert” is someone who has been educated beyond their mental capacity, and who makes up fancy excuses to justify discrimination and the abuse of others – using the media to bolster their agenda.

The media is especially at fault for prostituting itself to these sanctimonious “experts” and the special interests that fund their “studies.” While I firmly believe in preserving freedom of speech and of the press, it should be noted that freedom and responsibility are two sides of the same coin. Freedom of speech does not entitle you to yell “Bomb!” on an airplane. When freedom of speech is used in conjunction with freedom from responsibility by the media, there is a major problem. This lack of responsibility on the media’s part has contributed significantly to smokers being thrown out of their jobs and denied the right to consume a legal product in public for which they are taxed oppressively. This same lack of media responsibility is also a major contributing factor to the overweight being denied jobs and older people being forced out of jobs – causing severe economic hardship and poverty for many who do not deserve it.

The media is also largely responsible for the false elevation of the medical community to god-hood. This largely contributed to the false sense of security and invincibility so many people have developed. An extreme example is that of a teenager who underestimated the risks and dangers of climbing around a parked freight train in order to cross the tracks to hurry home for a friend’s birthday party. When the 6,000 ton train lurched forward, the teen fell and the train rolled over his left arm and left leg, crushing and severing them. The young man nearly bled to death. While he was being carted to the hospital and realizing that he lost two limbs, he underestimated the severity and permanent nature of his injuries because he thought that his severed arm and leg could simply be surgically reattached due to the marvels of modern technology and modern medicine. He had seen and heard about limb reattaching on educational medical programs on TV. The doctors could fix everything for him and make him all better, or so he thought. He now wears a hook for an arm and a prosthetic leg. His injuries resulted in the medical revocation of his drivers’ license – permanently.

If the media can lull people into a false sense of security that causes them to underestimate the dangers of fooling around on train tracks and the severity of losing a limb, then it is no surprise that the media has caused smokers to be unjustly criminalized and that the overweight are denied jobs – then labeled “lazy slobs” for failing to join fitness clubs in order to “do something about it”. In our gerontophobic society, it’s also perfectly okay to deny older people jobs, benefits, or promotions and career advancement opportunities. The concept of older people, overweight people or smokers actually having happy and healthy sex lives is reviled as “gross” – because of what the media projects. Thin young Barbie Doll types may prance about on beaches and swimming pools in thong bikinis with impunity, but women who are plump from recently giving birth are abused and discriminated against for daring to breast feed in public – however discreetly they do so and with minimal breast exposure. The media reaffirms this point of view: thin girls in bikinis that show it all are desirable, beautiful and sexy – nursing mothers with their post-partum figures are not.

In sum, the problem isn’t the overweight, the smokers, or those over age 40. It’s the prejudice and lousy attitudes by those who lack sufficient intelligence and the discipline to resist brainwashing by the media and the powerful special interests controlling it.

© Copyright 2007 The Smoker's Club, Inc. Please repost with link back to this original article.