5 ms·

It's infuriating. HN commenters will fall over themselves to rail against discrimination, real or imagined, against women and minorities, but it's perfectly OK

It's infuriating. HN commenters will fall over themselves to rail against discrimination, real or imagined, against women and minorities, but it's perfectly OK to insult, demean, and minimize the problems of big people. They know nothing about their lives, why they are big, what their health problems come from, what they've tried to lose weight. It's easy to dismiss them as weak willed disgusting blobs of fat, ignoring the human being underneath that is trying to live their life as best they can.

ivraatiems 10y ago
In fairness to HN, this is a societal problem, not an HN problem. It's a viewpoint issue that affects lots of people.
- jakebasile 10y ago
  That's true. I think I'm just especially aghast at the comments here because I generally enjoy this community and figured there would be more empathy.
dragonwriter 10y ago
> It's infuriating. HN commenters will fall over themselves to rail against discrimination, real or imagined, against women and minorities, but it's perfectly OK to insult, demean, and minimize the problems of big people. I don't think that's true at all. The people that are most described by the latter are also, often, the HN posters most opposed to the former. THere's, obviously, some differences here, but not to the extent of your description.
- jakebasile 10y ago
  My issue is that if comments like this happened on an article about another class of people, it simply wouldn't be acceptable here. Imagine an article about African American men getting poorer care for heart disease because they are more susceptible to it, and the comments claiming that it's perfectly reasonable and they should just exercise more to compensate for it.
  - dragonwriter 10y ago
    > My issue is that if comments like this happened on an article about another class of people, it simply wouldn't be acceptable here. Comments like this happen on articles about the poor, blacks, and women, among others, here, with pretty much similar debate on both sides. So, I think that you're just, factually, wrong.
whamlastxmas 10y ago
The whole point of the majority of the conversation here is that there isn't systemic discrimination happening. People like to feel victimized and are claiming discrimination when it's overwhelmingly not the case, and dishonest articles like this do a huge disservice to the real, legitimate discrimination that does happen.
- jakebasile 10y ago
  Yes, the majority has investigated the majority and found the majority not guilty of discrimination. Please tell me more about how you know that big people aren't discriminated against.
  - whamlastxmas 10y ago
    I would if it wasn't the equivalent of talking to a child with hands over their ears yelling "LALALALALLALA"
    - ivraatiems 10y ago
      Insulting parent commenter for asking you to support your arguments makes me feel that the child here is you.
    - jakebasile 10y ago
      You got me, I'm just ignoring your mountains of evidence.
  - imagist 10y ago
    I think that big people are discriminated against. I've experienced this in the workplace firsthand, where people were not hired for positions where their weight had no bearing on their ability to perform the job. However, obesity does have real health implications, and as such, weight loss is an effective treatment for obese people presenting with a wide variety of health problems. Recommending weight loss when weight loss is a low-risk, effective way to treat the patient's condition isn't discrimination, it's just proper medical practice. The actual study cited in the article which is being cited as showing systemic discrimination: "The group concluded that heavy patients should first be counseled to lose weight because a lower weight reduces stress on the joints and can alleviate pain without surgery." There were, of course, exceptions to the rule mentioned. So yes, I do think that fat people are discriminated against, but I do not think that recommending weight loss as treatment to obese patients is an example of discrimination.

ivraatiems 10y ago

In fairness to HN, this is a societal problem, not an HN problem. It's a viewpoint issue that affects lots of people.

jakebasile 10y ago
That's true. I think I'm just especially aghast at the comments here because I generally enjoy this community and figured there would be more empathy.

dragonwriter 10y ago

> It's infuriating. HN commenters will fall over themselves to rail against discrimination, real or imagined, against women and minorities, but it's perfectly OK to insult, demean, and minimize the problems of big people. I don't think that's true at all. The people that are most described by the latter are also, often, the HN posters most opposed to the former. THere's, obviously, some differences here, but not to the extent of your description.

jakebasile 10y ago
My issue is that if comments like this happened on an article about another class of people, it simply wouldn't be acceptable here. Imagine an article about African American men getting poorer care for heart disease because they are more susceptible to it, and the comments claiming that it's perfectly reasonable and they should just exercise more to compensate for it.
- dragonwriter 10y ago
  > My issue is that if comments like this happened on an article about another class of people, it simply wouldn't be acceptable here. Comments like this happen on articles about the poor, blacks, and women, among others, here, with pretty much similar debate on both sides. So, I think that you're just, factually, wrong.

whamlastxmas 10y ago

The whole point of the majority of the conversation here is that there isn't systemic discrimination happening. People like to feel victimized and are claiming discrimination when it's overwhelmingly not the case, and dishonest articles like this do a huge disservice to the real, legitimate discrimination that does happen.

jakebasile 10y ago
Yes, the majority has investigated the majority and found the majority not guilty of discrimination. Please tell me more about how you know that big people aren't discriminated against.
- whamlastxmas 10y ago
  I would if it wasn't the equivalent of talking to a child with hands over their ears yelling "LALALALALLALA"
  - ivraatiems 10y ago
    Insulting parent commenter for asking you to support your arguments makes me feel that the child here is you.
  - jakebasile 10y ago
    You got me, I'm just ignoring your mountains of evidence.
- imagist 10y ago
  I think that big people are discriminated against. I've experienced this in the workplace firsthand, where people were not hired for positions where their weight had no bearing on their ability to perform the job. However, obesity does have real health implications, and as such, weight loss is an effective treatment for obese people presenting with a wide variety of health problems. Recommending weight loss when weight loss is a low-risk, effective way to treat the patient's condition isn't discrimination, it's just proper medical practice. The actual study cited in the article which is being cited as showing systemic discrimination: "The group concluded that heavy patients should first be counseled to lose weight because a lower weight reduces stress on the joints and can alleviate pain without surgery." There were, of course, exceptions to the rule mentioned. So yes, I do think that fat people are discriminated against, but I do not think that recommending weight loss as treatment to obese patients is an example of discrimination.