Originally posted by: Electric Amish
Originally posted by: theNEOone
Originally posted by: Electric Amish
You have a problem if you can't walk at a moderate pace and not become winded over a certain period of time.
Why?
What reason in today's society do we need to be able to do this?
OMFG I can't believe you're even saying this. What kind of response is that? It's ok to be an obese sonofabitch because we have other means of transportation besides our feet? Jesus. Let's just cut off our legs while we're at it. They're no use to us!!! Hey, we have motor powered wheel chairs!!!
Justifiable reasons would fall under medical problems, eating disorders, or genetics. But the "what reason in today's society do we need to be able to walk at a moderate pace without becoming winded" argument just doesn't fly.
I don't see why that's really a problem. People evolve to fit their society. As hunter/gatherers, fat people didn't last because they ate too much and weren't able to produce for themselves, so they either became more fit or fell by they wayside. Logically, barring medical problems, heavy people could become the "standard" of human existence and the fit/skinny people could be the one's left by the wayside.
amish
First of all, society changes much too fast for evolution to keep up, so you can hardly say that people evolve to fit their society - especially in the case of obesity. Fat individuals were previously selected
against when humans lived as hunter-gatherers. But now, the trait isn't being selected for or against, so it's basically at the mercy of genetic drift. (Unless of course it's linked to genes who are actively undergoing selection.) You can't really jump to the conclusion that heavy people could "become the standard."
Anyway, the problem I saw with the statement was that it's basically an excuse to be fat. Since society offers transportation, supermarkets, (over-sized toilet seats

) it's all of a sudden ok to be fat??? I can't say that I agree with that.
Carpenters and construction workers will probably never impact the world on a global level. So does that give them an excuse to not be knowledgable of what goes on in the world? Think of more related examples. Using your "society" argument, so many things can be justified.
1. Because our society places emphasis on beauty, we should then all run to the nearest plastic surgeon and get face lifts, liposuction, etc.
2. What about different "societies." American society is arguably more violent than Swedish society. So should physical abuse be more acceptble in the U.S. than in other countries?
3. The U.S. has better medical facilities than in most parts of the world, so then should it be ok for a poor child living in a 3rd world country to die of starvation just because it's part of his society.
Basically, I just didn't like the argument on the basis that it seemed like an excuse. To me, it was tantamount to saying, "I like eating like a pig, so it's ok to be fat."