Down with Encouragement! Down with Pride!

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Seriously, it's no wonder we as a human race fail and are ruining the world.I constantly hear Encouragement, and to be prideful for things you shouldn't, instead of taking the time to fix your problems. I'm of course talking about Obesity and Drugs Picks up Flame shieldObesity these days bothering me even more than drugs. I've read and heard all kinds of crap about how "God made you the way you are." Or "You are who you are, be proud of yourself if people don't like you they should go kill themselves" and crap. Of course these lines are really used for either.Now I'm aware there are rare cases when people really can't help themselves. But in most cases people are just lazy. if people don't like you because you're 4'11 and 300 pounds, instead of finding other people who hate themselves that except you because they're 400 pounds why not do something about it =/.One of my ex's are a prime example of both. She lost all but 2-3 of her friends because she let herself get up to 270 pounds and started taking pills and all kinds of shit and started treat people like shit. And I watched her myspace and occasionally heard her friend going on about how she's fine the way she is she's a beautiful great person and people should just learn to accept the fact she's an overweight druggy bitch who hates everyone.I was reading somewhere they're considering changing the sizes of clothes to make people feel better because of their weight. I believe they were changing a womans size 16 to a size 12 or something. It's like geeze, instead of telling these unhealthy dying people they're fine and people should just accept them. Why not take the time to try to help them =/I'm not saying you should walk up to overweight people or someone smoking a joint and pull out a 9-tails and just start beating them saying BE PERFECT DAMN YOU! But I'm pretty sure helping people get in shape and healthy would be more beneficial to everyone then saying continue being a lazy unhealthy dying person and screw everyone you meet unless they decide they're to lazy to give a shit you're so bad off -.-

...you can throw in teenagers having sex, while you're at it.

this is actually an interesting and hotly contested topic. There is no right answer either.Self esteem is important. Without it, it's easy for a person to fall into the trap of slow suicide from drugs, obesity, reckless sex, etc. However, it's also important to be able to recognize your own faults and be able to deal with them.It's like this wishy washy thing that happens in some schools where self esteem is put before success. I whole heartedly agree that a child should never feel like shit if he's terrible at sports or if he is dyslexic and can't spell. However, he should also be guided and corrected and encouraged to ply-to-win.It's all about balance and there is no simple solution for everyone. Anyone who thinks they do have the answer is an idiot.Have a look at this interesting book...Bright-sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America by Barbara Ehrenreich  Originally Posted By: thor...you can throw in teenagers having sex, while you're at it. you're just jealous!

I agree that there's no right answer and balance is needed, but where to put the balance is problematic.The "tough love" school is all too often using the term to cover up a lack of any sort of love, or a disinclination to do any work. I think the term has caused more harm than good.I personally think there is too much emphasis in Western society on competition and being the best. Only one person can be the best, and only 1% of the people can be in the top 1%. That doesn't mean the others are of no account.I think this has particularly infected education. It means that qualities that are easily measured (such as academic or sporting prowess) are over-emphasised at the expense of things that are arguably more important in life but are harder to measure, such as social skills. I do not mean that we should pretend that a poor academic performance is a good one (which is happening too much). If academic performance is put in its place as just one thing a person can do, and not a measure of a person's worthiness, we can be more honest about it.I think much the same can be said about looks and gym statistics, and a lot of other things. If a person's weight, or their drug habits, is not considered to be the main window into the state of their soul - if these can be considered as incidentals and not the person - then one can give advice about losing weight or stopping drugs.(But in any case one's advice should be sensible, and come from knowledge. I give no advice about drugs, because I have no experience - it is the people who have whose advice is valuable. Losing weight is difficult and again advice comes best from those who have been there.)

I may have came off a little harsher than I intended.

I mean feeling good about yourself having self esteem is good an encouragement can be good in it's own rights.

And I know I'm a freak, but personally I'd much rather have someone say, you're fucked up, you have issues, but I'm willing to help you resolve them if you want.

Rather than, no you're perfect man you're like a God among men, these mortals should bow down to your might and never ill-ly speak of your name or they shall be cast upon the fires of hell torched for all eternity and ok. I'm being a little over dramatic here. Bored. 4am it happens -.-

Buuuuuuuuuuuuuut you get my point.

Obesity and Drug abuse should be dealt. With. Even if you're pro drugs, whatever. Fine then take the time to learn to moderate them and not let them destroy your life and others around you. But even worse to these problems is people saying you're fine the way you are when you're really not.

You know I was 262-264 pounds too, I always thought people were a little harsh with me, and considering my hight and the fact I was still really only a little chubby still consider it. However I don't regret at all that I got hurt and did something about it, now bouncing between 152-160 depending on how much fatguy food is available to me.

But I feel amazing these days even with all my stress problems and hatred for the world. And I would have never gotten this healthy and feel this good if I weren't around such huge douche bags who could careless how they made people feel.

Perhaps we need to make the distinction between saying "I accept you as you are" and "you are fine the way you are, no need to change anything". The first, which I think is important, says that with all your faults you are still worthwhile and I don't look down on you - it doesn't pretend that faults aren't faults.But nevertheless I think that obesity is pretty low on the scale of faults. You have overcome a weight problem and that is very good, but you shouldn't look down on those who haven't overcome it - they may have a harder road.Sometimes brusque words lead to action. But all too often they lead to despair. It depends on the person.

I thought obesity was known to be a disease? Idk..

I guess I see it differently. I don't know how anyone can get angry at someone who is obese unless they personally treated you in such a way. Many people I know who are obese or have a problem with drugs usually has to do with the fact they were sexually, physically, or emotionally abused one way or the other, but the huge factor is poverty. This is just in my experience though, I'm not applying it to anyone else. Whenever one of my old friend gets sexually assaulted by her uncle she eats... a lot. She'll even come to my house and raid my fridge. Which I usually don't mind cause I understand her pain, so I usually just eat with her and watch old school movies. She refers to herself as obese, I don't consider her obese though... just thick... but she thinks I'm stretching it.

I have more messed up friends than I do relatively stable friends. The majority of them do drugs. That's an issue on their own that I don't like to get involved with. Last time I tried helping out a friend with a drug problem they body slammed me lol.... so I don't get involved with that at all. At least not until I fully understand.

I thought obesity was known to be a disease? Idk.. I'm sure there are cases where it is actually a disease, but for most people it's just a BS cop out. Most of it has to do with our lack of activity and the poor diet which the processed food industry has been shoving down our mouths.

did you know that the evil socialist horde is declaring war on the corn sugar industry?

Originally Posted By: sdp Most of it has to do with our lack of activity and the poor diet which the processed food industry has been shoving down our mouths. You can't blame the food industry for what you put into your own mouth unless they held you at gun point and force fed those processed foods down your throat.

I don't agree with you.. Sure you can avoid the "junk" food, but our food industry with additives,preservatives, sugars, salts, etc has really drifted our overall diets away from being healthy

I've mentioned this before because it's kind of weird. It seems that in most of the US, junk food is cheaper than real food and there in lies the problem.I can buy a fresh chicken for about the same price as Big Mac meal deal. Apparently it's not like that in many urban centres in the US.

_Unhealthy Food Ads Pervasive on Kids' Shows

By LiveScience Staff

posted: 04 November 2009 07:02 pm ET

If you think SpongeBob puts junk in your kids' heads, then you need to pay closer attention to the commercials.

A new study finds that about one-fifth of commercials kids are likely to see on late-afternoon and Saturday morning television are food-related, and of those, 70 percent advertise fast-food restaurants, sugary food, chips, crackers and sugar-added beverages.

Fruits, vegetables, and juices were advertised in only 1.7 percent of the commercials. Only one nutrition-related public service announcement was found for every 63 food ads.

Highly processed foods are known to contribute to poor diets, obesity and a soaring diabetes problem in the United States.

The study, announced Wednesday, examined 5,724 commercials on 12 networks, including all the usual suspects your kinds watch.

When compared to television for a general audience, children's networks in this study exposed young viewers to 76 percent more food commercials per hour than did the other networks, with the Saturday morning 7-10 a.m. time slot being more saturated with food commercials, the researchers explained in a statement.

You can assume your kids see a food commercial every 8 minutes, sandwiched presumably between Bendaroos and, oddly, the Sham Wow guy.

It doesn't get any better as the little tykes grow up. Eighty percent of MTV food commercials were for fast food restaurants, sugar-added beverages, and sweets.

The study, detailed in the November/December issue of the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, covered both English and Spanish-language networks and programs.

"Study after study has documented the adverse health effects of food advertising targeting children and adolescents," write Robert A. Bell and colleagues at the University of California, Davis. "Greater awareness of the potential influence of industry may immunize young people from food advertising's deleterious effects." _