I suppose my fear was that if they themselves believed fat was unhealthy, how likely would they be to fight tooth and nail against good/bad food distinctions in public school? And so forth. Sorry this can’t be longer…but I do understand the concept of someone fighting for civil rights for a particular group while not being a member of that group themselves (libertarians, as you said, are a great example).

But I have to run! I’ll write more later.

Not a huge fan of the windmills that kill all the poor birds. But that’s just me. Maybe we could even build some refineries, do some rather unobtrusive drilling (sorry, but the tiny bit of ANWR – as though Alaska wasn’t bought in part because of its rich resources – wasn’t going to hurt anything) and overall reduce our dependence on foreign sources. We could stop buying gas fully refined from overseas, etc.

Ah well, NIMBY as it pertains to fat – yes. I hear you.

The odd thing is I totally believe someone can be dieting, have WLS, be thin, EVEN be fat-hating and totally believe in full civil rights for the fat. There are plenty of people who object to homosexuality on moral grounds that believe 100% in civil rights for gay people. You can be a devout Christian and believe (and fight for) completely equal civil rights for those of religions you find to be completely wrong – you can believe that Buddhists, atheists, Mormons, and anyone else must have their civil rights respected, and fight towards that end. They are called libertarians, and they believe that *anyone* who is not directly harming someone else or interfering with that person’s rights ought to have the right to live exactly as they please, period.

So I don’t think it’s a real disconnect to believe 100% in genuine civil rights for ALL people, even those whom you can not possibly relate to ideologically. I certainly do.

Now that’s fat rights, and fat liberation. In the broader terms of fat acceptance, well; we’re asking for internal change there; and many people will never do that. The person who cares for you and will fight tooth and nail for your genuine civil rights may never accept your lifestyle as being “right” or “good.” Which is fine. So long as they accept your just desert to be treated completely equally under the law in every way. Immutability is NOT the issue when it comes to rights, other oppressions are not the issue when it comes to rights – rights are the issue, and all need them.

I can sum up the commonlaw understanding of rights in two simple statements – “Do all you have agreed to do” (the basis of contract law) and “Do not encroach upon other persons or their property” (the basis of tort law.) Upon these all else depends. In the course of understanding and fighting for your rights as such, many people will come to understand your personhood and may in turn stop being fat-hating, learn to accept themselves as well, and many other good things. But so long as they recognize those, we’re off to a good start. You can’t, and probably shouldn’t try, to legislate away personal prejudice – that only causes hard feelings and rebellion. They may well come to an understanding of fat *acceptance* by knowing simply that you are an equal human being and must be treated as such under the law. Even if inside they think “Well but they probably could do something about it – but that really doesn’t matter as concerns their rights.”

And when people are treated equally under the law, are given equal RECOURSE under the law where their rights are violated, the social prejudices often start to turn, and people gain tolerance. What choice do they have?

Gay people have fought for their rights tooth and nail, and they’ve fought the “but it’s UNHEALTHY” meme, and they’ve fought the “but it’s MUTIBLE” zeitgeist, and have come out with a hell of a lot of acceptance/tolerance that wasn’t there when I was a kid in the 70s.

I’d like to see FA fight first for the genuine impingement upon actual rights that is going on right now – such as taking away children, becoming part of medical experimentation (NIH’s Final Solution), and so forth, while simultaneously proving again and again that the “health” concern is nonsense (even if it has nothing to do with rights), that the causes of fat are NOT lack of self-control or laziness (again, same argument about gay people) that people CAN NOT just switch from one to the other with a little willpower (there are some ex-gays and there are more who say trying “ex-gay” just messed them up and didn’t work) etc. Once we’ve fought for the genuine impingement upon actual rights and fought through the false stereotypes, there ought to be a lessening of the hatred.

Right now people are brainwashed by the idea that fat people are costing them and their governments extra money, and that ridiculous meme has to lose its credibility. The rest will fall in line if we do it right.