Richard Hanania recently argued that being fat is a blameworthy “choice” that should be shamed. This begs the question, “what is a choice?” Hanania’s answer is interesting though ultimately unpersuasive.
Whatever the largest philosophical issues, I think he was only saying that the view of obesity as totally outside personal control is counterproductive. But Hnania misunderstood the context which was what "policy" should be and at that level the group was right, messaging to eat less and better and exercise is ineffective. Mat had a "Bad Takes" on the issue not long ago. Sorry to see that go
There's actually a synthesis of Matt's argument that "telling people to diet and exercise doesnt work" and Hanania's argument that fat shaming decreases obesity.
Merely telling people to diet and exercise might not be enough shaming to have a measurable effect. But if its difficult for overweight women to find jobs or husbands, they will stay/become thinner. Isnt this a big part of what happened in the 1960s?
I suspect the degree to shaming it takes to keep people thin would create alot of unhappiness.
Re "It’s better to view Hananian “choice” as a spectrum of elasticity to incentives rather than as a binary descriptor. "
well, yeah. Are you familiar with the concept of a "norm of reaction" in genetics/population biology? (especially botany)
Easy enough to extend it to behavioral phenotyptes.
Whatever the largest philosophical issues, I think he was only saying that the view of obesity as totally outside personal control is counterproductive. But Hnania misunderstood the context which was what "policy" should be and at that level the group was right, messaging to eat less and better and exercise is ineffective. Mat had a "Bad Takes" on the issue not long ago. Sorry to see that go
There's actually a synthesis of Matt's argument that "telling people to diet and exercise doesnt work" and Hanania's argument that fat shaming decreases obesity.
Merely telling people to diet and exercise might not be enough shaming to have a measurable effect. But if its difficult for overweight women to find jobs or husbands, they will stay/become thinner. Isnt this a big part of what happened in the 1960s?
I suspect the degree to shaming it takes to keep people thin would create alot of unhappiness.
I think the confusing/difference is in who is doing the telling whom in what circumstances.
But surely the increase in obesity is not a result of it getting easier for obese people to get jobs and find marriage partners.