More Reactions to Responses

Or was it responses to reactions? Either way, I'm still peaking in on what people are saying about the concept of fat acceptance. Surprise, surprise, some people still hate us.

One "doctor" suggests that we are "enablers". That's the "fiendish conspiracy" theory of fat acceptance. That we're all just wringing our hands and cackling at the people we're making fat. We're lying to the "weak-willed" victims of our insane plan, you know. He also proceeded to go through what he assumes are our points and agreeing and disagreeing. His agreements are pretty much a template for the Weight Watchers approach: "Oh, sure FAD diets are bad. Not mine, though!" His disagreements frequently just make stuff up that he assumes we must be saying. Like we're saying that exercise is bad and people should eat as much as possible. Um, no. This is the thing with proto-trolls. Not everyone disrespects us by screaming "fatty, fatty, 2x4!" Some do it by misrepresenting what we are saying. And misrepresentation is still lying. Humoring someone like this isn't going to get us anywhere. If he has the capacity to let go of his fat hatred, then he'll do it if we challenge him directly. Not if we praise him for just speaking to us, even if its just to misrepresent us as a means to insult us. There are no ribbons for "participation" in fat acceptance, no prize for mere "attendance".

A few sites (including the "doctor") think we just don't get it. See, they agree that the pursuit of extreme thinness is wrong, but only in its final goal. I guess they assume we all think we must be a size 0 and failing that have decided to be fat. Why don't we try to just be "less fat"? Yeah, few dieters expect to be as thin as they want to be. Every dieter I have ever known has eventually changed the goals into an effort to be "less fat". Still doesn't work. Again, this is a crucial disconnect for people who respond to FA with hostility. They keep coming up with excuses for why we don't "get it" but none of them are ever right. Its not really about understanding us, but rather about fashioning justifications for their initial assumption that we're just looking for an excuse to eat ourselves huge. This ultimately isn't part of the way to fat acceptance. Lots of people think extreme thinness is wrong, but these people generally think fat acceptance is just as wrong. In practice, they think we are more wrong because they'd never actually judge someone for being thin or trying to pursue such thinness. They sure do judge us, though. That's not half-way there. Its faux moderation, which really just serves to define the limits of acceptable opinions to shut us out. It wants the extreme view to be "LOSE WEIGHT" and the moderate view to be "lose weight" so that anything less gets defined as extremist insanity. Its not a bargain we should dignify.

To be sure, there are more clearly trollish responses, but I just don't see a lot of distinctions between the various misrepresentations of fat acceptance. Condemning fat people isn't "listening". I almost prefer the idiot who invents a reality where the fatosphere is a mirror image of the pursuit of thinness or who fantasizes about our chocolate smeared faces. Because you know what he's saying. The "moderate" voices tend to just say the same thing, but without all the insults. They still think we're all just looking for excuses to stuff ourselves. They still think Fat Acceptance is about "Fat Promotion". They just don't sound so hostile about it so they make it all seem so much more reasonable.

Make no mistake, the reasonable trolls enable to hostile ones. By ensuring that fat hatred is a moderate and reasonable position, they enable to bigoted to advance their hostility. Most fat trolls aren't sexist or racist. They don't hate as part of their daily lives. But the "moderate" face of fat hatred has made hating us okay. Socially acceptable. At worst, they'd just be seen as a rascal. No one will ever see their awful bigotry for what it is so long as there are people who dress up fat hatred in a suit and a smile. As easy as it is to identify the hostile trolls, they will never be the real problem. That will always be those who sound measured and reasonable while essentially saying the same thing. They are the doctors who have appointed themselves