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June 26, 2021 - The Michael Knowles Show
13:25
Michael Knowles DEBUNKS Fatphobia TikToks

Michael Knowles conducts a thorough review of TikTok's recent surge of fat activists doing their best to end "Fatphobia" once and for all! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Hey everybody, Michael here.
I know you've all heard about the scourges of racism and sexism and this-ism and that-ism, but one of the isms and the phobias that you might not have heard too much about is fat phobia.
This is real.
This is a real thing.
I'm not making it up.
People are inveighing against fatphobia, and they're making some pretty strange arguments to do it.
We have ranked all of the arguments, from craziest to even more craziest, about fatphobia.
Take a listen.
There are plenty of reasons we are told to hate America today.
America is racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, all sorts of phobias and various things we're told.
But there's a new one on the list, and you might not have heard about it yet.
My producer has been getting a lot of these videos.
He wants me to react to the new great scourge affecting America, fatphobia.
Let's take the fatphobia face on!
Hey, bestie!
Oh, gosh.
You're wrong!
I think it's time for another adult pre-K lesson.
What do you think?
Why do they all talk like this?
You catch a bubble in your mouth.
Good job!
Okay, here's the thing.
Having a preference is something like, I'm looking for a partner who likes kayaking, or wakes up early in the morning, or loves pizza.
But when your preferences exclude an entire group of marginalized people, that's problematic.
Okay, that's not nice.
That's not a preference.
If you lump all fat people in one group together as though they are not very different individuals, that's fatphobic.
Just like lumping all black people in one group and saying, I don't like black people is racist.
And lumping all disabled people in one group and saying, I don't think people in wheelchairs are hot is ableist.
Do you understand what I'm saying?
Absolutely.
Why do they always do that creepy, like, giggly, you know, really intense?
I'm not saying all the fat people.
Who are you calling those people?
What do you mean, you people?
No, I'm not referring to fat people.
I'm saying all the radical leftists do that sort of thing.
It's just that giggle, ha ha ha, very intense.
Her claim, of course, is that if you're not attracted to fat people, that you're a bigot.
If you're not attracted to any group, then your preference ceases to be a preference.
Now, I don't quite understand that illogic there.
It would still be a preference.
It's just a preference she doesn't like.
But what if I say, look, I'm a man.
I identify as super straight.
That's a new sexual identity.
And I'm not attracted to other men.
By her definition, I'm now a bigot.
In a way, I guess I am a bigot.
I knew it.
I am closed-minded in as much as I'm excluding some people from my preferences.
But let's take it further.
Because she compares it to race and she says it's racist, you know, if you're not attracted to every single race.
If a Japanese guy wants to marry a Japanese girl, he's more attracted to Japanese girls than he is to, say, Nigerian girls or Scandinavian girls.
Is he a racist for that?
I don't think that's racist.
If a Jew wants to marry another Jew, is that racist?
You always hear that a Jewish mother always wants to make sure her daughter marries a nice Jewish boy.
Is that racist?
I guess in a way, yeah, sort of.
But is there something wrong about that for people to feel attraction to certain groups and not to other groups?
I don't think so.
But the radical liberation of this ideology that you see in radical feminism, radical...
Sexual revolution stuff, you know, LGBT, radical this, radical that, demands that we be open to everything and not have any preferences.
Ironically, she's denying my lived experience.
She's saying if you have this preference, then you're some sort of bigot.
Not very persuasive, even if we all catch a bubble in our mouth and listen, not very convincing.
Next one.
For the millionth time, body positivity is not a movement about health.
So when you bring health into it, you are being fatphobic.
The body positive movement was created by fat black women in the 60s to one, create a safe space for fat people to address systemic fatphobia and fat oppression because nine times out of ten, fat people are not treated like people in 95% of situations.
And it was also created to challenge, oh good light, society's unrealistic beauty standards!
And to showcase that beauty is not dictated by your size!
Guess what?
None of those things have to do with health!
So, when you bring health into a movement that is not about health, ring-a-ding-ding, that's fatphobia!
So f***ing cut it out!
This is the worst example of when you put a vertical video on a screen and then they put the thing.
It looks like multiple of this woman are just screaming at me every second.
It's fat phobia, she says, to suggest that maybe people be healthy.
She says, the fat acceptance movement, the body positivity movement is not about health.
Like, ding, ding, ding, you're right, it's not about health.
But it ought to be.
We ought to be able to say that it's not good.
If you're too skinny, we would call that anorexic and say you've got to beef up a little bit.
And if you're extremely overweight, then it's not the end of the world.
You're going to do what you're going to do, but it might be good to get into a healthier position.
But we're not allowed to have standards at all.
Forget about...
She's just focusing on standards of beauty, but we're not even allowed to have standards of health.
We're not allowed to say that one thing is healthier than another thing.
We're not allowed to say that one thing...
Looks better than another thing.
The standards have to go away according to the left.
Because for the left, everything is, for the extreme left, I should say, everything is just a product of social construction.
So if you can redefine the words, you can redefine reality itself.
And this woman is very upset because no matter how much we redefine all of our words, these physical realities continue to exist.
And they don't like that very much.
Back to the fatphobia.
I don't know if this qualifies for no nuance November, but it's a point I really want to make.
TikTok fatphobes edition.
Now, while individuals such as myself having confidence in the people we are and the bodies we inhabit is not a proven contributor to obesity, in fact, it's shown that self-confidence can help you make more positive behavioral changes.
Fat shaming, on the other hand, and yes, this includes health shaming, Especially that of children and adolescents is proven to cause further weight gain and, yes, is recognized as a contributor to obesity.
What I'm getting to, you tiresome trolls, is that you, in fact, are the ones promoting obesity.
Ooh, dem facts is spicy!
This is a really confusing one because there's this lady who's making the fat phobia points.
And then there's another lady who's like cheering her on in the side of the video.
And I didn't know if she was being ironic or something.
Her argument here is a little different than the other one.
The other ladies were saying it's really good to be super fat.
That's like awesome.
There's nothing wrong with that.
This lady is saying...
It's wrong for you to say it's wrong to be super fat because you'll encourage people to be super fat, which is wrong.
Do you see how perverse that logic is?
Because I at least, I get the argument, the main fatphobia argument is no standards whatsoever.
Don't you dare tell anyone that they should put down the cupcake.
The new version that this lady's putting out there is if you tell someone to put down the cupcake, they won't, and that's bad.
Because people should put down the cupcake.
So this woman's actually making the kind of conservative point, but she's using this weird logic of saying if you encourage people to lose weight, they won't do it.
You need to use reverse psychology or something.
It's very similar to the people who say, you know, if you want abortion rates to go down, you need to have a lot of legal abortion.
And then actually, when there's a lot of legal abortion, people have fewer abortions, which is just not true.
But...
Also, it's a kind of, you're giving away the game and you're saying, yeah, abortion is bad, we should have less of it, and you're just kind of trying to agree with the basic argument of conservatives to advocate for your policy.
Well, that's what this lady is doing here.
This is much less persuasive than the other gals before.
Okay.
Next up.
Weight loss is a privilege because it takes time and it takes money, which not everybody has access to.
Now, do most people have the time to fit some kind of exercise into their day?
Yes, it doesn't take long to go on a quick walk, and when I was a server, I walked all day at work.
But in some instances, if you are very low income, it can be very hard to lose weight, and here's why.
You work maybe three or four jobs.
On your way home, you don't have time to cook, so you pick up fast food.
And then once you get home, you have to attend to your five children, and all the money that you made during that day has to go to them.
So you have no time to go on a walk, no money to get a gym membership, and you have to resort to fast food because that's all you can have time for.
So if you really care about the health of fat people like you say that you do, here's some things that you can advocate for.
Healthier options at fast food restaurants, giving public access to gym spaces for free, cheaper, greener options, and advocate for less discrimination for fat people in the workplace because we make less money than thin people.
And no, not everybody can use the excuse not enough time or money as to why they're not losing weight, but what you need to understand is I don't owe you an excuse in exchange for my existence, nor do I owe you any kind of weight loss.
So if I am happy being fat, I can be because fat people aren't just failed thin people.
Yeah, she seems really happy, right?
She, obviously, this woman's very happy.
Just like all these radicals, very, very happy.
No, probably not.
She says you need fancy gym membership to lose weight.
You need, you know, a delivery service from Whole Foods.
No, you don't.
No, you don't.
What you do need is discipline.
And that's hard.
And there are different points in people's lives and they've got more discipline or less discipline.
But do you know how you lose weight?
You just eat less.
That's how.
How dare you?
Now, I'm not saying that you must lose weight.
I'm not saying that you can't be husky.
I'm not saying that you...
But if you want to do that, she seems...
She's saying it's a good thing to lose weight.
She's saying we need to support...
Obese people to lose weight, and we need to do that by paying for them to have free gym memberships and go to Whole Foods or whatever.
But she's acknowledging this would be a better thing.
So that's her point.
It's not my point.
She's saying it's good to lose weight.
Well, if you want to lose weight, you don't need all that fancy stuff.
You can just eat less.
That's it.
Simple enough.
That's a very phobic thing that I just said.
What's the next one?
Fat shaming and skinny shaming are the same.
Actually, no they're not.
Fat people are denied jobs, proper medical care, health insurance, they're paid less, they don't have equal access to clothing, travel, many public spaces, even the body mass index, the way that it discriminates against women, especially women of color, it was created for and based around white men.
Like fatphobia is literally rooted in anti-blackness, it's rooted in racism and sexism.
Skinny shaming is not.
How many times have you seen marketing campaigns that are labeled, get fat quick, finally add those stubborn 30 pounds?
Show me where all the weight gain industries are.
Show me all the damaging messages that say that skinny equals unworthy life or skinny equals ugly.
When is the last time that you've been penalized financially when an aircraft seat had to be accommodated to your smaller body?
When is the last time you've walked into a doctor's office and after they weighed you, stopped listening to what you were actually there for and told you to just gain weight because it will fix everything?
Fat people endure all of that and more.
Skinny people do not face employment discrimination or medical discrimination.
The world was designed for you.
Eat a burger is just not comparable to systemic abuse and oppression.
Systemic abuse and oppression.
That's what it all comes down to.
So everybody's got to be able to claim some kind of oppression, whether you're fat or whether you're skinny.
And by the way, you know, she was saying the skinny phobia or something.
I mean, that is a real...
If you're anorexic or bulimic, that is a real...
You can be committed to a hospital against your will if you're too thin, as well you should be.
So, you know, there are issues there, but it's not oppression.
It's not oppression when a lady goes into the doctor's office and the doctor says, you really have to lose some weight.
That's just called medical advice.
That's what you're paying for.
But we're told now that to face reality or to face a truth is oppressive and hurtful.
No!
I guess it's just because people can't make sense of their own suffering.
I know that everyone thinks that straight white men just never suffer.
Straight white men, man, they're all just like rich Uncle Pennybags and they've never had a problem in their life.
But actually, everybody suffers.
And that's not everybody else's fault.
That is your fault.
It's a fact of your nature that you're broken.
And if you can't work on that and cultivate virtue and, you know, endure it with patience, that's on you.
That's your problem.
We're all doing it and patience is a virtue, believe it or not.
And whining and babbling on TikTok, it's not a virtue, it's a vice.
Do we have any more?
Have we gone through the phobias?
It's done.
That's it.
We've gone through all the phobias.
The most persuasive argument, I guess, was either in the first couple or this last one.
Is the other ones, they got too confused.
The other ones, they said, yeah, it's good to lose weight, but it's not good to, you know, it's, but it's bad to tell me to lose weight and whatever.
But these were, were relatively coherent within their framework.
The one was don't ever tell me to lose weight.
It's terrible.
And the other one was I'm suffering, I'm oppressed, I'm this, I'm that.
And that, that is the most basic level of the radical left argument that you could possibly make.
And we're told, you know, look, if people are happy this way, if we're really happy, then you gotta, you gotta let us alone.
Okay.
Okay.
Where's the happy?
I don't see the happy.
Maybe we'll get it next time.
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