Shame is a powerful motivator.

It’s really not, quite the opposite actually.

I think I’m more pro health than fat phobic but I haven’t done much research into the topic.

Look, I am morbidly obese. Is my weight healthy for my body? Hell no. Not even close. But people shaming me for my obesity… it’s not gonna help me lose weight. It’s not gonna induce me to lose weight. It’s just gonna make my life harder for no reason. It’s not as if I don’t know I’m obese. That fact, in fact, dominates my entire existence. It’s more obvious to me than anyone else in the world. I do not need a reminder.

But there’s a further dimension to fat shaming. Namely, that just because someone has a little tummy does not mean that they are at an unhealthy weight. Conversely, not having a tummy is not sufficient to determine that a person is at a healthy weight. I.e.: fat shaming is not just morally wrong, it’s not even healthy advice. This is really a special case of the fact that fatness is socially constructed, and its current construction reinforces various other bigotries, in particular white supremacy and sexism, because white women’s bodies are the ones for whom these definitions are calibrated.

Anecdotally, there were a few years of my life where I was actually living a “healthy” weight. I looked far too skinny for my body, I looked like garbage, and I felt crappy. People in my life who begged me for years to lose weight were all of a sudden begging me to put some weight back on. I had to put back on about 20 more pounds. And the weight/BMI that was actually healthy for my body back then would be considered slightly overweight. Now, obviously I have gone way overboard, but if I manage to get back to a “healthy” weight before I die, I’ll probably have to stop at a slightly overweight size.

So if you really want to help people achieve their weight goals, whatever they may be:

• Do not fat-shame (or skinny-shame).
• Do not pressure people into losing (or gaining) weight unless the person specifically asks you to do so (some people choose external reinforcement I guess? I’m not one of those people).
• Do not ‘other’ fat (or skinny) people. We are all just people trying to live our lives. There is nothing shameful about your size.
• Do not assume that solely because someone is fat (or skinny) in your judgement implies that they are in good or bad health.
• Do not shame people for their health or lack thereof. If you want people to be healthy, shaming them is one of the best ways to guarantee they won’t be willing to work on it.

And I really want to close this by tying it back to the OP. Personally, I am an anarchist . My opposition to Donald Trump has everything to do with his work as the figurehead of the Empire, his pedophilia, his class interests, and his actions to achieve these class interests at the expense of the proletariat; and nothing to do with his weight. In particular, I literally would not care if someone looked exactly like Donald Trump but was otherwise a completely reasonable person.

It should be incredibly easy, cathartic, and fun to make fun of Donald Trump for all the ways in which he actually is a monster. Typically, shitlibs can’t do that because they would have to confront the fact that their politicians want to do or have done 99% of the same things, so they immediately go for his weight. So if your worldview has any daylight between it and Donald Trump’s, there really should be more interesting things to mock than his size.

Excuse me?