In a free society, one must not be forced to walk on eggshells to get their point across. Facts, science and fundamental truths cannot be bothered by one’s level of emotional maturity and their methods of contending with them. In simpler words, facts don’t care about your feelings.
Our generation has become reliant on resorting to outrage and the fallacy of “I’m offended” to argue with facts. Most blatant displays of this regressive characteristic are exuded by the Left. People call themselves progressive, while either consciously or subconsciously, put forward ideas that contradict their ideology.
A great example of this phenomenon is the anti “fat-shaming” movement. One may see this movement as an act of promoting kindness and preserving feelings, but in actuality, it promotes pseudo-science, suppression of free speech, normalization of lying, unhealthy habits and many other catastrophic ideas, which are intrinsically “non-progressive”.
One must ask themselves - would it be ethical for a doctor to tell their cancer patient that they are healthy and that anyone who says otherwise is an evil “cancer shamer”? The obvious answer is no. The case of fat-shaming is no different.
Delving too deep into the details regarding the science in the health of obese people would be as productive as debating whether the sun is hot or not. The US National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute cites metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, high blood cholesterol, heart disease, respiratory disease, fatty liver disease, cancer, urinary incontinence, emotional health issues and many more health problems that inevitably come with obesity. Still, the Left does not care about real science.
Therefore, analyzing this phenomenon through a different perspective, one that the Left does care about, could be of value. This refers to the “social justice warrior” aspect of the subject matter. When someone makes a joke about obese people in small clothing looking less than flattering, that someone is labelled a “fat shamer”, and ironically is heckled at and shamed, i.e. something very contradictory to what the Left says it stands for.
They do this because of their outright refusal of facts. Obesity is unappealing. It shows emotional instability, lethargy, and the inability to perform tasks with the same efficiency as healthy people. It is inherently repulsive and unattractive from an evolutionary sense.
Aside from simply denying truths, condemning people who exercise their right of freedom of speech by speaking the truth, in a comedic sense or not, is fascistic. It has unfathomable consequences because when you formalize spreading of lies it can be heavily detrimental to society. An obvious example of this is Hitler convincing the people of Germany that the Jews were responsible for their country's downfall in the first World War and using it as a scapegoat to rise through the ranks. We know that didn't end well.
So, instead of aiming to preserve feelings, we must aim to preserve values of truth and ethics. If civilization needs to progress, we need to understand that certain truths will not please everyone, but they are true nonetheless. Information spreads through networks. Therefore, one must not underestimate the power of their speech; we all have a moral responsibility to spread the truth instead of lies that the PC culture seeks to propagate.
Written by Praagya Bahuguna
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