Well, I have mixed opinions. For one I don't quite agree that the US really has an obesity epidemic greater than that elsewhere in the world. It's actually a first world issue. The fact is mostly that the US likes to air it's dirty laundry and point to it's own flaws excessively, while other countries try and conceal the truth or at least remain quiet about it, to the point of lying in terms of internal propaganda and so on. Pretty much every first world country has the same basic problem, as it stems less from overeating, than technological development leading to more sedimentary lifestyles among the people. As a general rule in the first world just about everyone trains for some kind of largely cereberal position (management, technology, etc...) which they approach with high hopes, your typical person winds up as a cog in the machine, suffering from depression and constant stress especially as the pressures to keep even a miserable job and make ends meet with it mount, and of course being very sedimentary during one of these jobs. These same stressed out people get home and aren't exactly in any condition to exercise or whatever. Weight gain is also heavily tied to certain drugs which are used to treat depression, anxiety, and other conditions that are at an epidemic status as well, most of these drugs also cause a degree of fatigue which contributes to everything else. Overeating is likewise not as big a problem as the quality of food due to poor regulation, as even poor people who have trouble getting enough food for their families and need assistance from things like food stamps can be quite obese, despite not eating an unusual amount. There are a lot of issues, but it's largely the price of success. The UK, Canada, and other nations have the same problems, to a similar degree, even if they aren't willing to confess to the extent of it. I've run into a few things covering it in the past.
I think the "fat pride" thing comes more or less from an increasing number of people realizing where the problem comes from, and seeing that there aren't any easy solutions to the problem. It's not so much a matter of "eat less, exercise more" as much as a lot of people want to simplify it that way. So called "health food" costs a premium, and the price whould have to be lowered (which also gets into the whole concept of food deserts), likewise society would have to otherwise go through a lot of major changes, as a big step would be dealing with the mental health epidemic in terms of societal depression and anxiety and such, which would in turn get a lot of people off certain drugs, and along with both of those things would lead to more people being less constantly wrecked allowing them to do more. As time has gone on some basic understanding of this problem has risen, as young, healthy people, or happy successful people who were into fat shaming wind up entering the grind one way or another and then realize after a while "holy crap, I'm obese too, it crept up on me" and this leads to people "getting it" as they see it happening.
It's a big mess, but strangely a lot of my opinions about society and even politics have come from things like this. For example when looking at the whole depression epidemic it's occurred to me that one of the biggest problems is an educational system that lies to people and tells every kid "your a winner, your special" and grooms them with high expectations, even when the weeding out process has already happened and the truly exceptional have already been separated from the herd. You don't want to exactly insult kids and tell them "your worthless" or anything like that,
but you shouldn't be telling people how great they are during their formative years, and setting them up for crushing psychological problems when reality hits. I mean it seems almost everyone is depressed because they wind up with
degrees they can't use combined with a mountain of debt, and jobs they hate if they can even find jobs, all because
they were convinced they could do anything and follow their dreams as opposed to setting realistic goals. That's not
the only step, but if you can get people off the Prozac, paxil, Lexapro, celexa, and other kinds of massively
prescribed psycho-drugs that right there is probably going to start shedding pounds on a society-wide level and lead
to thinner, healthier, future generations.... also understand "realistic goals" doesn't need to be bad, it's just that not everyone can be management for example, it's ridiculous when you have like 300 qualified people going for one management job, where some job working a piece of machinery might have to be filled by someone brought in from another country despite it paying like $25/hour because nobody in the US trained to do things like that. One guy gets the job the other 299 people feel like failures, go to jobs they hate (if they can find them) and pop psycho-drugs prescribed by the mental health establishment, which contributes to them blowing up like balloons (even if it's not the sole cause).
Now granted, to be fair your dealing with a guy who is currently morbidly obese (6' 1", 250lbs, which is fat even with broad shoulders) and as I have pointed out in other discussions has brain damage and takes some pretty substantial drugs (which I've looked into on my own, along with other similar drugs, and have learned exactly how prescribed things for depression, anxiety, etc... happen to be... leading to a lot of people talking about the over prescription of certain drugs as catch all remedies, but that's another discussion entirely), so I confess to having a bit of a complex about it. I was never really little, but nowadays I'm an ultra-soft flesh balloon, whose lucky to be able to focus enough to play video games or rant on the internet some days. I suppose I can't be considered entirely impartial, but as I said, I've actually been paying attention to this issue and things surrounding it.
