Korolev said:
Well, I agree. A person's body belongs to them, and what they do with it is up to them (as long as they don't hurt anyone else in the process).
I think that stretches it a bit. It's an extreme example, but if you see what a suicide does to surviving family members, you'd likely understand why it's illegal. There's more than just physical harm at stake.
Korolev said:
People shouldn't be insulted for being too fat or too thin. Obviously, from a medical standpoint, it is unhealthy to be obese or anorexic. But the worst thing you can do is to insult them.
Just as a side note, 'anorexia' isn't the same thing as 'unhealthily skinny.' It's an action/condition that leads to that, but I think you're just looking for 'starved' or 'malnourished.'
Korolev said:
People are so quick to judge others on their looks, because they can't help but think that they are tied up in how another person looks. Subconsciously, a lot of people think that someone looks or dresses a certain way in order to judge them or influence them. This is ludicrous. How someone else looks or dresses has no bearing on anyone else, nor should it.
It can be potentially...telling. It's not limited to women, though. How someone dresses for work, a date, etc can be a pretty strong indicator of how much respect they have for the occasion.
Korolev said:
I have nothing against models - if that's what they want to do, so be it. Some claim that they perpetuate an unrealistic body image for young women - but that's more the fault of the marketers, who choose to put these models on billboards. It's not the fault of the models themselves. If you're going to blame anyone for bad body image, blame fashion DESIGNERS, not the models they hire.
It's like when some of my friends blame the Chinese for "Stealing our jobs" - they didn't "steal" our jobs. They were GIVEN our jobs by our BOSSES, and why wouldn't they accept it? It's not the chinese people's fault that they were offered the jobs, and it's not the models fault that marketers, fashion designers and business people use specific body types in their marketing.
Careful with that comparison, mate. It's got a few pitfalls.
The latter can pretty easily be illustrated as a sadistic choice for American industry: China can literally sell goods for less than they cost to produce because of central planning. Government dictates the cost of goods, regardless of what it costs to make them. An economy like the US can't compete with that. Businesses were faced with the choice of moving their production overseas, or staying behind and getting curbstomped by companies that didn't have such reservations.
Korolev said:
People are quick to judge others because they secretly think that everything revolves around them. "I dislike the way those people dress! ARRRRGGH! I must voice my displeasure because how DARE they dress in a way I don't like! They should have known I didn't like it! They are intentionally doing it to infuriate me!" or "I can't imagine myself doing X - those people are doing X, how disgusting they are!". People need to realize that the world does not revolve around them.
...do you realize the irony of assuming that
everyone who takes issue with anything you've mentioned is inherently self-centered?
Korolev said:
How others dress and act has NOTHING TO DO WITH ANYONE ELSE (as long as it doesn't hurt anyone). Live your life the way you want to, let others live their life the way they want to.
Let's not get carried away. This is becoming less "live and let live" and more "nonviolent sociopathy." Clinging adamantly to the idea that it's only your opinion of yourself that matters is pretty much textbook dissociative personality disorder (aka sociopathy). Some people might judge others for subconsciously self-centered reasons, but that's hardly an invitation to spit in the faces of everyone who has some sort of expectation of you.
Korolev said:
Now, some would argue (including many of my fellow med students) that we should judge obese people because obesity is bad and impacts the health system and drains resources. Yeah, well, LOTS of things do that. The BMJ recently published a study conclusively linking excess consumption of red meat to an increased risk of certain types of cancer. Should we heckle and judge anyone who eats a beef burger? Those who play video games excessively are at a greater risk of developing RSI and other joint disorders. Do you shout insults against anyone who plays Diablo III? Motorcycles are so dangerous that some doctors call them "Donorcycles" due to the amount of severely brain damaged motorcycle accident victims we see routinely. Driving motorcycles increases the risk of serious injury and consequently, the use of medical resources. Do we slam and humiliate motorcycle drivers? No.
That's an argument that crops up pretty routinely in the marijuana legalization debate: "Because more/equally risky things are generally accepted, therefore issue X should also be accepted."
Someone who smokes isn't forbidden from helping intervene for a friend with a drinking problem. We shouldn't just
judge people for being obese, but Christ, we shouldn't leave it alone because we let people do different things that are also potentially risky to their long-term health.
Korolev said:
NO ONE is perfect. No one is free from all problems. I'm not a religious man in any way, but even I find some useful tips from the Bible: " why behold you the speck that is in your brother's eye, but consider not the beam that is in your own eye?"
Huh. I was actually expecting you to use "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone," but that works, too.