Donald Trump’s new shame

Before I begin with Donald Trump I would like to say a word or two about fat shaming. A fat shamer is someone who ridicules overweight or obese people for the very reason that they are overweight or obese. Fat shaming is the last refuge of the coward and the bully. It’s Homo sapiens at their smallest and most disgustingly vicious. Don’t let them lie to you, the fat shamer is virtue signalling in the name of cruelty — and nothing more.

If you’re a fat shamer and you claim that you’re “only doing it for their own good” and you’re “concerned about their well-being and the rising cost of healthcare” you’re lying through your teeth. You do it because you love it. You do it because you’re a cruel coward who enjoys hurting people, because you’re someone who likes to kick people when they’re down and at their most vulnerable. You are a hateful, disgusting, lying pile of crap.

But the lies and viciousness don’t stop there, oh no. A favourite taunt of the fat shamer is that it’s easy to lose weight. That it’s “simple physics, calories in, calories out.” That’s just not true, and it’s scientifically proven not to be true. Millions of people are genetically and biologically resistant to losing weight.

What’s more, food addiction is an established medical fact and is exploited and manipulated by the food industry for profit. Unhealthy food in the supermarkets is now no longer the exception, it’s the rule. Most supermarket shelves are stuffed to the rafters with foods that contribute to the American pandemic of obesity.

If you’re overweight and trying to lose it the odds that your diet will succeed are vanishingly small. It doesn’t help that a virulent minority of fat shamers will also ridicule you for your efforts to lose weight, laugh at your public attempts at jogging and mock you for joining a gym. They’ll do their best to drive you back into the anonymous solitude of your own space, back to the only comfort you know: eating. You have my sincerest apologies, brother or sister. I’m on your side and most people like me are on your side. Unfortunately, a virulent one third of the population is composed of people who are vicious, and they are not on your side.

Many fat shamers are also hypocrites, and that’s where Donald Trump comes in. Trump, who himself is morbidly obese, has been known on occasion to fat shame some people, especially women. Fat shamers who have weight problems almost always are in denial about it. So when Trump said recently, “Can you believe I weigh 208?”, my response is, no I can’t, 308 maybe, but not 208.

As I say, it’s not uncommon for fat shamers to be overweight themselves, and Trump is an example of the type. They pick on people who are heavier than they are, and understate their own obesity. Trump is a fat shamer in denial about his own obesity. Trump is the second heaviest US president, just behind William Howard Taft. As a public figure he should set a better example. Because he’s Trump he sets a bad example.

Trump’s comment came in the wake of advice that GOP Senate candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz gave him that he needed to lose some weight. “He even said that I was in extraordinary health,” Trump said, “which made me like him even more, although he also said I should lose a couple of pounds!”

If Trump’s health is “extraordinary” it’s in spite of his diet, which is stupefyingly awful. As to how much weight Trump should lose, that’s up to him. But Trump isn’t just a fat shamer, he’s also a rapist and a murderer and a thief. In the end I don’t want him to set a good example for the rest of us. I just want him to go away. Preferably to prison. And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.