[bozleh2]

> How can it be argued that the cause is anything other than behavior when so many others are doing just fine?

Aren’t you are ignoring the way western society influences behavior? eg lack of walkability of suburbs, massive price difference between fresh and processed foods, constant advertising of junk food & alcohol.

[wiseowise]

How do people move around cities? They teleport?

Where there’s a will there’s a way.

> constant advertising of junk food & alcohol.

Nobody is forcing you to eat those.

[ruraljuror]

> Nobody is forcing you to eat those.

No, I think force feeding junk food is pretty rare but that seems like a straw man.

Consider children. Their brains are not fully developed and they have little agency in determining the food they have access to. Childhood obesity is on the rise. So blame the children’s choices?

Ok, sure, blame the parents. I agree of course it is the parents responsibility, but the cards are often stacked against parents by big corporations with government subsidies (in the us).

It’s really weird to me to argue that this is completely a problem at the individual level and not a social one—and I see no other way to interpret your comment.

[unlikelytomato]

The point is that the isn't some mysterious force we cannot comprehend. If the odds are stacked against us, change the odds instead of medicating everyone.

At the same time, we are all still individuals. We agency to make life decisions. I generally don't subscribe to the notion that people are helpless even in the face of a big scary corporation. There are two competing ideas. Either 1 there is some unknown force creating this problem(but doesn't extended to the entire human population for some reason) or 2 we know there are environmental causes. For #2, why systemically stack a drug on top if we know what the boogy man is? #1 we need to seriously buckle down on research on what the environmental/behavior factor is so we can bring everyone back to human baseline. Using drugs for people already in great suffering is one thing, but that is very different from widespread distribution as a preventative.

[ruraljuror]

I think you lost the thread (literally the context of threads I was responding to), because much of what you’re saying aligns with my point. OP was mocking the idea that environmental factors should be taken into account and advocating a no-excuses policy of individual responsibility.

If you think I am advocating medication or implying that “people” are helpless against corporations, read again. I agree with most of what you say although I am not sure we need more research (although of course I don’t discourage it). Maybe one day we’ll prove that the government subsidizing corn so that big corporations (spun off from former tobacco companies as another comment pointed out) can super cheaply mass produce syrup which our evolutionary biology finds difficult to resist and market directly to children turns out to be bad for health outcomes and good for profits (for the medical industrial complex as well). Oh wait, we already know that.

[wiseowise]

> Consider children. Their brains are not fully developed and they have little agency in determining the food they have access to. Childhood obesity is on the rise. So blame the children’s choices?

Been there. It’s always bad parenting. I had to fix shitton of issues myself, because of idiot parents.

[partomniscient]

>Nobody is forcing you to eat those.

No, but social conditioning normalises it and those in the lower socioeconomic areas of living buy the cheapest rather than most nutritional food and are way less likely to read informative articles or posts about healthy eating. It really is heavily influenced by a lack of supply of healthy affordable food.

[borski]

> Where there’s a will there’s a way.

Yeah? Even if I’m disabled, I should got for a walk, just because I want to?

Pretending the world is binary is a fun exercise, but it is always untrue.

[wiseowise]

We’re talking about people who are able but unwilling to make the effort.

[borski]

Are we? Because most people have this conversation and talk about people they think are able and unwilling, when in reality the vast majority are willing and unable, for one reason or another.

[ruraljuror]

Not sure why you are downvoted. I had the same question about who’s behavior we are referring to. Attributing obesity simply to individual behavior and choices is pretty myopic. Just look at government subsidies for corn. There are larger forces than the individual at play. This is a social problem.