You know what really grinds my gears?: The moaning thread.

[Bad Wolf]

People who say being fat is beautiful. No, just no. If you took a photo of someone and then another once they had gained 200 pounds I can garuntee you, the first photo would be more attractive.

And people say it is natural and healthy too! Can you believe that? Sure in nature, having a small layer of fat help to insulate you and acts as a reserve when food is scarce but i'm not talking about mildly chubby people. I'm talking about people who can't see their feet. People who aren't allowed on roller coasters. People who get out of breath on a short stroll.

And how dare they eat 6000 calories a day or whatever (at least 3 times what they need) when there are people in third world countries starving to death. You know what we should do? We should go to every fast food restaurant and junk food isle in supermarkets and put up pictures of those starving african kids. You can't get rid of them so easily when they are on the tv, just by changing the channel. That might discourage fat people. In fact, if they don't want to look at the pictures of starving children while they fill up on junk food, we should put the pictures at the top of a steep incline. At least they might burn some calories if they bother to climb up there and take them down. Or we could make the isles narrower. That would discourage those blobs on their rascals.

And lets not even get started on the amount of money obesity related illnesses cost the health system. I don't know the exact amounts, but its a lot.

And another thing, people who complain that they are fat because of their genes. No. There is no genetic disease that makes you fat. True, some people put on weight faster than others. But the fact is, you get fat through eating too much and not exercising. By taking in more than you are putting out in terms of energy.

[Napoléon]

Fucking agreed on the fat front.

The thing that pisses me off most about that, is when people say curvy girls are better than skinny girls. They then reference some chubby chick and say how much better it is than an anorexic chick. Fucking morons. There's a difference between being skinny and being anorexic, and being curvy and being chubby/fat. The whole 'curvy is beautiful' sentiment just drives me insane. It never applies to guys though, does it? You tell a girl you don't want to date her because she's too fat and you're instantly labelled shallow. A girl tells a guy she doesn't want to date him because he's too fat and it's the guy's fault for being a lazy slob.

[Violet]

* Violet sprays some WD-40 on the squeaking gears.

Know what grinds my gears? Nothing at all.

[Bad Wolf]

Cyclists. Even when I was one of them, I hated them. They are bloody colour blind, can't tell red from green. I remember I was sitting at the lights at a cross-roads, on my bicycle. The lights were red. Suddenly a girl goes wizzing past me on her bike straight over the cross roads and looks over her shoulder and shouts at me 'bikes don't have to obey the traffic lights idiot'. People that stupid deserve to get hit by a car. I don't understand how anyone can be so dumb. How would that even work? Bicycles don't obey the rules of the road? No please, explain your line of thinking that brought you to that conclusion.

[Angrboda]

"When consequentialists battle rule utilitarians, next, on NOVA!"

[Diablo]

Fat, middle-aged people in cycling shorts walking around town. Just obscene. I don't care if they're on their bikes, but surely they could pop some baggy shorts on the rest of the time?

Cute stuff, on the other hand, would be exempt.

[Bad Wolf]

Parents who take their babies on holiday with them. Firstly, the fucking noise. I don't want to be stuck in a small pressurised metal container, thousands of feet above the earth, for 6 hours with a baby screaming at the top of its lungs. They should have baby free flights. Do they do those yet? Ryan air are such money grubbers i'm surprised that they haven't gotten in on this idea, they could charge way extra. I don't blame the babies, it's not their fault at all, its the bloody parents.

Secondly, whats the bloody point? The baby certainly isn't going to remember the holiday, it's not going to appreciate being in a different part of the world anymore than it would appreciate a different pre-school.

Thirdly, how exactly is that a holiday for the parents? Looking after a baby is stressful, you literally cannot relax, they take up all of your time and keep you awake all night. Whats even worse, is now you have all that, in another country, in an unfamiliar environment where nobody speaks your language, cut off from friends and family. Thats even more stressful. The exact opposite of what a holiday should be. Why can't they leave the thing with family? Everybody has family. Can't bare to be away from your precious baby for a week? Well then, don't go on holiday. When you have a kid, you should just automatically resign yourself to the fact that you aren't going to have any decent holidays for at least 5 years, or even better, none at all.

[Mystical]

Nowwwww we're getting there. Fat people, babies, cyclists..

You know what grinds my gears? Doctors and assholes.
The first medication I was put on in my first encounter with the medical profession as an adult was: Prednisone.
Add in some Vancomyacin antibiotic iv twice a day at home for six months, and some mustard seed derivitive Cytoxan, and I was havin a party! A very sad, sad party. After 8 months of that my 19 yr old size 3 stripper body went Kabloosh. I literally becAme the fat chick at the supermarket buyin ice cream bars because honestly? Prednisone makes you want to eat everything, in your sleep. I didn't, of course.. It just happens to have the added bonus of also turning everything you eat directly into fat reserves. So, yeah. I didn't leave the house for a year, I bawled myself to my knees (where I was too weak to lift myself back up from) in the shower each and every day, and I begged god for death rather than having to face the world fat. Because of people like you guys. Because of people like I used to be. I know that of course you would have given exception for a fat person with an illness, but lets be honest: If you'd seen me at the grocery store, out of breath from chemo, sweating like a pig from prednisone, and unable to locate my feet, would you care to ask me why I'm fat? Nope, you'd halfway grin and think you're so much better than me while I died a little inside and decided to also buy some nachos. You know why fat people don't go to the gym or out on the street for a walk to get in shape? It's because of this view y'all have in your mind that fat equates to lazy. Maybe, just maybe, the next time you see a fat fuck you'll think twice about snickering or feeling high and mighty cuz guess what fools? That shit could happen to you in a hot instant second and you wont have a way to control it. No, fat people are not fat merely because they'd rather skip the starving children channel to go get a bowl of ice cream. Fuck, all of you. You just ground my gears.

I also hate cycles themselves, they aren't made for fat people.

[Bad Wolf]

You know why fat people don't go to the gym or out on the street for a walk to get in shape? It's because of this view y'all have in your mind that fat equates to lazy. Maybe, just maybe, the next time you see a fat fuck you'll think twice about snickering or feeling high and mighty cuz guess what fools? That shit could happen to you in a hot instant second and you wont have a way to control it. No, fat people are not fat merely because they'd rather skip the starving children channel to go get a bowl of ice cream. Fuck, all of you. You just ground my gears.

I also hate cycles themselves, they aren't made for fat people.

I'm sorry if I offended you but you must know that you are the exception, unfortunately most people are fat because they don't take care of themselves. Not all of them, but most of them certainly. They would rather sit and watch the tv with a snack than go out and exercise. And just because I don't like the fact that morbidly obese people are fat, doesn't mean I feel high and mighty and laugh when they go by, in fact, I often feel sorry for them and wonder how they got like that. Sure, i'm better at keeping my body healthy but they are probably better than me at about a hundred other things, I think it would be extremely arrogant of me to just judge someone based on their appearence, let alone their weight. Besides, i'm lazy as hell in other areas, I always leave work till the last second. And I think it's good that there is a stigma about being fat. It's better than it being accepted. I don't agree that people should be taunted about it, but they should be encouraged to change their life style.

In conclusion, I'm sorry if I offended you, but I recognize that I can't please everyone and that whatever I say, someone is going to get offended and someone else is going to agree with me.

[Esquilax]

That's one hell of an assumption about a whole lot of people you've never met, Bad Wolf. Kinda the thing Luckie was talking about. But you can't tell which is which and more importantly, you also can't tell why, because people aren't the way they are just because of one thing or another only.

What's funny is that Luckie predicted that the response would just be a handwavey vague thing about exceptions, and she was right. Nothing changes, because the exact way to enact change while respecting human dignity is through guilt and ridicule.