Edit: I realise the post I comment on might’ve been written before the Sequence on Changing Your Mind I so proudly point to.
I was recently talking to Ozy about a group who believe that society billing thin people is fatphobic, and that everyone needs to admit obese people can be just as attractive and date more of them, and that anyone who preferentially dates thinner people is Problematic. They also want people to stop talking about nutrition and exercise publicly. I sympathize with these people, especially having recently read a study showing that obese people are much happier when surrounded by other obese, rather than skinny people. But realistically, their movement will fail, and even philosophically, I’m not sure how to determine if they have the right to demand what they are demanding or what that question means.
No, they do not have the right to demand what they are demanding. Philosophically, they are demanding the end of free speech and the stigmatization of people’s sexual preferences. Imagine what you’d say to a Catholic, demanding we ban religious debates and declare that homosexuals are sinners, and go with that.
Oh, but the Catholics have feelings, too, and all those benefits of a religious community. I seem to remember a whole sequence on Changing Your Mind, the litanies of Gendlin and Tarski, etc. The truth is considered important, because it is useful to know, but also as an end in itself. Are we really ok with hiding it, lest some members of a particular group get offended? Do we think so little of them, that they couldn’t bear it? And if so, are we ok to never hear a debate on the topic, for the benefit of the emotionally fragile? I, personally, am not.
And since happiness is often a question of comparison with your peers—which is why social media is bad for you—I am not surprised fat people are happier without skinny people around. (Possible hindsight bias on my part? I am pretty sure I could’ve predicted that one.) This is also a potential explanation of the living standard/happiness discrepancies in developing countries—at first everyone is similarly poor, then some people are doing better and there is always someone more successful to compare yourself to.
In any case, maybe subjective feelings like happiness and self-esteem are not solely what we should optimize for. Maybe we should include things like life expectancy and quality, just in case feelings lead us astray. Then raising the standard of living starts to make sense, even if the happiness index lags behind considerably.
Edit: I realise the post I comment on might’ve been written before the Sequence on Changing Your Mind I so proudly point to.
No, they do not have the right to demand what they are demanding. Philosophically, they are demanding the end of free speech and the stigmatization of people’s sexual preferences. Imagine what you’d say to a Catholic, demanding we ban religious debates and declare that homosexuals are sinners, and go with that.
Oh, but the Catholics have feelings, too, and all those benefits of a religious community. I seem to remember a whole sequence on Changing Your Mind, the litanies of Gendlin and Tarski, etc. The truth is considered important, because it is useful to know, but also as an end in itself. Are we really ok with hiding it, lest some members of a particular group get offended? Do we think so little of them, that they couldn’t bear it? And if so, are we ok to never hear a debate on the topic, for the benefit of the emotionally fragile? I, personally, am not.
And since happiness is often a question of comparison with your peers—which is why social media is bad for you—I am not surprised fat people are happier without skinny people around. (Possible hindsight bias on my part? I am pretty sure I could’ve predicted that one.) This is also a potential explanation of the living standard/happiness discrepancies in developing countries—at first everyone is similarly poor, then some people are doing better and there is always someone more successful to compare yourself to.
In any case, maybe subjective feelings like happiness and self-esteem are not solely what we should optimize for. Maybe we should include things like life expectancy and quality, just in case feelings lead us astray. Then raising the standard of living starts to make sense, even if the happiness index lags behind considerably.