it takes courage to share such an intimate and intense experience knowing that many will ridicule something that was so life-changing.
good for him.

How can a nation that showed so much courage after ww2 (putting the nazi elite on trial) not do the same with some jihadists that arent nearly as dangerous...

>> ^nashvillain:
Gotta admit it's always a little crazy to see a discussion about my video (yeah, I'm the person in it) taking place on other websites ya'll be nice now!


Welcome to the Sift! No matter how you might have taken my previous comments, I am humbled by your courage. I do wish you well.


PS. Please note that with any online social network, we have our resident trolls as well. Just try to remember 90% of us aren't.

Would take more courage than I have to do this, regardless of the safety mechanisms in place. Good on him for trying it and thanks for the view.

Re the cynicism, some people feel a need to justify their own lack of achievements by devaluing the achievements of others. I'm not saying that this is something that should define the lives of people, but it sure isn't worth talking down about and if one simply held no interest in the feat, they wouldn't have commented.

I am appalled at some of the responses to this here on the Sift: "she should just take it and shut up", "yeah what's wrong telling someone they're fat" and @scannex's craptacular line of argumentation. This discussion took such a bizarro turn that even bobknight33 has more sense in his comment than a good half of the commenters!

There are several important issues at stake here:

1) Unethical behaviour should be called out, as done here, not silenced/ignored, no matter how "petty" it may seem. Silence (often enforced by shaming and/or interiorised guilt) is one of the main contributors to a culture of abuse of privilege, of bullying, humiliating, harassing, etc etc. I just wish stuff like this (the video) happened more often on TV and in the media in general. The more this kind of behaviour (be it sexist, ableist, bigoted, etc.) is called out as socially unacceptable, the less it will spread over the next generations.

2) Privilege: this guy thinks it is his place to tell a perfect stranger that she's too fat for TV, as if his small-minded opinion was worth anything. Even if it hadn't been so disgustingly condescending, he should know (lets hope that's now the case) that it's not his place to make those remarks. Even if he's a doctor, nutritionist, you name it. He's not her doctor, nor friend, and you have to be pretty fucking stupid to think you're illuminating someone on their hitherto unnoticed BMI, and even more fucking stupid to defend that as "doing her a favour".

3) Obesity is not like smoking. Yes, they are both health problems, but unlike smoking, being obese is not a behaviour. It can be caused/aggravated by certain behaviour, among many other factors. But while a behaviour can be inhibited while in front of others (e.g. not smoking in front of kids/a camera), you cannot "stop being obese". This brings out another distinction, namely that, while seeing people smoke can entice impressionable minds to do the same, seeing someone who is fat will not make one want to be fat as well. Seeing an overweight person on TV having a job or living a normal life might, on the other hand, give hope to people who are mocked and discriminated against for their weight issues, something which does not undermine in the slightest the struggle against obesity.

I could go on, but I've ranted enough as is. Suffice it to say that I fully *support what this woman and her colleagues have taken the courage to do, and hope it is a situation we will see more of in future. We can't (and shouldn't) outlaw douchebaggery, but we sure as hell can make it socially stigmatising, and we damn well should. (and unlike obesity for some, douchebaggery and hateful/hurtful ignorance is something anyone can be cured of)

/rant

>> ^JiggaJonson:

The bottom line here is that you lack the courage for your convictions. Take the license plate off of your car, cut up your social security card, and stop paying your taxes. Otherwise, you're just contributing to a system that you believe is impinging on a majority of the populace's freedoms (a hypocrite).

Actually, the reductio ad absurdum goes a little further. If you think the government "owns" the people because it can collect taxes from them with impunity, and you claim to really believe in the idea that liberty is indistinguishable from the unfettered exercise of property rights, then really, you should be defending any government exercise of power over its property, because it owns the people, and anything it does to its subjects is a legitimate exercise of liberty.

You already see them trotting out a form of this argument anytime there's a major management/labor dispute in the press. From there, you only really need to change a few words, and you wind up with almost exactly the rationale given by royalists in favor of hereditary monarchies in middle-age Europe.

Conservatives are more or less living out the final chapters of Animal Farm now. Their supposed dedication to principles born from a rebellion against authoritarian monarchies has, over the ensuing decades, been slowly twisted until it's become a rationale for establishing a new monarchy on this side of the Atlantic.

I keep waiting for the day I see a clip of some wingnut on Fox News declaring four legs good, two legs better that monarchy is a superior form of government to democracy because then those undesirable people we're always bitching about would truly know their place...

If you feel so strongly about it, stop paying your taxes ala' Thoreau's Walden. Thoreau went to jail because he didn't pay his taxes and got mad at Emerson when he bailed him out. Not because he didn't like his freedom, because he believed so strongly in his principles.

I personally like paying my taxes. I feel a sense of patriotism knowing my money has contributed to the whole of society, including those who are part of any welfare system and are suffering from bad tidings.

The bottom line here is that you lack the courage for your convictions. Take the license plate off of your car, cut up your social security card, and stop paying your taxes. Otherwise, you're just contributing to a system that you believe is impinging on a majority of the populace's freedoms (a hypocrite).

>> ^bobknight33:

I think the same way and I'm not rich, never been rich, and will never bee rich. But Mitt is right. There are too many people that will take advantage of the system and and become freeloaders, voting for who ever keeps the money flowing to their pockets.
The greatest enslavement is government warfare. The greatest freedom is self reliance.

Funny how people think something just slightly over the top is fake, I hope it isn't, fuck that guy and good for her. I would never have the courage to do something like that at that age, I'd have just took it, and let my self esteem fall and fall and then kill myself

@gorillaman
Crass, but valid.
Certainly relevant, but not particularly practical.

The discussion was already about "human life", which we tend to hold with pretty high regard on an individual basis, if (as has been mentioned) not institutionally. I think it's semantics to debate "Mind" vs "human life" in this context.
But what's the utility? You proudly and triumphantly plant your flag and proclaim "HERE, HERE IS THE SPOT", and I applaud you for having the courage and conviction to do so, but you've planted your flag in a cloud.
Now you're stuck defining consciousness, an illusive and scarcely understood construct that we can acknowledge exists, but which currently has no explanation in our understanding of the universe.
Where does that leave you? (Here's hoping this doesn't turn into A Modest Proposal.)

interests converge; powers emerge; pundits assure; people lack courage.

- a short poem, by me.

>> ^Truckchase:

@ 9:06:
<NitPick>People thing Federal Reserve Issued currency is real money too. It's not any more real than bitcoin; it's just the belief that makes it real. </NitPick>
Other than that, great vid. I'm still working up the guts to ditch FB. It makes me miserable seeing all the surface level BS people's lives are becoming, yet I have a hard time deleting my acct. .... neeeed ... more .... willpower.
Edit: I'm a bit surprised at the reaction here. I guess I'm in the minority (of the vocal) on VS. It would be interesting to see people's reaction to this based on age. I'm old enough to not be "old" (I'd like to think) but to have seen a substantial part of my adult life with and without facebook, and on the whole I think real friendships sustain more harm from these tools than good. The base notion of FB creates an incentive for people to view their own life the the prism of mass consumption which I think really does change behavior in a generally bad way.
That said, I'm not blaming it for the downfall of modern society or anything, just asserting it's a net-negative. If more people deleted their accounts I'm confident we'd be better off overall, and I'm trying to work up the courage to take the lead on that.


The reaction is more to his self righteous, overly inflated, far reaching, conspiratorial nature more so than the 'core' message. If it'd been a video which had a light hearted feel, and pointed out the reams of posts from friends that are just entries into competitions or playing the apps or that sort of crap (of which I've ended up completely blocking people because about 90% of some people's post are just that crap), and that maybe not posting what your dreams were about each night... or you know, just common etiquette, it may have done really well, and probably been posted by people on facebook as a non direct way of telling others 'um, you're being sort of dicks on this thing'.

But no, he tried to insinuate he knows all, and that anyone using facebook is a mindless sheep, and that there is no good to come from it.

Well he can go back to his conspiracy bullshit on his websites and youtube videos and continue to think he knows better than everyone.

And die unhappy having changed nothing.

@ 9:06:

<NitPick>People thing Federal Reserve Issued currency is real money too. It's not any more real than bitcoin; it's just the belief that makes it real. </NitPick>

Other than that, great vid. I'm still working up the guts to ditch FB. It makes me miserable seeing all the surface level BS people's lives are becoming, yet I have a hard time deleting my acct. .... neeeed ... more .... willpower.

Edit: I'm a bit surprised at the reaction here. I guess I'm in the minority (of the vocal) on VS. It would be interesting to see people's reaction to this based on age. I'm old enough to not be "old" (I'd like to think) but to have seen a substantial part of my adult life with and without facebook, and on the whole I think real friendships sustain more harm from these tools than good. The base notion of FB creates an incentive for people to view their own life the the prism of mass consumption which I think really does change behavior in a generally bad way.

That said, I'm not blaming it for the downfall of modern society or anything, just asserting it's a net-negative. If more people deleted their accounts I'm confident we'd be better off overall, and I'm trying to work up the courage to take the lead on that.

Now let's just think about this a second.

What are the odds of someone seeing this video who is a parent and anti-gay, realizing that they would never do that to their son/daughter and seriously rethinks their stance on homosexuality.

vs.

A parent who is anti-gay seeing this video and re-affirming their beliefs or if they do have a kid who is gay, finding the "courage" to finally disown their kid.

The former is just a tad bit more likely than the latter. So please. Let's air this stuff out. The more people do stupid shit like this, the more it hastens acceptance.

Thank you! You are awesome!

In reply to this comment by Barseps:
Tell ya what, when it comes to heights, this girl (boobies bedamned for a minute) has more courage than I'll EVER have. You wouldn't even get me to do this at freakin' GUNPOINT!!

*Music
*Doublepromote
*Quality

Thanks for posting

Tell ya what, when it comes to heights, this girl (boobies bedamned for a minute) has more courage than I'll EVER have. You wouldn't even get me to do this at freakin' GUNPOINT!!

*Music
*Doublepromote
*Quality

Thanks for posting