h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Apologies in advance for the rant, but this sort of thing really gets my back up.

You've really got to take any report of a proper scientific study in the popular media with a pinch of low-sodium salt. The media tend to infer clear conclusions from data where in fact there is only data. The header in that BBC report is:

"Discrimination against fat people might not be all the fault of bullies, international scientists say."

I seriously doubt any scientist said anything of the sort.

They may well have shown that fat people can trigger feelings of digust in others. But so what? Years ago they showed that humans are innately prejudiced against anyone who looks or acts differently from themselves, whether it be people of different tribe/village/clan/family/colour/size/shape/football team/sexual orientation. It makes perfect evolutionary sense for a species to be suspicious of strangers. It is the root cause of racism, religious intolerance and homophobia, amongst others.

But as they say in the article "Human beings have been given powers of reason, so people can overcome the discrimination." Hence racism is *always* considered to be the "fault" of the racist; we make no attempt to excuse them on the basis of pre-programmed evolutionary behaviour.

To imply that discrimination against overweight people is not the "fault" of the person discriminating is just plain wrong on so many levels.

I agree there. People will al;ways find something to be prejudiced about, to discriminate over, to bully someone for.

And I wasn't aware that anyone thought that "discrimination against fat people" *was* "all the fault of bullies".