You Make Me So Fat: Why be Bothered by Blaming

The provocative title of this book is meant for the reader to instantly protest and think, “What? No way!” Suppose you had just been treated to an elegant and completely satisfying ten course meal that leisurely lasted a full three hours. I once enjoyed such meal on board a Celebrity Cruise Line ship sailing back from Alaska. Had some sophist cornered me upon leaving the restaurant and said, “Wait a minute, and I will convince you by argument and logic that really, now, you are actually still hungry.” Well, if I were confronted like that I’d immediately tell the fool he is a fool and to go find some other fool to debate with. Hunger is clearly a visceral experience. How do you know when you’re hungry? Stupid question. Of course, you just know; it’s actually one of those self-evident truths that we hold. It’s likewise foolishness to blame someone for making you fat. No adults, anyway, are force fed a caloric intake in excess of what they can burn off with exercise. They do that to themselves. So, no one makes me fat. Nevertheless, the syntactically similar statement, “You make me so mad I could scream” goes unchallenged. It seems to be not only plausible but probably reasonable and legitimate. This book is a challenge to that apparent reasonableness and legitimacy.