What happened to tolerance?

What a charming letter from Don Aleman! As a smoker, he feels discriminated against, so he wants to spread the hate around by picking on fat people. On behalf of my fellows in fatness (also known as Apostles of Adiposity, Lords of Lard, Princes of Plumpness, Oligarchs of Obesity and Rajahs of Rotundity), I wish to utter a feeble bleat of protest.

Personally, I have nothing against smokers. I grew up in the 1940s, when smoking was common. We were used to breathing second-hand smoke. Nobody thought anything about it. Then there was a shift in mood. American society became more uptight, more intolerant, more politically correct. Smokers became a persecuted minority, scolded and hounded by the non-smoking elite. I sympathise with smokers. They should not have to leave the dinner table and retreat to the balcony every time they want to light up. But passing the persecution on to fat folks is not the solution. 

Don wants to levy surcharges on our insurance bills, hospital payments and even our Big Macs. Why stop there? Why not a special death tax to pay for the extra fuel it takes to cremate us? Why not a sidewalk tax for the extra stress we put on sidewalks? A space tax on the amount of space we take up? And an air tax for the extra air we breathe? He also wants to subject us to public scorn. 

Contemporary society already has too much mean-spiritedness. You want more public scorn? Why stop with fat people? “Hey, ugly, where’s your bag? Put it back over your head – I think I’m gonna puke!” “Hey, shorty, where are the other six dwarfs? You better be careful you don’t get run over by a mouse!” “Yo, old-timer! When are you going to throw yourself under a bus and make room for the new generation?” If more public scorn is what we want, there are lots of targets.

In a society riven by contentiousness and strife, the solution is not to raise the level of intolerance, but to lower it. Let’s have a little compassion, people. We need to show a little tender loving care for each other as we wend our way through this madhouse. Otherwise we’ll end up with a society where everybody is constantly at each other’s throats. We may already be there.

The Porky Pontificator

Samut Prakan