8.30.2007

Mikey still doesn't like it

I don't think a lot of the new gen fat bloggers have been aware of Mikey Fumento, yet. His a long-time fat-acceptance attacker. He's also a brazen self-promoter who will not allow himself to be mentioned anywhere online with popping in to berate and mock his critic. Trust me, he'll post here as soon as it shows up on Google.

Fat hate is actually a hobby of his as he's usually a right-wing pseudo-scientist who denies global warming, denies the AIDs epidemic, denies Iraq... well, you get the picture. Still, he's come back to it with regularity for about a decade now and he's back at it in the American Spectator where he accuses "fatophiles" (he means fat acceptance advocates) of preying on fat people. Its part of his long-term "Believe more or die" approach to promoting his band of fat hate. He's fallen back on this not at all vailed threat with Marilyn Wann, Paul Campos, Sandy Szwarc, you name it. In this article, though, he renews his efforts to fued with Campos and Szwarc as he accuses them of catering to "delusional" fat people. Evidently, we're a "lucrative" market which I'm sure is news to Campos and Szwarc.

He's especially belittling of Szwarc, but that's nothing new. He calls her a "nurse and cookbook author" which ignores her extensive journalism and nutritionist background, of course. It also doesn't address Mikey's own background as a photographer and lawyer. I mean, Sandy actually has a background in medicine. His long-standing obsession with labeling her as a recipe writer is dripping with sexism.

I'd like to refute Mikey's article, but in truth there is nothing to refute. He keeps asserting his rightness but never really backs it up. Campos calls the supposed benefit of weight loss surgery "very, very modest" and Fumento response is about as meaningful as "Na-uh". He states the statistics, but doesn't address the context that Campos was referring to when he conclude the benefit to be quite small. Sandy makes a point and al he does is laugh at it without offering any contradiction.

Overall, he's just proudly declaring the results of the WLS studies I mentioned here a few days ago and asserting that these two studies showing small differences are "overwhelming" proof of Mikey's eternal rightness. He barely even mentions any statistics and when he does he withholds any meaningful context. It was a response I noticed from others, but has yet to be as childishly advanced as with Mikey's efforts. A lot of anti-fat "experts" were crowing about how at long-last there was overwhelming proof that weight loss improves health. Which first gives away that there was never *any* proof before (trust me, not for lack of trying), and secondly overstates their point by declaring the debate over with two studies showing small differences at most. (And maybe not even that depending on what they corrected for; do not that Mikey himself mentions the anti-fat obsession with "correcting" for any evidence that doesn't support their view like the Flegal study). It reminds me of the kid who tries to declare a game over the moment he's winning. Except here they aren't even winning. They, at best, have proof of a very, very modest benefit which entirely doesn't square with the claims the anti-fat crowd have long made.

I'm sure others will have more patience than I in dealing with Fumento's latest barage and giving it the thrashing it deserves and inspiring a full-fledged Fumento hissy-fit. Prepare to be told that you'll die if you don't believe him, that you're a fool for disagreeing with such a big important person, and to be shamed for denying the enduring brilliance that evidently is Mikey Fumento.

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