When people fail at health, (as when they fail at finance or addiction), a lot of propaganda tells us to blame individuals, with no sympathy or awareness of our failing systems.
SMH at the cruelty....
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-lab-rats-are-...
Many (most?) people have a fundamental need to feel superior to some "other". This need is strong enough to the point where they'd rather be doing poorly themselves so long as there is at least some other group that's doing worse. Were you to give them an opportunity to significantly improve their own lives but in a way that everyone ends up on the same level, they'd balk.
Obesity is one of the few conditions that are socially acceptable to openly mock, and as such, it's like catnip to people who need to feed their inferiority complex.
Cruel indeed.
(Don’t want to try to find a source for this - consider it as hearsay)
With all due respect, this is nonsense. This is a very common trope, but I can guarantee you the vast vast vast majority of people who are obese have tried “eating less and moving more,” and that is not new advice to them. Nobody who has been obese for a long time walks into a doctor’s office going “okay I finally think I want that injection that will help me lose weight” as if they just suddenly noticed they’re obese.
There are lots of reasons they might not have been able to deal with it before, and “laziness” is not usually in the top 5. Genetics, means, access to knowledge, living in a food desert, depression, etc. are all far more likely causes.
Being obese sucks. People who are obese are far more aware of that than anyone choosing to judge them from afar.