It is the natural consequence of the human body's strategy for finding enough sustenance to drive that big brain over an evolutionary timeline that was mostly dominated by scarcity.
We like to call it a disease because we want to live longer. But all of the consequences happen after most humans have procreated, so there is no evolutionary pressure[0] to change it.
[0] Yes, I understand evolution isn't quite that simple
The agriculture revolution only happened 10,000 years ago. This is all very new to us.
It is a disinvitation to solutions, and the rest follows naturally from that. I think a lot of people are using this as a thought-terminating cliche without actually considering how hostile the stance is.
A widespread lack of individual agency and self-determination is both a cultural problem and should be viewed as a call to action.
The question of why this is the case and what we can do about it is the interesting part.
People do have personal problems. Ignoring that is like blinding one eye before assessing the situation
That was practically the consensus social position forty years ago.
We didn't have an obesity crisis. Now we have an obesity crisis. Did the human race just become less responsible? Or are they enduring a new, situational, societal-level problem that affects many people collectively based on the socioeconomic & cultural conditions they were born into? Conditions that didn't exist 20,000 or 1,000 or even 60 years ago.
This is a longstanding conservative trope that excuses us from dealing with any and all social problems because we don't owe anything to each other. It is a declaration of social atomization.
The implication here is that somewhere along the way in the last 50-ish years people just lost the ability to have discipline. All at once. Across the entire globe.
Does that sound reasonable to you? Keep in mind 50 years ago almost everyone smoked.
Personal responsibility has not changed. I don't understand how people can say this when the problem is to such a widespread degree.
However, I dont agree with your supposition following from that.
I think that obesity is a symptom of a cultural problem worth solving, not an individual moral failing, and there are better ways to learn than death.
There are lots of things in our culture that result in physical and mental sickness. It is good to treat the symptoms, but we should also pay attention to the cause.
Culture operates both at the individual and collective level. One can not exist without the other. One can not change without changing the other. Personal beliefs and actions shape collective culture, and culture shapes personal beliefs.