Fox Hosts: Bullying Fat Kids Is The Whole Point Of Recess

And weirdly it *wasn't* Brian Kilmeade!

One thing I’ve said since the very beginning of the very first Trump administration is that a very significant number of Trump supporters are people who were able to become cool and popular in middle school by bullying their classmates and who were later disappointed to discover that doing that wasn’t very cool anymore by the time they got to college. It explains a lot when you think about it. They never figured out any other way to ascend the social ladder and felt pretty angry about that, especially when “woke” came around and not only did it not help them be cool, it actually hurt them.

Unless, you know, they decided to make a career out of it on Fox News.

On Wednesday’s Fox and Friends, host Brian Kilmeade got thoroughly dragged by his visibly disgusted co-hosts Ainsley Earhardt and Charlie Hurt for saying that he hoped that gym teachers would take care to ensure that the recently resurrected Presidential fitness tests did not result in kids being bullied for not being athletic. We know! We’re surprised too!

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Transcript via Media Matters:

BRIAN KILMEADE (CO-HOST): So is this okay with you guys?

AINSLEY EARHARDT (CO-HOST): I like it.

KILMEADE: Do you think so?

CHARLES HURT (CO-HOST): Oh yeah of course.

EARHARDT: It helps with childhood obesity. I like it.

KILMEADE: I thought, Gillian Turner was hosting for Trace last night. I thought she had a good point, she goes there are some kids that are heavy and they’re embarrassed, and I just think the gym teacher’s got to be cognizant of that. Sometimes they don’t exercise. You know, single parent family, latchkey kids, whatever it is, there are kids that this is the only exercise they get. I think gym teachers got to be cognizant of being encouraging to those kids that maybe aren’t as athletic, that’s why they don’t do sports.

And some of them are even just weird arty kids who don’t want to do sports.

EARHARDT: They will. They will, That’s what a teacher is supposed to do.

HURT: But that’s the whole point of having the program, is that your friends make you like, get in shape and do it.

KILMEADE: You mean mock them?

HURT: Well a little bit, I mean that’s kind of the point of the playground —

KILMEADE: Just go out of your way —

HURT: But how many of your friends that were fat when they were little are not fat now because, you know, had you fun on the playground?

KILMEADE: In fact, can we pull up some of the pictures of my friends? Can we see some of them?

Yeah, you know, I do know a lot of people who were bullied as kids for being overweight. I also know a lot of people who had and continue to have eating disorders. Perhaps unsurprisingly, there’s a whole lot of crossover there.

EARHARDT: It is a part of the MAHA movement, this is part of the, a central part of the MAHA movement, so they’re trying to combat childhood obesity. So that is the point of this to try to get the kids and you don’t just all of a sudden run a mile. You have to work your way up.

KILMEADE: Be positive. Yeah, be positive. You don’t want kids traumatized.

HURT: You’re so sensitive. That’s so sweet.

EARHARDT: But that’s basically up to the teacher. Surely a teacher is not going to like to be insensitive to a child who’s heavier.

Surely not! I mean, who among us ever heard of a gym teacher torturing kids for not being jocks? Certainly not almost everyone I know.

KILMEADE: Well in the after school specials, the gym teachers were always nice, but there are some gym teachers that are fresh off the, you know, Parris Island.

HURT: I never had a nice gym teacher, all my gym teachers were the meanest.

KILMEADE: Crew cuts, tough guys?

HURT: Yeah.

KILMEADE: Alright. I mean I show a little bit of compassion and you jump down my throat.

HURT: Well, I just think its kind of weird.

EARHARDT: It is kind of weird.

HURT: I just care about the health of the child.

KILMEADE: Do you really think it’s weird to show compassion?

EARHARDT: Well that’s so not like Brian, it’s like playing the victim card kind of. I mean you, the whole point of this is to get healthy, to get our children healthy.

I guess that is kind of weird for Fox News and for Brian Kilmeade.

For the record, I don’t recall Presidential Fitness Awards making anyone healthy, but then again I also took smoke breaks while walking the mile. Like I was going to let any President make me run. Please.

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There really are very few things that upset certain conservatives like the implication that bullying people for being fat is not a beautiful mitzvah they are doing for the world. Over and over again, during the height of the fat acceptance movement, we’d see them crying and shouting desperately that no one will ever get “healthy” if they are not allowed to make fun of people for being overweight. They were absolutely outraged that Lizzo was allowed to become famous and successful without their permission and without conforming to their beauty standards for famous people. In fact, I’d say that before they got hung up on trans people and the implication that it was maybe bad for police to shoot unarmed Black people, this was perhaps the “woke” thing that most set them off. After all, making fun of fat people is the only way some people can be “funny.” They really, really did not like the implication that being mean to people for being fat made them, you know, jerks.

And, to be fair, I’ve had more than a few fights with people on the Left who tried to argue that it was okay to be shitty about shitty people being overweight, for reasons. (Fun fact, it is not!)

For what it’s worth, there are multiple studies that “show that exposure to weight bias triggers physiological and behavioural changes linked to poor metabolic health and increased weight gain,” and that it can lead to “depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, eating disorders and exercise avoidance.”

There’s nothing wrong with encouraging kids to eat healthily and exercise (though Republicans certainly had a problem when it was Michelle Obama doing it). But bullying is not part of the equation and whether the Fox News gang likes it or not, there really are very few people out there saying “Gee, I’m so grateful that the caring, thoughtful kids back in school took the time out of their day to make my life a living hell.”

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