Irish Caesar said:
I found this pattern of words funny.
That's because like every other American school kid, including myself, you were taught that there is a dichotomy between "fact" and "opinion" -- for instance you were taught that facts concerned only dry physical facts whereas facts concerning say morals or aesthetics were not facts. So for instance, that Hitler did some morally bad things would be termed an "opinion" rather than a "fact"
But among philosophers, these matters are debated, not propagandized or doctrinated through the American school system and American media. Some philosophers say that moral facts are true facts; whereas others say that they are merely a matter of taste. Likewise, some philosophers say that aesthetic facts are truly facts, truly factual; whereas others say that they are merely a matter of taste.
Fact means merely a truth, an objective truth, a real truth. So I can indeed say that in my opinion, in my judgment -- a fallible judgment, a judgment that is without any special authority -- that the fact of the matter is that Lindsay Lohan was a little fat or that the fact of the matter is that Hitler did some morally bad things -- I can say this because, I adhere to the position that aesthetic facts are indeed facts, truly true, and not merely matters of taste -- just as I adhere to the position that moral facts are indeed facts.
The definition of fact as an objective truth unfortunately cannot be found in an ordinary dictionary. For that you need to look at a Law Dictionary. "fact" comes from the Latin "factus"
someone else said:
I cannot imagine anyone thinking she was fat. Sure, she could be more athletic, but her body type can be maintained with proper eating habits.
Well the words I initially used was "tad overweight" even though just now above I used "little fat" since that was the term the other person used. "tad overweight" essentially means a tiny bit fat. We can use all kinds of euphemisms for fat -- like chubby -- which means a little fat but still likeable or modestly attractive -- or plump -- which means a little fat but not terribly fat or "big" -- which means really really fat but we don't like the word "fat" so we say "big" instead.
There's only fat and too skinny and a point where someone is optimally slender. Mathematically there could be two optimal points (in a function there can be two local maximums that are equal making them both a global maximum -- there could also be three or more too) -- but in real life there's only one.
So basically everyone -- as SOMEONE ELSE said -- is either overweight or underweight for that precise reason. But if one is very CLOSE to the sweetspot, then it's close enough (I mean to get it exactly optimal, you'd have to use an advanced scale that costs thousands of dollars!)
Look at the picture of Lohan in the Babe Thread from Mean Girls -- and just concentrate on her face. Her face is chubby there. Compare her face there to say rachel McAdams face from the same movie -- Rachel's face is much much better, not chubby at all. And it's the face that is most important.
