What the F:)k is Going on in America?

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pezar
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14 Mar 2017, 10:22 pm

beneficii wrote:
Attitudes like this are what's wrong:

Quote:
There’s one final problem with these kinds of arguments, and that is the implication that we should be worried by the possibility of poor people buying the occasional steak, lottery ticket or, yes, even an iPhone. Set aside the fact that a better cut of meat may be more nutritious than a meal Chaffetz would approve of, or the fact that a smartphone may be your only access to email, job notices, benefit applications, school work and so on. Why do we begrudge people struggling to get by the occasional indulgence? Why do we so little value pleasure and joy? Why do we insist that if you are poor, you should also be miserable? Why do we require penitence?


https://www.washingtonpost.com/postever ... a#comments


Having spent considerable time around conservative internet forums, it seems that many conservatives believe that all complex problems have simple, turnkey-ready solutions, and that if a certain person can't make it work, it's the fault of the person for being "lazy" and "entitled". Some of them think that there is no such thing as neurological or mental disability, and some of those think that there is no such thing as disability at all unless you have to have your arm or leg amputated or something similar.

I actually took their advice, and here's what happened.

1) I decided I needed to learn a trade. This was in 2005. I already had a college education, an AS in office management (a degree which was earned by maybe 3 people a year out of a community college of 20k students) and couldn't find a job after graduation (having graduated just before 9/11). I had tried the real estate "wealth building courses" that were popular, and they didn't work. So, I tried going back to CC, only to find that most of the tradesmen's classes had been done away with after 9/11 to "save money". Thus, I was forced into the for-profit system. I actually chose a quite well regarded school in my area to learn computer repair.

2) It's now April 2006 and Pezar the newly minted computer tech can't find a job. The only jobs that the "career center" at the school have are general non-tech related call center work. I told them that I didn't take out $10k in debt to learn computer repair in order to answer phones for BigBad Insurance Co.! They said "broaden your horizons". I finally walked out and didn't look back.

3) I asked my mom for a job. She worked in the HR dept of a ghetto school district. She said "all I can offer you is a substitute teacher's aide position with special-ed kids". Fine, I took it. I was moved to a different classroom every week or two, and never knew what the boundaries were, along with having to work with ghetto kids. Finally I walked into HR and handed in my badge. It's now April 2007 and everybody on the forums I'm on are worried that the economy is about to blow.

4) Desperate times call for desperate measures, right? Enter credit cards and a web business called Peace of Mind Friendship Site Page Evaluations, which evaluates the social media pages of teens for their parents. Keep in mind that Myspace and Facebook were brand new and the iPhone really hadn't come along yet. While I'm setting this up, the Big Crash happens and NOBODY has any money to spend. The site launches in January 2009 and nobody cares. Pezar is $45k in debt and has no income other than $927 a month SSI. I'm bankrupt.

5) I get even more desperate and try to become a freelance computer tech, competing with Geek Squad and Tech Service 2U. I'm laughed at. The bankruptcy is finalized in February 2010. I still owe $6000 in student loans and $15000 in a loan my mom took out in her name for my business. My mom hates me (bad news since I'm now dependent on her for a place to live) and so do my former buddies on the conservative web, who simply spew platitudes at me when I try to explain. I get kicked off or leave most conservative forums. I briefly try iPhone screen repair, but due to my dyspraxia I can't do it. Fortunately, I only brick a single phone before giving up, and even more fortunately, the victim accepts $200 in lieu of a lawsuit.

6) Meanwhile, I wind up with schizophrenia (summer 2012) and the meds I'm prescribed make my teeth rot. Dental bills of $9,000 follow. I'm uninsured, and my mom and dad are broke too, and have to make monthly payments. I'm allotted $135/mo for food and a few dollars for gas. The rest goes to them for my debts. My dad is talking about killing me again. (He did this a lot when I was a kid; he thought I was a waste of resources. And yes, he was far right.) Eventually he dies, August 2015.

7) I've been tossed off practically all the forums I used to frequent except for WP. I tried and I failed, and all I was told was "try harder!", followed by "We don't want lazy, whiny, arrogant, useless Obama supporters on the board! You're banned!" (Actually, I didn't vote for Obama, either time.)

The above is 100% true. This is what the far right does when confronted with a disabled person. I do like many conservative values; I do believe in hard-and smart-work, etc. But today the virtues have become cariactures. All they do is yell when they don't have any answers. Maybe this is why they love Trump; he just tweets "I will do A, B, and C, and that will fix the country!" How? "The details will work themselves out! Trust me!"

They truly believe in that awful video The Secret where a woman wishes for an expensive necklace in a window, causing it to teleport itself onto her neck. The details magically appear; wish upon a star and sit back and it will be so. Andrew Carnegie would have called that beyond insane; read Think and Grow Rich and you'll see why. Carnegie, and other wealth writers of the period like Wallace Wattles, didn't believe in wish-upon-a-star unless it was followed by taking-action-on-earth to get to your star.



pezar
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14 Mar 2017, 10:31 pm

Mega lulz: ever since I posted the above post, ads for shady "franchise opportunities" have started popping up in my ad bars. Hi Google, Hi CIA guys! *waves*



jrjones9933
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16 Mar 2017, 9:53 am

pezar wrote:
The above is 100% true. This is what the far right does when confronted with a disabled person. I do like many conservative values; I do believe in hard-and smart-work, etc. But today the virtues have become cariactures. All they do is yell when they don't have any answers. Maybe this is why they love Trump; he just tweets "I will do A, B, and C, and that will fix the country!" How? "The details will work themselves out! Trust me!"

They truly believe in that awful video The Secret where a woman wishes for an expensive necklace in a window, causing it to teleport itself onto her neck. The details magically appear; wish upon a star and sit back and it will be so. Andrew Carnegie would have called that beyond insane; read Think and Grow Rich and you'll see why. Carnegie, and other wealth writers of the period like Wallace Wattles, didn't believe in wish-upon-a-star unless it was followed by taking-action-on-earth to get to your star.

The Secret is a little more complicated than that, but also easy to get wrong like you mentioned. It's probably not worth debating, but if you haven't actually seen it, check it out and you'll see what I mean. Carnegie would think it a little wacky, but not fundamentally wrong.

When the disability is closer to home, conservatives will take all the government help they can get. It's just people who they don't have to see suffering with whom they take a hard line.


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