DU has a laugh at the expense of the poor and homeless

[Naturyl]

This thread ostensibly attacking Repuke senator Norm Coleman caught my attention just now. Coleman gets lampooned, but the poor and homeless get ridiculed with right-wing stereotypes in the process and nobody bats an eye. All in good fun, right? Well, I noted it - and I am awaiting the inevitable "lighten up" responses one gets when the group being smeared is one nobody cares about.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=3799632&mesg_id=3804908

When you can't tell the attitudes of the right and the left apart on a given issue, that issue is officially dead.

[bobbolink]

1. I have YET to get a straight answer from DUers or other "progressives" WHY

poverty isn't a priority with them.

It's prejudice, pure and simple, as you so well point out.

I thank you!

:applause:

[texastoast]

2. Poverty is a high priority with progressives

DU or otherwise.

Dealing with poverty RIGHT NOW means working to help the underprivileged through activism in the form of time/money spent with homeless shelters, food banks, and other human service organizations. And I know a bunch of progressives who do this, alongside other folks.

PREVENTING poverty is dealt with by advocating the adequate funding for education.

I don't know where this is coming from.


:wtf:

[bobbolink]

4. Nice listening. WHAT THE FUCK, indeed.

Now, do you want to hear from a poor person on it, or do you just want to ridicule?

[texastoast]

5. I don't need to listen

I was born there. Just because you are poor (and believe me, my family was/is), doesn't mean you're helpless or stupid or don't have pride or that you want pity.

What you want is a chance. And progressives believe in giving one.

[bobbolink]

7. "I don't need to listen"

That tells me all I need to know.

clearly, you aren't able to hear poor people.

Bye now.

[texastoast]

9. Au contraire, mon frere

I've lived it and help those now who live it. I don't need to listen to someone who thinks that progressives don't listen to poor people and who paints us with such an undeserved broad brush.

[bobbolink]

12. "I don't need to listen"

And next we'll be hearing you castigate all those who didn't vote the way you think they should, because YOU CAN'T BE BOTHERED TO LISTEN.

Your very unwillingness to hear anything other than your own voice is a complete roadblock. And it's infecting the whole damned party, which accounts for so many of the losses.

[Naturyl]

8. Question for you

"PREVENTING poverty is dealt with by advocating the adequate funding for education."

How does the magic "education" pill prevent poverty for millions of disabled Americans who could have 3 PhD's and still be poor because they can't work? And why do you even buy into the right-wing idea that "education" eliminates low-paid jobs anyway? When everyone in America has a college degree, who's going to flip their hamburgers and pull their weeds?

[texastoast]

10. You are right that there are situations

where education is not the magic pill. However, most folks I know with three Ph.D.s are able to make a living even in a wheelchair. Granted, I'm sure there are exceptions.

Poverty brought on by unfortunate circumstances such as medical tragedies without having insurance, being born into poverty and not having someone to show you a way out, having to care for a disabled family member, and sundry other reasons is the kind of poverty that needs a safety net.

Over and over it has been proven that education is one of the most effective ways to end poverty. My son flips the burgers right now. He is in high school. He has pulled a lot of weeds and mowed a lot of lawns for a 16-year-old. I guess a lot of kids could do those types of low-skill jobs if they are able.

And the idea of that education will lift us out of poverty was not a right-wing idea. Heavens, no, the men wanted all substantive education kept for themselves and pooh-poohed the idea that "blue collar" types even needed education beyond the learning of a trade, and the idea that women (other than women in the elite class) should be educated was laughable in our country. Education was a progressive/populist idea executed by mostly women (many of whom were at risk for even having learned how to read, much less having taught someone "of color") primarily in the 18th and into the 19th centuries.

[bobbolink]

13. "not having someone to show you a way out," How very ....paternalistic.

I strongly urge you to think about what you've said in this, your basic assumptions, and how you act that out with poor people.

It shows just how you REALLY think about poor people.

And it isn't pretty.

Not having someone show you a way out of racism... or sexism.

Think about it.

Education should help you to understand the depth of that.

[bobbolink]

11. You're asking all the right questions.

"When everyone in America has a college degree, who's going to flip their hamburgers and pull their weeds? "

And don't leave out the all important "Who will clean all the toilets in the nation?"

It's so amazing that so-called aware people don't think of the obvious.

Thanks... I so much appreciate reading this from others. I get so tired of bringing it up over and over and over and over....to deaf ears.

:yourock:

[Naturyl]

14. Well, for the most part, you have to be there.

Unless you're living it day in and day out, chances are you're not going to get it. There are too many filters and blinders in place otherwise. And, sadly, having been there in the past usually isn't enough. The past is the past and if you're not there anymore, the blinders are on more often than not. As soon as we get so much as a dollar in our pockets, we are tempted to fall into thinking we worked harder or were smarter than those without that dollar. It's human nature.

Poverty is an issue no one, including the formerly poor, wants to be honest about. The realities of it are just too uncomfortable.

[bobbolink]

15. If that's really true, then there is absolutely NO HOPE. For ANY of us.

While I hear what you're saying, I'm not low enough to think that is truly the case.

After all, I've never had cancer, but I can certainly empathize with those who are battling it.

I've never been in a bad car wreck, but I can certainly feel for those who have.

Yes, I've talked with people who've been homeless in the past (and some at DU who *claim* to have), and are just as hard-boiled as any RWer. BUT, I also know plenty of poor people irl who have been poor and reach out because they know what it was like. In my experience, the ONLY people who want to help are those who have been poor and/or homeless and know the anguish. It isn't those who have the means to help.

I even get help and empathy from a person who hasn't been in this situation at all. When I asked him one time how he can be so caring and understand what I'm saying, and be willing to hear and listen when others aren't, he said, "I had cancer, and it gave me a lot of understanding."

People can hear and care if they choose to.

Giving them excuses for not caring does them no favors.

[Naturyl]

16. I'm not giving them excuses, though.

I can understand how it could be read that way, but I rarely if ever excuse people's ignorance on this subject. Rather than excuses, my comments should be read as indictments.

As for hope, I find that my own mental and emotional landscape is more tolerable without too much of that particular drug. Jesus said "the poor ye shall have with you always" and I tend to believe him. Human nature being what it is, I find I can't afford to invest too much energy in hope. Rather, one of my main priorities in life is figuring out how to live with the hand I've been dealt, for better or worse. That's a tough enough task without having to ride the roller coaster of misplaced hope.

That being said, I've spent years advocating for deeply unpopular things like a guaranteed minimum income, simply because I see it as the right thing to do. Will it ever happen? Highly unlikely, at least during my lifetime. I'm not optimistic about ever seeing it. But as John F. Kennedy said, "we do these things not because they are easy, but because they are hard."

[liberalmuse]

3. I think there was one I remember...

but I just disregard those, or skip over them. I don't like 'ugly' posts, either, though I made a comment about pasty-faced Republican bloat, but that's more of a soul thing/lifestyle thing than making fun of those aspects of a person's appearance they were born with. I don't believe that many DUers would consciously want to pick on the homeless or poor, though in large, these types of insensitive comments are unfortunately commonplace within American culture.

[independentpiney]

6. To be honest, I didn't see DU laughing at that

all the replies seem more to be about his total hypocrisy.But it is sad that nobody until you seemed to notice or address how awful and off-base the snip from wonkette in the op was. Owing utilities on a rented 6cf ? space in someones basement? That would have nothing to do with poverty or homelessness, but his drug war hypocrisy.