Wow, how vile conservatives can be with words

[Arcana]

I'm mostly a lurker here, but...

You might be wondering why I even bother to try to debate or even reason with such vile people. I do this for practicing, and for testing the waters, to see what I am up against. But even then sometimes I can't handle the ignorance and sadism of these people.

So in a topic about the homeless, there is this woman in her 20s and has children and eats much of the trash conservatives spew.

I don't know if it's appropriate to quote her directly, but she places blame on the poor and homeless on their fault, and has managed to type a somewhat lengthy post using inspirational language copied from a self-help book about some people she knows who have risen out of poverty all by themselves and abuse and "if I can do it, so can everyone else" and that people need to know their own power and to work hard and prepare for tough times and then some shit about the American Dream, and then references to the movie "Pursuit of Happiness".

And I can only laugh at the naiveness of it. It's true some people can do this, but it's just not reality for millions of others.

I should also ask if this is common right-wing talking point when it comes to such issues.

[Orrex]

1. That attitude is not unique to Conservatives, alas

I've seen it quite a few times here on DU. Just check out any thread in which someone is venting about a newly-increased credit card interest rate, for example; you'll witness a stampede of friendly advisers rushing to criticize the borrower for failing to be independently wealthy, or the like.

Sure, people have raised themselves out of poverty to achieve remarkable success, but for every one of those fairy tales, I can cite about 25,000 ordinary people who get more and more thoroughly screwed.

Conservatives do indeed embrace the Horatio Alger "boot-strapping" myth with a certain disgusting vigor, but too many nominal Democrats are equally quick to condemn the impoverished individual struggling to survive, much less thrive.

[Naturyl]

9. Absolutely right.

The "bootstraps" mentality is disturbingly bipartisan these days. Decades of right-wing anti-poor indoctrination have done a remarkable job of making poor-bashing acceptable in both parties. Conservatives still embrace it more openly, but anti-poor sentiment is now mainstream across the board.

[Cleita]

2. Yes, blaming the poor for their situation is a common right-wing

talking point. Blaming the poor for what is wrong with society is even a bigger right-wing talking point. It's your fault that you didn't figure out that the bank was going to steal your money on a technicality.

You get the idea.

[BanzaiBonnie]

3. Vile is right

I don't know how many times I've heard, "they should have known" such and so was going to happen. "How can someone be so stupid".


Nothing is said about the low moral character of the cheats that run the bank. How, if not illegal, some things are immoral.


Just because you can do something, doesn't mean you should.

[OHdem10]

4. Absolutely. Not even with HC, from OReilljy cuts loose with the

poor are poor because they are: Lazy, Alcoholic, Drug-Addicted.

They never stop to consider that their "Free Markets" set the
stage for people getting poor and staying poor.

Take Trade:1. Making a concerted effort to make ours a Service
Industry Society. This has failed and is what
contributing to job lossess right now.

2. Trade Policy---Sending factories overseas and
with no management or oversight her at home
has meant job losses at the expense of Middle
Class and poor.

3. Minimum Wage is not a living wage.

4.Business Centered Society. Business Interests
dominate even to the detriment of the citizens.

Add your poicies or practices which also contribute
a shrinking Middle Class and to poverty.+

[undeterred]

6. The right are trained to be angry at and envious of the poor.

Instead of looking at how politicians have worked to help the rich get richer, they focus on the poor. The poor are characterized as lazy but getting all kinds of free help from the government. You have to be pretty damn poor to get anything from the government these days. Many of the people who are poor have jobs that entail physical labor and don't pay very well. Those are rough jobs to do after a certain age.

[Naturyl]

10. Envious is exactly right, and it's mystifying.

So what if someone is taking a "free ride?" Do conservatives realize how utterly false the "Welfare Cadillac" myth is? I think not, because if they knew just how stingy the pittance you actually get is, their envy would evaporate. I can't see too many of them actually wanting to quit their jobs to live on what welfare programs pay. They are resentful that they have to go to work when someone else doesn't, but if it came right down to it, I doubt any of them would switch places. Why can't they just be happy to have their precious jobs and leave people who are struggling to figure how to pay for a loaf of bread alone? Republicans praise hard work, but it seems they must not love it too much if they are jealous of non-working people who live some of the most economically-deprived lives in America.

[unlegendary]

15. Yeah, welfare is great..

I was thinking of joining the repukeulan party just so I can quit working so I can apply for welfare for the sole purpose of starving to death to prove a point.
If welfare were so wonderful republicans would be quitting their jobs en-mass and applying for all those wonderful benefits.. No wait.. They already do that..Corporate welfare for companies that don't actually turn a profit without it..

[ffellini7080]

5. Both parties are full of idiots

The right-wingers are especially vile.

[Louisiana1976]

7. What burns me up is when you're poor......

and people treat you as if you should be wearing sack-cloth and ashes and eating only bitter vetch. If you want to buy anything for your own pleasure, whatever small, such people get angry at you.

[Naturyl]

8. They can't understand that not all people are identical.

"If I can do it, so can everyone else" is the bottom-level delusion that motivates their thinking.

[Name removed]

11. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[h9socialist]

12. A long time problem . . .

This what Thorstein Veblen called "the power of emulation." The rich set themselves up as something to be emulated, and get away with it. The saddest thing is that so many poor folks swallow the lie. They dream of being rich and don't want any way-out Lefties to spoil their fantasy. Odds are, however, that most impoverished emulators who adopt ultra-rightwing values are white. That's why conservatives cannot free themselves of racism: they know that dividing the poor is the only way to keep them compliant. Worst of all, we are now at a low ebb of this -- in other words, it doesn't get much better. The Wall Street scandals have knocked the rich from their exalted perch, but the emulators go right on. The only thing that ever works is building bridges between poor people, and arousing class consciousness. Cesar Chavez did it in the fields of California amongst Latinos -- but can poor folks of various backgrounds find solidarity against their true tormentors -- the capitalists? The jury isx still out.

[Naturyl]

14. You are exactly right.

Everything you said is spot-on. As for the prospects of Americans realizing it - unfortunately I am far from optimistic.

[h9socialist]

13. And by the way . . .

I've been fighting against the conservatives since I was 13 years old -- that was 40 years ago -- and I have yet to see a measure of vileness that they won't stoop to.