"Advice for the New Poor" by former DUer, DuctTapeFatwa

[ConsAreLiars]

Written 5-1/2 years ago, one of the most insightful posters ever on DU wrote this 9 part essay over a period of a month or two. Eloquent, compassionate, informed and utterly realistic.

Nine parts:

* Part 1: Some advice for the newly outsourced, downsized, and generally unemployed
* Part 2: How long will your child be held for the first offense seeing you can't pay bail money?
* Part 3: What does "working homeless" mean?
* Part 4: This is not the best time for a pregnancy
* Part 5: OK if you really can't get a better job, Why don't you just get on welfare? Then you'd get a free apartment, wouldn't you?
* Part 6: It is an unfortunate situation, in cases like this it's tragic.
* Part 7: Who's life is it, anyway?
* Part 8: Somebody must have seen the fire
* Part 9: Hanging on by a thread

Read it.
Read it again.
Print it out.
Hand it out.
Send it to others

Here is the beginning:

Part 1: Some advice for the newly outsourced, downsized, and generally unemployed

First of all, welcome to the nouveaux pauvre (that's "new poor" to you. Your french phrase days will gently fade into happy memories, like some other things.)

The purpose of this thread is to help you understand some of the changes that accompany this new chapter in your life.

For those of you who still have savings, early withdrawn IRAs, homes or automobiles to sell, or other assets that you have not yet liquidated and spent, you may wish to print this page out and save it. Depending on how hotshit a coder you were, it may be months, for a few of you, either a couple of years, before you need it.

For those of you who have already passed through that "well honey thank goodness we have enough to keep going for a little while" to the "hm, I think we've got enough equity that if we sell the house, we can get enough to tide us over" to the "holy shit! We have a total of $700 to our name, no income coming in, and this $1200 apartment I thought we'd be in for a month or 2 is now asking for month 6 of the rent" phase, some of you will now transition to the "I guess we can go back to Peoria to stay with the folks for a while" benchmark.

Print this and save it. You are very fortunate.

Now those of you are left are the ones who have already sold and spent everything you had, you don't have folks to go stay with for a while, and you have just made a new and important discovery: Your new "survival jobs until.." are not enough to enable you to afford housing. In other words, you are now priced out of the housing market.

If you are lucky, you may find something with a roof that with one more shift you can afford, where you will learn many new things, and so will your kids.

You always knew that there were neighborhoods like this, but you never thought YOU'D be living in one, especially not with kids, who you have had to take out of the progressive alternative school and place into the one with the metal detectors and the very reasonably priced nearly new Glock swap meets in the parking lot, from which they will return every afternoon to discover their new neighborhood while both of you work your second shifts.

There is no one way to explain to them that everything you taught them about calling 911 is no longer applicable, because the only way the police will come here at all is if you yell "officer down!" into the phone, and frankly, nobody at the precinct is buying that any more because they know that no officer goes there. It's an opportunity to grow in your parenting skills.

There will be some dietary changes. As soon as your car is repossessed or stolen, you will be reliant on your feet and public transportation, and in combination with your new 5 AM to midnight 7 day schedule, you will notice some differences in your food choices. Instead of riding out to the big supermarket with the produce section, grocery shopping will now mean picking up some loaf bread and stale peanut butter at a convenience store for about twice what you paid for it at the supermarket. The plus side is that it is open 24 hours, and you can walk to it!

The whole series is at: http://ductapefatwa.blogspot.com/2003/11/advice-for-new-poor-part-1-some-advice.html

[JI7]

1. didn't he get tombstoned for revealing himself as a freeper

[tavalon]

2. I just read most of his articles and if he's a freeper

he's damn savvy and that doesn't usually go with freeper. He probably got kicked off for not being Kumbaya enough or in the famous case of Walt Starr, he might have, in a fit of pique, told Skinner to tombstone him. Skinner was very accommodating, as I recall.

[Hugin]

3. I have a hard time believing someone who says the following is a freeper...

"This is also the time to acknowledge some conflict and remorse you may be having when on occasion you recall yourself saying things like "well when you have parents who are irresponsible enough to have kids they can't afford to feed and keep out of trouble...," or "listen, everything I have I worked for, and let me tell you, if you work hard in this country, you CAN succeed!"



The latter is particularly liable to trouble you after your first 2 or 3 per cent raise from one of your survival jobs, as your keen mathematical skills allow you to instantly see that you will now be bringing home a total of $00.14 more every two weeks after taxes, and can be an especially hard memory to banish as you wait for the third bus which will take you to your second full shift, where you are frequently complimented on the assiduousness and rapidity with which you pack the boxes, and in fact, it is your obvious work ethic and desire to succeed which has gotten you that raise."

____________________________________________________

First of all it's written in clear language... If it were a freeper the author displays a clear understanding of irony and sarcasm. Would be rare in a FRidjut.

Oh well, as they say... Broken Clock, twice a day. :shrug:

[tavalon]

4. I suspect if he was tombstoned,

it was for an infraction other than being a troll.

[pacalo]

10. Long-time DUers who write quality posts such as this shouldn't be tombstoned

but be placed in "purgatory" as a wake-up call.

Some of the most prized DUers are the ones who are the most opinionated & will stand their ground when confronted. Before tombstoning, I'd hope that it's considered whether their good qualities outweigh the offense at hand.

[Cleita]

53. There have been a few of those and I do miss their

intelligent and insightful posts. The problem I believe is that they are baited by real trolls and end up breaking the rules leading to their tomb stoning. One ex Duer was stalked even after he was tomb stoned, when other DUers would post for him, and the trolls would show up with the same ad hominems and other nasty accusations.

[havocmom]

58. yep

:yourock:

[Why Syzygy]

5. He is in no way a freeper.

I remember him just from my lurking days.

[Adelante]

8. I don't remember why he was TSed

But he wasn't a freeper.

[LWolf]

17. No.

He got tombstoned for not drinking the local koolaid, but did not then, and does not now, bear any possible resemblance to a "freeper."

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

49. "not drinking the local koolaid"

So, then, in leiu of proper explanation... yes, pretty much a freeper.

[LWolf]

54. Apparently

some people are so limited intellectually that they can't see any other perspective, or any other group, outside of DU and Free Republic.

That's just sad.

[Zhade]

26. LIES. He was no freeper. He was, and is, AWESOME.

I miss him.

[billyoc]

6. He Distrupted Poorly.

[alphafemale]

7. I remember these and was looking for them recently. thanks

:hi:

[Orwellian_Ghost]

9. K&R

[Numba6]

11. I can do this "advice" quicker -- it comes up as "You're Screwed" & nothing else

where's the advice in this post you choose to dredge back up?

[Numba6]

12. & I'm new here, what the heck is "Tombstoning"?

[FedUpWithIt All]

14. If you get booted for some rule breaking or other infraction your profile shows a tombstone.

Welcome to DU.

:hi:

[Numba6]

15. thanks -- but that's nothing, THIS is a tombstone:

[seemslikeadream]

13. Thank you DuctTapeFatwa

Gone but by no means forgotten





one man's conspiracy IS another man's business plan

[Poll_Blind]

16. He had very good insight and it's too bad he doesn't post here anymore.

PB

[LWolf]

18. Thanks for reminding me

of one of my all-time favorite, but long-gone, DUers.

He hasn't posted anything on his blog for a few years, or showed up at some other more discerning sites to join in discussion.

I hope he's okay.

[eleny]

19. And fwiw - best DU nickname ever

[scarletwoman]

33. Absolutely! He was an extraordinarily creative person in every way. (nt)

[Mojorabbit]

20. I just re read that

I remember when he posted it. A very fine piece of writing.

[Forkboy]

21. DTF was awesome.

That is all. :)

[Karenina]

41. Punkt. Feierabend.

[UndertheOcean]

22. Awesome!

[JackRiddler]

23. A great piece of writing! And DuctTapeFatwa warn't no freeper!

Unless that word is supposed to be the neo-DU equivalent of the real Freeper's "terrorists" and "traitors" (i.e., liberals).

[JackRiddler]

24. If we're doing the Great and the Tombstoned, how about mopaul?

Sadly we never saw the above - maybe post-facto in some form?

[scarletwoman]

34. Thanks for the memory of mopaul!

Another big loss for DU. This place is not very tolerant of truly independent thinkers, it seems.

sw

[G_j]

57. wow

I'm so glad you saved those!

[No.23]

25. A question for those who were here when it happened.

Since I wasn't here at the time.

When DTF was thrown off the bus (AKA tombstoned) by the bus' driver, what did the rest of the bus' passengers do?

Get off the bus with him?

Or continue riding while wishing him good luck and God speed?

[Zhade]

27. I missed his banning. I did not agree with it.

In fact, stunts like banning him (and the DUer who gave me my sig pic) are part of why I no longer donate to DU.

[No.23]

28. What irks me more...

than a banning bus driver...

are the passengers who continue riding the bus after a passenger is thrown off...

thereby legitimizing what ought not to be legitimate.

We empower many of the things that we like to verbally tear down, unfortunately.

[Bunny]

36. Well, if it irks you so much, why are you here?

What was your previous DU name?

[No.23]

42. I had no previous...

DU name. 'Cause I never visited these waters on a earlier occasion.

Enjoy making assumptions?

As for why I come here now, you've answered your own question by making the assumption that you did.

I enjoy questioning my own assumptions, and encouraging you to do the same.

[Bunny]

43. Uh huh.

[scarletwoman]

44. I think you're using the wrong analogy. DU isn't a bus ride, it's a battlefield.

I've been here for seven years, there have always been assaults on the more radical and leftist thinkers here by the good liberals. From time to time the pack gangs up on a particularly independent thinker and takes him or her down by relentlessly goading that person until he or she strikes back and gets banned for an intemperate response.

When a comrade falls on the battlefield one does not abandon the fight, one mourns and then carries on the battle in their honor.

sw

[madfloridian]

29. Thanks for posting that. No freeper at all. Just passionate and outspoken

.

[ConsAreLiars]

31. And honest.

In trying to re-find DuctapeFatwa's site I came across an exchange in which a retired DU Mod was trying an his typical sleazy manner, or "lawyerly," if that adjective seems more palatable, to provoke DTF. Someone succeeded eventually,it seems. One of the weaknesses of DU is that provocateurs can maneuver a ban of some of the best and brightest, based on one expression of outrage or contempt that violates some rule or another, while thousands of extraordinarily helpful and insightful comments count for nothing.

[MrPerson]

51. Yep.

[strategery blunder]

30. I miss DuctTapeFatwa.

I used to be fairly active on DU, but the tombstoning of him, combined with a few others mentioned in the thread, combined with real-life stress to kill my interest in DU.

I still lurk, but it's rare for me to post anymore, much less do an OP. I barely posted at ALL in the primaries--I think I might've had a total of five posts between January and Election Night 2008.

[scarletwoman]

32. Thanks for resurrecting DTF! He was an exceptional thinker & writer.

DU is the poorer for his absence.

It's a disgrace that so many of our most original and talented thinkers end up tombstoned, generally because they are hounded by the lesser minds that infest this place.

sw

[Why Syzygy]

40. That seems to be the only objective

for the "lesser minds", to rid the place of the community minded. It persists.

[scarletwoman]

45. It's like watching a pack of snarling hounds take down a unicorn. (nt)

[hfojvt]

35. supposedly he came out as a Freeper on election night 2004

Nobody discussing it provided a link though, I guess the day after election day they were still at defcon 2 or something.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x1936069

[ConsAreLiars]

37. The contents of that thread suggest the opposite.

There was a lot of discussion, pro and con, about seventhson. DTF may have been too honest and forthright for DU, but there is nothing I have ever seen that suggests he was anything but an enlightened progressive.

[hfojvt]

38. Pretty much before my time anyway

I sorta remembered the name and wondered if we had ever crossed paths. For an 'enlightened progressive' he sure is pretty negative. But that seems to be par for the course for progressives - to look around the world and see piles of excrement everywhere and to have zero tolerance for anything or anybody with an imperfection or two. Now supposedly he is a prophet because he wrote about economic collapse six years ago. Only he was wrong for five out of those six years, wasn't he? And even now, his assessment is much bleaker than reality for 90% of our country.

[ConsAreLiars]

52. You don't get it at all, do you?

Nobody claimed he was a prophet. Maybe you live in an isolated McCastle ghetto or a desert island somewhere, or your mother's basement or attic, or the fantasy lands of delusion and denial that freepers occupy, but he was describing the reality then, a reality that is being more widely experienced here in the real world every day.

(edit to add a bit)

[KamaAina]

46. Ironically, NSMA was on that thread

a perfect example of a definite non-FReeper getting TS'd.

No one took down the sexists and homophobes quite like she did. :(

[scarletwoman]

47. I noticed that, too. I still can't believe she got ts'd.

I never heard how it happened. She was one of DU's treasures. :(

sw

[suede1]

39. This is good. A kick

[MrPerson]

48. It goes like this:

1. You say something controversial.

2. Someone who either doesn't like what you said or you calls you out on it and tries to get you to say something more outrageous and then alerts the moderators and PM's others to do the same thing.

3. A flamefest starts.

4. Someone gets tombstoned.


Do I have it right?

[tekisui]

50. Alerting...

:)

[L0oniX]

56. Locking

[No.23]

55. Walking the talk.

Progressives like to talk a lot about the need for transparency in government.

Decisions, which directly affect us, being made out in the open and not behind closed doors.

Tombstoning or censoring an individual in secret is a hypocritical practice for any advocate of transparent management.

If a messageboard owner and/or administrator has an interest in tombstoning or censoring someone, they should be required to do it out in the open.

And not without the knowledge of the virtual community that they've been tombstoned/censored from.

If they want to walk their talk, that is.

If they want to walk their talk.