Poor Shamming, Can We Please Stop Doing That…
Poor Shamming, Can We Please Stop Doing That…
I hope this is going to my last political rant for a while. I really hate these but I get so pissed off at how shallow, unsympathetic and easily manipulated people are and I just have to rant about it. Here’s what pissed me off this morning…
As I was on my way to bed last night I see one of the alerts that a Facebook friend shared “Mr. Conservatives” post. It was yet another attempt by the conservative right shame the poor. It was a meme that was just so stupid I had to rant about it. I used to be able to ignore this type of bullshit but sadly too many well meaning people fall for this form of propaganda because no one points out how they are being manipulated. I let it go because I was tired, in my bedroom and had already turned my PC off so I just went to bed. It was all but forgotten until I got up this morning and checked my Facebook feed. There it was, this stupid, ignorant inflammatory conservative meme. I wrote a huge rant in my friends timeline. I didn’t post it because I know it would be like trying to explain basic math to a monkey. Sure it can be done but it takes a long time and they’re still going to sling their shit at you when you’re done so what’s the point. Side note, not to say my friend isn’t as smart as Monkey or that she is an idiot. It’s just that I know she doesn’t mean to shame the poor and I know she’s well intentioned. Instead, I agreed with her and said that corporate greed is bad and that Walmart and the big three auto companies for example cost us billions a year. Trying to not correct my friends as much nowadays.
Mr. Conservative’s poor shamming
The reason this kind of crap pisses me off is because it’s pointless. Seriously, who think it’s a career choice? The only people that would disagree with this are probably the very few that have made it a career choice. Also, does anyone think that this is meme is going to persuade them to not make welfare a career choice? So I ask you, what is the point of this? I will tell you. Because, it’s propaganda for the conservative right that is designed to inflame good people. Good people who feel as if they are working too hard and paying too much in taxes to have it wasted on welfare fraud. And, I am not hear to tell them that they shouldn’t be enraged by it. What I am hear to say is that welfare fraud isn’t this rampant thing that conservatives keep telling us.
…it turned out he could only find that 2 tenths of 1 percent might have committed some kind of welfare fraud in his state.
To give you an example, the state of Maine’s governor LePage wanted go after those committing welfare fraud in his state. So his people did some research on it. He was on the case and this was a serious problem costing his state unknown fortunes! Well, he released the data and as it turned out he could only find that 2 tenths of 1 percent might have committed some kind of welfare fraud in his state. That’s it. Another way of looking at it is that 99.8 percent of the poor in his state are just poor and not committing any welfare fraud. And, of that 2 tenths of one percent, not all of them actually committed any fraud at all. As it turns out, some of those were just typos or clerical errors. So, we know in at least the state of Maine welfare fraud isn’t really too big of problem and isn’t really costing us that much money. If you want to get angry over 2 tenths of 1 percent go right ahead but if fraud is what bothers you, there are much bigger fish to fry.
Maine is just one state though, what about all those “Welfare Queens” we keep being told about? What about all that fraud FOX News keeps telling us about. Well, most of it never happened. That’s right, they lie to you. Most people know that FOX News has been proven repeatedly in study after study as one of the least factual news agencies in this country. And, the actual cases of fraud they come up with are so rare. So what is the national rate of welfare fraud in this country? It’s got to be like 25 percent? 40 percent? 25 percent? The numbers have to be outrageous right? Why else would conservatives make such a big deal out of it if it wasn’t such a big deal? As it turns out, at best, the national average for welfare fraud is about 2.7 percent. That’s right. All the poor shamming the conservative right does it turns out that 97.3 percent of the American’s poor aren’t committing fraud. They’re just poor and need some assistance.
So why is the conservative party so outraged by welfare fraud? To be honest, it’s just what they do. They convince good people that there’s a problem and they can fix it. They make simple statements designed to outrage. This type of negative propaganda works. My friend that shared the image doesn’t know dick about the poor. But, she works hard and doesn’t want her tax money wasted on people taking advantage of the system. She’s being manipulated to believe that there’s a serious problem when there isn’t. Further more, it implies that since this is a conservative page that those who are not conservatives must be the ones allowing such travesties of fraud to continue. That simply is not the truth.
Have the facts to back up what you’re saying otherwise, don’t post it.
I don’t care what party a person belongs to. All I ask is that if they going to post something, have a clue as to what you’re posting about. Have the facts to back up what you’re saying otherwise, don’t post it. I don’t mind opinions that differ from mine. I love a good debate when I have the time. But, what pisses me the fuck off is when people just randomly post this kind of crap when it’s sole purpose is to mislead others and create a rage over an issue that really isn’t as bad as it is being made out to be, that isn’t right.
People need to question things more. When did we stop doing this? I saw someone post a meme the other day explaining the origins of the term SWAG. I had to re-tweet the correct information when I saw it.
#RealFact most #funacts are total Bullshit. #TheMoreYouKnow http://t.co/NIEviOZTpR pic.twitter.com/5COyRp0uKT
— Ian Moone (@abulletaway) May 2, 2015
Her intentions were well meaning, she said something like, “Personally, this makes me like the term even more now.” The problem is, this is not what it means, it isn’t a fact, it’s just stupid shit some dumbass came up with because he or she was smart enough to know that people are gullible and will believe pretty much anything they are told if they thing it sounds reasonable.
What I have found is that when it comes to politics, propaganda works. Liberals do it, conservatives do it. It’s just that conservatives do it to an insane level. They are creating a fear in people that is causing a level of paranoia that is absolutely ridiculous. If it isn’t promoting bigotry by hiding behind the Bible, it’s shamming the poor by hiding behind non-sense statements and creating an unrealistic ideal of welfare fraud. I just have a hard time letting this kind of bullshit go unchecked. But, there is just so much of it, I simply don’t have the time to correct all the bullshit I see by posting the actual facts. It would be nice if I did. But, I have a job and if I don’t want to be on welfare, I need to get back to it.
Please, read these articles below, they are eye opening.
Resources for this article:
Governor’s Attempt To Find Massive Welfare Fraud Turns Up Next To Nothing
Welfare fraud is nothing compared to Pentagon waste and abuse
Government Spends More on Corporate Welfare Subsidies than Social Welfare Programs
Dishonest Fox Chart Overstates Comparison Of Welfare To Full-Time Work By 500 Percent
