A few days ago, I saw a news story. A group of religious leaders want Americans to live on $31.50 worth of food a week, the amount that food stamps (or whatever they are called now) provides for a poor family. The point is, it’s not a lot to live on and you can’t afford fresh healthy food.
The story should have ended there, but the news has a terrible habit of “trying to be neutral”. The write up on the webpage ended there, but the segment that aired kept going. Although I respect neutrality and facts should be presented as they are without a lot of partisan spin, the media does it all wrong. This is why people don’t believe Global Warming is occurring. The media interviews a climate scientist and a person claiming to be a scientist who is really just a pundit or paid by some right-wing organization. People see two “scientists” disagree with something and the public believes that science is split 50/50 on the issue of Global Warming, even if the real number is more like 98/2, with 98% agreeing that Global Warming is happening. (I was really happy when NPR did a story on vaccines and did NOT invite a person who believed vaccines cause autism because there was NO evidence to merit that opinion on the show).
So after we get all the facts we need to know, (i.e. the poor are not living it up on welfare and in fact they should be getting more money) we have to get the opinion from some woman at the Heritage Foundation, a Right-Wing Think-Tank. (Of course, the same conservatives who complain about highly-educated, elitist professors at universities sitting around all day with six figure salaries and just "think" about solutions to societies' problems, have no problem getting their information and data from Think-Tanks. Care to explain the difference?) She makes the same stale conservative claim that government “handouts” cause dependency. But wait! She has numbers to prove it! Did you know that the average person on food stamps is on the program for eight years?!? That TOTALLY proves that government “handouts” are causing dependency!!!
Wait! NO IT DOESN’T!
There is no context behind that number at all. The only thing that that number indicates is that people are on food stamps for eight years. Is that number rising or falling from previous years? Is there any direct correlation you can show me? And if these “handouts” are causing dependency, then why are the people LEAVING the program after eight years? By her “logic”, shouldn’t they be on it for life if the government is destroying their motivation to earn it themselves?
In case link is no longer working, here is the story:
This pisses me off so much, as you might remember. There is no context behind the data and yet they come to this conclusion. AND NO ONE IN THE MEDIA EVER QUESTIONS IT. Hell, it’s not even the media’s fault. Where are the Democrats countering these claims? Oh right, they run away from it and concede defeat. How many times have the GOP candidates said “regulations are killing jobs” or “social security is bankrupt and beyond hope”, and no one ever asks them to back it up with any hard facts? Can you specify which regulation is killing which specific industry and show data directly correlating the two? Who needs “data” when I got a gut feeling about it? I would like to mention this again, but the purpose of the stomach in digestion is to produce shit. Yes, let’s use that organ as the example of good, logical decision making.
How about this great line from junkscience.com on refuting the 98% “nonsensus” of scientists over global warming?
The study’s premise that unless you’ve published 20 papers on climate your views don’t matter or are uninformed is patently arbitrary and absurd.
Yes, it makes sense that you are not going to listen to someone’s opinion with very little researched, peer-reviewed data. This person apparently does not understand how the scientific community works. Of course it’s some “Lie-beral”, “Dumb-ocratic”, “Obonehead” government conspiracy, even though the same scientists were saying this under Bush in 2007. If those links don’t help, go here and “look at the evidence yourself”. I forgot that science is democratic, with minority opinions holding more weight! I guess I’ll have to read one of the books on the left that is being advertised to get the real truth. That article was probably the poorest excuse for countering Global Warming I have ever read.
On a side note, I once got a book called “The Politically Incorrect Guide to Science”. I completely misread it and my sister’s boyfriend pointed out that I had bought a right-wing science-bashing book. I don’t know why I was so dumb that day as I was familiar with this series of books. Unfortunately/Fortunately my dog, Copper, peed on the book, so I have never had the chance to read it.
Don't worry. I'm not mad at you.
And one more thing. I am so sick of this “bootstraps” mentality from the Right. I am so sick of them thinking that the unemployed are lazy leeches (that somehow, 9.1% of Americans have chosen to be unemployed), that everything that you get out of life is proportional to what you have put into it, and that everyone can be the next Carnegie, or Rockefeller, or Vanderbilt, but everyone is just too lazy and wants the government to give them everything.
I love seeing a nicely dressed, highly paid, highly educated, individual “working” for a Think-Tank bitching about the poor being lazy. They are so f*cking disconnect from reality. They have no idea what it is like to be poor and have to work three jobs for a living, but they pass judgment on them because they think “Work will make you Free” and the ONLY reason why they are not rich is because “they aren’t working hard enough”.
That is the biggest load of Bullshit that has still somehow managed to stay prevalent in mainstream thinking. I can kind of understand Herman Cain’s way of thinking. He was poor, but through hard work he was able to be very successful. He looks around at people complaining of a stacked deck, but he was able to rise up against adversity, why can’t they?
Not everyone can be Herman Cain, Herman Cain. Not everyone can work hard and become rich. How many miners in 1849 went to strike it rich, worked to death in gold mines, and came out poorer than when they started? And not everyone wants to be “rich”. Making a little under $30K a year, I was happy. I have a nice place to live. I don’t want a huge house or expensive car. I didn’t buy a lot of luxury items, I didn’t want a lot of luxury items. I was able to save about half of my money in a year. I lived well within my means. I worked, I did my job, no complaints. My reward? I lost my job. Never told me why, but the only explanation I received was that “it wasn’t due to performance”. So, Herman Cain, what did I do wrong? Was it because I showed up every day? Was it because I did my job as I was told and never complained (as there was no reason to complain)? Was it because I never screwed around and got back to work early after break (for the most part)? Or could it be that some Businessman with a huge resume of prior “experience” forced his way into the company, had all these “brilliant ideas”, told us to our faces that he wasn’t going to “clean house”, and then does so two weeks later?
Oh, I’m sorry. I’m blaming the wealthy guy. I’m clearly engaging in class warfare. Sorry.
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