General Discussion

trackfan

(3,650 posts) Wed Oct 16, 2019, 12:35 AM Oct 2019

I'm entitled to my house because I hold the GODDAMNMOTHERFUCKING TITLE to it.

Why do people get so het up about the word "entitlement". I will be ENTITLED to the Social Security benefits I've earned. It's an entitlement. Letting a negative connotation warp a perfectly legitimate word is madness.

9 replies

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I'm entitled to my house because I hold the GODDAMNMOTHERFUCKING TITLE to it. (Original Post) trackfan Oct 2019 OP

because they don't understand what the f**king word means. Like an annuity, you pay into it with still_one Oct 2019 #1

Thank Frank Luntz. This wordplay strategy is his baby. Entitlement is dogwhistle for welfare. Midnight Writer Oct 2019 #2

And that word, too. Newest Reality Oct 2019 #3

"We the people ..." Hermit-The-Prog Oct 2019 #6

Because 'earned benefit' is much more accurate and doesn't conjure an image of mr_lebowski Oct 2019 #4

Right, it's the purposeful conflation of "being entitled to" and "sense of entitlement." Beartracks Oct 2019 #5

"entitled people" CANNOT be too negatively received....the FUCKING Trumps are at 1600 PA. Ave FFS!!! Moostache Oct 2019 #7

Successfully co-opted ... thus coming to sound like a negative representation mr_lebowski Oct 2019 #8

Meanwhile, the rich think THEY'RE entitled to take all the good stuff home with them, FiveGoodMen Oct 2019 #9

still_one

(92,257 posts)

1. because they don't understand what the f**king word means. Like an annuity, you pay into it with

Reply to trackfan (Original post)

Wed Oct 16, 2019, 12:40 AM

Oct 2019

monthly contributions, and you are ENTITLED TO THE BENEFITS when it is time to collect

Midnight Writer

(21,770 posts)

2. Thank Frank Luntz. This wordplay strategy is his baby. Entitlement is dogwhistle for welfare.

Reply to trackfan (Original post)

Wed Oct 16, 2019, 12:47 AM

Oct 2019

Newest Reality

(12,712 posts)

3. And that word, too.

Reply to Midnight Writer (Reply #2)

Wed Oct 16, 2019, 12:56 AM

Oct 2019

Welfare, by definition is a good word. When someone is looking out for your welfare, they want you to fare well. The general welfare of the public is important. That's why programs to help people were called welfare in the first place. Oh, but we'll have none of that going around. Bad!

Now it associated mostly with poverty and with bad connotations. "Oh, you're on welfare? Those people on welfare, I'll tell you, don't give them MY tax money!" etc.

Same thing. Orwellian word play. Newspeak. Reframing, etc.

Hermit-The-Prog

(33,356 posts)

6. "We the people ..."

Reply to Newest Reality (Reply #3)

Wed Oct 16, 2019, 01:10 AM

Oct 2019

Preamble to the U.S. Constitution:

We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Emphasis added, of course, but it won't be bold enough to overcome Fox-induced myopia nor loud enough to reach Limbaughtomized ears.

mr_lebowski

(33,643 posts)

4. Because 'earned benefit' is much more accurate and doesn't conjure an image of

Reply to trackfan (Original post)

Wed Oct 16, 2019, 12:58 AM

Oct 2019

'entitled people', which has a negative connotation, suggesting people who expect something UNearned.

I don't think it makes sense for 'our side' to use it. It's a RW term at this point.

Beartracks

(12,816 posts)

5. Right, it's the purposeful conflation of "being entitled to" and "sense of entitlement."

Reply to mr_lebowski (Reply #4)

Wed Oct 16, 2019, 01:08 AM

Oct 2019

The former meaning you have earned the thing, and the latter meaning you think you should just be handed the thing because you're worthy.

======

Moostache

(9,897 posts)

7. "entitled people" CANNOT be too negatively received....the FUCKING Trumps are at 1600 PA. Ave FFS!!!

Reply to mr_lebowski (Reply #4)

Wed Oct 16, 2019, 01:13 AM

Oct 2019

The single most overly ENTITLED group of grifters, morons and amoral shit heads are there and some 65 MILLION Americans think that is just swell!

The way people perceive the word is still out of Reagan's 'welfare queen' racist bullshit. Scared, poor, barely holding on white people who give into fear and allow it to become racist bile they ignore to also ignore their fear by being angry instead...

Social Security is ABSOLUTELY an 'entitlement' in any sense of the word...just been co-opted by asshats for a generation plus now...

mr_lebowski

(33,643 posts)

8. Successfully co-opted ... thus coming to sound like a negative representation

Reply to Moostache (Reply #7)

Wed Oct 16, 2019, 01:24 AM

Oct 2019

Yes it's unfair, but not worth banging one's head against the wall over.

There's better terms, like 'earned benefits'. No need to 'hold on to' a particular descriptive word like 'entitlements', IMHO.

But to each their own. Rant On Brotha

FiveGoodMen

(20,018 posts)

9. Meanwhile, the rich think THEY'RE entitled to take all the good stuff home with them,

Reply to trackfan (Original post)

Wed Oct 16, 2019, 06:46 PM

Oct 2019

buy the government out from under us,

pollute most of the world to the point where it's unlivable,

and leave the rest of us starving, gasping for air, and in need of medicine.

The news never seems to point THAT entitlement out!

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