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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsRyan's Latest Hateburger: ‘Inner City’ People Need To Be Taught ‘Good Discipline, Good Character’
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/paul-ryan-inner-city-people-need-to-be-taught-good-discipline-good-character/Paul Ryan: Inner City People Need To Be Taught Good Discipline, Good Character
Republican vice-presidential hopeful Paul Ryan made a bit of news when he abruptly cut short an interview with a local reporter in Michigan, but the hissy manner in which he ended the chat seems to have buried the ugly substance of what he said while trying to evade questions about gun control and his tax plan. Asked whether this country has a gun problem, Ryan responded that that its a crime problem, and volunteered that The best thing to help prevent violent crime in the inner cities is to bring opportunity in the inner cities. Is to help teach people good discipline, good character.
Theres a lot wrong with what Ryan said while trying to avoid questions about gun control, from hiding behind President Obama (I dont even think President Obamas proposing more gun laws.) to his apparent lack of concern over gun suicides (which make up the majority of gun deaths in the U.S.) or accidental child killings. However, these are fairly commonplace facets of conservative gun arguments.
What you dont often hear spoken (out loud, anyway) is that the real problem with gun violence in America is the character and discipline of people in the inner cities, a very specific delineation from other city folk. Obviously, if you shoot someone to death, theres a good chance you have a major character flaw or two, but what about all the inner city people who are doing the dying? Did they lack the character or discipline to dodge a bullet? Are rural or suburban murderers and victims more virtuous?
Apparently so. Apparently, crime in our cities has nothing to do with poverty, and systemic failures, fueled by generations of institutionalized racism, but with the character of those people. So says Paul Ryan, and so says Mitt Romney. If youre poor, its because your culture is inferior.
Ryans assessment of inner city people is of a piece with the not-at-all subtle (and even out-and-proud overt) attitudes of the leading lights in the Republican Party, best exemplified by racism decoder-ring Newt Gingrich, who helpfully singled out black people as the Food Stamp-satisfied people we already knew they were talking about, and who echoed Ryans chatter about the low character of the inner city denizens who have no habits of working and have nobody around them who works. So they literally have no habit of showing up on Monday. They have no habit of staying all day. They have no habit of I do this and you give me cash, unless its illegal.
sinkingfeeling
(51,457 posts)humility.
lpbk2713
(42,757 posts)But let him keep on with comments like this ... he's building his own gallows.
Bigmack
(8,020 posts)... the Government...? I thought you were against government, asshole.
The Churches....? You mean like they teach the altar boys...?
The Boy Scouts...? Let's not even go there.
Maybe you will teach all that stuff, Ryan... personally.
I look forward to your announcement that you are leaving public life and going on a crusade to teach manners and character to the inner cities.
I don't think they'll even find your body.
KurtNYC
(14,549 posts)were they done by "inner city" (we all know what he means) people.
Here is the whole list:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/9414540/A-history-of-mass-shootings-in-the-US-since-Columbine.html
Lots of churches, students and white males but not ONE inner city mass shooting on the list.
Bandit
(21,475 posts)When you LIE pretty much most of the time it speaks of one's Character
BeyondGeography
(39,374 posts)He knows nothing.
oviedodem
(1,824 posts)why I have never understood why minorities vote for republicans. It just does not make sense to me.
CheapShotArtist
(333 posts)or they don't understand the offensiveness of the dog whistles, and may believe those comments are acceptable as long as they're not overt.
uponit7771
(90,339 posts)HopeHoops
(47,675 posts)I have many times. I've done handyman work in the most dilapidated parts of the city, and that's not the only one I've been in that environment in. Yes, crime is high and there's the minute-by-minute possibility of being murdered in some places, but I always preferred that work to the hoitie-toitie 3-car garage neighborhoods (some had 4-car garages). He doesn't have a fucking clue what people without means have to deal with to survive. I tailored my labor rates to account for that. He wouldn't.
My wife's first teaching job ('85) was in rural SC. I went with her on home visits (not required, her decision) and it was a serious eye opener. One of my professors gave me a carload of toys to take down to the kids. At one stop, we entered a two, maybe three-room shanty with one light bulb (hanging from the ceiling by its cord), and a 13" or so B&W TV connected to a socket plug coming out of the light bulb. They were snapping beans and wanted to give us half of their crop. We politely refused, but talk about generosity!!! They knew damn well we were better off than they were, but that didn't matter.
rMoney and rLyan don't have a fucking clue what REAL people have to go through to survive. And no, there's no cake to eat.
EC
(12,287 posts)liars and cheaters?
chowder66
(9,070 posts)hifiguy
(33,688 posts)South Central LA or some other tough "inner city" neighborhood with two bucks in his pocket. Wonder how his horseshit would go over there. Not well, I suspect.
meow2u3
(24,764 posts)This is what rAyn really is thinking: s**cs, n****rs, are lazy and need to be hauled off to prison and tortured, starved, and demoralized to keep them in their place.
trailmonkee
(2,681 posts)WinkyDink
(51,311 posts)arely staircase
(12,482 posts)a lesson on good character from someone who wants to deny the elderly and disabled access to healthcare is a beautiful, pristine example of the republican frame of mindset.