X-POST: The Poverty (Final) Solution -- as told by Central Floridians (DU this crap, people!)

(i posted this in GD, but am x-posting as this is an amazing bare-faced example of EXTREME misogyny in society at-large -- brook)

It's an exercise in brutality, but I can't stop myself from reading the comments on the Orlando Sentinel website. I particularly look for articles reporting on social programs for the poor, because these stories attract comments that describe our culture in the starkest terms.

This morning I hit the jackpot with an article entitled "15 homeless moms receive housing assistance." First, behold the compassion --> then, go and leave your own comment just to remind the world that these people don't speak for everyone...


http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/osceola/orl-home2808mar28,0,2749219.story


As far as all these "single mothers" given public housing, I'd have just one requirement: Entrance requirements are that you show indisputable physical proof of having your tubes cut, tied and cauterized so they cannot be re-connected by Houdini or Jesus either one. I for one am damned tired of seeing these welfare sows being afforded all the handouts based on the number of illegitimate kids they have dropped by a half dozen "Leroy's" whose name they can't even remember anymore and going out and looking to get pregnant again so they can qualify for another stipend from the stupid State welfare numbnuts.

(subtext: eugenic sterilization is not enough! these dirty females must be disfigured; cauterized -- burnt like witches. poor people are "illegitimate" not just in the sense of being without fathers, but they have right to live as they threaten the writer. notice the generalized name he gives the children: "Leroy's" (sic) -- the racism is implicit.)
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To get this free housing they need to tie their tubes. Breeding is just a way for these low lifes to get people to feel sorry for them. If they would spend the time working that they spend having sex they would not be in the situations that they put themselves into. It is sad that one has to take a test to drive a vehicle, take a test to get a gun legally, but anyone can drop out a kid and not have any money or one idea about how to raise a kid. These children are all prison fodder, future prisoners, what can they learn from their mother?

(subtext: another eugenics partisan, because pregnancy is deliberate to garner sympathy. "lowlife" people are characterized by the act of having sex. conversely, "good people" either don't have sex, or aren't punished for having sex with having children. like a Brooks Bros shirt, old testament misogyny never goes out of style.)

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Giving these women free housing is only keeping them enslaved to poverty for the rest of their lives. I bet they are all fat from overeating. Funny how our poor in this country die of heart disease at such a high rate from over eating while in real poverty stricken countries I have visited the poors bellies are swollen from worms. These women dont know poverty.

(subtext: poverty does not exist because poor people are overweight because being in this writer's fantasy, being overweight is associated with having money. it's a sign of abundance. but then, shouldn't an overweight person garner more respect from this writer? this statement is equivalent to the "witch test" used during the Spanish Inquisition: either way you lose.)
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Exactly. These kids will perpetuate the cycle
endlessly, being exposed to mom's lifestyle of
no education, no marriage, various boyfriends
dropping by to impregnate but not to contribute,
and handouts by the government or charities
helping out. What's to show that things could (and should be)be different?

(subtext: the children themselves threaten this person's life and security and poverty due to the mother's moral failings -- because the wealthy are all highly moral. you can tell by their wealth. wealthy folk never have sex either. nor do they have fatherless children. or acne. or weight problems. wealthy people are the BEST!)

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Better get going so I can pay the rent for these people...oh and, you're welcome!

(subtext: I am so pissed off that my money is used to help people in need. more bombs! more bailouts!)

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There's nothing wrong with a lot of hard work. That's the problem with this country. Do you think the Pilgrims had the government to give them a home when they landed in this country hundreds of years ago? What about all those people who lost everything they had during the Civil War? Our ancestors worked hard, lived without, struggled to put food on the tables at times. But, in the end, their hard work paid off. I worked with my family picking oranges or green peppers in the summers while I was in school in order to help make ends meet while I was growing up. That's the problem. People have lost the desire to work for what they have and truly believe, as you so obviously do, that things should be handed to them. Hard work builds character. Some of the people living off government funds should try it once in a while.

(subtext: I'm a bitter old cracker.)

wtf? I mean, in reality, it probably takes about 15 seconds to get pregnant.

These people are idiots.

working people wouldn't have time to have sex is ludicrous.

it's terrifying, really, that people hold these beliefs.

It boggles the mind.

It was called "Massachusetts".

using an appeal to history (his-story). because we all know that what was written in stone back at the founding is LAW forevermore.

in this sense he's only half wrong. handouts were given to white men. women who amassed any wealth or power were dealt with as witches (in Salem, famously).

Some privileged men and women were tried as witches but the marginalized were disproportionately targeted. And what finally brought the madness to an end was when the girls accused the wife of the colonial governor.

What's also ironic is that the community only survived because they agreed food and pasturage would be held in common.

we have a social safety net because we need a basic level of social health for the whole of society to function properly.

there's a yarn to be picked up in this discussion where one of the commentators says that the children will never break the cycle of poverty, b/c of the "original sin" of the mother. that's hysterically wrong -- history is full of impoverished children who broke the cycle thru education...and so the retort should be, if these people are REALLY interested in breaking the cycle of poverty (and not just punishing women) they would be all in favor of more educational support for the children as well as decent housing. the truth is, they're not interested in breaking the cycle one bit. they want the women to pay for their sexual indiscretion.

think 'welfare' moms cost.

the peanut gallery. it's the sex that really gets their goat -- not the money. it's the fact that they women, too. and, sin of sins, women of COLOR whose sexuality is out-of-control!

at least -- that's the narrative i hear in the subtext.

so they're inaccurate as well as classist and crypto-racist.

Besides, many, many people get fat not from a good diet but from a diet high in starches and sugars.

society these people are so keen to rally against.

and right you are about "poverty diets."

I've tried pointing reality out to assholes like these and one of two things always happens:

1. They don't believe I was ever homeless or on welfare.

2. They believe me to be the "exception" rather than the "rule". (I was married, had 3 children with a man who I then left. Once I left, he refused to pay child support, so...) Usually this breed of asshole determines that I'm the exception because I'm white (like if they are racist, it's better than being sexist!!), had all my children with the same man (Guess they don't realize that this is still being sexist), and "fell on hard times".

I've met a couple of women who did abuse the system, but you know what... that vast majority of them (maybe up to 95%, but I don't know the exact statistic) did not. They genuinely needed help and that was the only place to turn. Truthfully, in my days of sitting at Social Services, hoping I got to keep my check for another year, I seemed to be the one with the most children. Average number of kids was 2, but most only had 1 child.

Bah, I don't know why I go on. Ignorant asses.