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General News Oklahoma GOP likens food stamp recipients to animals

Discussion in 'Current Events, World News, & LGBT News' started by BradThePug, Jul 14, 2015.

  1. BradThePug

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    More here

    Here is what they posted on facebook:

    [​IMG]
     
  2. BelleFromHell

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    Well then. I guess I'm an animal!

    Some of these people are quite hypocritical. Members of my extended family constantly bitch and moan about "government handouts," yet some of them have been on food stamps before. If you're against government assistance, why use it?

    I'm a young adult who was kicked of the house and is crashing at my aunt's house. My parents do not give me money. I have no job, car, or even a driver's licence. My mother has screwed my education to the point where it may take years before I can get a high school diploma.

    I really don't think it's too selfish for me to use food stamps, and I plan on getting off of them as soon as I have a stable income.
     
  3. Posthuman666

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    Because someone doesn't have a stable income, was dealt the wrong hand in life, and socially abused does not mean they are animals. Animals would be stuck up conservatives too busy shoving cake down their throats to give a fuck about the homeless.
     
  4. Austin

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    They explanation is correct. They are not comparing them to animals -- people are taking it out of context.
     
  5. AwesomGaytheist

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    That's nothing new. That's a meme that's been circulating around conservative social media circles for quite a while. But that shows you the ignorance of the right wing. The vast majority of people in poverty in America, which in turn makes up most of the people who receive food assistance, are the elderly, the disabled, and the working poor.

    Supplemental Security Income, or SSI, is what the Social Security Administration pays to people who were born with severe disabilities and could never work. The monthly benefit is right around $800. That's half the poverty level. Is someone who was born with cerebral palsy or severe autism "just lazy and refuses to work?"

    Is a single mother who's raising three boys and working 80 hours a week at a $9/hour job "just lazy and refuses to work?" The answer I get to that usually is that "Poverty is her punishment for having sex outside of marriage."
     
  6. PerfectlyNormal

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    That sounds like my school.
    They say it is bad because:
    a. It is communism
    and
    b. Anyone can get government assistance and not have to do anything

    They are wrong because:
    a. It helps people
    and
    b. There are limits to it
     
  7. BryanM

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    There's a major difference between the two because the SNAP/WIC programs help people get the extra amounts of food they need to make it by each week (and in fact, these programs probably need expanded). The feeding of animals in national parks is not needed for the survival of the animals, and it is probably better if animals are not trusting humans to be their only source of food. It doesn't surprise me that they tried to make this comparison, however. People don't realize that food stamps only usually round out to be about an extra $37 a month for people to buy groceries. It's not like these people are mooching off of you and are hung onto the teat of the National government nearly as much as other government expenditures such as military spending.
     
  8. BradThePug

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    You don't think that people should be able to get help when they are in need of it? There is a difference between feeding an animal that lives in captivity and helping a person that needs some extra help to get on their feet.
     
  9. GypsyButterfly

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    My husband & I used them for awhile. We used our own money when we could, but, were very thankful to have that assistance. Other than a little help from family & friends, we were on our own. We both have health issues & lost our home. I WAH & he's not able to work. Which is why he's started the process to receive his vet benefits.
     
  10. gravechild

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    That's practically their entire state and voter base.
     
  11. Austin

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    Their explanation about what they meant is correct: "was supposed to be an analogy that compared two situations illustrating the cycle of government dependency in America, not humans as animals." I just don't care for the sensationalism involved in saying that they were comparing poor people to animals. We know what their message was: giving people food stamps makes them lazy and dependent on the government. While it may be a flawed message, their intent wasn't to compare poor people to animals.
     
  12. Aussie792

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    I imagine they stupidly decided to be witty, no matter that this is particularly insensitive. I doubt it was a literal comparison, but it is nonetheless mocking and unpleasant.

    Using the analogy of "feed a man a fish... teach a man to fish" or the like would have been much less inappropriate, while still getting their message across. Not that I agree with it, but it's not as if the opinion is universally insensitive when expressed with nuance and with an actual solution.
     
  13. HuskyPup

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    Republicans lack basic humanity. How they can consider themselves Christian is beyond me.

    The Buddha would not believe in this.

    It is a sad day, when people become so greedy.

    The world suffers, but can we do better?
     
  14. Gen

    Gen
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    This is not sensationalism. This is basic argumentative logic.

    The Argument: There is irony in the discrepancy between the way that we view giving handouts to the living poor and to animals.

    The treatment of two different issues or entities cannot be ironic or hypocritical if they are not in some form comparable. When vegans or animal rights activists claim that it is hypocritical to be against the murder of innocent human beings but to consume meat, their argument relies on the insinuation that animal life is comparable to human life. Now, whether or not that argument is valid is debatable, but the claim of irony is dependent on the ability of one thing to be likened to another.

    Claiming that the GOP referred to the lower class as "savages" or "animalistic" would be sensationalism. However, the fact that they likened the way that we as a society value their lives and assistance to how we value animals is unquestionable. They described their treatment as ironic given the treatment of national park animals. They likened them to animals. Otherwise, there could be no claim of irony.
     
  15. souverian

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    I'm just saddened by the gross oversimplification and generalization going on with the animals statement. There is no way I could distill someone's complex life down to "they are animals because they take government handouts".