Friday, August 13, 2010

I just accidentally watched the last 4 or so minutes of the Rachel Maddow "show." She wrapped up the propaganda hour with some recent quotes from various conservatives regarding unemployment benefits, making special note that the 35th anniversary of social security and unemployment is coming up.

Her tone and commentary were predictably mocking and inane. She didn't make one mention of the fact that what conservatives have a problem with is the seemingly unending extensions of unemployment by democrats in the past 18 months. Also infuriating was that she quoted John Kyle, Sharon Angle and various high profile republicans making what were actually quite honest and accurate statements about unemployment benefits, but since she was making specific note of their feelings about people on unemployment, she could have very easily included Harry Reid's famous statement about how unemployment has led more men to beat their wives! And that's why we should extend unemployment benefits for 2 years...to buy abused wives some time? She also made many mentions of how very very moral it is to give out unemployment benefits.

The question I am left with whenever I spy on the enemy by watching a bit of Chris Matthews or Olberman or Maddow is, have they ever met an actual person? Or more accurately, when is the last time they were around people who weren't either in the industry or in politics or related to them? Oh, or works for them? Chris Matthews literally laughed at a guy from the Heritage Foundation who said that people who have unending unemployment benefits are discouraged from moving to a new city or state to seek employment if they can't find work in their town. I mean he threw his head back and belly fucking laughed at the guy.

The fact is that there are people who game the system. And "the system" is any and every entitlement program in America. And the fact is also that there are people who need a safety net. But it's really only liberals who don't accept the reality that the dynamic has shifted to majority scammers on these programs. The people receiving entitlements aren't Vietnamese boat people or the lost boys of Sudan, they're people who are simply taking advantage of what is available. I guess that's more the point I should make: a lot of the people receiving entitlements are convinced it's owed to them simply because they qualify for them, but the reason they qualify for them is because the standards have been lowered so that more and more people who are able bodied, fully capable of working, maybe in debt or living beyond their means, and they don't even think twice, fuck, they don't even think once, about whether it's right or wrong to take government money just because it's there.

And let's not forget, people who are in "poverty" in the US have cell phones and SUVs. People who are in poverty in third world shit hole countries literally give up their children in the hope of a better life for them. There is no comparison.

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