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[–]MeganDelacroix🤡🌎 detainee 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

A vast number of the anecdotes the participants offer are not repetitions of conservative clichés about African-Americans and “welfare Cadillacs” but rather very specific stories about these workers’ able-bodied friends, neighbors and relatives who are drawing undeserved disability payments or workman’s compensation or cashing social security checks that should be going to someone else in the person’s family and their sense of contempt for these people who they know personally is far stronger than it is against any abstract stereotypes.

Here's a concrete example of this from Peter Santenello's documentary, which I posted a while ago.

And another: "How do 19-year-olds get checks?"

White kids talking about their white family, friends, and neighbors. It's a massive problem, and it's endemic in many areas of the country. Some are rural. Some are urban. Some are black. Some are white. Some are brown. It has nothing to do with "racism."

[–]penelopepnortneyBecome ungovernable[S] 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Which shows the racism is in the eyes of the beholder, if they automatically assume you mean blacks or browns or whatever when you bring up welfare fraud. I had a very white neighbor who was blowing through the huge life insurance settlement she got when her husband died so she could get back on food stamps - not only a fraudster but a stupid one since her house was paid for and she could have lived out a pretty worry-free existence if she'd had a lick of common sense.

[–]unagisongsBurn down Reddit! 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Rather once something becomes about racism a.k.a. identity politics then they can turn off and stop listening. Genuine cognitive dissonance invites people to look for an easy out. They want their identity politics to protect them from having to empathize with the wrong tribe. If all they look for is outage the only thing they will find is outrage. Once the outrage blinders go up, everyone can retreat into their respective tribal perspectives. Nobody has to think about the empathizing with the "wrong" people then. We've all become children clutching our security blankets screeching about wrong think, wrong people, wrong identity without a hint of irony.

[–]penelopepnortneyBecome ungovernable[S] 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

They want their identity politics to protect them from having to empathize with the wrong tribe.

I think this nails it.