Benefit myths and those who fall for them

[existentialist]

And your post #148 wasn't?

You tit.

I can barely hear you from where you are up there on that horse.

 

[ViolentPanda]

And your post #148 wasn't?

You tit.

Frankly, I thought it was a fair comment, given Maltin's complicity in why he was being had a go at!

 

[ViolentPanda]

I can barely hear you from where you are up there on that horse.

That's no horse, it's Eeyore the donkey.

 

[Onket]

Frankly, I thought it was a fair comment, given Maltin's complicity in why he was being had a go at!

Equally as fair as my comment, then.

Or is it one rule for you, and one rule for those you sneer over?

 

[Onket]

I can barely hear you from where you are up there on that horse.

"Don't reply to any posts unless I agree with you."

Yeah, nice one! You should be pleased I've given you someone else to have a pop at.

 

[ViolentPanda]

Equally as fair as my comment, then.

Did I indicate otherwise?

Or is it one rule for you, and one rule for those you sneer over?

Nah, it's just you that thinks that.

Wonder why that is, eh?

 

[ViolentPanda]

"Don't reply to any posts unless I agree with you."

Yeah, nice one! You should be pleased I've given you someone else to have a pop at.

You really love reading your own dubious interpretations into the posts of others, don't you?

 

[Onket]

Nah, it's just you that thinks that.

Wonder why that is, eh?

Because it's your posting style.

I'll try to give you the benefit of the doubt in future, though.

 

[existentialist]

You really love reading your own dubious interpretations into the posts of others, don't you?

Yes, I thought that was a particularly cynical bit of mind reading on @onket's part. But, having read his oeuvre over several years, it's pretty much how he views anyone who doesn't share his jaundiced world view, so I don't feel special.

 

[Orang Utan]

This is boring and unilluminating.
Do you know would be really intesesting?
A discussion about benefit myths and those who fall for them

 

[stuff_it]

It's now got to the point where one of my mates on fb is worried that people will think he's a scrounger for going to uni ffs.

Of course they will probably come for us students next, after all it costs far more than £9k to teach us, allegedly.

 

[Orang Utan]

That's insane. Are 'normal' people really that hoodwinked?
I am lucky not to have encountered any negative comments about scroungers IRL yet and never see any baiting of us on Facebook

 

[existentialist]

This is boring and unilluminating.
Do you know would be really intesesting?
A discussion about benefit myths and those who fall for them

I agree. I posted an interesting link only a few posts ago and it seems to have been lost amid all the agendaing

 

[existentialist]

That's insane. Are 'normal' people really that hoodwinked?
I am lucky not to have encountered any negative comments about scroungers IRL yet and never see any baiting of us on Facebook

Yes, they are that easily hoodwinked: most people are happy to believe what they're being told by an apparently authoritative source. Which is why threads like this are useful, and why people trying to further blur the picture and get in the way of the facts aren't.

 

[Orang Utan]

I must live in a bubble of middle class liberalism where no one I know would ever make disparaging comments about people on benefits.

 

[ViolentPanda]

This is boring and unilluminating.
Do you know would be really intesesting?
A discussion about benefit myths and those who fall for them

Probably one of the more insidious things the coalition have done, that even new Labour didn't get into, is spreading the ambit of the "benefit myths" beyond just the unemployed and the disabled, and onto the entirety of claimanthood, stigmatising everyone from people in receipt of Child Benefit to people in receipt of Housing Benefit and/or Council Tax Benefit. Where new Labour (mutedly) acknowledged that HB/CTB, Child Benefit, Tax Credits etc were necessary to make up the appalling gap between wages paid, and wages needed, this government has decided to "kill 'em all, let G-d sort 'em out".

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

I must live in a bubble of middle class liberalism where no one I know would ever make disparaging comments about people on benefits.

I reckon you should get yourself on to the Daily Mail comments online for a bit of fun

 

[ViolentPanda]

That's insane. Are 'normal' people really that hoodwinked?
I am lucky not to have encountered any negative comments about scroungers IRL yet and never see any baiting of us on Facebook

People don't need to be "hoodwinked" as such, if the majority of what they hear is negative. There's an absence of "right of reply" for a lot of the ruling class's invective against...well, anyone who isn't one of them, and that effectively does the job for them - few contrary arguments get heard, so their message gets normalised.

 

[Pickman's model]

I must live in a bubble of middle class liberalism where no one I know would ever make disparaging comments about people on benefits.

you should broaden your circle of acquaintances

 

[Orang Utan]

People don't need to be "hoodwinked" as such, if the majority of what they hear is negative. There's an absence of "right of reply" for a lot of the ruling class's invective against...well, anyone who isn't one of them, and that effectively does the job for them - few contrary arguments get heard, so their message gets normalised.

Yeah I realise all that. I guess I'm still waiting for that bubble to pop but it's been keeping me float for over a year. I don't know how I'd cope if everyone I knew thought I was a scumbag whose benefits need to be curtailed.

 

[Orang Utan]

you should broaden your circle of acquaintances

To meet some people who think people on the dole are scroungers? No ta

 

[Pickman's model]

Yeah I realised all that. I guess I'm still waiting for that bubble to pop but it's been keeping me float for over a year. I don't know how I'd cope if everyone I knew thought I was a scumbag whose benefits need to be curtailed.

i'm sure it wouldn't be everyone, your mum would still love you.

 

[Pickman's model]

To meet some people who think people on the dole are scroungers? No ta

so you'd rather not show them the error of their ways, you'd rather keep your limited range of acquaintances instead of doing some work on that front.

 

[Orang Utan]

I don't want to have another one of these conversations with you Pickman's. run along and needle someone else.

 

[Pickman's model]

I don't want to have another one of these conversations with you Pickman's. run along and needle someone else.

it's strange how for someone who feels so strongly about benefit myths you're not prepared to confront anyone about them irl and try to change their minds.

 

[Orang Utan]

I would be happy to talk about this with someone who had a real interest in the subject, rather than someone whose only motive is desire to pettily needle others.

 

[Pickman's model]

I would be happy to talk about this with someone who had a real interest in the subject, rather than someone whose only motive is desire to pettily needle others.

others? i think not.

 

[Orang Utan]

Just me then? I feel privileged. I don't want this thread to turn into another unilluminating bunfight, so I shall zip it and I can only ask politely for you to refrain from responding to my posts any further. Though i predict another withering parting shot from you, cos you just can't help yourself

 

[Puddy_Tat]

Probably one of the more insidious things the coalition have done, that even new Labour didn't get into, is spreading the ambit of the "benefit myths" beyond just the unemployed and the disabled, and onto the entirety of claimanthood, stigmatising everyone from people in receipt of Child Benefit to people in receipt of Housing Benefit and/or Council Tax Benefit.

and senior citizens, for whom some of the language is getting very close to 'benefits / scroungers'

mum-tat (who to be frank would probably not pass the U75 standard of political soundness but is often not untypical of 'middle england' opinions) has outbreaks of getting somewhat depressed about it all.

i am gently trying to get the message across that it's part of the whole divide and rule agenda...

 

[wtfftw]

Yeah I realise all that. I guess I'm still waiting for that bubble to pop but it's been keeping me float for over a year. I don't know how I'd cope if everyone I knew thought I was a scumbag whose benefits need to be curtailed.

They won't say it's you. It'll be someone in pretty much the same circumstances as you who is obviously either rinsing the system for more than they should be allowed or is refusing to get one of the millions of jobs that are available.