So our friend Asuka has dropped this stinking pile over in IMHO:
Why yes, Virginia, it does sound like a rant. A rant from a shitty, entitled person who apparently can’t see the humanity in other people.
There are few things in this world that can make a person feel sub-human like hunger can. Especially when they have children to care for and their ability to do that is in jeopardy. Since the OP says they read the article, I’m sure these parts were simply overlooked rather than conveniently ignored. For Asuka’s convenience I’ve bolded the important bits::
And:
And:
And:
I’m not good at long, expletive-filled screeds. Hell, I don’t remember even pitting anyone before. But **Asuka’s **OP hits home for me. I work with adults who never finished high school and are now attempting their GED. Most are unemployed, many live with relatives or do the sofa circuit, and none of them are financially stable. But most like to occasionally buy Starbucks and Subway sandwiches from the strip mall a few blocks from our campus. One principal reason they do this was put so succinctly by Alessan in the other thread:
Exactly.
Back to the subject of **Asuka’s ** ire. Here is a young woman who is pregnant and is travelling with two kids in a convoy of similarly desperate people. Food has been difficult to come by and all of them are hungry. After a month of miserable travel, as she’s waiting at the border she’s forced to—quite literally—live under a bridge. As she’s waiting a kind passerby hands her some extra cash, to do with as she pleases. And Asuka faults her for wanting to buy some shitty $5 pizza to feed her hungry children. I think it’s telling that when this woman was given some money the first thing her kids thought of was food and not, say, toys.
Asuka , consider pulling your head out of your ass and having a bit of empathy for your fellow man (or woman, in this case).
How dare those uppity brown interloping peasants spend good American money on the ambrosia of the American Elite!
I’m at a loss to say what Asuka thinks they should spend the money on. Maybe some of the hard bitter bread of desperate bondage, which is all they evidently deserve. Screw those children who are happy to eat a very typically American “kid’s favorite food.”
I fancy myself cynical, but I’m gobsmacked by Asuka’s post. Maybe we were just being trolled? It’s terrible to fall back to that, but the alternative is worse: Asuka really meant his rant sincerely.
Actually, think of the children*. The ones who enjoyed a treat because of the kindness of a stranger.
*(Hah! I finally get to use that in a way that isn’t faux-outraged moral panic!)
If I was there and decided to donate $50, I would think prepared food like pizza is the best bet. It’s not like they have a place to cook anything. Nothing wrong in my eyes.
This clearly supports the American belief that money should never be given to the poor. Simply because they might squander it on things like food for their children.
If you’re desperately poor, what can you realistically do with fifty dollars? You’re not going to buy stocks or start up a business or put a down payment on a car or a house. You’re not going to be able to pay for a training class or a medical procedure. In other words, fifty dollars is not enough to provide you with any long term solutions to your problems.
So the question is what short term things do you spend it on. You could go to the dollar store and buy a week’s worth of food. Or you could go and eat some pizza. Either way, the money will soon be spent and next week you’ll be hungry and scrounging for food like you were last week.
I can see somebody deciding that one day of eating well is better than one week of eating slightly less poorly than usual.
reminds me of some guy whose comment I read on one of our local news sites a few years ago, ranting about how awful it was that gas stations and convenience stores had signs saying they accepted bridge card, as though people were buying gas and smokes with it. When I pointed out that it was because those places sold food items which could be bought w/ bridge card, he refused to back down from his indignance.
people really, really don’t want to admit they might be wrong about something.
Pretty much what I would say. Fifty bucks isn’t really going to change your situation significantly. But it can at least boost your morale and (especially) that of your kids. The kids may remember this for a long time and it may motivate them to put up with other hardships better.
This struck me as particularly idiotic:
So you’re fucking quibbling about the menu choices of people who have been on the road for a month? When it’s a matter of a few dollars? WTF?
As for blankets, they had some already, and they may not need them for more than a night or two, so buying more for a short time would indeed have been wasteful. Besides that, there may not have been anyplace to buy some nearby.
And they really really don’t want to give up their hate.
In situations like you’re describing I often suspect that the reason given for the hate (acceptance of bridge cards by a gas station) is more an excuse for the hate rather than the real underlying reason.
I don’t see Shodan defending her. I really can’t make sense of Asuka’s post. Ignoring her motivations and feelings, like many others I’m at a loss figuring out what she thinks the mother should have done with the money that would have been more sensible. Smaller pizzas and no fries so that she could buy another small pizza the next day?
Just the usual self-made expert with an opinion about how someone else should have spent their money.
Having gone through a period of poverty and bankruptcy, I know how important a good meal or a treat can be to your morale and mental health. I don’t have any patience for people who blow up at the very idea of someone poor having something nice.
I was in line about 4 carts back in the grocery store. The woman checking out had a Snap/EBT card ( food stamps, I guess). The lady and man in front of me were complaining rudely and loudly about these damn people and their free food and ‘why don’t they get a job’…‘living off the backs of working people’!
I was mortified for the lady with card. By the looks of it she was buying food for kids. I saw no reason to ridicule the lady. When she left, the man in front of me turned around and said to me “She’s probably gonna sell that for that crackdrug stuff” ( his words). I looked at him in the face and said “You don’t know that and I think you are a rude bully”. He just harumphed me. See, if they cannot see a bad thing they just make one up to fit the scene. You can’t win.
People who are lazy or immoral are poor, therefore, people who are poor are lazy and immoral. Lazy immoral people do not deserve to have nice things. They should be grateful that society allows them to eke out a bare survival.
Don’t know, but I put them on ignore for some reason, which means their irritation to post value ratio was high enough that I decided to not bother. I can remember clicking to actually view their posts twice.
I did go on a rash of putting Trump supporters on ignore when they were being assholes after the election. Maybe one of those?