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What is privilege

Do you agree

  • Yes

    Votes: 1 5.3%

  • No

    Votes: 16 84.2%

  • Somewhat

    Votes: 2 10.5%
  • Total voters
    19
exchemist

exchemist

Veteran Member
We Never Know said:
Doing some reading tonight(well I do every night) and came across this and thought I would put it out for your alls thoughts.

View attachment 57938
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I think you ought to give us the source of this. What publication did you copy it from, and who wrote it?

Like some other responders on this thread, I suspect the lifestyle insinuated by this ad, or article, is a mosaic, made by taking examples in which various people have each managed to do one of the things on the list* - and then combining them to suggest that "people on welfare", as a class, can do all of them. That's bull.

It looks a lot like another example of the "Sneering Right", which so disfigures the modern US political landscape: complacent, fat, suburban Americans sneering at those less fortunate than themselves and, preposterously, actually managing to feel self-righteous about it. (Perhaps with an Ayn Rand book or two on the shelves, to reinforce that comforting sense that selfishness is a virtue.;)).


*Any of us who have ever been hard up (admittedly for me, only when I was starting out after university) will know that while you scrimp and save on just about everything, you will often allow yourself one treat from time to time. We all need that to give some pleasure in our lives and make us feel good, given the limitations we are under. For someone it might be a pair of good shoes: good shoes do make a huge difference, to both comfort and appearance. For another person it might be decent headphones to listen to music: music has the power to lift the spirits, regardless of your circumstances. As my grandfather used to say, "Save for your extravagances".
 
Hermit Philosopher

Hermit Philosopher

Selflessly here for you
Privilege is having been raised in a safe, nurturing and loving environment, where you were able to learn, try, flourish …or fail, be comforted and encouraged to try again, differently - until you found what worked for you.

Privilege is having been seen and listened to and taken seriously by those around you, so that you had the chance to develop a healthy perspective on yourself and others.

Privilege is having been the right one (personality-wise), at the right place (culturally), in the right time (historically), so that your environment noticed and valued what you had to offer.

In short: privilege is luck.


Humbly
Hermit
 
exchemist

exchemist

Veteran Member
SomeRandom said:
Privilege is being able to complain about the imagined privilege of others living rough.
If you “scam” the system, sure you might be able to live as this lady described on welfare. Maybe. I’d imagine you’d have to be running a lot of game though lol. Either that or running drugs or similar shady dealings. I know that’s a horrible stereotype which is likely not accurate. But if you’re living off welfare and you’re buying all that. I mean stands to reason you’re either into something somewhat illegal or you have a very generous family member working in the factories lol

Perhaps you could even come semi close to such a lifestyle by default in a Scandinavian country. I’d wager not, but they do tend to have the reputation for being err “more generous” than we are in welfare systems. So it’s more plausible on surface level anyway.

Welfare can be exploited. But to demonise folks on welfare just because you saw a person wearing what appeared to be something expensive paired with a seemingly dishevelled or “poor appearance”, I mean that’s just plain bias let’s be real. Maybe the person in question won a small lottery prize and decided to splurge. Or maybe they don’t really care about their appearance and are actually fairly well off. There could be a number of factors
Do not judge a book by its cover
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The funny thing is that a lot of people who read that ad or article and nod sagely will be people who spend a fair amount of time avoiding paying their taxes.
 
exchemist

exchemist

Veteran Member
Twilight Hue said:
That's true, but the issue begins when welfare becomes a better choice than the workforce.
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Yes, this can be a problem with badly designed welfare systems that have a "cliff edge" effect, whereby the moment you start to work, however poorly paid, you lose all your benefits. Better designed system have some kind of "tapering" mechanism, whereby when you start work the benefits are withdrawn progressively according to how much you earn, in such a way that by earning more you get more in your pocket. It's quite hard to administer as it requires more information, but it does avoid creating a trap whereby people feel they are worse off taking a lowly job than doing nothing.

Most people want to work, not least for reasons of self-respect. There are a few "scroungers" who prefer to laze about, even if they have to stay poor, but not that many in reality.
 
Revoltingest

Revoltingest

Pragmatic Libertarian
Premium Member
A decade or so ago, I had a conversation with a tenant
of mine. She, a black gal, was saying that black folk had
no political power. I asked if any politicians she ever voted
for ever won the presidency or other offices. She said yes.
I explained how I never had that experience...my favored
would-be-leaders always lost. It was productive.

So many people who have "privilege" don't recognize it.
All they have is complaints about others' having it.
Feminists (some) in particular....eg, the privilege of not
having to register for Selective Service, of only 5% the
chance of being killed by cops compared to men, living
5 or so years longer than men.
 
We Never Know

We Never Know

No Slack
exchemist said:
I think you ought to give us the source of this. What publication did you copy it from, and who wrote it?

Like some other responders on this thread, I suspect the lifestyle insinuated by this ad, or article, is a mosaic, made by taking examples in which various people have each managed to do one of the things on the list* - and then combining them to suggest that "people on welfare", as a class, can do all of them. That's bull.

It looks a lot like another example of the "Sneering Right", which so disfigures the modern US political landscape: complacent, fat, suburban Americans sneering at those less fortunate than themselves and, preposterously, actually managing to feel self-righteous about it. (Perhaps with an Ayn Rand book or two on the shelves, to reinforce that comforting sense that selfishness is a virtue.;)).


*Any of us who have ever been hard up (admittedly for me, only when I was starting out after university) will know that while you scrimp and save on just about everything, you will often allow yourself one treat from time to time. We all need that to give some pleasure in our lives and make us feel good, given the limitations we are under. For someone it might be a pair of good shoes: good shoes do make a huge difference, to both comfort and appearance. For another person it might be decent headphones to listen to music: music has the power to lift the spirits, regardless of your circumstances. As my grandfather used to say, "Save for your extravagances".
Click to expand...

After a quick google search here's one but not sure if the same one I read.

Are You Privileged?

Here's another

Staten Island Assistant Principal Unleashes Racist Rant About 'Privilege'
 
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anna.

anna.

but mostly it's the same
exchemist said:
I think you ought to give us the source of this. What publication did you copy it from, and who wrote it?

Like some other responders on this thread, I suspect the lifestyle insinuated by this ad, or article, is a mosaic, made by taking examples in which various people have each managed to do one of the things on the list* - and then combining them to suggest that "people on welfare", as a class, can do all of them. That's bull.

It looks a lot like another example of the "Sneering Right", which so disfigures the modern US political landscape: complacent, fat, suburban Americans sneering at those less fortunate than themselves and, preposterously, actually managing to feel self-righteous about it. (Perhaps with an Ayn Rand book or two on the shelves, to reinforce that comforting sense that selfishness is a virtue.;)).


*Any of us who have ever been hard up (admittedly for me, only when I was starting out after university) will know that while you scrimp and save on just about everything, you will often allow yourself one treat from time to time. We all need that to give some pleasure in our lives and make us feel good, given the limitations we are under. For someone it might be a pair of good shoes: good shoes do make a huge difference, to both comfort and appearance. For another person it might be decent headphones to listen to music: music has the power to lift the spirits, regardless of your circumstances. As my grandfather used to say, "Save for your extravagances".
Click to expand...

Apparently the photo is of a Staten Island assistant principal who came under fire for the "Are you Privileged" post to her facebook page but it's not clear to me yet whether she was sharing it or wrote all or part of it herself, since there are similar versions out there.

Although whether she wrote it is a minor detail, what matters is that she posted it. An educator. It's so interesting how the far right thinks all public educators are 'marxist indoctrinators' when so many of them clearly aren't.

It's quite the classist screed.
 
Audie

Audie

Veteran Member
sun rise said:
The OP is pure unadulterated right wing anti-poor prejudice. It seeks to demonize poor people in the minds of those who don't know any people who live on the margins.
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Thats about as x- treme as the post.

There is abuse of the welfare system, sometimes very large scale.

Small scale, a friend at uni supporting herself
with a part time job was fuming about a guy
with a stack of t bone steaks from arms length to his chin, paid for with public assistance.
 
We Never Know

We Never Know

No Slack
anna b. said:
Apparently the photo is of a Staten Island assistant principal who came under fire for the "Are you Privileged" post to her facebook page but it's not clear to me yet whether she was sharing it or wrote all or part of it herself, since there are similar versions out there.

Although whether she wrote it is a minor detail, what matters is that she posted it. An educator. It's so interesting how the far right thinks all public educators are 'marxist indoctrinators' when so many of them clearly aren't.

It's quite the classist screed.
Click to expand...

Yep I googled and found a few sources. Thank you for explaining about it.
 
We Never Know

We Never Know

No Slack
Audie said:
Thats about as x- treme as the post.

There is abuse of the welfare system, sometimes very large scale.

Small scale, a friend at uni supporting herself
with a part time job was fuming about a guy
with a stack of t bone steaks from arms length to his chin, paid for with public assistance.
Click to expand...

Yes it happens even though some think it doesn't
 
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anna.

anna.

but mostly it's the same
We Never Know said:
Yes it happened even though some think it doesn't
Click to expand...

I don't believe many think there's no abuse of the system.

Some humans will abuse every system there is to abuse. That doesn't mean enough of them do though, to stereotype them in such a classist way. There are millions of kids out there on public assistance who would have no idea what she's even talking about, they're just trying to survive. The assistant principle, however, apparently makes about 130K a year.
 
exchemist

exchemist

Veteran Member
anna b. said:
I don't believe many think there's no abuse of the system.

Some humans will abuse every system there is to abuse. That doesn't mean enough of them do though, to stereotype them in such a classist way. There are millions of kids out there on public assistance who would have no idea what she's even talking about, they're just trying to survive. The assistant principle, however, apparently makes about 130K a year.
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Yes.

And on this thread we have personal testimony of what life on welfare is like.
 
exchemist

exchemist

Veteran Member
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