Thread: No Lottery Tickets for Welfare Recipients

Originally Posted by myyams

Dumb people need to be regulated from buying beer etc who are on public assistance. So YES absolutely people are DUMB among a lot of other things, who buy these garbage things instead of food and the things this money is intended to buy with their public assistance they buy beer etc.


I absolutely do NOT feel pity or softness in my heart for those people. Now who I do feel softness and desire to help are the people trying to make their lives work and do the best by themselves and their families.

Wow, what a narrow minded and quite sad view to have. You don't feel sorry for the disabled people in this country, the elderly, the working poor? I am sure you still buy into the whole "welfare queen" myth and you "know" so many people who are receiving benefits but have manicured nails, own iPhones, smoke, buy lobster with their EBT cards, and drink, right?

91% of all benefit dollars assist our old folks, our disabled citizens, dependent children and members of the working poor who are paid such low salaries that they require a little help to thrive (i.e., to not starve). The working poor. You know, the people who do the jobs that people like you probably think they are too good to do. There are plenty of people in this country who are salaried workers and work well over 40 hours but still qualify for benefits because they are still considered low income. They probably carefully budget THEIR money (yes, they still receive wages, it's not YOUR tax dollars bankrolling their entire groovy lifestyle) and I think they deserve to have a drink every now and then, or have a nice dinner out, or (GASP) even buy a lottery ticket.

And zombies takes the thread. Bravo!!!!

Do I really have to type the words "please don't call each other 'narrow minded and sad'?"

Seriously.

I understand why this debate is so heated. Good debate topics are ones that inspire a lot of passion in people - otherwise we'd be debating the best flavor of ice cream or something. Booooooooo-ring. (Maybe that would be a suitable way of handling conflict on the debate board - for every contentious thread I have to lock, I start something really insipid like "Which of these two kitten pictures is cuter? Discuss.")

Anyway, I love a spirited debate, but as Missy said, we have to reel in the barbs, the digs, the outright name calling and personal attacks. They make the debate board no fun, and I like fun. So please, next time you feel the need to be rude to each other, picture me with a Stepford smile, getting ready to post "Which talking animal movie is better? Milo and Otis or The Incredible Journey?"

I'm confused. We aren't allowed to call a view narrow minded or sad? But debaters are allowed to call large groups of people (many of whom may be posters who are or have been on assistance or who have family members on assistance) DUMB LOSERS?

I need clarification and I'm not being snarky.

How about if we don't call names at all? I don't think it was cool to call a group of people "dumb losers." But I also think making generalizations, however odious, is a different thing than quoting someone directly, and saying "Your POV is one that only a dumb loser would have." One is definitely more of a direct personal attack than the other, IMO.

It seems like it may be hard to debate at times without calling views "narrow minded" or the like as Zombies did. I don't really consider saying that of someone's POV on a subject to be calling them a "name"?

Like, I used the word myopic referring to her viewpoint. Was that calling myyams a name, or is that okay debating? Again, I'm not being snarky, I'm confused about this name calling as it relates to opinions/stances on a given issue.

Just for an example. I would call this statement mocking and demeaning.

And any grown up who would get high and mighty about it has issues. Maybe they had a childhood of deprivation and want to pass it along to others or something.

To give you another example, try on "NRA members are crazy." Vs "Your POV is crazy." Neither is very nice, but one is much more of a commentary on that specific person. It's not meant to be general, I am talking about YOU now. You know?

i think you can disagree with someone's POV without being rude. "Narrow minded and sad" is rude. It just is. If I called you "narrow minded and sad, I'm sure you would wonder what crawled up my butt today. I don't buy the whole "I'm not calling YOU, narrow minded and sad, just your POV" argument either. Reminds me of the famous "I'm not calling YOU a b*tch, I'm just saying that you're ACTING like one" argument that supposedly guys use.

Gloria et al, please don't take this opportunity for a pile on. Not helpful. I would like to get this debate back on track if possible. If not, it's ice cream threads for the lot of you.

Originally Posted by GloriaInTX

Just for an example. I would call this statement mocking and demeaning.

Gloria, if that statement offended you I apologize. My intent was not to hurt you (or even talk about you). I hope you will accept my apology. As stated, if I have offended you rather than continue to throw barbs at me please tell me specifically what I did so that I may apologize. If you just don't like me, thats a different issue and one that my apologies cannot solve. However, I would ask you to either state your problem or to knock off the snark.