We Get It

The person who posted the thing about 'the well-dressed woman on welfare' yesterday has deleted the post. Of course, it wasn't enough just to delete the post. It seems it was also important for this person to announce the post had been deleted and lament the fact that so many people just do not have a clue about the political point trying to be made. You know, basically, 'I deleted this post because you people just don't understand.'

No, see, I think we do.

The person who wrote this post, really, was not writing about politics. This was a post about envy and resentment. This was a post about anger. This was a post about making judgements based on how one views the world and everyone's deserving place in it. Were there political implications? Of course, but not ones being directly discussed.

This is another major flaw in our current addiction to personal identity politics. We have not only fused our personalities and actions with political ideas but also fused our personal opinions and non-political beliefs with a need to create policies to justify them. Just because one is offended by the actions or opinions of someone else does not give them the right to demand laws to change it.

The problem with the original post is that the commenters gave the poster tons of examples of times when they received assistance but also had nice things, usually due to the kindness of others. When people talk about stuff like this, I always think about my iTouch. It's an expensive little thing that was gifted to me by my best friend who didn't need it anymore. I'm sure when people see me with it, in my raggedy clothes and cheap shoes, some of them probably snark a little about how the fat woman has bad priorities.

It doesn't really matter. I don't owe everyone my truths and what they think about me is certainly not my business. The fact that they mire those thoughts about me with political intentions is concerning, but there is nothing I can do about that either.