stella41b
Posts: 4258
Joined: 10/16/2007
From: SW London (UK)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Stephann
While I agree, the bus driver's a jerk, I also feel that when you do things that you know, clearly, are going to violate social norms that you're going to be faced with these sorts of issues. That, to me, is part of the repercussions for my flaunting my lifestyle choice.
This isn't the issue. I don't fit in with society but it isn't in my case a lifestyle choice but a genetic defect. Where do I get the abuse? From the ignorant people who assume that I am who I am through a lifestyle choice.
The issue here is tolerance, minding one's own business, and respecting other people's individuality.
What are 'social norms'? Who is to say who is normal in society and who isn't?
The people in the article are dead right. This is fascism, you can even call it nazism, whatever, but it's prejudice, it's pointing the finger at someone and deciding that they don't fit in, they're socially 'substandard'.
This is no different to the persecution of the Jews by Hitler, by Stalin, by Alexander the Great, it's the same 'I am normal, I fit in, these people don't, they are not as productive to society'. Bullshit!
quote:
ORIGINAL: Stephann
Addtionally, there was a part of the article that had me irked a bit. She made it clear she doesn't cook, clean, or go anywhere without her owner (the assumption here is that she doesn't work either.) Later, I saw this tidbit:
"The couple, who live on benefits in a council house and plan to start a family, have been friends for years."
So what? What is the employment market like in Dewsbury? What employment opportunities are there in Dewsbury? What are their skills as a couple? Education? How do you know that they are not seeking work? There's a lot of women working who don't do housework or cleaning.
Why not face facts and just accept that there are a lot of able-bodied people who maybe want to work but who at this moment in time cannot find work?
Some of us (myself included) do spend periods on welfare. I stopped working for an employer in 2000 and have mainly supported myself through my work in theatre. When I was homeless and going through the system I was also actively seeking work - any sort of work - but nobody wanted to employ me because I am transgendered. In the end I gave up, and spent a further year developing my next theatrical project and running workshops voluntarily.
quote:
ORIGINAL: Stephann
Erm... I could be reading this wrong, but doesn't this mean they live on welfare, yet are trying to have kids? I'm all for people living their dreams, but when they start expecting their fellow taxpayers to finance them... that's a real problem to me. Looking at their photos, either of them easily spent more on their outfit than I do on a weeks worth of clothes. Goth clothing is NOT cheap.
Here we go again, this neofascist attitude disguised as other people being financed by 'fellow taxpayers'.
Okay, some figures for you here. Who's paid for my artistic work to date? Between 1995 and the year 2001 in Poznan, Poland I staged 6 plays without receiving any funding whatsoever and all projects were financed by ticket sales from people coming to see my work, same too in Warsaw 2001-2002, 2002-2004 I was sponsored by the British supermarket Tesco's, the cultural funds of the European Union who as a result of my work in Wloclawek gave the city $600,000 towards youth and community projects, in 2004 and 2005 my work has been financed by the Polish Ministry of Culture, the Zywiec Brewery and by ticket sales, and in Britain the Mike Cohen Fund, by homeless charities and the London Borough of Hackney.
To date I have not received one cent of 'taxpayer's money'. My current theatre in London won't receive any funding but will support itself from revenue earned from performances and from workshops. I have also invested my own money in my theatrical projects.
Nobody pays for me, not even during my time on welfare because I have also paid tax, I have also made insurance contributions, and when you consider that my most recent project of workshops with 14 people got four of them off crack and heroine, three of them off alcohol, and eleven of them off welfare I think anyone who accuses me of living off taxpayers' money is being a bit one-sided. The welfare I receive, like everyone else on welfare, is money I'm entitled to.
Income tax has got nothing to do with supporting other people on welfare. Governments don't live hand to mouth. I mean let's stop and think about it. Are you in your entire working life going to pay as much in income tax as Microsoft or British Airways pay each year in corporation tax? What about the taxes on alcohol? Tobacco? Gaming? Fuel? Imports? Exports? Then you've got the outgoings, not just welfare, but defence, policing, roads, the health service, education, refuse collection, transport, prisons, the judicial system, need I go on? These things all costs huge sums of money.
Farglebargle wrote in another thread that most people are clueless when it comes to large scale finance and how the financial world operates and do you know what? I have to agree with him. The 'taxpayer's money' argument is a clever strategy to get readers all upset and emotional over what is written in the papers, it's one of the basic ploys of journalism, and it never ceases to amaze me how many people fall for it.
Let's face facts here. If you're working and paying income tax, just accept that you're fortunate enough to be one of the remaining people in this world who are able to support themselves, have a livelihood and freedom over their own income. It just means you're less subsidized than people who are not working because you use toilets, roads, transport, healthcare, and so on just like everybody else. Give yourself a pat on the back. But also understand that you are also being subsidized by people who are richer and better off than you.
Oh and incidentally, if you are a 'taxpayer' and working I also hope you're paying a sizeable chunk of your income into a private pension fund for your retirement. Please bear in mind that in 2018 or thereabouts the number of elderly people over pensionable retirement age will exceed that of the working population. It's also worth bearing in mind that there's an awful lot of elderly retired people who worked from the age of 14 and 15, never been on welfare, always paid tax and insurance, who are now dependent on a state pension. Think very carefully before attacking the welfare system because in 15-20 years it's more than likely going to support you.
Therefore I'm sorry but this 'taxpayer supporting other people' argument doesn't wash, and people who make such statements are actually making fascist statements made socially acceptable by a mythical argument.
Returning to the article, I was born in Dewsbury and grew up in that part of the country - West Yorkshire. We're very blunt people, we speak our minds, and we'll tell you to your face openly, as opposed to people 'down South' who prefer to do it behind your back or from a distance.
But he was a bus driver, it was at a bus station, he was at work, and I don't care whether you're the Prime Minister or a toilet cleaner when you're at work you keep your mouth shut and your opinions to yourself. But then again it was also in a public place, and basic common decency and respect for others dictates that you think what you like and you keep your opinions to yourself. There also used to be such a thing known as 'minding your own business'. However it appears that a lot of people have forgotten about such basic courtesies of human interaction.
I personally see no difference between what happened to the couple in Dewsbury and what happened to me last month at Atlanta Airport when I was denied entry to the States. It's discrimination, it's fascism, and it's unacceptable in any society which claims to be civilized.
"The road of life is rocky, and you may stumble too
So while you're pointing fingers, someone else is judging you,
Could you be, could you be, could you be loved?
Could you be, could you be loved?"
Bob Marley "Could you be loved?"
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