What's fascinating is the very high quality commentary side by side with (seemingly not deliberate) conservative trolling in the comments section. Of course, the NYT was de facto trolling everyone in the first place by having the audacity to run an article about how America was treating its poor, huddled masses with disinterest or contempt. But the thoughtful comments far outclass the trolls. There are some genuine Christians (in other words, trying to live the commandment 'love one another as I have loved you'), arguing with care and persistence alongside others who are clearly not religious but who are committed to compassionate living.
I still stumble, though: why do people who leave the trolly comments assume there are going to be others who agree with them? Maybe since the boom, there are just as many Americans who would have once been poor who are now privileged, and this privilege is confusing to them.
Here are some jems from the assholery that is the comments section to this high quality, accessible piece of journalism about the poor:
Supporting illegal immigrants is BIG part of the problem. They sneak into the U.S.A. to have their babies (Who automatically become citizens). I can just now see the hordes of pregnant women camping in the Mexican dessert until the time is right...
Then collect money from the Social Security Admin., Welfare program & work under the table. All without contributing anything. No, they don't start businesses, they don't work cleaning toilets, the don't raise engineers to build roads.
Meanwhile we the American citizens & LEGAL immigrants foot the bill. Meaning, male, non-pregnant immigrants.
Actually, the article is about how America is not footing the bill.
And we may just have to accept that some people will willfully make such bad choices that they will be faced with destitution. It is sad and hard but you can't save everyone. That one had 17 thumbs-ups.
Why do these single (unwed I bet rather than widowed) women have kids they can't afford?????? That one had 30 thumbs-ups
Find a husband and STOP having babies. Its a very simple formula actually. 21
It's the women who had the children not the fathers. [...] Women should be the sole ones responsible for the kids. It would also eliminate most of the controversy over abortion. From a reader unacquainted with the concept of conception, sperm, eggs etc. The reader went on to repeat gleefully the conspiracy theory of unwanted pregnancy.
But there is lovely kindness as well. Heartening reading for anyone who is thinking that this world is full of selfish, narcissistic voters-as-supporters rather than voters-as-policy-choosers. My fave is this one (there was a graph showing the rise in food stamp use mirroring the rise in unemployment and the (almost) flatlining of cash welfare payments:
There should be a graph that plots the growth of the number of mean, greedy people in the USA. It would look just like the one that reflects the number of persons receiving food stamps.
