Saw this rubbish on Facebook:
These two short sentences tell you a lot about our government and our culture:
1. We are advised not to judge ALL Muslims by the actions of a few lunatics, but we are encouraged to judge All Gun Owners by the actions of a few lunatics. Funny how that works.
And here is another one worth considering.
2. Seems how we constantly hear about how Social Security is going to run out of money. How come we never hear about welfare running out of money? What’s interesting is the first group “worked for” their money, but the second didn’t.
Profound isn’t it … Think about it … Pass it on.
Not all that profound, no. More than a little bigoted, yes. Let’s see if I can explain why I think so:
Point number one implies that if we are advised not to judge all Muslims for the actions of a few, then we should be advised not judge all gun owners for the actions of a few, which I believe is an odd thing to have to imply because we should all have been advised that both are a no-no. I can’t cite sources and frankly I don’t think I should have to; surely one or two responsible adults have offered the sage advice that not all gun owners are to blame for the actions of a few. Nobody can reasonably claim that advice hasn’t been uttered once in the defense of gun owners.
Point number one also implies that since we are encouraged to judge all gun owners for the actions of a few, then there is nothing wrong with encouraging us to judge all Muslims for the actions of a few. See how bigoted that sounds? And not only because the meme flips judgment from gun owners onto Muslims in particular, but because it flips “advising” with “encouraging,” which is not a small difference at all.
I’m willing to believe that some people are shallow enough to encourage us to judge all gun owners for the actions of a few, because I’ve seen people do that in person and on television. It’s not a hard premise to swallow. But I have also seen and heard people encourage us to judge white supremacists based on the actions of a few white supremacist lunatics, which I believe is much more to the point.
Point number two is bigoted because it judges people who collect benefits guaranteed by law as lazy moochers, saying they don’t do any work while they collect those benefits. Although it allows that Social Security beneficiaries “worked for” the money, the air quotes imply they didn’t really work.
Saying you never hear that welfare is running out of money is just being willfully ignorant. If you haven’t heard that welfare is running out of money, you’re trying not to hear it, or you’re conveniently forgetting you heard it. It’s a constant refrain with the small-government conservatives. I hear politicians say “we’re broke” or “we can’t afford it” all the time when they talk about cutting benefits.
This Is Drivel 