Friday, August 5, 2022

Refuting Stereotypes Of The Poor

The popularity of treating the aid of the poor as righteous across the ideological boundaries of atheism and theism or conservativism and liberalism has never eradicated the tendency for some people to attack the poor instead of poverty.  As an excuse to overlook them or make only meager efforts to help them, some might express the belief (whether they really believe this or not cannot be proven, but the idea itself can be rationalistically disproven) that the poor will misuse almost any resources given to them for the purpose of abusing alcohol or drugs, or some other similar fallacious stereotype like the idea that being poor means one is irrational.  These and other related ideas are demonstrably false from reason alone, independent of social experiences or introspection, and their delusional acceptance brings extensive obstacles to society's impact on truly helping the poor.

First of all, it does not logically follow from a person being poor that they will handle or mishandle donated money in any specific way, as there are no personality traits or worldviews that someone has because they are poor.  Second, someone who has faced the misery of poverty--all of the emotional hardships, neglect from broader society, lack of necessities or comforts, and untreated mental or physical health issues could reach a crushing weight--might out of desperation resort to almost anything that will help them briefly escape facing their problems.  Some people will, even if they have thought about this genuine possibility, think of the poor negatively for this when a middle or upper class person might receive a neutral or even positive reaction from the same people under specific circumstances.

Indeed, what about all the reports of rich people abusing alcohol or drugs?  Whether one misuses alcohol or drugs, even apart from all examples of the poor and rich doing do, is by logical necessity something that reduces down to individuality in how people react, rationally or irrationally, rightly or wrongly, to the stresses of life that not even those with enormous wealth can escape.  This means that when certain people ignore individuality to penalize or look down on the poor for doing some of the same things the rich might practice, but without condemning rich people guilty of the same hedonistic outbursts, the one who judges them negatively is doing so because of their low economic standing and not because of strictly what they believe, say, or do.

While the rich can face their own existential and personal demons that likewise need to be understood and combated, sometimes the poor might seek a misguided salvation in drugs or alcohol with the desire to escape a far more hellacious life circumstance as far as the general structure of their lives is concerned.  For this, they are assumed to not deserve any help at all by some irrational people, but what is really the case is that a certain kind of person just wants to conjure up an excuse to look down on someone whom it is somewhat socially "acceptable" to blame for all of their struggles without lifting a finger to ease their burdens.  Reinforced over decades, this could help keep some people locked into poverty who could have otherwise escaped through a combination of personal effort and receiving aid from others.

To assume anything at all is irrational by default, but to assume that the poor just squander their resources on addictions is also has highly destructive ramifications for society at large.  It is also true that until they are hurt by stereotypes, many people are content to stereotype others--men, women, whites, blacks, Hispanics, Asians, the old, the young, the rich, and the poor are all unjustly assumed to have or not have favorable traits by such fools--while thinking they are rational for doing so.  The poor unfortunately have little social power that can be used to shield themselves from the poisonous impact of this kind of idiocy, and all rationalistic Christians can easily see right through these asinine assumptions and their catastrophic consequences.

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