Good intentions spur government handouts which steal the soul and trap a man in shame. Pride keeps him in poverty. How can conservatives make the case that looting is not a social justice issue? Bill Whittle and Alfonzo Rachel create two new episodes of The Virtue Signal each week, to analyze news of the day in the context of enduring values and ethics.
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18 replies on “Shame: How Government Handouts Steal the Soul, and Pride Keeps a Man in Poverty”
Deleted by poster.
I was astounded at the level of fabrication it took Zo to make the passage about giving the thief extra stuff to give you time to study him and go to the authorities and get your stuff back.
It’s astounding.
The passage has nothing to do with thieves (it’s actually about getting sued in court), and it has everything to do with eschewing valuing material goods and being unwilling to fight with people over the goods of this earth (be they status in human eyes, material goods, or even your labor/effort).
The whole passage reads:
But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. -Mt 5:39-41
I’ve got a lot of problems with “sola scriptura,” not the least of which is the readiness with which so many of its proponents will depart from the plain reading of the text to insert other things in order to make it say what they wish it did. (Of course, the entire basis of “sola scriptura” is a similar squint-eyed, stand-on-your-head, interpret-liberally-in-light-of-your-own-tradition’s-filters sort of thing, but that’s another issue — the fact that scripture itself neither says sola scriptura is proper nor contains a definitive list of which canonical texts qualify as “scripture” seems to bother its propopents not one bit.)
I partially agree with you. The scriptures cited are more about how to respond to personal attacks. Although they call out being sued as one means of a personal attack, they also reference being slapped. Therefore, the act of theft and any other negative action against you could also be construed as a personal attack.
“Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels.” ~ Hebrews 13:2
This is what I try to keep in mind when I’m approached. You never know and God will sort it out. What I won’t do is give them money so they can’t buy anything to feed whatever addictions they may have. I’ll buy them food or jot down directions to resources that hand out food, clothes and other necessities.
That said, when it’s obvious it’s a scam or organized panhandling, I just simply tell them I don’t carry cash. Which I don’t.
Same thing. More than once I bought good for someone who said they were hungry . Also pumped has on my money for someone who said they needed it to get home. Both were very grateful.
Bill that was universally the absolute worst bout of fund raising I have ever heard, since I’ve never tried. I’ll take 2.
And I remembered Zo talking (pjtv era video) about the poor in . I think he was discussing about how some people are impoverished in spirit, common sense, compassion, etc. So often being fiscally poor is a symptom of a deeper, spiritual (?) impoverishment. Then again, very often being rich with money is in spite or perhaps because of a more profound poverty of soul.
Let’s get one thing straight here. There may be “good intentions” involved with some misguided voters but the people who perpetuate this situation are not well intended at all. They are Evil. With a capital “E”. What they do is self-serving in the quest for personal power and nothing more than that.
That they prey upon the good intentions of others makes them the darkest kind of Evil. If you don’t support their ‘caring’ policies they do their best to make you look and feel like you’re less than them because you don’t care as much as them.
Any good parent knows that you can’t just let your kids do whatever they want. You have to set limits, create boundaries and help your kids understand that they have to behave in a certain way or they will not get where they want to be in life. This is how the offspring of Homo Sapiens develops into true human beings and joins society as a productive member and inheritor of real humanity. Without that, they are just human shaped animals.
The Left doesn’t see things this way. They see the misfortunate as an opportunity. It’s a really, really big opportunity. To them these less fortunate people are nothing but animals to be tended and cared for, then milked for votes. Sadly there are a lot of better intentioned people who support them in that. Entitlement programs in large part are nothing but barns and hay for cattle unless they are geared and focused to get people off those programs.
We all know that’s not how it works. There are more poor Americans today than there were when Lyndon B. Johnson launched his “War on Poverty”. So it’s not that the impoverished are being served, it’s that their numbers are being increased in the name of Power.
If your kid watches a movie with explosions you don’t give him a stick of dynamite and send him out to play with it. No matter that he might think that’s what he wants to do. You do what’s best for him even if he doesn’t realize that’s what he really wants.
Any program involving entitlements that does not as a prime objective work to get people off that program is sweet, sickly poison to human beings.
The people who support that well knowing the statistics and the inevitable results are not a bit well intentioned.
Lots of great food for thought here. Even in our small city we have a collection of homeless who seem to have quite the organization as to who gets which corner to hold up the cardboard sign begging for food or money. These intersections are all nearby to the local mission that provides meals that they are clearly enjoying. However, most don’t stay the night as that would mean abiding by the rules of the shelter: namely no booze, at all, and attendance to the evening prayer service.
We used to volunteer at that shelter, until we realized that as Bill pointed out, very few were grateful for the effort and were just expecting “someone” to help because they were entitled.
We now donate to the shelter for battered women whose main goal is to get the women out of the shelter and living independent lives again.
A couple of years ago my sister decided she wanted to get an outdoor storage shed. We went around to various Lowe’s and Home Depots to see what they had to offer.
We drove into the parking lot at a Lowe’s and were driving by the sheds to take a look. My sister decided she wanted a closer look so I parked and we walked down the row of assembled sheds to get a better look.
We started at the end with the cheapest sheds and worked our way up to the more expensive ones. As we did this we opened the doors, walked into the sheds and examined the construction of the little buildings to get an idea about quality and capacity.
When we got to the end which was the biggest and fanciest shed, nearly a small house, I opened the door and was blasted by the smell of an animal. I’ve hunted all my life and I know that smell well, so my first thought was that something is living in here and we could get bit or scratched as it tried to avoid us.
I was almost right. It wasn’t something it was someone who was living in there. Way, way more dangerous than a wild animal.
Because crouching back in a dark corner was a particularly disheveled, dirty man. My hand immediately went to my weapon, which I did not draw as he was not actively presenting a threat. Not an active threat but the look on his face was anything but friendly. I wanted him to know that attacking us wouldn’t be one of the better ideas he had that day.
He looked at us with exactly the same sort of anger I might show if a stranger just walked into my house uninvited. He clearly considered that shed “his house” and we were no more welcome there than he would be in my home. He had squatted there and made it his own, no doubt he’d had to defend that territory from other homeless bums and his reaction was first to do just that. When he managed to focus on us he froze because it was obvious we were not other homeless people here to challenge him for his “home”. My sister was terrified but my body language clearly said “Make a move, boy, it’ll be your last.”
… and we backed out and closed the door.
Then we drove up and parked in front of the store. We went in to the Customer Service desk and told the manager what had happened. He said …
“I’m terribly sorry about that but it happens all the time. We can’t keep them out, if we lock the sheds they just break in. When we call the police they come and remove them but another one is back the next night. It’s like they know the shed is now vacant and just move right in. They don’t seem to care that we’re going to call the police as soon as they’re discovered and then they’ll go to jail, or wherever it is the police take them. We prosecute every one we’re able but it seems like there’s just an endless supply of squatters. As soon as I’m done helping you I’ll call the cops, again.”
I’m not judging that guy when I say that he was just human shaped vermin along the same line as rats but more dangerous. I’m not judging because I’m not the one who made his choice to live like a rat and become human vermin.
You can’t redeem the irredeemable because what makes them irredeemable is their choice to be irredeemable. They don’t want your help, they feel like you owe them.
The area I live in is predominantly and obviously Christian. There are many, many resources for people like that guy to get his act cleaned up and get set back on his own feet again. But like you say, they’re not allowed to stay overnight in a shelter if they’re drinking or on drugs so they go there to eat and then go squat somewhere to feed whatever bad habit they have that’s more important to them than earning their own way.
I have no sympathy for such people because they have plenty of resources to be something better if they want to avail themselves of them. That human rat made his choices and obviously he’s OK with living out the consequences or else he’d do something else and not be squatting in the nicest shed at Lowe’s.
Bill, I became a member after watching one of your videos on YouTube where you mentioned how they had demonetized your channel, by throttling the views and by suspending monetization of new videos until most people who were going to see them had already done so. I found value in what you do, and wanted to support your work. If I couldn’t do it by viewing ads, I’d do it with membership dollars. No begging on your part.
Zo, welcome to Fort Worth.
If The Radical Left didn’t love the poor, then why would they work so hard to increase their ranks and ensure that they stay poor?
Two words …
“Job Security”
Off-Brand.
I think of it this way. These people have low self-esteem. People say money is the root of all evil. I think low self-esteem is. But you can’t hand out self-esteem (though the left has been trying REALLY HARD to do to just that because either they don’t understand the problem or they DO and they’re evil and are exploiting the problem for purposes of political power). Self-esteem is you judging yourself. And it’s you judging yourself through what you THINK is the eyes of others. But I think in most cases, it is not. You know what your failings are, and only you can compensate for them.
Many of these people think that having the brand-name shizzle will garner respect from others. It might, but it will come from the WRONG kind of people. And that’s the kind of people who themselves think the brand name merch makes them special.
Me, despite the protests of Warren and Sanders – I’m self-sufficient in today’s world. And that means unless I can buy it for a comparable price or LESS than the off brand stuff — I won’t buy it. Because in most cases – I’d be wasting money. I really don’t give a rat’s rear end what the brand is as long as it fits my needs (I will admit that some of this woke stuff has altered a few of my buying habits – but that usually means AGAINST the brand names attempting to shame me for my race and gender).
Anyway, another 2 cents of my thoughts here. That and $3 might get you a cup of coffee at Starbucks. But if you can find someplace cheaper to get a decent tasting cup of Joe, I’m right behind you.
I went to New Orleans once, and I’m walking around the French Quarter – and I would give money to people who asked and it wasn’t long before I realized if I gave money for every panhandler out there … I’d be broke pretty quickly.
And I noticed patterns – in the stories, etc. And I realized how calculated they were. And often over-the-top. And likely mostly false if not completely false. And now — I won’t do it.
Which is kind of sad because there are probably some out there who got there — honestly by a bad turn of events and they really would use it as a leg up.
But I think it’s mainly gaming MY sentiments, my sense of empathy – by presenting a false story for me to empathize with. I know nothing of these people except that they are here asking for money AND a story to tell. Again, likely fictional. I have zero way of knowing on the spot.
If this were a family member or a friend or even if it was a person I was aware of in my community, I’d have a better idea how much my investment in their future might pan out. Because I have an idea how earnest this person might be about getting out of their predicament.
This is why welfare programs should ALL be LOCAL. Well it’s one reason. The more local the efforts, the more likely you are to be able to assess — and I’m going to say it — whether or not this person DESERVES the aid. Whether they’ll be grateful, whether they’ll use it wisely, or destructively.
The OTHER reason is that large piles of money are high graft-itational force. The larger the pile of money, the greater the attraction to grifters to line their pockets. And nobody is in a better position to do this than the people through whom the money passes. And if there is no criteria available to assess and implement some sort of balance between the intent and use of the charity.
And it IS charity. We are NOT entitled to it. The minute we think we are, we have stepped over the line to setting up a demand for it.
This may sound judgmental, but the majority of people who beg are people who have made a choice to “get something for nothing” by leaching off the kindness of strangers, and will use whatever means necessary to get their begging cup as full as possible.
In this country there is no legitimate reason to beg. People who do so refuse to comply with the few rules required in order to receive local, state or federal services. And it can’t be pride that keeps them from seeking available local services – they have no sense of pride if they are begging.
They feel entitled to the largesse of others in order to support their sloth and indigence and refusal to live within the bounds of society. I do not feel guilty for not giving to beggars – for all I know the money I would give them would hurt them – pathological altruism is worse than nothing.
They might have quite a bit of pride in their acting skills and just how much they can grift off of others. Their weekly take is likely far higher than what they would get “following the rules”. They might not even think of it as begging but more as swindling, which I would say makes it worse.
For sure, I agree. I can’t think of any honest reason for panhandling/begging in this country, so whether it’s used as a swindle or from an attitude of “gimme, I deserve it” or reaching a place of self-imposed helplessness, or to feed an addiction, it’s dishonest.
I have a very short saying on charity.
“Forced charity isn’t.”
Three words. Everything I need to say on the subject is packed in there.