No Room For Hateful Rhetoric

I woke up this morning and jumped on Facebook to end my two-day self-enforced social media ban. And I see this hateful bullshit on my wall. I don't know Jennifer Harris - the original poster - but the identity of the woman who posted it surprised me. I thought she was more open minded than this.

To me, this is hate speech.

And there are so many things WRONG with her "argument" I just want to scream. It really gets my blood boiling.

I almost just walked away from it, because it made me so mad. But I really feel the need to address it this morning, because it is viewpoints like this that poison our humanity. And aren't we all in this together?!

A few points I would like to make:

The labour movement is fighting for EVERYONE'S wages to go up! Better conditions for all, that's the point of the labour movement! No fast food worker is saying "more for me at the expense of everyone else." No fast food worker is saying "I don't think the military deserves to earn more." If you told a fast food worker how little a Private or a Sergeant makes, you know what they would probably say? "THAT SUCKS! You should be striking with us! In fact, why aren't you...?"

Yes, fast food workers deserve to make more money. If you are living below the poverty line and cannot support yourself or your family on your income, you deserve to make more money.

Her comment about "working in a job designed for a kid in high school who is...earning enough for gas"... What is this, 1972?

You want to know who works in fast food places? Single moms and dads. People who have only known poverty all their life...it's a cycle that is practically impossible to escape from. Immigrants who come looking for a better life for their family, perhaps escaping persecution or terror in the land of their birth. They were architects, or engineers and now they sling burgers in the hopes that they'll make enough so their kids won't have to. They are very skilled, but not according to your immigration laws. And yes, teenagers work there as well. But I bet most of them are doing it to earn more than just gas money. They are paying for school, or they are helping to support their families.

This line really stings. "If you have chosen this as your life long profession, you have failed." (emphasis mine) This makes my heart so sad. No one chooses to live below the poverty line. Poverty makes your choices for you. A lot of those military boys that she is "honoring" with her post her, entered service because they were poor and they didn't think they had any better choice to support their family. They are dying overseas because they didn't want to work in a fast food joint. And they're still poor, and their families still on food stamps. Is that a fair choice to you?

Did you hear about the woman who died in her car from carbon monoxide poisoning because she was taking a nap in between shifts at one of her FOUR JOBS because she didn't have time to go home and sleep? And she needed the four jobs because she couldn't support her family on just the one (or two, or three). One guess what industry she worked in. She died for her shitty fast food job!

You know how much money the government would save by increasing the minimum wage? Loads! And you know why? Because all those services they pay for - you pay for - would disappear. Medicaid, welfare, food stamps could be a thing of the past because all of a sudden people could actually afford to buy stuff on their own! And not only that, they might have some left over money to spend on "luxuries" or saving for the future and that my friend helps the economy, yessirree!

And don't even get me started on the billionaires who lobby the government and convince them that raising the minimum wage would be a bad idea for everyone...that's BULLSHIT and they know it! What they really mean is that it would hurt their profits. Maybe they would only make 2 billion dollars next year instead of 10. Boo fricken hoo. And even though most of them complain about big government, and welfare programs, they benefit from all those government programs too, because that's their excuse for keeping their workers below the poverty line.

And if you want to educate someone, you don't call them names. "Baconator"...oh gosh. Wait, you aren't trying to educate anyone?! You're just ranting and spewing your hateful rhetoric all over the Facebooks where you can really get some back slapping from your buddies?! Right...thought so.

Before I removed it from my wall, my "friend's" post had received one like and one comment. I agreed with the commenter in saying that everyone including the military deserves a better wage. My "friend's" response to that: just eliminate the fast food positions....sigh....

I could go on and on. It is SHIT like this that made me take a break from Facebook. It makes me so fricken angry that there are still attitudes like this in our world.

I'll just stop here and see what kind of comments I get, if any. I would love to hear your opinion on this! Unless it's full of hate, because I get enough of that out there on the rest of the Internet. I don't have to tolerate it on my blog.

End.