Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/05/25/ben-carson-thinks-poverty-is-a.html
…
6 Likes
I think that Ben Carson is a state of mind…
A VERY bad state of mind.
19 Likes
in his defense…he saw it happen in a documentary.
12 Likes
As much as I hate Rob’s mouth-eye pictures, it doesn’t make Ben Carson look all that different from his normal sleep-politicking self.
9 Likes
In a very narrow, specific way I kind of almost agree with him. In the sense that many of our wealthiest most influential citizens are deeply impoverished, and no amount of money is going to repair the damage to their sense of self worth.
Conversely, none of the windfalls Ive ever gotten in my life has ever solved my real problems, it just gave me a different perspective on them.
Money is not a noun, its a verb.
7 Likes
Come now, it’s such a rare treat.
The magic is to align the mouth opening with the bottom eyelid, and allow the subject’s palpebral fold or epicanthus to define the top lip’s border. Basically to adapt the mouth to the eye’s natural anatomy rather than just superimpose it. That way it’s a double-take that is more subtly unnerving rather than the instant close-the-tab nightmare of the earlier Corinthian shoops.
18 Likes
While I disagree with his point, yeah, being poor quickly becomes your state of mind. It can lead to a cognitive loop that removes all hope from your life. The roughest point in my life thus far was deep depression and unemployment. I got just enough money from my family to pay the minimum bills and eat hot dogs and cereal. Oh and mt dew. When you can’t even get a retail job during the Christmas rush, it wears on you. Every rejection is fulfilling the prophecy in your head. Trust me, I am “privileged” compared to many and it still did a number on me. (Combined with growing up fairly poor, on gov. cheese in the 80s, crying because a storm broke a window and I knew we had no money, etc)
So I was blessed my parents are still alive and were able to help. I am back on my feet now, but a lot of people lack family support, and the skill set I have, and honestly the above average education. Being stuck poor is often through no direct fault of their own.
Ironically, if you try to live like you aren’t poor you are seen as living beyond your means.
30 Likes
LANDLORD: You owe three months back rent on your luxury condo and I’ve noticed repo men have been by trying to collect your Bentley.
TENANT: Well, that’s one way of looking at it.
10 Likes
Gee, thanks, Ben. All this time poor people just needed to read this book:
16 Likes
The thing is, if poverty is just a state of mind, how does scourging the poor with scorpions change that state of mind?
Assuming that there is such an ideal state of mind, wouldn’t, I don’t know, say, education have something to do with attaining it? Or are we all supposed to follow the Trumpster’s example? Step 1: Be born into a rich family…
11 Likes
Exactly what I came here to say. Poverty does become a state of mind, because when you’re poor, IT’S THE ONLY FUCKING THING YOU CAN THINK ABOUT. And if you let go of that thought even for a moment, something will remind you of it and pull you right back in.
As a fellow past goverment cheese eater, I’m glad you’re back on your feet, as am I. I worked really hard to get here, but I also see that a huge mountain of privilege allowed that work to be fruitful.
24 Likes
Poverty itself is not a state of mind, but constantly struggling to get by, with little to no prospects of something better, being behind on bills, barely able to feed yourself and your family, etc. All these things do wear a person down and it becomes part of their state of mind. I know this from first hand experience.
Yes you can work on how you motivate yourself, what your plans are and what your outlook is, and work your way out. You absolutely can, but using the throwaway line that poverty is a state of mind massively undermines the bias the system has against those without means, the struggles that they face, all the businesses that take advantage of their limited options.
When you can’t afford to live comfortably you feel like the world is set up against you and that those with the means have all the advantages. You’re not wrong. Ben Carson is an idiot and the less we talk about him the better, he just needs to be sneered at and forgotten.
16 Likes
This is the core Republican tenet in a nutshell. Even the not-rich Republicans buy into this - because they either see themselves as on the road to getting rich (even if they’re clearly never going to get there), or they’re only poor because “someone else (i.e. a not-white person) took what ‘should’ have been theirs.”
There’s even research to support that - the stresses of being poor demonstrably cause people to start thinking differently. (And that’s not even counting the stressful situations that make most people poor in this country to begin with.)
11 Likes
People who think like Ben Carson tend to be the ones with whom I have the most difficulty negotiating a fair price to purchase my artwork. Go figure.
15 Likes
You’re one of those people who don’t take payment in exposure?
8 Likes
dude… this just encourages @beschizza
6 Likes
10 Likes
Oh, now, that’s obvious. If you don’t want the scorpions, then you will magically find a way not to be poor! If you stay poor, then it’s obviously because your mindset means you’ll put up with the scorpions.
If somebody has the wrong mindset, you could give them everything in the world, and they’ll work their way right back down to having people dump scorpions on them again…
3 Likes
