Welfare Hate--Biggots and Racists on Parade

On Friday, February 5th, at 2 p.m. I happened upon a facebook group called "Making Drug Tests Required to Get Welfare"--I think a Republican facebook friend had become a fan and I noticed it. That biggoted group didn't shock me but it's fan base count did: at that time the fan count was approximately 1,526,000 (yep, one point five million). That was halfway to God's fan base at the time (about 3.2 million); but well off of the Michael Jackson count. Still for an un-"social" issue such as this that seemed monumental and disturbing.

Well, I don't know what's happening but the fans keep on coming--about 72 hours later the count is now at approximately 1,750,000. That's about 3,100 fans per hour over that time period...holy smokes! (I had the thought that I should capitalize on this captive audience and sell them something, but alas, I discovered someone had beaten me to it--a screen printing company!).

I posted this tidbit on the Facebooks--I am still in shock--and a good friend contended that this was not an indication of a real "meme"--that Facebook fans are fickle and creatures of the moment--they'll fan anything. I wanted to believe this, but if you read the posts that people are willing to put their names and faces too (and their dog's faces and their kid's faces) you get a very different sense that people MEAN it.

The level of twaddle on the site is hard to believe but it is of a piece--here's a comment from someone who thinks they're being a logical economic sociologist:

The problem is revolving. Those taking advantage of the system, are also sending kids to school, who are in turn living in section 8 housing and not paying taxes to support the schools. Therefore, the schools are underfunded, needing more money, raising taxes, making areas too expensive too live in. This means that tha...t 70% of your paycheck you actuall recieve, lets hope you do not work overtime, gets chopped for all of these programs to support these people who do not feed back the system, while you are left saving to go to a nice dinner once a month, which you actully earned and was not given to you. Geeez, there is nothing wrong with justified help, but the best analoogy ever, "you keep feeding the ants, more will follow"!

But this is more represenative:

take their blackberry and there gucci threads away after you drug test them

And this is common too--a kind of proof of a love/hate relationship with Big Brother:

and maybe instead of so many ruthless auditors for the IRS, we need auditors for welfare, that come into your home and calculate everything. If theres more than a $20 discrepancy or a brand new pair of $300 nikes next to the front door, then you get cut off.

(Apparently the irony of a group of folks that likely want the government "out of their lives" wanting government to do more and spend more is palpable. However, the truth here is the government should serve "me and my kind" more than it serves you and your kind.)

The last two comments above display the real animus here: racism--and these ARE very representative comments. I scrolled through about 1,000 of the fans to SEE them--aside from the dark fur on some animal pictures there were only white faces.

I argued with those I know who had become fans of this: this is site for biggots and racists and I'm surprised there isn't a confederate flag used as a logo for the group. It's an appalling example of American Hate...is it unique in the world?

Here's a link to an ACLU site about the reasons why drug testing makes zero sense as a practical matter and a Constitutional matter.

And here's a link to a facebook group that's worth becoming a fan of--supporting same sex marriage.

They're only about a third of the way to the biggoted Welfare haters site in fan count--but here's hoping tolerance and a desire for equal protectioin will win the Facebook race for fan support. Better hurry--biggots just added another 3,ooo fans while wrote this. Now that's activism I can believe in.