Friday, December 18, 2009

Like I said in comments

and previously on Twitter*

People don't like it when poor people write about poverty. We can't possibly be the experts on our own lives.

It's not the same thing, having poor people write about their condition, as it is having women write about feminism or POC writing about racism or PWD writing about abelism.

I think the reason for this is that everyone likes to think they KNOW what poverty feels like. Everyone except the highest ups has had that period where money was tight and Mac and Cheese was the only thing on the menu (or Top Ramen cause milk and butter for Mac and Cheese is expensive).

But this is generally a temporary situation while in school or between jobs or just after divorce. There is still hope of better things to come. There is a way out, sooner or later.

Real poverty is hopeless. It is the elimination of choices. It is being the stupid rat in a maze without a door to the cheese. It is a pit of despair with no way out.

So I ask myself, when reading other people who write about poverty, does this person know what the fuck they are talking about? Are they coming from a place of privilege, oblivious to the realities but trying desperately to sound like they care, or do they know, they way I do, what it feels like to have the Welfare office question your living arrangements to make sure you aren't hiding a boyfriend with a paycheck so you can get food stamps for your kid?

This doesn't mean the non-poor can't be allies, but it does mean that they should sit down, shut up and listen real hard when an actual poor person tells them they're wrong. Just like with all the other isms. It's an oppression folks, and the people who understand it best are the oppressed.

*You trying writing several thousand posts over the course of many years and see if you don't become a fricken broken record.

In the end

all that will be left of health care reform is a mandate to buy health insurance.

No single payer, no public option, no medicare expansion. No affordability, or price controls, or end to cherry picking.

Just a mandate to buy a flawed product from corrupt companies that have no interest in health or care.

There's some change for ya. I never thought I'd say it, but at least Bushco didn't want to charge those of us without health insurance for the privilege of not having to deal with the insurance companies.

Techie Help Por Favor

So Haloscan is going away. I have 13 days to either pay the 10 bucks to keep my comments and transfer them to something called echo or find another free comment plugin that will let me import all the old haloscan comments. Not having internet access means I can't spend the required hours searching the interwebs and reading reviews and playing with the template to find a new platform.

So peeps- advice, suggestions? Do you use a free commenting service that you like? Anyone using Echo? Is it worth the $10 (please remember that my income this month is about $100 - so $10 is ALOT of fricken money).

Things I like about haloscan- the power of the edit. I like being able to replace dickweed's misogynist comments with songs about their tiny penii. I like that when the internet is gone away I can check haloscan comments on my phone (though i can't comment back on my phone)so even when I'm lost in space I can see what you all are saying.

Things I don't like- the totes anonymous nature of it. No screen name required, no email required.