This is article displays what an extreme right wing authoritarian believes. In particular about responsibility and choice. I bolded certain statements and then respond to them below their thoughts. Finally I add my own general comments related to the topic.
Beginning of Right Wing Authoritarian Thought Process-
The basic underlying principle I have is that people are responsible for their own actions and choices. Rich or poor you are the only one responsible for your choices. Nobody owes anyone anything. There are different kinds of people and some are better than others.
My family was poor to lower middle class. My father only had an 8th grade education. His family were farmers who lost their farm during the great depression. They migrated from Texas to California. He stayed behind for a few years to work on his Uncle's farm before he too came to CA. He worked as a farm hand and did other odd jobs. He chose to work very hard. At one point he was working 3 jobs so my parents could buy a house. My mom was abandoned by her mom when she was 10 and spent at least 6 years in foster care. She married my father at 16.
Together my parents made the choices to work hard, save money, buy a house and raise 5 kids all who made different choices. The oldest married at 17 and is still married. One worked in a orange processing plant, chose not to move up into management and was just laid off after working there for 30 years. He is accepting of the choices he made. The middle one went to bars, met a guy who didn't work got married had 5 kids she couldn't afford and lived on welfare for 12 years. She believes she is 'owed' and expects handouts. She doesn't take responsibility for any of her choices. She finally divorced and remarried a man who works. The 4th kid chose to drink and do drugs. Selfishly causing fear and pain for years. He died last year at the age of 49.
I worked hard, went to collage and have a good job. I have had more success than my older siblings. I have a higher standard of living than any of my siblings. It is due to the choices each of us have made. Nothing was handed to me Nothing was handed to my parents. They chose to work hard. They chose to make decisions to better their family. I chose to go to school and work hard. I earned scholarships and took out loans to pay for school. I chose to have a better life. I chose how to save for the rainy day and retirement. I am not responsible for the choices of my siblings. I do not owe them anything. They must face the consequences of their own actions. I could of chosen to be the victim and stay stuck in the adverse beginnings I was given. The rich and their money have no impact on my choices. I could of chosen to not to work hard, not to go to school. I could of just whined, oh woe is me life is not fair, everybody has more money. I can't do anything. Poor me. Someone needs to give me money because I'm poor. I chose to be responsible for my life and it's outcome.
Too many people are quick to play the victim role and abdicate personal responsibility. The "oh poor me" mentality is limited and selfish. Just because I made good choices doesn't mean I have to take care of those that didn't. They need to take responsibility for their own condition. Those that expect/demand a handout, a freebee are the selfish and greedy ones. Some rich are born rich. Yet some worked very hard to get there. They shouldn't be forced to give up what they have earned because someone else is greedy and expects everything to be handed to them. They are not lucky, they worked hard. I am not lucky. I deserve what I have because I earned it, I didn't win it, it wasn't handed to me, I wasn't lucky. I earned it. I made the choices I needed and I worked very hard. I shouldn't be forced to pay more in taxes to give money to the poor who chose not to better themselves and take the easy way.
My tax dollars should go to provide basic services a community needs. Fire protection, police, education, government, military. Education is the key. Not enough tax dollars go to education. I'm torn about social services. Because it is the children who suffer for their parents poor choices. Our current system rewards the poor choice makers.
I quote I clipped from a calendar sums it up "If we believe ourselves to be victims, we become victims to justify our belief. If we believe ourselves to be responsible and capable, we become responsible and capable to justify our belief. And in both cases, we reap the results - or the excuses - that our attitudes create for us."
End of Right Wing Authoritarian Thought Process
My Responses:
Before I begin I will be using the pronoun "you" as if I was talking to this person specifically in the rest of this post.
After thinking about it I realized the main thinking flaw in the thought process, which was RIGID thinking. No shared responsibility, no cooperation, no meeting half way, no talk on probabilities, no consideration of environment or internal (mental health) or external conditions, most of the time the thinking was Black and White, All-Or-Nothing, and inflexible. They focus on the relatively little money spent to help people enormously and ignore the enormous money being acquired, wasted and trapped by the super powerful, that could be used to create a great society. They don't care about how skinny or long the tightrope is that people have to balance on to avoid falling into the abyss.
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