Various carping about Mitt Romney's "47%" remark

[jessm78.livejournal.com]

Anyone have any flisters mentioning/bitching about this?

I have a liberal flister who is usually a very respectful person. We've agreed to disagree on a bit. But she wrote a long rant in her LJ yesterday about it. She thought it was "cruel" of Romney to say that remark about 47% of Americans wanting to be treated like victims, etc. To be honest, I scrolled right past it because I didn't feel like getting into an argument. I'd had a long day and wasn't in the mood.

Last night a British friend-of-a-friend had to make a snide remark about it though. One of my British flisters was complaining about fanfiction, and how it's annoying when people "Americanise" their characters, and what's the big deal if someone writes a fic using British spelling or colloquialisms. Her friend commented:

"And criticism because someone isn't using the proper "American" words. Well, newsflash all Americans, your language is just a worse version of "proper English" i.e BRITISH ENGLISH. So shut up!"

I seriously hate when they throw that card around, that our English is a "dumbed-down" version of their "proper" English. My friend herself challenged her a little, saying it wasn't just Americans who do it. I finally had to say something and asked her not to generalize like that. I personally don't care if I'm reading fic and it's in British English. I mean, yeah, if you're reading a published novel about American characters *in* America getting something out of the boot of their car, or giving someone a "five note", it might feel a little out of place, but that's just me. My friend later assured me that this girl was just kidding. Maybe I'm clueless, but usually when people kid on the net, they'll put something like "LOL" or ";)" or whatever.

Anyway, to get back to the whole thing about Romney's statement, that friend-of-a-friend replies to my comment with:

"Okay... I'm not doing a Mitt Romney "47% of all Americans" if that's what you're referring to, no."

Is this not a big deal at all and she's just trying to tell me she's not generalizing? Was Romney really generalizing when he made this statement? Personally I didn't really find anything wrong with it, although a few people told me there are people who are actually struggling and are part of that percentage. It's obvious what she thinks of him, but I could have done without that I think.

Comments

[kataoi.livejournal.com]

This is going back by about 8 months, but I suddenly had a lightning bolt this morning about the whole 47% thing. It's exactly the thing that was brought up last year with the whole "we are the 99%", and its counter-movement, the "we are the 53%". I suddenly realized (because I'm thick) that holy crap Romney actually gets that. 47+53=100 whee math. Hilarious to me, because at the time, I did a still life project where I out-and-out said that it's my view on taxes (awkward "social view still life" go go go) and dropped the 53% movement by name. I was shocked as the the professor and the rest of the class agreed - good ol' hippie art school surprising me. However, I imagine these are the same people flipping their shit about Romney's remarks.

I understand there are people who can't pay their taxes due to legitimate reasons. However, I do not think that number is or should be 47%.

As for the language thing - it's funny you bring that up the semester I'm taking Linguistics. The fun is learning the evolution of British and American English, and how screwed up both of them are. Actually, every language is a weird mess of sounds, let alone spellings. When you have the direct influence of cultures like the US did, of course your language is going to change. blah rawgr language

[jessm78.livejournal.com]

Wow, now that you mentioned that.... that does fit. Wow, pretty amazing that they all agreed with you on that. Back in school I was a geology student and as you can imagine, most of my fellow students were liberals. This was back during the whole election 2000 recount mess. My university has sometimes been deemed the "Berkeley of the east coast." Students protested in the rain in 2002 against going to war in Iraq and all other sorts of things. The students in my department were pretty reasonable, though, and some of the older ones and professors were actually somewhat conservative. I was expecting huge fights about Bush vs. Gore, but when I explained to a few people why I preferred Bush over Gore, they understood and didn't give me a hard time. Totally not what I was expecting.

I agree, that number should definitely not be part of the 47%. I have to admit I haven't paid much in taxes this past year, but I was out of a job and looking for a new one the good part of the year (and I lost my new job when the company ended up doing worse than they expected at the time I was hired). I could never include myself in that 47% either. I wouldn't expect or want the government to give me handouts. I'm actively looking for a job, living within my means and getting by on what I'd saved.

That's really interesting. I took a Linguistics class once, and I liked learning about the language in the USA and its roots, plus how the different dialects appeared depending on the region of England the settlers were from. It didn't get further than that, though - it was more of an Intro class that I needed for an upper division requirement, lol. I've read more them, though, and I agree as far as how screwed up they are and all the influences on culture and origins and all that.

[gotsparkly.livejournal.com]

A friend of mine summed this phenomenon up beautifully on Twitter:

Romney calls 47% of Americans "victims". People respond by sounding like victims. #Ironic

[litlover12.livejournal.com]

Heh.

[jessm78.livejournal.com]

Hah! That's awesome :)

[lazypadawan.livejournal.com]

What Romney said was correct. Why should the people who pay no income tax care if there are ever increasing taxes on those who do pay, especially if a significant number of those who don't pay income tax benefit from those programs? We have a record number of people on food stamps. This should be a national scandal. But the government made it easier to get on food stamps. If you make $60K a year, you qualify for food stamps in Hawaii! The cost of living there is pretty high, but come ON. It used to be kind of embarrassing to be on food stamps but the attitude people have now is, if somebody's giving it, why not take it? The left wants greater dependency because it buys votes, while it expects the ants to keep working for the grasshoppers.

That's why I support the idea of a flat tax. Everybody pays, rich or poor. Maybe then everyone would care where the money goes and how much is being wasted. Imagine a tax system where you're encouraged to do better instead of being penalized for success.

[jessm78.livejournal.com]

Just want to say I totally agree. This situation is really disgusting. And I find it hilarious that all the people who are offended by this are people who wouldn't be voting for Romney anyway. Like that liberal flister of mine who was all outraged... I felt like saying to her "And? He was never going to get your vote anyway."

[brendala.livejournal.com]

That remark about food stamps is so true. I'm only 27 years old; but I remember that there was still some shame attached to food stamps and welfare when I was a kid (I should know, my family was on them :P). And then, four years ago, I ended up working in a public school district where it was unusual for a kid to NOT be on government assistance.

And one of my co-workers (who came from a middle class background) just casually told me about how she planned to apply for food stamps once she and her boyfriend got their new apartment together. I didn't say anything because she was one of the few folks there that I liked and I didn't want to start a fight; but all I could think was "you're going on about starting an INDEPENDENT life with your boyfriend and you're announcing your intention to use food stamps!? Do you not see the contradiction there!?"
I just couldn't believe that someone would volunteer the fact that they were getting food stamps. I certainly wouldn't want others to know if I was on them.


I understand the left's desire to remove the "stigma" attached to being on government assistance. I was teased for being poor as a kid; and I certainly wouldn't wish that on anyone else (especially the ones who fall on hard times through no fault of their own). But I just wish there was some way to restore a sense of dignity and pride in the under-30 demographic. Not to mention a sense of shame for being young & able-bodied and taking assistance that could help a struggling elderly widow or something.

[kharmii.livejournal.com]

The left removed the stigma when they started this 'Everyone's a Victim' movement. There was an article in the Tribune this morning about a woman who had her kids taken away because two of them died under mysterious circumstances within six months of each other. She was a 21 year old woman living in a homeless shelter with five kids, and now two are dead. I realize I'm supposed to feel sorry for her and see her as a victim, yet I can't help but think she's a freakin' moron for choosing to have that many kids before the age of twenty. Unless she's literally retarded and was molested, she should know better than to think that's a good idea.