I've never shared a story on the internet about a hardship I've endured, large or small, without an apologist coming somewhere out of the woodwork to make assumptions that the only way I could have such shitty luck with people is by making a whole lot of bad choices. Apologists who have never met me, know nothing of my personality or socioeconomic background, what my childhood was like, nothing. Just strict, close-minded judgement based on preconceived notions. Congratulations, you're a statistic.

> If you were a minor, you would have been a ward of the state. They would have paid to take care of you. You wouldn't even have to work.

My experience with the State is that foster care where I grew up is the last place you want to be if you at all want a decent shot at a good future. We could talk about criminal indoctrination, institutionalization, lack of resources, lack of boundaries, lack of personal space and belongings, I mean really there are so many reasons why being a ward of the state fucking sucks.

> You could live, go to school, and get all your needs met for free.

In highschool, my mother didn't have a job. We were homeless at times. My sister tried very hard to stay in school but dropped out. My brother had the luxury of living with some extremely abusive relatives who fucked him up in the head and he dropped out as well. I took matters into my own hand and first worked hard to get accepted in a boarding school, and later when that didn't work out found a place to live, found a way to get to a job, and finished out high school. Getting an education was really important to me, and I did it despite an abusive, impovershed and malnourished childhood, despite my parents not being in my life or keeping jobs to help support me, despite a lot of things. And somehow you're finding a way to condemn me for it? How incredibly close-minded and judgemental of you.

> The life of a guy I grew up friends with reminds me of you and what you went through. He never listened to good advice and always ended up in bad situations.

Yes, GreenToad5, because we go way back as you know, and you know all about me. You know people that remind you of me, and you know that I never listen to good advice and always end up in bad situations. Just like your other friend, whom I'm not entirely inclined to believe you have made an accurate assessment of. Please, tell me all about my life and the mistakes you've seen me make. Pigeon-hole me some more with the handful of lazy shits you know.

> It is clear just by your demeanor and manipulation of facts that you have some challenges brought on by yourself.

This is literally delusional thinking. Nothing is clear based on what I wrote. I wrote two very vague and summarized posts about large portions of my life. You don't a single thing about any of the events I described except that they happened. It's insane to think you could derive anything else from that, even if you had a PhD in Psychology, which you obviously don't.

> If you are a minor, the state will take care of you. If you are broke and not a minor, pass a GED, then get financial aid for a Junior College or Trade School.

Again, I decided to get a job and work through highschool while homeless and parentless. And I passed high school with nearly a 4.0GPA and got a scholarship to every college I bothered applying to, with several full rides and paid-for state tuition. On track to actually do what I want to do, not settle for some stupid bargain job through a trade school, spending the rest of my working life doing something I don't like. As life would have it, a vindictive teacher illegally modified my final grade and refused to apply mandatory points that would still have passed me despite her modifications, and I failed a core class and had to forfeit all of my scholarships. Believe me, I was at the schoolboard, I was in the principal and guidance counselor's offices, I did not let it go--- and I was promised it would be fixed. And it never was.

Somehow you'll tell yourself that I must be lying, the system is perfect, it could never fail someone so badly and that teacher would surely have lost her job. Well, that's what I thought too when I put so much time into doing well in school.

So I didn't get to go to college unless I got massively in debt with the State. Instead of taking out loans like my peers, I continued to educate and support myself until present day where I am now happily employed as a software engineer with an actual sane boss. While my peers are still wrestling with student debt and working low-salary jobs despite parental financial aid. I bet somehow that's the wrong decision, too.

I have done so well for myself in spite of adversity, and honestly I'm very proud of myself for even being alive today, much less happily employed in the field I wanted. But the worst part about all I've gone through is that I feel afraid to share my experiences with others because I know that even without the loudmouth jerks such as yourself, many people will simply silently disbelieve me. It really sucks having to defend the same stories over and over and over again until finally you give up ever offering any explanation for the way things are.

> Making laws based on emotions and feelings have got us nowhere in the last 80 years

Emotions have nothing to do with this. I was sharing some of my experiences with the hope that they would add value to the conversation.

> Look at all the government programs and affirmative action that have been made for African Americans over the last 80 years... Yet their poverty levels remain exactly the same. Why?

Oh. Wow. Ok, I get it now. You're one of those. One of those people who can't understand socioeconomic oppression when it's staring you right at the face. One person sees that the black community is still impoverished 60 years after the Civil Rights movement and places blame on the government for not doing enough to reverse hundreds of years of institutional racial oppression. You see the same thing and decide to blame the poor person for still being poor.

> We have created a culture of public assistance dependence and generations of "victims" with all the welfare.

Classic diversion argument. We spend over 50% of the federal budget on our war machine each year, more than the next 13 countries combined, we lose billions to tax havens and loopholes and lobbyist tactics, and you want to talk about the underfunded garbage that is our excuse for State welfare.

It's so incredible that on one hand you chastise me for working my way through school, telling me I should have freeloaded off the state and not worked at all, and then on the other hand you piss all over state welfare and its recipients. The level of mental gymnastics required for such cognitive dissonance is just incredible. You're a serious intellectual titan.

I don't want to change your mind. I'm not going to be able to. I know that. I'm not interested in speaking with extremely close-minded people, especially when they're just plain frustrating to talk to. Go ahead and make your long-winded judgemental reply, but don't expect one in return.

https://www.nationalpriorities.org/campaigns/military-spendi...