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To the contrary, this mentality is alive and well in America. HN's own yummyfajitas usually drops in on these kinds of threads with a lot of links proving that

To the contrary, this mentality is alive and well in America. HN's own yummyfajitas usually drops in on these kinds of threads with a lot of links proving that the poor deserve to be poor due to their own poor decision-making.

cryptarch 9y ago
It's called the "just world fallacy": everything that happens to you is because you deserve it. Easy worldview to have if you consider yourself well-off.
- jackhack 9y ago
  I read a book by a French philosopher about this very subject. The main character remained optimistic even though he and his professor friend encountered a world of trouble. It described a brutal, yet somehow ideal world filled with endless horrors and tragedy. Can't recall the title, but the story itself was quite candid.
  - telotortium 9y ago
    Candide by Voltaire
    - CRConrad 9y ago
      Check the last word in the GP -- I think that was intentional.
ythn 9y ago
Why does it have to be so black and white? On the one hand personal responsibility goes out the window and nothing is anyone's fault. Poor? Not your fault. Addicted? Not your fault. On the other extreme personal reponsibility accounts for everything. Poor? Your fault. Addicted? Your fault. There must be a balance between the two.
- biofox 9y ago
  A voice of reason! I don't know why these discussions become so polarised, so quickly. Most of the time, it seems if two competing theories have supporting evidence, then there's probably some truth to both of them. Nature or nurture? Free market or regulation? Individualism or collectivism? Career or family? Fat or carbs? The truth, or optimal choice, always seems to lie somewhere in the middle... some combination of the two. Yet, more often than not, we immediately devolve into partisan camps fighting for one side.
  - anigbrowl 9y ago
    Because American society has been sorting itself into camps of radically different worldviews over the last several decades, as is easily observed in the decline of Congressional bipartisanship. American Nations by Colin woodard is the best history book I've read on the origins of these competing worldviews. Email me at gmail if you want links to unpublished and rather turgid but substantively fascinating research on the topic by a former intel analyst (not me).
  - Danihan 9y ago
    Tribalism
  - projektir 9y ago
    > The truth, or optimal choice, always seems to lie somewhere in the middle... That sounds like the fallacy of the middle. And remember that "middle" is relative. Your middle is someone else's far left.

cryptarch 9y ago

It's called the "just world fallacy": everything that happens to you is because you deserve it. Easy worldview to have if you consider yourself well-off.

jackhack 9y ago
I read a book by a French philosopher about this very subject. The main character remained optimistic even though he and his professor friend encountered a world of trouble. It described a brutal, yet somehow ideal world filled with endless horrors and tragedy. Can't recall the title, but the story itself was quite candid.
- telotortium 9y ago
  Candide by Voltaire
  - CRConrad 9y ago
    Check the last word in the GP -- I think that was intentional.

ythn 9y ago

Why does it have to be so black and white? On the one hand personal responsibility goes out the window and nothing is anyone's fault. Poor? Not your fault. Addicted? Not your fault. On the other extreme personal reponsibility accounts for everything. Poor? Your fault. Addicted? Your fault. There must be a balance between the two.

biofox 9y ago
A voice of reason! I don't know why these discussions become so polarised, so quickly. Most of the time, it seems if two competing theories have supporting evidence, then there's probably some truth to both of them. Nature or nurture? Free market or regulation? Individualism or collectivism? Career or family? Fat or carbs? The truth, or optimal choice, always seems to lie somewhere in the middle... some combination of the two. Yet, more often than not, we immediately devolve into partisan camps fighting for one side.
- anigbrowl 9y ago
  Because American society has been sorting itself into camps of radically different worldviews over the last several decades, as is easily observed in the decline of Congressional bipartisanship. American Nations by Colin woodard is the best history book I've read on the origins of these competing worldviews. Email me at gmail if you want links to unpublished and rather turgid but substantively fascinating research on the topic by a former intel analyst (not me).
- Danihan 9y ago
  Tribalism
- projektir 9y ago
  > The truth, or optimal choice, always seems to lie somewhere in the middle... That sounds like the fallacy of the middle. And remember that "middle" is relative. Your middle is someone else's far left.