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Responding to efforts to cure a social ill by calling it a personal responsibility problem is, in context, implying that we should not be exerting those efforts

by mapt 2y ago

Responding to efforts to cure a social ill by calling it a personal responsibility problem is, in context, implying that we should not be exerting those efforts, that this is not our problem, this is their problem, that humans should just be better, why can't you just be better you piece of shit? It is a disinvitation to solutions, and the rest follows naturally from that. I think a lot of people are using this as a thought-terminating cliche without actually considering how hostile the stance is.

s1artibartfast 2y ago
it seems like a lot of projection and extrapolation. A widespread lack of individual agency and self-determination is both a cultural problem and should be viewed as a call to action. The question of why this is the case and what we can do about it is the interesting part. People do have personal problems. Ignoring that is like blinding one eye before assessing the situation
- mapt 2y ago
  Every problem is personal for the person facing it. When one looks at attempts to cure AIDs, and offers a contextual response of "This is a personal problem" or "This is a matter of personal responsibility", the only meaning of that which is legible is that we shouldn't collectively be trying to cure AIDs, that this isn't our business, and low-key, that sufferers deserve it for their behavior. That was practically the consensus social position forty years ago. We didn't have an obesity crisis. Now we have an obesity crisis. Did the human race just become less responsible? Or are they enduring a new, situational, societal-level problem that affects many people collectively based on the socioeconomic & cultural conditions they were born into? Conditions that didn't exist 20,000 or 1,000 or even 60 years ago. This is a longstanding conservative trope that excuses us from dealing with any and all social problems because we don't owe anything to each other. It is a declaration of social atomization. See also https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tp4FGAv2gks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tp4FGAv2gks

by mapt 2y ago

s1artibartfast 2y ago

it seems like a lot of projection and extrapolation. A widespread lack of individual agency and self-determination is both a cultural problem and should be viewed as a call to action. The question of why this is the case and what we can do about it is the interesting part. People do have personal problems. Ignoring that is like blinding one eye before assessing the situation

mapt 2y ago
Every problem is personal for the person facing it. When one looks at attempts to cure AIDs, and offers a contextual response of "This is a personal problem" or "This is a matter of personal responsibility", the only meaning of that which is legible is that we shouldn't collectively be trying to cure AIDs, that this isn't our business, and low-key, that sufferers deserve it for their behavior. That was practically the consensus social position forty years ago. We didn't have an obesity crisis. Now we have an obesity crisis. Did the human race just become less responsible? Or are they enduring a new, situational, societal-level problem that affects many people collectively based on the socioeconomic & cultural conditions they were born into? Conditions that didn't exist 20,000 or 1,000 or even 60 years ago. This is a longstanding conservative trope that excuses us from dealing with any and all social problems because we don't owe anything to each other. It is a declaration of social atomization. See also https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tp4FGAv2gks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tp4FGAv2gks