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WaPo: Ben Carson says Poverty Is a 'State of Mind'

R

Rebel Leader

THE POWER OF BUTTERSCOTCH BOTTOMS
I didn't see this posted

"I think poverty to a large extent is also a state of mind. You take somebody that has the right mindset, you can take everything from them and put them on the street, and I guarantee in a little while they'll be right back up there," he said during an interview on SiriusXM Radio with Armstrong Williams, a longtime friend.

"And you take somebody with the wrong mindset, you can give them everything in the world, they'll work their way right back down to the bottom," Carson said.
Click to expand...

"I think the majority of people don’t have that defeatist attitude, but they sometimes just don’t see the way, and that’s where government can come in and be very helpful," he said. "It can provide the ladder of opportunity, it can provide the mechanism that will demonstrate to them what can be done."
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...mind-during-interview/?utm_term=.2945f7138e29
 
H

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
I sometimes think Ben Carson performed brain surgery on himself with the dumb shit that constantly spews from his mouth.
 
F

Fourth Storm

Member
He tries to save himself with that second bit, but he really wants to say that it's people's own fault that they're stuck in poverty.
 
G

Goldenroad

Member
Saying things is easy. Anyone with the right mindset can spew whatever garbage they want out of their mouths without having any empirical evidence to back up any of their claims.
 
H

HeatBoost

Member
So the widow who was laid off from her middle class job and lost her health insurance and now works multiple crummy borderline minimum wage jobs while living in what amounts to a storage container so she can pay to keep her sick kid alive... just needs the power of positive thinking?

Somebody better tell her
 
S

Stinkles

Clothed, sober, cooperative
Man I remember when we were kids and my single mom had to work three jobs and we were sometimes still hungry I'd think to myself, "mom you got to get your mind right."


I wish this man's wisdom had crossed time to reach us.
 
S

sturgboski

Member
Hmm, so that explains all the poor folks who voted for Trump?

Edit: Seriously this is pretty fucking offensive. However, it fits the narrative of the GOP of staffing folks who know nothing about what they are talking about in positions that have great ramifications.
 
Thaedolus

Thaedolus

Member
Republicans are highly effective at saying something which is true, but some minute piece of the puzzle that doesn't think past step 1 or 2.

Poverty indeed is a state of mind. And changing that requires more than just waking up one day and thinking "I'm ready to not be poor!"
 
D

Deepwater

Member
Pagusas said:
He's not wrong, but there is such more to it than just that.
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no, there's not really.

Saying "poverty is a state of mind" implies that the state of mind is the cause of poverty rather than the other way around.

Sociologists have done study after study linking (generational) poverty to all sorts of psychological and emotional depressants. Poor people typically have higher stress, anxiety, depression, less optimistic, and the way they handle money carries over even after they break into the middle class and up.

But no, it's not a "state of mind" it's a horrible thing that has devastating physical and mental health effects on people raised in it.
 
K

kirblar

Member
The second quote seems way more important than the first here, but will be overshadowed by it.

But yes he's clueless about the psychological effects of growing up under poverty.
 
S

Stinkles

Clothed, sober, cooperative
Pagusas said:
He's not wrong, but there is such more to it than just that.
Click to expand...

He is wrong though. At least as far as poverty is concerned.

Otherwise his entire point boils down to, "some people are great and some people are shit."

We don't need a brain surgeon to explain that. More importantly this is a person who cannot be tasked with helping people out of poverty.
 
G

geomon

Member
And there it is. Finally they fucking admit it. You see, poor people are poor because they choose to be poor.

I've waited my entire life for these fuckers to come out and say it.
 
I

InsanezX2

Member
robotrock said:
A broken clock is right twice a day
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IzE5kxV.jpg
 
P

Plinko

Wildcard berths that can't beat teams without a winning record should have homefield advantage
One of the most embarrassing human beings right now.
 
T

The Lamp

Member
The state of mind needed to be successful is also a function of your fucking upbringing, your access to basic human needs, and your educational opportunities, so way to fucking ignore the fact that many poor people don't have that, you outrageous cunt neurosurgeon. try an undergrad sociology class. Kids can't learn how to read or add when they're too hungry at school because you're gutting them and their families of food they're too poor to buy.
 
S

shawnbuddy

Member
Deepwater said:
no, there's not really.

Saying "poverty is a state of mind" implies that the state of mind is the cause of poverty rather than the other way around.

Sociologists have done study after study linking (generational) poverty to all sorts of psychological and emotional depressants. Poor people typically have higher stress, anxiety, depression, less optimistic, and the way they handle money carries over even after they break into the middle class and up.

But no, it's not a "state of mind" it's a horrible thing that has devastating physical and mental health effects on people raised in it.
Click to expand...

I agree. Carson's line of thinking allows people to think that if they have wealth they have earned and deserved it and that people who don't are just lazy or inferior or not tugging enough on their bootstraps, ignoring all the societal reasons for poverty. It's a justification the right uses for hard-hearteness and even bigotry. The sad thing is they've even convinced the poor of it, the line about "temporarily embarrassed millionaires" comes to mind.
 
L

Lo-Volt

Member
Carson is so lucky that he said this today, considering how many absurd stories are coming out of the Republican Party.
 
S

sturgboski

Member
Lo-Volt said:
Carson is so lucky that he said this today, considering how many absurd stories are coming out of the Republican Party.
Click to expand...

I want to see Ben Carson get into a slap fight with a reporter now after that Republican candidate bodyslammed one. And by slap fight I mean tussling the reporters hair and going "see I won."
 
B

BetterThanNothing

Member
royalan said:
What is right about this?

It's basically, "the rich are deserving; the poor are not" dressed up like a proverb.
Click to expand...

The correct part is that being poor does place one in a certain mindset that can entrap. An analogue to this is children who have been told that they are stupid or have placed lower in IQ tests will likely begin to do worse in school than they did before.

I don't agree at all with the agenda he is trying to push, but class based prejudice has very real consequences to those who are told they are 'lower' than others. Americans in particular are extremely harsh towards the poor and those ideas are harmful to the development of generations who have found themselves to be impoverished. It is a self defeating mindset.

The problem with Ben Carson's language is that he is suggesting that those who suffer from the psychological effects of this prejudice are somehow weak for succumbing to it, when in fact one's environment will always influence the behavior of the individual. He would choose a few outliers as examples of those who were, at the end of the day, simply more fortunate in any number of ways and then claim that they are successful because of their willpower alone. The evidence would suggest that the poorer classes work more than anyone else and work those hours simply to sustain, with nothing left over to invest in their potential future.
 
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