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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]It's SO weird to me that people in poverty are expected to hold themselves to a high standard when it comes to food choices, but nobody freaks out when rich people to eat the Takis and Mountain Dew.

America has this weird belief that people in poverty, single moms, BIPOC are all supposed to hold themselves to a higher standard than the average middle class white dude. [/quote]

I don't think they have to hold themselves to a higher standard. They just also have a choice to eat healthy or not - same as anyone else. They aren't eating unhealthy due to circumstance but by choice.[/quote]

There are circumstances where it’s really hard to make good choices. But if we want people to make better choices, we need to be realistic about why it’s hard for them, and lack of access to healthy options is not high on the list. [/quote]

So it’s not a higher standard at all but an acknowledgment they can’t even meet the minimum standard.[/quote]

I don’t know that this is a particularly  helpful way of thinking about it? It would be good if even people who are not particularly good at functioning could live happy, healthy, and fulfilling lives. At the moment, a lot of them can’t. Half this thread is people saying “oh it’s just because their material circumstances are so bad” and that’s false, but saying “too bad, sucks to suck” is also lousy. [/quote]

But let’s stop saying they are being held to a higher standard. They clearly are not. They are functioning at an extremely low standard and many are coming up with any and every excuse imaginable to explain it, no matter how absurd. Like they live in dirt hovels with no running water, electricity, or a pot to pee in. That’s just not true in the US.[/quote]

Honestly? You’ve never seen a tent city?  Do you know how many people live in their cars? In motels? In shelters?  In a house but don’t want to use utilities because of the expense? Couch surfing?  People who rent a room with a bunch of others in a big house that may have utilities, but no actual access to those because they’re sleeping in the halls?  Migrant workers who live in portables and the like? People who may have utilities but work 18 hours a day?

For an educated group here, it’s shocking how absolutely ignorant some of you are. [/quote]

Cut the holier than thou crap. About 12% of Americans are on SNAP. Only .1% of Americans are homeless. Do you know what you’re talking about?[/quote]

See, you have no desire to understand the problem. Many of the situations I described above would in no way be described as homeless, which is a  very distinct definition that in no way predicts access to food or the actual living conditions of many people. A fixed address, even if you live in a hall, with 12 other people in a house means you are not homeless. If you live in a motel room with a bed and a bathroom, you are not homeless. Aside from that, we are discussing poverty in relation to food insecurity, and even food insecurity isn’t the issue at hand if it’s deemed people have “access” to food. Your statistic about Being on SNAP is not always an indicator of food insecurity, because you have to qualify to be included in that stat, and not everyone does.

Being able to access and cook nutritious food is also not the same as food insecurity, where it is an issue of having enough food at all.

You want to understand the problem as you want to understand it, which in your mind is a very small percentage of people. You really are out of touch with what many people are living, even if outwardly it doesn’t look that way. It’s sad.

[/quote]

Give me a break. You’re sitting in your ivory tower pretending to preach and you, yourself, are no authority and aren’t being taken seriously because you’re all about feelings with no data to back it up. Next.[/quote]

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