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It’s wild that people are so mad about the fudge rounds line. Poor people are often forced into situations where they eat unhealthy foods. Why should food aid programs help fund American obesity rather than tackle it? Is that not the same as declaring tomatoes a vegetable so we can keep serving pizza to to schoolkids?
It doesn't help fund obesity, it helps feed people.
People who live in a food desert and can only access bad food.
You don't ask the "keep people from starvation" fund to also be the "fix systemic class based wage structures" fund
Oddly I'm not bothered by that line so much. I'm more disappointed with the title and the chorus. Richmond, being the capital of Virginia was a border state of the Civil War. Yes technically Washington DC is very much north of Richmond, but I think the song resonates more with a certain crowd due to the former reason vs the latter.
The song could have been better IMO if it targeted LOCAL governments by state, instead of trying to blame Rich Men North of Richmond. As if Rich Men South of Richmond wasn't a thing...
i’m not buying it. Sure he could be a confederate apologist but if you are writing a song about some rich old dudes in DC screwing the rest of us over its some hard rhymes. When I heard the song he pronounced the word “rich men” and “richmond” nearly identically. I was like what does “rich men north of rich men” mean, then later I heard “richmond north of richmond”
Looking at the lyrics he was complaining that we have people in the streets with no food to eat while there are obese people getting fat on welfare. Sounds like he thinks government is incompetent.
I saw a stat years ago that if we took all the money we spent each year on welfare and just gave the people those programs were trying to help straight cash we would have 5x the amount needed to push them all over the poverty line.
*Something, something can't give money to poor people. Something, something, give money to rich people. *
The bullshit argument that is all about hating and punishing poor people. With nice extra boot lick the rich.
Yeah I heard that argument from the “right” and “left” yeah people would gamble all their money away then what.
Its basic income, if you want more go produce something. But we should treat people like adults and stop treating them like children.
I don't think Virginia was technically a border state in the civil war? MD. WV, and KY were southern states blanketing Virginia. When the government moved through Baltimore, didn't they have to point federal hill and Fort McHenry cannons at Baltimore to stop the city from rioting against the government army?
Deciding what food people get to eat with their food assistance money is disturbingly authoritarian.
Deciding what food people get to buy would be a bad solution to that problem anyways
Working to have healthy options be more affordable and available seems like it'd help and it doesn't seem disturbingly authoritarian
Food assistance is already regulated. No hot food, no pet food, no vitamins, no beer or wine, etc
So now add 'no sugar' to that? Look, I don't like that there's an obesity epidemic, but that's basically telling poor people they can't enjoy food they like. I don't think that is the right way to help people.
I'm not saying we should or that it is.
I was just pointing out that food assistance is already regulated based on there being some things people may enjoy or want that the government has determined they can not use that assistance to purchase.
Largely, it would seem, based on the fact that those things bad for them (alcohol), that it's not an efficient use of funds (hot food; any food intended to be eaten on premises), or it's not actually caloric in any way (vitamins).
I'm bothered by it because he's just repeating Raegan. At least try to convince me you're a populist, come on.
Are people mad or is media saying people are mad and then people are agreeing with media.
I often find now that media creates a bunch of controversy on behalf of artists or comedian's were no shits were given. But like a "man on the street" bit, when confronted by a view like "the song calls people fat" then people who never gave two shits might say this things like " that's kind of shitty"
I actually don't see a lot of it in the media. I do see a lot of it in terminally online and too-plugged-in places like Twitter, here, Reddit, Mastodon, and political YT.
I have no idea if the media is saying people are mad, the only place I’ve seen angry comments is here on Lemmy. Fair point though, maybe it really is just media controversy.
I think it's just as much that it's good stamps buying the junk food. The point is he's mad poor people are making a poor choice. I don't really see any sympathy for the fudge round eater.
“Well, God, if you’re 5-foot-3 and you’re 300 pounds, taxes ought not to pay for our bags of fudge rounds.”
The implication is that if to pay for your own food, be as fat as you can, but if you are poor you better act how other people think you should act.
The point seems to be less that poor people are making a poor choice, and more that his money is being used to facilitate that poor choice.
People often have the idea that “it’s my money being taxed, why shouldn’t I have a say?” And I can at least sympathize with that.
Then why isn't he complaining about the U.S. military-industrial complex rather than what a tiny percentage of the tax dollar is spent on?
It seems to me that paying for killing brown people is a lot worse than paying for fudge rounds for fat Americans.
I can't.