8 Matching Annotations
  1. May 2022
    1. the underprivileged are priced out of the dental-treatment system yet perversely held responsible for their dental condition.

      How does this happen?

      Is it the idea of "personal responsibility" and "pull yourself up by the bootstraps" philosophy combined with lack of any actual support and/or education?

      There has to be a better phrase or word to define the perverse sort of philosophy espoused by many in the Republican party about this sort of "personal responsibility".

      It feels somewhat akin to the idea of privatize profits and socialize the losses. The social loss is definitely one that is pushed off onto the individual, but who's profiting? Is it really so expensive to fix this problem? Isn't the loss to society and public health akin to the Million Dollar Murray problem?

      Wouldn't each individual's responsibility be better tied to the collective good as well as their own outcomes? How can the two be bound together to improve outcomes for everyone all around?

  2. Nov 2021
  3. Oct 2021
  4. Sep 2021
    1. The willingness to trade other peoples' fundamental rights for preferential tax treatment fits neatly into all three of these, as does the delusion that somehow this can be resolved with sufficient "personal responsibility."

      We know enough about psychology and behavioral economics to know that "personal responsibility" is not going to save us.

      This is in even higher relief when we see laws applied in unclosed systems or where other loopholes exist to help the privileged. Frank Wilhot's idea sums things up fairly well:

      "Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect."

  5. Sep 2017
    1. whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”

      When I lecture in Intro to Socy, I spend a great deal of time on this statement to help them grasp the fundamentals of the sociological imagination. While network theory may seem like common sense, it directly challenges the ideology of individualism and pull yourself up by your bootstraps. If you accept that others influence you, then you have to begin to accept the realities of privilege and discrimination. This can often be too much cognitively, particularly for privileged students who prefer to think of their benefits as wholly earned. SNA reveals how inequality is produced and reproduced.

    1. this is common sense.

      I too believe this is common sense. This is why I am always struck by how tightly people hold to the 'pull yourself up by your bootstaps' model of thinking. It also reveals how you can tell ideology from practice. Those who profess the bootstraps also move their children to good schools and neighborhoods b/c they know this is common sense. Does this make sense?