Disability?

[Dyvyr]

Hi, I was wondering what's your view of the disabled. I'm in America and I get SSI, food stamps, section 8 and medicaid because I can't work. Republicans and Democrats I talk to agree I'm a lazy bum living large off their taxes, even though I'm barely above the poverty threshold. Most people don't say it to my face but online when they don't know I'm disabled they speak their minds. The libertarian view is even nicer, basically I should just die. I thought socialists might be better but the ones I talk to are focused on working people. This site seems to be as far left as it gets so I thought I'd try here.

[Q]

Welcome :)

If you have political questions, you can ask them in the Learning forum. That's why it's there after all!

If you have questions about your account, don't hesitate to send me a PM or ask here.

Although Revleft is not an organisation and as such doesn't have a united view on anything, I very much doubt you'd find anyone here thinking you're a "lazy bum" or some such. Communists are of the opinion that it is in fact the capitalists that are the main parasites of society, leeching off our labour, and should be done away with in order to bring society forward.

[Sasha]

What q said, though i wouldnt be suprised if you meet some individual stupid "if you dont work you dont eat" leftists in name only the vast mayority of the revolutionary left holds the view every human is a contrubution to society in their own way and should be taken care off. Also, in a post-capitalist post-scarcity world the amount of physical labour we need to perfrom to suply the nescecary conditions for our survival will be far lower to begin with, if you and fellow disabled pull your weight (as far as you can obviously) in other tasks (im sure you can still read books to kids, make art, do research etc etc) no person will have a problem working a few extra minutes on a maybe 12 hour workweek.

[Anglo-Saxon Philistine]

Hi, I was wondering what's your view of the disabled. I'm in America and I get SSI, food stamps, section 8 and medicaid because I can't work. Republicans and Democrats I talk to agree I'm a lazy bum living large off their taxes, even though I'm barely above the poverty threshold. Most people don't say it to my face but online when they don't know I'm disabled they speak their minds. The libertarian view is even nicer, basically I should just die. I thought socialists might be better but the ones I talk to are focused on working people. This site seems to be as far left as it gets so I thought I'd try here.

You're going to run into fake-socialist "the bummery is sealin' mah laybour" arseholes from time to time, but don't worry, we hate them as much as you do (possibly more). Socialists were the first to fight for things like disability insurance, Marx talked explicitly about reserving part of the social product for those who are unable to work in the lower phase of the communist society where, he predicted (it remains to be seen if the prediction will hold true), there will be rationing according to work preformed, and ultimately, we're fighting for a society where everyone will work, or not, according to their own inclinations, desires and capabilities, and everyone will share the social product.

Have you read anything about socialism? The one text I would recommend, which is a bit odd since I'm a sympathiser of the Spartacist League/US, and their politics are at odds with those of Shachtman to say the least, is the old program of the Workers' Party (written by said Shachtman), The Fight For Socialism (https://www.marxists.org/archive/shachtma/1946/ffs/index.htm). I think it's a good introduction to what socialism is. Now Shachtman had some flaky ideas about the Soviet Union being "bureaucratic-collectivist", but it doesn't really show in the program (it certainly showed in the actual politics of the WP).

Oh, and welcome to RevLeft.

[Tim Cornelis]

https://libcom.org/library/communism-real-movement-abolish-disability

May be useful.

[consuming negativity]

from each according to their ability, to each according to their need

you are among friends.

[RedWorker]

Republicans and Democrats I talk to agree I'm a lazy bum living large off their taxes

One typical detraction tactic of the ruling system is to make working people opposed to, for instance, disabled people or racial groups, instead of the real enemy - capitalists.


I thought socialists might be better but the ones I talk to are focused on working people.

Consider that there are a thousand tendencies all of which are lumped with the label 'socialist', and many of which probably consider only a few of these as authentically socialist.
Obviously, for socialists, workers are highly relevant, as they are the class with revolutionary potential. Still, for most socialists the rights of disabled people are an important topic.

In a communist society, all people would have free access to goods - at least, non-luxury ones and when not in times of scarcity. This includes the disabled.

But in capitalist society, communists generally support increasing the rights of the disabled.

In a capitalist society, the meaning of 'work' is tied to wage-labour. In a communist society, the meaning of 'work' will shift. If you can write Internet posts, then maybe you can also write computer programs and release them for free. Right now, this would not be considered 'work'. But in communist society this would be considered work.

In capitalism, the rights of disabled people are constantly at risk. Therefore, a revolutionary approach is required.

[Palmares]

I'm differently-abled, and on a disability pension. So if you take my presence on this site as an example (I'm also a mod), then certainly you should feel very welcome here.

:)

[Thirsty Crow]

Hi, I was wondering what's your view of the disabled. I'm in America and I get SSI, food stamps, section 8 and medicaid because I can't work. Republicans and Democrats I talk to agree I'm a lazy bum living large off their taxes, even though I'm barely above the poverty threshold. Most people don't say it to my face but online when they don't know I'm disabled they speak their minds. The libertarian view is even nicer, basically I should just die. I thought socialists might be better but the ones I talk to are focused on working people. This site seems to be as far left as it gets so I thought I'd try here.

I don't think it even matters what explicit political allegiance a person claims. Not engaging in shameful crap like this is just human decency and an exhibition of a correct grasp of the situation at hand. To expand on it, people who can't work should be able to access any resource for enjoying life - basic subsistence stuff can't be even questioned without me concluding some seriously fucked up shit is going on.

Welcome to the boards, hope you enjoy it.

[1xAntifa]

Heartily agree with all here. Dyvyr don't let the bastards get you down. With a broken body and slightly cracked mind I'm not exactly an exploitable economic resource either and the dissing from the able-bodied and ignorant is damaging. None the less I concur that even if such as we do not have gainful employment in the accepted capitalist sense, we are not useless hulks. We can and do contribute in a myriad of ways, from caring for our families, through simple community volunteer work to producing culture in various forms and our political activism.

Instead ponder what sort of culture demonises physical or mental impairment as if it were some kind of lifestyle choice..like, I woke up one day, decided to become 'disabled', to live in constant pain be it physical or mental, usually in poverty, with little respect from my fellow citizens so I could have a major bludge. And thats not counting kids born with some disabling impairment.

I spend a lot of my days drug-fucked on government issue opiates and it isn't by choice [and people do it for kicks?]. Right now here in oz the neocons in charge want the disabled back at work. This means cutting some off from their disability pensions. And they want a plastic card that will stop us from going out a-drinkin, whorin, and gamblin on the taxpayer dollar. The card is tied to two or three supermarket chains like Woolworths. Its going to be tough shit if you can buy food cheaper elsewhere, the card won't work.

By and large most lefties I've come across are usually far more compassionate than the right wing fucks who care for little else but profits.

Hang in there mate. You're among friends here.:thumbup:

[Dyvyr]

Thanks everyone! (I don't see thanks buttons or I'd click them.) I'll read those suggestions soon.