And the Aggressive Secularist is back, in a different place. Lots to get angry about with changes to the NHS and the constant rudeness about social security (“welfare”) at the moment. It’s sometimes said that you don’t judge someone by who their friends are, but who they decide to make their enemies, especially in politics. I can never remember the difference between a striver and a shirker, but it doesn’t really matter. There’s a massive shift in the use of language going on. A “welfare state” made up of “strivers and shirkers” sounds very different to receiving “social security”. The right-wing tabloids refer to social security payments as “benefits” and “handouts”. However, a lot of how much you get depends on national insurance contributions. Most of the social security bill goes on state pensions, but that’s not what you’d believe if you listen to the press. The level of benefit fraud is also very low: less than 1%. Sure you do get occasional edge cases but the number of these is so small as to be insignificant.
Lots to get the teeth into, especially with the overall narrative and use of language. Later though.