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So many of you are writing from the perspective of the entitled.
Because the businesses have Jobkeeper, it’s the workers, who have been laid off. The crips who have been locked in their homes a year or so. People with no food.
What you’re afraid of is being like us. A thread. https://twitter.com/jeff_kennett/status/1360705456675545090
Because the businesses have Jobkeeper, it’s the workers, who have been laid off. The crips who have been locked in their homes a year or so. People with no food.
What you’re afraid of is being like us. A thread. https://twitter.com/jeff_kennett/status/1360705456675545090
2/ Sure it’s sad that you can’t go to the theatre or the movies. That you can’t hold your long anticipated event. That you can’t go see your mates or hold that birthday party or that your wedding is cancelled. Sure it’s sad you have to get your Brie via Uber eats.
‘A sad day.’
‘A sad day.’
3/ I wonder how people know how poor people regard your endless reciting of privilege. It’s been illuminating, you know. When you live with daily struggles, you don’t have time for self indulgent, introspective recounting.
Fortunately, most poor & disabled people won’t read it.
Fortunately, most poor & disabled people won’t read it.
4/ I imagine what it would look like if people living in poverty DID tweet their lives.
Instead of ‘the event was cancelled’, it looks like this.
‘I can’t visit my son in prison. Last night he said he wanted to hang himself. I’m so, so afraid for him.’
https://www.corrections.vic.gov.au/covid19
Instead of ‘the event was cancelled’, it looks like this.
‘I can’t visit my son in prison. Last night he said he wanted to hang himself. I’m so, so afraid for him.’
https://www.corrections.vic.gov.au/covid19
5/ Instead of ‘I can’t go out for lunch with my friends, but here is a picture of my breakfast via Uber eats’ it might look like this.
‘I had to choose between paying the rent and eating. I haven’t eaten for days now. I ran out of noodles. I’m hungry.’ https://www.google.com.au/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/feb/03/decades-of-progress-on-extreme-poverty-now-in-reverse-due-to-covid
‘I had to choose between paying the rent and eating. I haven’t eaten for days now. I ran out of noodles. I’m hungry.’ https://www.google.com.au/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/feb/03/decades-of-progress-on-extreme-poverty-now-in-reverse-due-to-covid
6/ Or, almost as commonly - ‘I’m homeless.’
‘I made the decision to couch surf but my mental health got worse and now I’ve burned bridges everywhere. I have few friends left. I started drinking. Now I drink when I wake up so that I can stay alive, get through the day.’
‘I made the decision to couch surf but my mental health got worse and now I’ve burned bridges everywhere. I have few friends left. I started drinking. Now I drink when I wake up so that I can stay alive, get through the day.’
7/ You ever stayed out past when the clubs were shut and drank with street people? Some of you have. Were you sober enough to listen?
https://www.google.com.au/amp/s/theconversation.com/amp/covid-spurred-action-on-rough-sleepers-but-greater-homelessness-challenges-lie-ahead-147102
They’re the visibly homeless. Others were almost exactly like the people you are now.
You don’t know how close you are.
https://www.google.com.au/amp/s/theconversation.com/amp/covid-spurred-action-on-rough-sleepers-but-greater-homelessness-challenges-lie-ahead-147102
They’re the visibly homeless. Others were almost exactly like the people you are now.
You don’t know how close you are.
8/ If you’re in the mental health sector, you’ll know how THAT is going. Five weeks wait for a residential placement, we were told last week. No beds.
You all did so well in the first lockdown. No chalked rainbows this time round in Melbourne, right? https://www.google.com.au/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/society/2021/feb/11/covid-19-has-put-a-major-strain-on-mental-health
You all did so well in the first lockdown. No chalked rainbows this time round in Melbourne, right? https://www.google.com.au/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/society/2021/feb/11/covid-19-has-put-a-major-strain-on-mental-health
9/ Let’s talk about THAT. Because here are three dead children whose equally dead mother had been newly diagnosed with schizophrenia and who couldn’t access the services she needed.
She didn’t die of Covid. Nor of lockdown.
She died because the system. https://www.google.com.au/amp/s/amp.smh.com.au/national/suspected-murder-suicide-highlights-the-struggle-for-mental-help-support-20210116-p56ul9.html
She didn’t die of Covid. Nor of lockdown.
She died because the system. https://www.google.com.au/amp/s/amp.smh.com.au/national/suspected-murder-suicide-highlights-the-struggle-for-mental-help-support-20210116-p56ul9.html
10/ What Covid has done is unmasked the pre existing failures of all our systems. The mental health system, the disability system. The homelessness and domestic violence systems.
All covid is is a giant spotlight onto our lives, the lives of those living with disadvantage.
All covid is is a giant spotlight onto our lives, the lives of those living with disadvantage.
11/ For those of us in the public health system, there’s a distinct class division. Go to any private mental health facility and you’ll be faced with 6 week patients who hit their wife and went in to save their marriage. Or the worried well women who can’t cope with a breakup.
12/ Go to the public system and you’re faced with people who have so much self harm they look like they’re stitched together, ranting & screeching in the halls, largely ignored by the staff. You remember this video, Lismore Hospital? You remember Miriam?
13/ There are exceptions to both, of course. Rich people become mad too. You talk to them, though. Some have been in a public mental health facility - but only once, no matter how many stays they’ve had over all.
The worried well don’t go on the second go unless involuntary.
The worried well don’t go on the second go unless involuntary.
14/ God, I’m tired. Of the endless privilege that is the prevailing voice of social discourse in Australia right now. Watching people tone police and argue over words while not two blocks away a woman is being beaten senseless in her kitchen, a child is sleeping in a car.
15/ We cant compare the impact of change & loss. For many of you, having your given freedoms snatched away must be incredibly upsetting. But while you spill out your grief and trauma - yes, you all use that word - you need to know this.
People are noting what you hold important.
People are noting what you hold important.
16/ If your life is superficial, glossy, not built on firm foundations - well, you’ve seen how easily shallow cracks or breaks with disruption, yes? A shallow pond. A thin coating of carefully melted dark chocolate.
A baby’s skull.
There’s a reason they use the word fragility.
A baby’s skull.
There’s a reason they use the word fragility.
17/ I’m honestly sorry for peoples distress. But at the same time, while you’re living our lives, trapped inside, unable to eat the food you want to, going mad with stress and worry - you should remember that many poor people are ‘resilient’ because of caring a lot less.
18/ It’s why we swear more. Dress less carefully. Eat more junk food. Don’t plan ahead. Drink more, smoke more. Look different from you. Hold different priorities. Spend more on our children, blow our pay against an uncertain future.
We see how much you’re becoming like us.
We see how much you’re becoming like us.
19/ All we are is the inevitable product of pain, fear, uncertainty and trauma. And once your thin veneer of civility is no longer there, you’ll be down here with us.
It’s why you’re so afraid. But maybe, just maybe, you can lose your shallowness and privilege.
It’s why you’re so afraid. But maybe, just maybe, you can lose your shallowness and privilege.
20/ Think about this and how you’ve been acting and what you’re doing now and why poor people are the way they are. Imagine you’d been born into where you are right now.
Do you understand now, entitled people? Or are you still judging us for being what you’re afraid of becoming?
Do you understand now, entitled people? Or are you still judging us for being what you’re afraid of becoming?
