Why Is American Selfishness So Widespread Now?

I have been feeling a good amount of despair recently. Not on a personal level-I’m generally as happy-go-lucky as a leprechaun with a head injury. (It’s weird!) But the constant reminder of the American lack of empathy is astounding. It’s everywhere. (Do we need to drag in the case of the woman who attended the Glenn Beck rally in D.C. over the weekend and her point of view that Jesus would hate welfare?) And so it was with great wariness that I approached the comments section at the end of this first-person story by a man in Nevada who, driven into destitution by disability, family medical bills, the current lack of work and shady landlords, will find himself homeless at midnight tomorrow. These comments: well, they did disappoint. They went from awful to judgmental to trashing to witch hunt.

These comments include the following! Verbatim!

• Rodger sure has made some poor choices.

• In many parts of the world this man would be rich.

• Maybe he really is a victim, but so many on the street got there by their own hand.

• What a sob story. His girlfriend needs to get her butt out to Mcdonalds and find a job.

• Come on. Bad choices were made all along that got you to this point.

• I hate to see this but also agree with many regarding the largely self induced nature of their plight.

• What’s going on now is called Economic Darwinism.

• Everyone wants help..but it has been said..If you need a helping hand, you will find one at the end of your arm…and if you search, you will find that you have two hands..one to help someone else..

• I don’t mind working 40 hours/week, clipping coupons to buy my own groceries, being conservative with my purchases, keeping my utility bills low, and such … it’s all worth it if I can pay extra taxes for others to not get a job and buy cigarettes and other small luxuries. Oh wait, yes I do mind. I suppose that makes me a bad person.

• When you look closely at most poor people it is apparent that they decided to be poor.

• Rodger is a bum.

• Seems the truth about this guy is coming to light now! Lets see what happens when the light is turned bright and he gets investigated for some of these scams we are now hearing about.

And that’s when I stopped reading finally. This seems really outrageous. I feel pretty bad about people!