You will never see a more generous outpouring of compassion...

[Orrex]

than among small-town self-professed Christians commenting on the opioid epidemic.

"They made a choice. Serves them right."

"Give them all the pills they want and let them OD."

"Narcan? I'll give them a .357 injection that will cure them once and for all."

"I have a hard life too, but I never resorted to drugs."

And on and on. These are paraphrases of the sentiments that my fellow townfolk roll out every time there's a local story about an overdose or someone gets busted with a needle in their arm.

The theme that I see again and again is that "those people" chose to become addicted to these horrible drugs, and they deserve whatever happens to them because it was their choice. These kindly souls flatly refuse to consider that addiction is a disease or that their own experiences are not the same as everyone else's.

Compassionate, all of them. And Trump-voters, of course.

They are unswayed even by personal testimonials of people who either are wrestling with addiction or have suffered addiction in the past. They have embraced the rightwing narrative and believe it unquestioningly, that addicts are bad people who do bad, self-destructive things of their own free will.


The same sentiment underlies and informs much of their thinking: SNAP recipients weren't driven to poverty by misfortune but are the victims of their own unchecked spending; gays and lesbians shouldn't get special rights because they chose their lifestyle; trans people should use the bathroom that corresponds with their birth-assigned sex.

They delude themselves into thinking that they only make good choices, and any hardship that befalls them is an act of God. But everyone else? They get what's coming to them.


This isn't news, of course, and I'm sure that you can find the same sentiment in every town in America. Still, when the local average income is about $26K, you'd think that people would be inclined to sympathize with the less fortunate.

[Shell_Seas]

1. I try nearly every day to understand the hatred of these people...

I still don't, though.

[Orrex]

2. On the plus side, I got to call one of them out for blasphemy

And that's always a good time.

[gratuitous]

5. The hatred is the offspring of fear and ignorance

And there are powerful forces in our society that spend a great deal of money and effort making sure that those two breed prodigiously.

[brer cat]

3. I hear such sentiments regularly.

The self-righteous, morally pure, perfect souls who never ever made a bad decision are the most delusional people I know. "Those" people are weak and deserve no help while their Johnny or Susie was lead astray by the devil and should have our compassion and any assistance they can pry out of the government they don't want to pay taxes to support. I have tried but never found a way to get through their stubborn refusal to see the hypocrisy and irrational bullshit. I do however still have compassion for Johnny and Susie along with "those" people.

[Orrex]

4. Sadly, that's a great summation

Regarding my own townsfolk, if there's one group that they hate more than addicts or SNAP recipients, it's refugees.

Months back, when a town 20 miles away revealed that it would be welcoming a tiny number of Syrian refugees, my neighbors absolutely lost their shit about it, even though my town has had a sizable Syrian population for many decades. They proudly declared their intent to shoot first if they see any of "that type" prowling around, because I guess that's the proper way to treat shell-shocked women and children fleeing the devastation of their own country.


My only comfort comes from pointing out the raw hypocrisy of these self-professed Christians who directly and openly reject the teachings of their Savior.

[mopinko]

6. well, to be fair to the poor dears-

they formed those opinions when only black people were addicts. no one sent them the update that white addicts are supposed to get healthcare.

[Squinch]

7. That only is the case up until the moment they get the call from the ER

that little Johnny is recovering from an overdose. And its inevitable the call will come. This epidemic spares no one.

After that their tune changes to, "Why isn't the government helping people with this terrible illness that hits people through no fault of their own???"