• The fact that its been so normalized to be this openly shitty and callous toward frigging children… i dont even know how to react to this any more.

    Im not saying its hopeless, but I feel like a lot of people on the “lets not let children go hungry” side of the fence are almost left speechless by these idiots. But i feel like thats almost part of their strategy - stunning the opposition. There has to be a better response.

    What’s the best way to respond to this kind of brazen cruelty? (Besides voting and campaigning for candidates who arent sociopathic).

    • What’s the best way to respond to this kind of brazen cruelty?

      Voting is a must. Political apathy is how this stuff happens. Outside of voting, just being vocal about your distaste for these policies might help let people around you know that not everyone supports this. And if you come face to face with someone who is outspoken in their belief that some children deserve to starve, then you know who to avoid being around.

      • It’s really hard to convince people that voting matters. And in many places, the districts are set up in such a way that it favors a certain party’s outcome.

        Republicans seem to be more popular with older people, who also are more likely to be voting. Younger people are much less likely to participate.

        Personally I’m pretty sick of it all myself. I still vote though. I just wish that it wasn’t all about arguments between parties and we could focus on what’s best for people.

      • If only the only other option weren’t also trash. Then wouldn’t be so much voter apathy. The system is literally designed to be this way. The US being a democratic country is a myth. The founders never even intended it to be a democracy. They just wanted it to be their own little club. Plebs were never even meant to be able to vote.

      • More people voted for trump after his disastrous 4 years in office than did when he first got elected. I don’t think voting is the answer because we are stupid. Educating these idiots would go a long way, but they don’t believe in education. Being controlled by their extended, daily, two minute hate is all they seem to know or want.

        I taught at a couple school where the majority of the students got their only 2 meals a day when at school. And these fuck heads think that’s too much. It makes me sick.

    • Listen, this is hard thing for me to type but I think is relevant to the Republican mindset. Hundreds of children are being murdered in their classrooms. Literal murder. Of children. This is not enough to sway Republicans on gun control. If actual murder of 6 year olds doesn’t have any effect on them, surely 6 year olds being hungry is not even going to make them blink. This is the reality with these people. They simply do not care about you, or your children, and everything they do is governed only by money and power.

        • Because that is the goal of any totalitarian regime. You think Putin has the welfare of his country in mind? Or Kim Jong Un? No. Money and Power is the only goal. There was an article recently on North Koreans saying how they’re starving and just waiting to die. The people are simply the means to generate wealth and exercise power. Their welfare has nothing to do with it.

          I used to think the Republicans were wannabe dictators, but in the last few years they’ve demonstrated that they are actual fascists and a dictatorship is their endgame. There is no way to deny this anymore. If someone tells you who they are, you should listen to them. Republicans are no longer hiding it.

    • Oh this is nothing by comparison. Republicans also vote to legalize child rape (which they preciously insist on calling “child marriage”) and are trying to bring back child labor because adults are getting fed up with unfair labor practices while little kids are easier to manipulate.

    • I would say it would be the education of the American people. That stuff like this should be at the top of just about every news program out there.

      What sucks is that most people in America, red and blue, are probably not even aware that this is happening. If more people knew what was going on then maybe things like this would stop because of either people voting these politicians out or causing so much outrage they change their minds.

    • Literally everyone in this comment section is missing “regardless of the individual eligibility of each student”. Everyone is getting hysterical over something that isn’t even in the cards.

      Of course a lot of kids rely on free school lunches and they aren’t trying to take that away. They’re trying to restrict free lunches to kids with parents who are actually incapable of feeding them. If parents can afford food for their kids, feed your fucking kids.

      I’m lefty as fuck and I still kind of empathize with people who consider themselves conservative being seriously over people characterizing literally any conservative action they take as cartoonishly evil.

      • And you’re missing that, without the free meals being available to everyone, there’s a negative social stigma to getting the free school lunches. Kids skip the meals because they don’t want to be seen as “that poor kid.” This leads to them going hungry, not doing well in school, and not having as many chances to break the cycle of poverty.

        By opening the free school lunches to everyone, the stigma is removed. If Billy gets a free school lunch, he might be poor or his parents just might be having him get the school lunches instead of packing something. Without the social stigma, kids who need the lunches are more likely to get them and more kids are fed.

        • Aight, cool, but that doesn’t change that this comment section is operation on the assumption that you’re dealing with people who understand that and literally enjoy making children starve. This sort of characterization is rampant in politics and a total anathema to actual discussion or ever getting anything done.

          • Given that other Republican proposals involve keeping child marriage legal and opening child labor laws back up so that kids can work dangerous jobs without the companies involved being liable for their safety, it’s not a huge leap from “Republicans want to cut free school meals” to “Republicans want kids to starve.”

            Maybe it’s a not a 100% real leap, but it’s one that the Republicans have set themselves up for.