In regards to #1... The same people are not making both statements. The first statement is true of Muslims, Gun Owners, and police...it should be true of everyone.
The second statement is wrong, but the people who are making it are very often uninformed or are suggesting that others are saying it.
I would be interested in an example of one prominent person saying that all gun owners should be judged by a few.
In regards to #2... The people who are sounding the alarm on Social Security are doing so to scare the populace into believing that it needs to be privatized, end it, and link its demise (by calling it an entitlement) to other safety net programs (such as Social Security). Of course they are wrong... but they are making ground because we are always willing to blame the demise of one thing on the existence of another thing, no matter how unrelated. In other words instead of calling out the right-wing for their attacks on Social Security we fail to see them as the culprit because we are too busy wanting to believe them when they attack welfare.
Social Security is not going to run out of money as long as we make reasonable adjustments...just like we have for 75 years. There is always a date down the road where Social Security will run out of money... that has always been a fact, and those adjustments will fine tune it. Let's hope that the fear mongering right-wing is continually blocked from doing negative fine-tuning like they did with the Post Office, in an attempt to run them into the ground to the point that privatization becomes acceptable. Want to see the insolvency date of Social Security be pushed further away on the calendar? Then just watch what happens when 11 million illegal immigrants become legal and can start paying into Social Security. Social Security already got a 5 billion dollar annual boost from immigrants that have used false identities to get jobs (p.s. money they will never get back in benefits)
As far as the second statement in #2 regarding welfare recipients and them not working: 29 per cent of them are working, many have worked in the past but low-wages and lack of public assistance for working mothers has made employment an impossible option... they know they cant be a stay at home mom because of their economic situation... but $40 hours at minimum wage does not put food on the table and rent, and child care. Not all poor people, people on welfare, are lazy drug addicts. Several states have tried drug testing welfare recipients and discovered that less than 3% were on drugs. That's below the national average including working people. Yes, there are cheaters and abusers on welfare...there are some on Social Security too... but instead of judging everyone on welfare, and making attacks on the poor, how about improved enforcement against the cheaters... sort of like the gun lobby advocates better enforcement whenever anyone suggest the most benign and reasonable suggestion on new gun laws following a mass shooting.
So lets follow the advise given in the first statement in item #1 above: Lets not judge everyone in any group by the behavior of a few.
by GlennDL
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