AndrocatAug 2, 2023

Gentle reminder: Whenever someone is trying to sell you a story about welfare fraud, they're actually just trying to make it harder for deserving applicants to get the help they need.

Stories about welfare fraud are 100% about making it hard for people to get help.
Measures to combat fraud all amount to making the walls higher.
There is absolutely zero effort made to check whether it reduces valid applications, and also zero effort made to check whether it reduces fraudulent applications.

So, next time someone wants to tell you about "social scrounging" or whatever fancy-ass vocab they've made up for their bullshit, just tell them to go fuck themselves, in the nicest possible way.

Show threadदुःख блядьAug 25, 2023
@androcat Talked to a lady who worked for the tax authority here in Norway once. She told me straight away that welfare fraud is such a minor phenomenon that it has zero effect on the welfare budget. She followed that up by saying, "So we need to decide what kind of society we want - one where we're so afraid that someone might get some help they didn't qualify for, at the risk of depriving many others who need that help? Or one where we help folks through tough times and help them become tax payers again?"
A year or two later, I read a study that showed a significant amount of "welfare fraud" cases are folks who genuinely believed they qualified.
The more accessible benefits are, the better for everyone, ultimately.
Show threadDavid FetterAug 29, 2023

@souvlaki @androcat so that's very nice, but there's a twist.

Ask someone in Norway, if you can find such a person, what it's like immigrating there, what it's like being a brown person there, first generation or otherwise, what it's like being Muslim, etc., etc.

Show threadदुःख блядьAug 29, 2023
@davidfetter @androcat
Yep. YEP
Show threadDavid Fetter
@souvlaki @androcat oh, and I recall some well-traveled Norwegians who were friends of the family talking about how "Muslims" were an urgent terrorism problem in November of 2011. As I reminded them, and they haven't spoken to me since, Norway had a terrorist incident that was pretty big news globally in July of that year. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Norway_attacks
2011 Norway attacks - Wikipedia

Aug 29, 2023 at 4:45pmWeb
Show threadAndrocatAug 29, 2023
@davidfetter @souvlaki Indeed.
There is a lot of absurd propaganda going around, and far-right parties get lots of votes in all of these countries.
Show threadदुःख блядьAug 29, 2023

@davidfetter @androcat
I'm... acutely aware.

Oh, and this year, when an actual jihadist shot up a pub in Oslo because there were queer folks in it, the secret police was "too busy" "monotoring" the protests against high electricity prices.