[mvitorino]

Absolutely. For a country referred to as "the land of the free" you surely have a lot of "sensitive topics". As soon as I posted my comment, I started getting down-voted. I believe the post was quite factual, not offensive in any way or prejudicial, so I can only imagine it was affecting someone's sensitivity.

[Jill_the_Pill]

Why do you attribute it to welfare instead of the habitual villainization of single mothers by Republicans? I wouldn't vote for someone who disparages my life situation, particularly if it were a difficult one.

[mvitorino]

I'm not claiming that welfare is what it should be attributed to. Just saying that I think it should be part of the debate anytime anyone looks into these social issues like the article above does.

[stagbeetle]

> habitual villainization of single mothers by Republicans

This is the first I'm hearing of this. I know the right is against "leeches," but I've yet to see them single out single mothers.

Unless you're referring to undertones in their (Republicans') way of conduct. If so, then I wouldn't expect single mothers to be able to recognize the subtlety.

[467568985476]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welfare_queen

That kind of language, in various forms, has been a dogwhistle of the right since Reagan started saying it at campaign rallies.

[stagbeetle]

I wasn't able to find a way to calculate the prevalence of "welfare queen," but off-hand that phrase doesn't come up too often in the mainstream.

[467568985476]

Here's a Google Trends link: https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=welfare%...

[Jill_the_Pill]

Here's ngram -- a measure of use in books: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=%22welfare+que...

[stagbeetle]

That was going to be my go-to, but I remembered that search popularity != usage.

Though, I am surprised that the term is hovering around 25%.

[Jill_the_Pill]

"Could your comment possibly be any more obtuse and offensive?" asks this single mother with a PhD.