27 – Is A Brief Segue Permitted?
Is a brief transition permitted on Soft White Underbelly, discussing different types of safety nets? (Note: Such a change is a verb activity, not related to a Segway which is the noun brand-name for an electric scooter. I was not aware of the spelling differences.)
Anyway, maybe the Pilgrims can wait while safety-net ideas are discussed.
Are safety net ideas considered to involve universal truths that cannot be questioned in civil discussions? Are safety nets important factors in our society? Can Americans set aside time to think about these questions?
Is it possible many Americans can think that XYZ concepts are true when they are false? Is it possible XYZ concepts can cause harm when applied to some social situations? Are their different types of safety nets? Are there “golden safety nets” created by families having great wealth? Are there “upper-middle-class safety nets” created by moderately wealthy families? Are there safety nets created by “friends” that want a person to maintain group allegiance by continuing to live a drug-addicted or criminal life? Are there harmful “generic safety nets” created by government handouts?
Is it possible different types of safety nets can be harmful to youth and eventually adults by eliminating normal life challenges? Do individuals gain self-confidence and self-respect by overcoming normal challenges? Do individuals that have been provided an “easy safety-net life” lack self-confidence and self-respect. Can being provided a safety net during childhood and youth be more harmful to males than females? Are social expectations different for males? Does society provide positive recognition for males that provide physical and psychological support for the partners and children? Are males, that do not provide physical and psychological support for the partners and children, viewed as weak persons that lack self-respect and do not strive for self-reliance, only caring about artificially making themselves feel good?
Is it possible parents might have to go to court to evict their 30+ son from their home, after previously provided him a long-term safety net? Is it likely a similar person would file a discrimination suit against an employer because of being fired for demanding to choose which days to work and which days to take off?
Is it possible that individuals, having grown up in a safety net, lack enough self-confidence to seek regular employment, and instead, pursue an easily-accessible life of drug addiction and crime? Is it possible for young adults to become violent when threatened by parents to stop their access to family wealth and/or write them out of their will? Would such individuals murder their parents through criminal use of handguns, knives, or shotguns?
Is Frederick Douglass right as found in his writings and as partially quoted in Soft White Underbelly Forums Section “What Would Frederick Douglass Think? 4”?
“One thought more before I leave this subject, and it is a thought I wish you all to lay to heart. Practice it yourselves and teach it to your children. It is this: neither we, nor any other people, will ever be respected till we respect ourselves, and we will never respect ourselves till we have the means to live respectably. An exceptionally poor and dependent people will be despised by the opulent and despise themselves.”

Is it possible that government safety nets harm those that grow up in them? Can Americans provide time to think about and civilly discuss these questions?
Joseph L. Bass, 12/16/2025