Why "Hard-Working" Mentality is Toxic: Poverty Shaming
Revealing the Christian Origins of the "Hard-Working" Myth and Why it Fuels America's Laziest, Most Trauma-Ignorant Response to Poverty.
In this article, I address the systemic workism mentality of those who shame people in poverty, often self-righteous Christians, likely to dismiss the effects of trauma and mental illness. Others guilty of my charge include individuals who virtue-signal their rigorous work ethic.
I aim to expose the lazy thinking of the “Get-a-Job” mindset and its shame-based nature. Rather than address the root cause of the problem in society, which would require the “hard work of thinking,” the Orthodox Workism Cult poverty-shames the less fortunate with blanket accusations.
Ironically, this judgmental attitude mirrors their relationship with the demon God Jehovah and is cleverly disguised with false humility in service to the poor. Their pretentious evangelical efforts to convert sinners are an unconscious trick similar to Scientology’s conversion tactics.
Although my sarcasm and ridicule may get confused with poverty shaming, it is directed toward those who abuse the system rather than those who genuinely apply for government assistance. It is those who do not deserve to be shamed for poverty. I would be ridiculed myself if I were not to admit the foolishness prevalent within the entitled consumer community, who hurt those in need by association.
It’s time for some bare-knuckle writing . . .
The Food Apocalypse
Although the scope of this point extends beyond its publication, today, November 1, 2025, the U.S. government is set to end food assistance for approximately 40 million Americans. This announcement has resulted in an onslaught of rage and poverty shaming.
People on TikTok are organizing groups to break into homes, raid pantries, and steal food from shoppers as they head to their vehicles. Some are even threatening to eat white people out of revenge (I’m not kidding). These entitled “victims” exploit the system by purchasing junk food and nose rings instead of responsibly using government assistance to buy essentials like beans, rice, milk, and bread.
Unfortunately, single mothers and children who genuinely need food assistance are thrown into the horde and become collateral damage as the working public reacts to the insanity.
Clearly, these TikTok individuals are easy targets for mockery. But while shaming may please the contemptuous, it simultaneously exposes the lazy thinking of the secular brute and the careless ethics of the faithful. Additionally, it uncovers a systemic virus of Workism that I will elaborate on as we proceed.
To clarify, despite my protest, I support the temporary removal and reset of government assistance abuse. It is a painful but necessary process. This article aims to address part of the problem, which could be seen as friendly fire.
The question is: does poverty shaming convert the Slurpee-gulping, Cheeto-munching horde, or does it fuel their rebellion? The point here is that it’s not the optimal solution to the epidemic; it exacerbates it because humans are allergic to being wrong. When accused of something, they double down on dumb, regardless of how absurd and foolish they appear. This “necessity of certainty” is a built-in evolutionary response.
The Elephant in the Room:
Trauma, Generational Child Abuse, and Mental Illness
As a survivor of generational child abuse and hereditary religion, I know firsthand the effects of trauma. I have endured the condescending dismissal from the uninitiated. Those who judge the feral with statements such as “stop living in the past,” “get over it,” or “stop using your issues as an excuse to play victim.” They unconsciously act as psychologists, which is not surprising, considering they‘re likely suppressing their own trauma.
But the results are out. Poverty and mental illness are directly linked to generational child abuse. According to a study by the National Institute of Mental Health:
Adults who were physically abused, sexually abused, or severely neglected as children were significantly more likely to be unemployed, living below the poverty line, and using social services than people without a history of childhood maltreatment. Having experienced more than one type of maltreatment increased these risks further.
Maltreatment was also linked to lower rates of health care coverage and greater use of social services such as Medicaid, especially among adults who had experienced childhood sexual abuse.
Then, there are factors like mental illness, poor coping skills, low IQs, lack of education, domestic violence, and crime. Together, these create a complex cocktail that leads to TikTok threats of cannibalism.
A study from the National Library of Medicine suggests that childhood trauma is associated with cognitive alterations in their research paper: Evidence That the Impact of Childhood Trauma on IQ Is Substantial in Controls, Moderate in Siblings, and Absent in Patients With Psychotic Disorder.
Speaking from Experience
I am one of those working people who were raised poor on food stamps. I had to endure standing in the line for the poor kids’ lunch assistance (National School Lunch Program) while the cool kids stood in the cash-paying line. Yellow tokens were given to the poor kids and blue to the special kids. Although I was grateful to have a hot lunch instead of Mom’s balogna sandwich, it was utterly humiliating! (I could make a reparations argument, but I’ll indulge in that reverie on my own time)
One way my father disciplined me was by forcing me to work. I’m not talking about work in the constructive sense, but enforced with physical beatings. It was the psychological and emotional trauma associated with work that later affected my ability to hold a job. Only through sheer willpower and inner healing, driven by a desire to avoid poverty and emotional destruction, was I able to fend for myself as an adult. I dealt with the trauma by becoming self-employed, which gave me the ability to manage my PTSD reactions without the “you are lazy” Neanderthal grunting at me.
Then there were the trauma deniers who barked “get over it” and “stop blaming your childhood” as they smugly fed their work addiction. However, I couldn’t help but amuse myself with the idea that they secretly believed that thousands of psychologists, evolutionary biologists, and trauma specialists were wrong and they were right. I confess I indulge to this day.
Over the past 20 years, I have dug trenches and repaired irrigation systems. I have all the reasons to do the “Get-a-Job” dance because I can compare homeless people in my neighborhood (some who are friends of mine) who didn’t step up to the plate and “will themselves” to work. But what came with my enlightenment was an understanding of the human condition and our common biology:
I realized I am no better than anyone else. If I were in their position, I don’t care how ignorant and entitled they are, I’d be doing the same thing. Thus, my contempt for Christians who are oblivious to their Savior's plea, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do,” cleverly reduces its meaning to “Father eternally punish them because they willfully rejected you.”
Don’t get me wrong, I think most Christians are decent people who want the best for humanity, but they are profoundly unaware of their indoctrination. And because of that, they spread the shame virus that infects them, especially to children, which I would argue is child abuse.
Every human soul, both secular and religious, should understand the impact of trauma on the mind and emotions and the severe, lasting effects it has on adults. Add transgenerational epigenetics and toxic pedagogy, and you have a human puppet being animated by unconscious forces.
A little judgey?
When I’m having a tough day at work, feeling dirty, hot, and exhausted, it’s easier for me to judge the guy with the cardboard sign. Some are genuine, while others use cleverly crafted victim clichés. Still, I understand enough to know I’d do the same if I were in their shoes. When you get past the social appearance, all humans are capable of reverting to savagery in the worst circumstances.
I think every human should be educated in trauma-based mind control and the lasting effects of childhood trauma in adulthood. This topic is dangerously underrated in society, revealing the underbelly of human psychology — the tendency to shield our awareness from reality.
Add to the mix transgenerational epigenetics and toxic pedagogy, and you have human puppets animated by unconscious forces, a truth too terrible for this emission.
Even more impactful is our resistance to remembering our traumatized emotional history and the secrets we hide from ourselves. The hardest part is that inner healing requires remembering the abuse and feeling through the trauma to its inevitable release. As Alice Miller said:
“Genuine feelings cannot be produced, nor can they be eradicated. We can only repress them, delude ourselves, and deceive our bodies. The body sticks to the facts.”
“Experience has taught us that we have only one enduring weapon in our struggle against mental illness: the emotional discovery and emotional acceptance of the truth in the individual and unique history of our childhood.”
― Alice Miller
Poverty Shaming and the “Get-a-Job” Posse
Please understand that my intention is not to shame productive Americans but to shed light on the subject with a dash of contemptuous sass. They have a right to their anger, especially after the past decade of social and political buffoonery, especially on the political left, though, as a political atheist, my contempt for Christian nationalism is evident.
The solution isn’t chanting the mantra “GET A JOB” as if it were a magical incantation. If that worked, we would have seen positive effects since the Industrial Age. Instead, what we observe is mindless repetition, similar to saying “bless you” after a sneeze in hopes of warding off evil spirits.
Humans are self-deception machines highly susceptible to trance, hallucination, and hypnosis. When you are deluded, you don’t know you are deluded; thus, the irrational protest when the emperor’s nakedness is called out.
And here’s the irony, the accuser who says “you are lazy” is suffering from lazy thinking. The self-righteous who proclaim “YOU ARE SELFISH” are engaging in self-serving behavior. Rather than study the anatomy of laziness, these hard-working Power Rangers succumb to hypocrisy.
The “anatomy” of laziness includes biological, psychological, and environmental elements. Neurobiologically, it impairs connections between the prefrontal and premotor cortices. Psychologically, it stems from trauma-related fears, hopelessness, developmental delays, and overall disorientation about life. Environmental factors from family, society, and media can weaken the soul’s focus.
I believe humans are no different from plants and animals in their innate drive to survive. The influences of religion, generational child abuse, and toxic cultural indoctrination thwart the Will to Live.
No one is better than the other. Some are more valuable than others, depending on the contributions they make to society. But in reality, those who judge would be doing the same thing if they had equal genetics and upbringing. Allow my paraphrased indulgence from the Bible:
“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
There are none good but God. Judge not lest you be judged.”
My Will, God’s Choice
The blame-shifting, pick-swinging human primate who prides itself in making sacrifices for family and society is the uninitiated. They believe they are “better choosers” of things. That “their decisions” are what separates them from those who “make bad decisions.”
To their chagrin, they believe you can only be good with God while dismissing secular marriage. But here’s the smoking gun of their “choosing” abilities:
Bible Belt States Battle the Highest Divorce Rate in the Nation
— LA Times
The “Get a Job” mentality is outdated. Instead, the focus should be on approaches to create employment opportunities while raising awareness on resolving psychological complexes and discovering and redirecting one’s “True Will,” rather than “God’s Will” (hats off to Crowley), which influences individual productivity. Additionally, secular society should not be taking the lead in this area, rather than the conversion specialist, because religious indoctrination creates another box for the disempowered. Spiritual bypassing, combined with shelter and food, is not an optimal solution.
Note: But far be it from me to ignore the nefarious Leftist motives to profit from the homeless issue — more homeless people equals more money. This is a factor that explains the sudden halt of EBT nutrition. I am not a Republican, but love or hate Trump, he’s a businessman and well aware of human monkey business.
At first glance, this may seem like a small detail, but I cannot emphasize enough the importance of discovering one’s “true will” and channeling it productively. When someone sells drugs, they are acting in their own interest. The issue with the “Get a Job” mindset is that it presumes sacrifice over inspiration and creativity.
This, my friends, is why I say Christianity is a shame-based systemic poison. It reinforces the idea that we control our lives rather than being shaped by a complex web of evolutionary and environmental factors.
I recommend diving into a study on the illusion of free will, and if you have any doubts, allow me to make an argument:
If you’re not choosing to beat your heart, then you are not choosing your thoughts. If your brain cannot function without your heart, then your thoughts cannot function without your brain. Therefore, you are not choosing your thoughts; you’re suffering from the illusion of choice.
The Workism Cult
For those familiar with my writing, it should be no surprise that this treatise uncovers the Christian roots of Workism.
The modern ideology of Workism (which has a suspicious similarity to wokism) stems from the Protestant, Calvinist, and Puritan work ethic. Although workism has evolved in today’s world toward personal identity and self-actualization within a capitalist and feminist framework, its roots are fundamentally religious.
Workism is comprised of a religious cocktail of the Calvinist belief in predestination that created intense anxiety due to forcing believers to prove they were part of the predestined “elect” of god through working hard. The Protestant motivation was that hard labor proved your Christian “calling as a divine duty. And Puritans believed that methodical work positioned one in God’s favor.
The fusion of identity and moral worth led to poverty shaming, which viewed idleness as a form of laziness and a moral failing. This is where the contrast of creativity and “following one’s bliss” became anathema to the faithful, leading to a cultural antinomian stance in response to the “self-righteousness” stance of the “adult-children of God.”
Systemic Christianity
When you consider that Christianity is the largest religion in the world despite the victim cries of so-called Christian persecution (ironically, the church did not rise to power through loving their neighbor but bloody conquest), and include the network of churches around the world, you may understand the focus of my protest. These charges are not irrelevant.
The adult Children of God behave like spiritual authorities, offering to pray for sinners or invite them to accept Jesus as their savior. These solutions are pretentious imaginings embedded in their Holy Book, alongside Noah’s magical ship, Jonah’s time in a whale’s belly, talking donkeys, and the zombie apocalypse in Matthew 27:52. Considering the purpose of their belief system is to shield their consciousness from reality, it is fitting.
People who do not suffer from mental illnesses or the effects of childhood trauma cannot grasp the crippling effects. This is an unfortunate dilemma that keeps the topic shrouded in darkness. With a Christian mindset, they must view human vulnerabilities as a result of sin, rather than as a consequence of genetic or toxic family influences.
This viewpoint is deeply embedded in their gospel despite their slippery redefinitions. I have confronted many Christians about this subject, and every time they dodge the point that I understand the gospel better than they do. Jesus dies for the sins of humankind, and the only way to escape eternal hellfire is to repent and accept the bloody sacrifice that appeases the demon God Jehovah’s wrath.
There is no excuse for human vulnerability because ultimately, everyone chooses their own cosmic demise. Ask any Christian why God sends people to hell, and they will blame the sinner, accusing them of willingly choosing to go to hell and reject God… It’s really that simple.
Frankly, I believe threatening someone’s soul with eternal damnation should be viewed the same as threatening their life. This threat is underestimated because of the widespread, systemic influence of this socially ingrained cult.
Cult? Absolutely. One God. One Path. One Group. Obey or face death!
I get it, it’s a hard truth. But it is technically TRUE! I didn’t invent the church, nor am I here to coddle delusions.
Calling out Christian dominance isn’t about shame; it’s just calling a duck a duck. I believe humanity will continue to “comb the mirror to comb their hair” until they awaken from their illusions. And no, I am not a socialist or communist. Those state-worshipping cults have their own aberrations.
You do not need to be a Christian to have virtue, quite the opposite. Virtue, morality, and ethics existed long before the arrival of Christianity. They are built into nature as a survival mechanism. So, Chrsitans, let’s get off the virtue-signaling bandwagon and stop with the socially acceptable soul-condemnation. It is offensive, disrespectful, and frankly, insulting.
You can be good without the Christian God, and you can have a divine relationship with yourself and the macrocosm as a natural reality because it exists by default before anyone mentions the Jesus delusion to you. Although I understand the orthodox story offers salvation by relieving people from cosmic guilt, it is an overlay of forgiving oneself. It is this kind of spiritual bypassing that creates zealots.
The Tyranny of Comfort Bias
Another culprit of poverty shaming is comfort bias. Mixed with secular entertainment, wealth, or religious exclusivity, these bubbles dissociate humans from the suffering herd. They have no emotional connection to the plight of the homeless. It’s an “out of sight, out of mind” quandary.
In a sense, it is no fault of theirs. People are busy nesting, breeding, and surviving — why would they interrupt their regular activities and help the poor? That’s a job for religious people. And I would argue the opposite. This is a job for humanity. The longer we leave it to the indoctrinated, the more we spin on the merry-go-round.
Not Everyone Is a Plumber
Let me bring this point home by noting that I have artistic, musical, and literary talents. Anyone can swing a pickaxe, but not everyone can write a symphony, a novel, craft a sculpture, or perform a fantastic play — all of these being the entertainment that those “Hard Working” people enjoy.
Case in point. When I wrote my first book, I spent 16 hours a day, feverishly writing. Was I making a sacrifice or dedicating time to something I deemed valuable? But according to the religious mind, this effort could be seen as selfish because it didn’t include “working hard” in service to the nuclear family.
NEWSFLASH: People are wired differently. Not everyone wants to breed, and in some cases, they are doing the world a favor. For the antinatalist, they may even be saving the world one soul at a time.
When Joseph Campbell said “Follow your bliss,” he wasn’t suggesting to “neglect your responsibilities and become a street performer on food stamps.”
You know your bliss by the orbit of your soul, ancestral memory, and your genetics. Some people are led to become performers. Some scientists. Some world healers dedicate their lives to helping the poor, the sick, and those in suffering. And some whose orbit “that makes them fulfilled” is to create a family.
The universe does not depend on indoctrinated beings to expand a species. It also tends to push species to extinction — a very sinister act.
Bringing it Home
The problems within the human ecosystem are complex and multifaceted. This treatise addresses a kink in the chain that I believe, when tested, will create comrades. You may be one of those who align with my criticism or one who doth protest.
And on that note 🎵
Thank you for reading,
― Zzenn