Did you hear about the “inspirational” story on how many rural communities are chopping wood to help their neighbors heat their homes? Or what about the “uplifting” stories about kid who fundraise with a small business so their parents can afford medicine?
In recent years, these glurge-style “faux feel good” stories have been multiplying like rabbits. Presented as an uplifting story about the American dream or as a way to show that “the system still works,” these news pieces are meant to showcase heartwarming stories in America.
Oh, they also have a nickname these days: the Orphan Crushing Machine Stories.
An Orphan Crushing Machine Story is a news story that tries to put a positive spin on people needlessly struggling when their country failed them.
Exhibit A
The Orphan Crushing Machine is a euphemism for all the very basic things our government refuses to do in order to support its own citizens. You know — things like refusing to give us universal healthcare, free schooling to combat the healthcare crisis, or even give kids meals at lunch.
The news stories always put a nice, sugar coated spin on how help from the community lifts up people who had a bad turn of events. Then, the author spins it in a saccharinely sweet coating of words
A good example of this would be the community noticing that a person who worked at McDonald’s no longer could afford a working car, forcing him to walk four hours a day, then them buying him a car.
Don’t get me wrong. It’s nice that the community stepped up, but why is a man who works 40 hours a week paid so poorly that he can’t afford a fucking way to work?!
The Orphan Crushing Machine Story shifts the blame from the lack of a living wage and tries to minimize it. The story never blames the person who’s victimized by a lack of safety nets, but does subtly push others to support them or “bootstrap” themselves.
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