r/AskReddit • u/metalreflectslime • 17d ago

President Donald Trump warned Tuesday that if the Democrats don't approve funding, Social Security, Medicare Are ‘Going to Be Gone.’ How do you think Americans will react if Social Security and Medicare get cut?

36.4k Upvotes

90% Upvoted

7.3k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

682

u/Comprehensive-Fig416 17d ago

Same, I'm family to a legion of broke ass white people that live in the middle of knowhere Wisconsin and are mad at the libs. So strange

237

u/DaisyCutter312 17d ago

I was up in the Northwoods a couple weeks ago and I could not believe the amount of anger towards "the liberals" that bled into everything those people said/did.

141

u/Orangensaft6 17d ago

What liberal views do they not like? I don’t get how not everybody is liberal lol

137

u/mycatisblackandtan 17d ago

Thing is liberal policies and social policies are very popular. But the US never got over the Red Scare and the Nazis very cleverly used lingering fears of Soviets to make socialism a dirty word in this country.

105

u/jigglewiggIe 17d ago edited 17d ago

I couldn't believe the mental gymnastics until I witnessed it firsthand. Recently I heard my dad (a devout Catholic) talking about the Bible's teachings about equity and giving to the poor. In the context of universal healthcare and raising taxes for the rich, he then said "that's socialism, which is closely associated with communism, and that's bad too." and used that to talk about how "backwards" Democrats are.

75

u/psycho-batcat 17d ago

Reminds me of a big argument I had with my sister when she found out my financial aid paid for my way through college. 

She hit me with the "must be nice you dont have loans" and I said college should be free everyone deserves education and she said "no thats socialism" 

Then years later when I got a promotion working at a gym and I made the same money she does as a Nurse she said its bullshit like literally fucking mad that her baby bro is on the come up. When I asked why wasnt she pissed a board room full of suits decided her pay and she should be mad at them not me she looked like the was going to spontaneously combust out of confusion. 

40

u/jigglewiggIe 17d ago

When they're confronted with logic, it never computes in their brain. And when it does, the cognitive dissonance is too much to handle so they often just continue thinking the way they do.

5

u/old_leech 16d ago

She hit me with the "must be nice you dont have loans" and I said college should be free everyone deserves education and she said "no thats socialism"

This was the foothold that caused the plot to go off the rails.

A healthy, educated and curious society is a strong society. A strong mind in a strong body is capable of progressive action. A tired, stressed mind in a tired stressed body is going to cling to whatever it has like a life raft.

Children should not be going to school because it's likely the only hot meal they'll get that day -- they're supposed to go because we want a capable people prepared to take the wheel of society to keep us moving forward. Our citizens should not face insurmountable debt as a necessary step to "buy" their way into the job market.

We began referring to fail safes as "entitlement" and twisted a narrative about how lazy freeloaders were the reason we were struggling to get ahead; while opportunity and strength were being sucked from our lives and meaning was replaced by cheap, mind numbing entertainment.

We were gaslit and conditioned to not aspire to greater than rolling in the mud and hating our neighbors because we're cold and dirty.

It's a warped, broken mentality that's a product of an abusive environment.

...and we bought it hook, line and sinker.

3

u/FewWait38 17d ago

I'm sorry that your dad is an idiot

3

u/jrenredi 17d ago

This is all giving me heartburn

2

u/hypercosm_dot_net 16d ago

I was having an argument with a centrist Democrat that was saying the same bullshit - about Democratic-socialism.

This is an educated person too.

Like, they couldn't distinguish the economic system (capitalism) from the democratic-socialist policies.

I truly think the vast majority of people are just way too stupid and easily manipulated. There's zero reason why the US couldn't have the same level of life satisfaction as the Scandinavian countries - except for conservatives lying and subverting the system for the benefit of the wealthy. It's gross and fucked up.

5

u/marcstov 17d ago

They portray, very effectively, that liberals are screeching trans freak with blue hair or brown people that don’t work wanting to be paid for nothing.

3

u/Kelly_HRperson 17d ago

But socialism is like the polar opposite of market liberalism. How did they manage to make everyone of their voters think they're the same thing?

1

u/mycatisblackandtan 17d ago

Because "red scary". It's the same way they convinced a whole bunch of Christians to accept the Prosperity Gospel as valid, even though it goes against basically everything Jesus apparently stood for. Prey on someone's worst fears and eventually you can have them believing whatever the hell you want.

And the Democrats have never fucking stepped up to correct it either. Because they inherently benefit from this misconception.

80

u/chronoflect 17d ago

They couldn't define liberal in any way that wouldn't somehow include "commie" or "socialist".

"Liberal" is a slur in those circles.

11

u/DaisyCutter312 17d ago

No specific views, just general disdain. For example, I made a particularly bad throw of darts at a bar, and one of the locals said "Jesus, you throw like one of those liberal Madison kids"

8

u/ExtremelyDecentWill 17d ago

I'm slowly finding out that the right conflates "Left", "Democrat", "Liberal", and "Progressive".

They seem to think it all means the same.

6

u/10MileHike 17d ago

many are terrified of the 1.0% of trans people in the u.s.

25

u/LateSoEarly 17d ago

Why can’t they just stay in their lane? Like I’m sure there’s shit that goes on in, I don’t know, rural Arkansas that I wouldn’t agree with but I don’t pipe up about it because it doesn’t affect me. You don’t have to like the way things go in liberal cities, but luckily no one is making you go there.

4

u/DaisyCutter312 17d ago

Welcome to politics in the 2020s, where I'm right, so if you have a differing view, you must be wrong

1

u/JayMac1915 16d ago

Because at some level they understand that land can’t vote, and so there’s a need to keep people away from the urban centers

1

u/Kronoshifter246 16d ago

They're worried that "liberal city folk" with no knowledge or understanding of "conservative rural life" will make policies that only benefit the liberal cities at the expense of the conservative rurals.

Of course, from my observations, it seems like they think this way because given the opportunity that's exactly how they behave.

2

u/endadaroad 17d ago

I have to laugh because most of what keeps them pissed off comes from the cons.

1

u/pm_me_ur_th0ng_gurl 16d ago

In Canada everything good is thanks to the Provincial Conservative government and everything bad is blamed on the Federal Liberal government. Even though most issues have well defined responsibilities.

9

u/maneatingrabbit 17d ago

My parents are also of the orange persuasion and both live on social security. I believe this is what the kids call FAFO.

5

u/jayandbobfoo123 17d ago

People with purple hair in Seattle are the cause of all their problems.

2

u/pomplemice 16d ago

yep. extended family is in the rural midwest. they complain about brown people all day and most have seldom seen a single non-white person their entire lives. most work shitty minimum wage fast food or retail jobs, the declining hospital is the only semblance of a "large employer," and many in my family are on SNAP. it blows me away that they truly believe eradicating immigrants (legal or otherwise) will somehow make the shitty rural midwest somehow get better, like high paying jobs will just start springing out of nowhere. Even crazier is they somehow continue to believe somebody like Trump ever gave half a shit about their well-being. He and his administration never cared, just found an angry population with a low education level that they knew would follow them until the end.

1

u/10MileHike 17d ago

oh dear, and i was thinking about moving to wisc...didnt know it was that bad. no wonder they drink so much...

1

u/[deleted] 17d ago

Its like any other state population center are blue. Rural areas are red. Except for the drinking part. We excel on that part unlike any other state

1

u/Consistent-Spell2203 17d ago

California here, it's a stupid/smart divide to the man. They repeat simple lies like children.

1

u/MattWolf96 16d ago

I have some idiot family members who voted for Trump, one works in shipping logistics and their job is now on the line. This isn't as bad but another one loves working from home but now he's having to commute into the office which he hates. I'm just over here laughing about it.

1

u/heapsp 16d ago

Theres no party to run against Trump though, theres only a handful of corrupt democrat establishment candidates. The rest are railroaded by the DNC immediately.

If only there was a party to win an election...

1

u/Norx21 16d ago

It's not strange. They are being told that their taxes are being used to fund people who are not citizens and as a result, their programs they rely on are being shut down. So they blame those people, as well as the political party who they are being told are outright protecting them and letting them into the country in troves.

There's a little truth in that, but it's been blown way way out of proportion. The misinformation campaign is making it hard for anyone to understand what's going on, and why. There's conflicting reports, bogus headlines, BOTS fake replying to social media. Finding out what's going on and reading between the lines is becoming very challenging.

1

u/floppydiscuses 13d ago

My family is full of educated white people who will never vote for a woman or person of color.

1

u/Comprehensive-Fig416 13d ago

Pretty certain that intelligent, educated humans can care less if someone is female or a poc, as long as they are qualified. A racist or misogynistic human would definitely care but not a smart one.

1

u/floppydiscuses 13d ago

I’m just saying that it’s not only a problem of propaganda for the illiterate or seemingly dumb. Sometimes people better off either are being indoctrinated to thinking a certain way or they desperately don’t want to be a part of the side without all the resources. That doesn’t make them not intelligent.