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Common right-wing propaganda is that socialism is a poverty cult. This is particularly prevelant in American culture. It's a complete fabrication. The reality i

• Noumenon72 4y ago
  Anyone who quotes the "temporarily embarrassed millionaires" line has never met a working class person. Nobody thinks that. I worked in a plastic factory for ten years and it's very clear there is no path up from making $45k to anything higher than plant manager. People who are just feeding a grinding machine expect even less. My feeling is that most of my coworkers felt somewhat exploited and envious, but they didn't buy into ideological propaganda. They just don't go socialist, either because they think it's hopeless, or because they want to distinguish themselves from the low-status welfare recipients just below them. It's more ideological people, like me, who absorb the propaganda and actually believe Jeff Bezos deserves it.
  • feet 4y ago
    >distinguish themselves from the low-status welfare recipients That's literally the same concept as temporarily embarrassed millionaires. Its all class warfare and the distinction you make is useless in the grand scheme
    • Noumenon72 4y ago
      This is rationally protecting what status you do have, not fooling yourself into believing you are much higher status than you appear. This is normal behavior you can see discussed at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Countersignaling https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Countersignaling. The embarrassed millionaires theory infantilizes working-class people with a false-consciousness argument that doesn't seem to understand that class warfare has gradations other than "rich" and "poor".
      • feet 4y ago
        Distinguishing yourself as being in a separate class from someone else has nothing to do with preserving anything, that sounds like absolute nonsense to me. Its some classiest BS designed to keep the poor working class fighting each other
        • Noumenon72 4y ago
          Among the things you preserve by making sure you are not mistaken for a lower social class are: * whether people invite you to social events * how people treat you when you ask for help * what kind of sex partners you have access to * your own perception of yourself as worthy and accomplished It's not an economic class thing, it's a social class thing and would exist even if everyone had the exact same income. Meanwhile reaching for millionaire status when you don't really have it is stressful. Other people will push you back down and you have to fake a lot of behaviors you don't really know how to use. So people generally accept their level instead of identifying with a higher class. This is true in theory and also when you actually talk to them.
• 62951413 4y ago
  There are a lot of people on this forum (and most Bay Area companies) born in communist hell holes such as USSR or China. Go talk to them before saying stupid things about socialism and the level of poverty it forces upon people. And if you thing poverty is the worst thing about the Commies just remember that people are not allowed to leave Communist countries. Think about, people who don't like America or feel "oppressed" have _always_ been free to move to a country they liked better. In USSR and the European countries occupied by it, Cuba, North Korea people were shot and survivors imprisoned for trying.
  • burntoutfire 4y ago
    Yep. The communist countries were more or less one big forced labor camp. You couldn't leave and, while living there, obviously had to work to survive. For the most part, private sector didn't exist, so you had to work in a government-owned company, which usually paid you just enough to survive. You were beaten, tortured or killed if you protested or tried to escape. Pretty much a XX century slavery.