Why are these assholes so against helping people? These fuckers are nothing but greedy sociopaths.
conservatives view social hierarchy as a necessity which must be enforced. if you’re at the bottom, you deserve to be there, and if you’re there, you suffer because you deserve it, and because you’re at the bottom, you deserve to suffer. cruelty is the point, and without it, there can’t be the joy of their success.
anything else, to them, is profane and must be fought/destroyed. anyone who tries to climb above their position must be punished.
relevant videos:
A Conservative is someone who can’t enjoy their dinner without knowing someone else is hungry
I’m stealing that.
heh
The only thing baffling about any of this is that somehow, millions of ordinary, working/middle-class Americans believe that this system benefits them more than the alternative.
it’s not baffling at all. the American dream is literally everyone is a millionaire or will be one day. conservatives are the only ones buying into that dream still so they’re trying to live like a millionaire now so that when the money finally shows up they’ve done their part to help their new millionaire friends along the way.
The problem is they don’t understand that the likelihood of them becoming even moderately wealthy is pretty slim and they’re too blind to see that voting to hurt the poor is voting to hurt themselves in their current situation.
When I was growing up, at least the way I was taught (and I was only born in 1977), the American Dream was a steady paycheck, a house and a car. Did that change at some point or was I taught something other than what people actually believed?
As someone also born in '77 I generally heard the same things and the same sentiment. Though I think that might have more to do with family and the general class you grew up in. Because it isn’t Universal unfortunately. Nor can capitalism deliver on it.
I’ve never heard of that version of The American Dream before.
Nah, they’re just pissed and want to believe they’ve been wronged by some “other”. Ironically, they’re 100% correct, but have identified the wrong “other”. Baffling, indeed.
But voting another way will result in my children being accosted by drag queens who will turn them gay / trans and my freedoms will be co-opted by shitty beer companies who don’t believe in Christ. Then my enemies will take my guns and my elderly parents will be shipped off to a commie gulag and murdered to make room for more whatever whatever whatever… I ran out of tropes. Hopefully, you don’t need me to punctuate that this is sarcasm.
These are the things that they think about obsessively. They aren’t thinking about how to make the world a better place. They’re thinking about the things they hate and fear.
I’ve always regarded that episode of the playbook as especially astute.
the whole “Playbook” is pretty great, bit this one is excellent for explaining exactly why conservatives see things the way they do
Which is quite a high bar, considering the overall quality of the whole series!
Thank you for the links. They were very enlightening.
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Christian in name only.
That’s the No True Scotsman Fallacy.
This is just Christianity.
I’m not a Christian, but no. And screw your upvoters.
Edit: Just in case you need an explanation (though if you did, you probably wouldn’t accept it anyway), a person who says they’re a Christian but doesn’t read/learn, understand, or follow any Christian principles except incidentally is not a Christian. It’s like saying you’re a pacifist but you go out beating up and killing homeless people at night. That doesn’t make pacifists assholes, that makes you a liar. Your brain cells barely need to function for you to understand this principle, so stop with the religiophobic bullshit.
Along with the usual “the cruelty is the point” responses, I’d like to remind people that this is a direct strategy championed by Mitch McConnell, who has been championing this strategy long before Biden came along.
First, McConnell believes that the GOP should not have any policy positions on anything at all. If you have a policy position, that position is subject to criticism. Rather than champion policies that he fully admits would be unpopular with the voters, McConnell believes in simply pointing to the Democrat policies, pointing out the flaws in those policies, and just making vague promises that the GOP can do better without actually defining how. Ever seen the meme of the guy tapping his own head while saying something profoundly stupid? That’s exactly what this is. Picture McConnell doing that while saying “Can’t be criticized for your terrible ideas if you just don’t have any ideas at all!”
The other part, also championed by McConnell and others, is that no matter what it is, if it originally was a Democrat idea, then a Republican must be against it at all costs. Not only must they be against it, they must treat every Democrat policy as a threat to American society as we know it. Take a look at Romneycare in Massachusetts. A healthcare bill created by a Republican that was considered widely successful and basically the cornerstone to Obamacare. But the second a Democrat suggesting nationalizing the program, it was suddenly the worst program in the world that would collapse our healthcare system and lead to death panels.
And sad to say, but it’s been a very effective strategy for them. It’s easy for the GOP to get their voters to blame Democrats for problems because deflecting blame is easy, and people are always looking for someone to blame for whatever problems they have in life. People tend not to do their own research or critical thinking and often just prefer to be “told” what the “right” answer is, especially if what they’re told jives with their own personal worldview. If voters want to believe that Democrats are the root of all evil, and their elected leaders are saying that Democrats are the root of all evil, it’s not much of a stretch to get them to believe that anything or any ideas associated with Democrats are also evil and must be eradicated.
It’s all about maintaining political power through obstruction. Doesn’t matter how bad your own policies are just as long as you continue to make sure voters believe that the alternative is even worse.
This is extremely well said. Thanks for taking the time.
Because either they got theirs and fuck everyone else. Or, they never got theirs and fuck everyone who might get theirs.
Because Ronnie RayGun said it is dangerous for government to help people. Totally cool for government to help those poor billionaires though.
They’ve become so focused on political “points” and afraid of the other “team” scoring a “point” that they’re willing to do anything, regardless of the optics.
Because they don’t stop and look at the bigger picture - it’s just political capital they can push around or dangle as a carrot in front of voters for future elections.
Because the corporations that own the private colleges and universities that overcharge on tuition also are the ones that hand out student loans.
They stand to lose billions of dollars in predatory profit if they can’t collect interest on student loans.
If only there were some loopholes to close and a way to take a little cash from assets that never ever get sold…
Yeah I see a lot of “cruelty is the point” comments here, which might not be entirely false, but if they sue it mostly means someone is pissed off about losing revenue.
The cruelty isn’t the only point behind every conservative position, but it’s the only point of enough of them to make me suspect it’s part of the motivation for all of them.
It’s never the point. That’s just lazy reasoning.
Really? Not for anti-trans laws, anti-immigrant laws, and laws that specifically target medically necessary abortions? Of course it’s the point. If looking at the laws they vote for isn’t good enough, all you have to do is talk to a few conservatives to figure out they’re hateful, cruel people.
You may see them as hateful and cruel people, but that’s not how they see themselves. They would have to see themselves as cruel for cruelty to be the point. The fact that you think it’s the point means that you’re unwilling or unable to actually understand their point of view.
You may disagree with it, but it’s not about “cruelty”, and pretending it is just shows your personal limitations.
If course they don’t see themselves as hateful. But they have no qualms about using cruelty to enforce their idea of the proper social order. If you want to be very literal, the cruelty is the means to an end and not an end in itself, but when they use cruelty as a first resort to enforce rules to designed to keep undesirable people in their place, I see it as a distinction without a difference.
Simple answer I think is GOP don’t want anyone in their base to think any form of government assistance is good and will always label it as hand outs. More government assistance/social safety nets means their capitalist overlords gets to maintain and build their control over citizens and money will flow to them instead. Also “liberals bad!”
Wilholt’s law, “Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.”
Aka, “you’re not hurting the right people”
“The modern conservative is engaged in one of man’s oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.”
― John Kenneth Galbraith
*Wilhoit’s. I remember because I used to have a neighbor named Wilhoit.
They get mad about feeding starving kids too
Imagine there is a group that does everything in it’s power to block every positive change there could be.
Imagine further that the same group also does everything in it’s power to change every positive thing into a negative.
Now imagine that >48% of people vote for that group.
And finally imagine you in a place like that.
Honestly, unimaginable.
That’s why it drives me nuts when people get a cynical and say both parties are the same or that your vote doesn’t matter. Pay attention to how the different parties vote!
Both parties are horrible but one party is much horrible-er. I think you can guess the one
Enlightened centrists are the worst. At least you know what you’re getting with republicans.
You know what you’re getting with centrists, too: snobby Republicans.
Centrists are a different breed though. They’ll agree with you until the part about actually doing something to fix a problem. At that stage, suddenly “now isn’t the right time”, “we can’t afford it”, and “we should focus on incremental change”. Fuck centrists.
“both parties” is just code for right wing asshole trying to skew the vote
It’s absolutely true that they are not identical. Although they are far too similar. Only really differentiating on the subject of social democracy. Where the Democrats at least pay lip service to it. Which is a big plus for the Democrats. Whereas Republicans openly show disdain for it.
Other than that they are both far right wing economic parties. Who have both actively attacked labor. Although in the Democrats defense they are often just eager to go along with what Republicans are doing. And don’t actually take the initiative on their own.
If it wasn’t for the Democrats loose Pro social democracy stands I wouldn’t vote for them there’s very little you can point to and recent history that they have accomplished that’s been truly good. Outside of civil rights same-sex marriage Etc. They seriously need to stop waiting the better part of a century before fighting for things to people need.
They just want to hurt people. Imagine voting to keep people indebted. That’s them.
“He’s not hurting the people he needs to be hurting.”
A real actual person said that. They walk among us.
Just republican shit.
Another Big Brain douchesupporter said “I never thought I’d want a dictator in my life, but if we’re going to have one I want it to be Trump!”
If a tried really hard to be charitable I’d guess Faux “News” was telling her the left wants to vote for a dictator so she wants her dictator, but I don’t think that was the context…
It’s so sad, people who were hurt growing up and then rationalize it as that’s the way the world is supposed to be. Too hard for some people to admit their parents made some mistakes.
Yep. 😂 🤣
*its
Just. Zero. The. Interest.
I know so many people that have no issues paying what they borrowed, but at this point, they’ve already paid back the initial amount and still owe more than they initially borrowed and it’s fucking ridiculous.
I would be okay if it were set to a mandatory percentage, like 2%.
It’s federally backed so the risk to lenders is incredibly low. What right do they have to charge some of these new students 9 percent interest on a loan that the government is paying them to give?
Yep, cap education cost if you don’t want to make it free, have the federal government provide zero interest loans if states don’t want to do it, reap the reward of having a more educated population, including better salaries which means more taxes paid which compensates for the zero interest loans.
The real problem is that they don’t want a more educated population.
Trillion dollar budget for the military industrial complex? Money well spent! A single dime spent to help taxpayers? Socialism!
The “I got mine, fuck you” crowd really hates progress.
The student loan interest rates are exuberant, while I support the nullification of times past, I’d also like to see the core issue being taken care of
I think you mean “exorbitant” ;)
I thought exuberant meant a lot of/obsessive amounts
That’s a contextual issue. It’s not often applied to a value but rather a feeling - that’s why I suggested “exorbitant”.
Exuberant is also considered a positive attribute, so contextually it was confusing.
edit: Not to be rude - I’m an American and the Dutch constantly correct me here - but instead of “obsessive” (to be obsessed with), you might consider “excessive” - much closer to “a lot of” but more “too much of”. ✌️
Exorbitant meaning “eye-popping”, as in making your eyes pop out of their sockets, which is why it’s used in these contexts.
Yes, let’s do both.
Here’s one thing I don’t understand: does loan cancellation consist of the government paying off the loan, or is it a legal nullification of somebody’s loan? If it’s the former, I get economic concerns. If it’s the latter, then I really don’t see arguments against loan cancellation as very credible.
It’s cancellation of the loans. They’re government loans being forgiven, not private loans paid back by the government.
Yeah, I’d like to focus on stopping the bleeding before mopping up blood. I don’t know what the message is here for future generations.
How many of these conservatives tried to cancel the Trump and Bush tax cuts for the wealthy? Fuck conservatives!!
Well right because those clearly trickle down as you can see by the constant record-breaking wealth inequality.
Just one more tax break for the rich bro, trust me bro, it’s gonna work this time bro, it’s gonna trickle down like craaaazy bro, the rich just need one more tax break bro, bro please bro, trust me it’s gonna trickle like huge bro
Stop voting for Republicans. They don’t want the government helping students and workers. All they have is hating on people who are woke. The Woke are minorities, LGBTQ, and non Christians.
Not even just Christians, anyone not their brand of “Christianity”, the brand that hates everyone, gets the woke label as well.
We should sue the government because of all the tax cuts for the rich if this is how conservatives feel the need to act
i should sue for all the ppp loans that were forgiven. how unfair is that. rich people got loans forgiven yet you or i cannot.
Most PPP loans didn’t even save any jobs
Went directly into the business owners pocket to buy swimming pools, boats & exotic cars.
Using similar logic we should be able to use for that. It’s a load of bullshit. The government is constantly giving money directly to rich people, but God forbid we do the same thing for regular people.
I think the main issue is that the people who are sueing student loans, can afford to.
This is legitimately a good idea. Does anyone know a lawyer that would take that case on?
Better call Saul!
There’s a lot of lawyers that still have student loans.
Aren’t they conveniently exempt from lawsuits?
Not anymore, if this is how the courts what to run things
So where are all of the conservative “if Biden actually wanted to cancel student loan debt he would just do it” people now
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Two conservative groups are asking a federal court to block the Biden administration’s plan to cancel $39 billion in student loans for more than 800,000 borrowers.
In a lawsuit filed Friday in Michigan, the groups argue that the administration overstepped its power when it announced the forgiveness in July, just weeks after the Supreme Court struck down a broader cancellation plan pushed by President Joe Biden.
The Education Department called the suit “a desperate attempt from right wing special interests to keep hundreds of thousands of borrowers in debt.”
It’s part of a wave of legal challenges Republicans have leveled at the Biden administration’s efforts to reduce or eliminate student debt for millions of Americans.
Under the one-time fix, past periods in forbearance were also counted as progress toward Public Service Loan Forgiveness, a program that offers cancellation after 10 years of payments while working in a government or nonprofit job.
Biden’s action was illegal, the lawsuit says, because it wasn’t authorized by Congress and didn’t go through a federal rulemaking process that invites public feedback.
I’m a bot and I’m open source!
I’m sure that just like overturning Roe this will bode well for Republicans next year lol
The number of times I’ve seen people complain about Biden not doing anything about student loans begs to differ. Republicans drag their feet or block, and democrats suffer for not doing enough.
While I understand your frustration and see that trend on a lot of topics with Republicans obstructing and Democrats taking the heat and I am sure there’s a lot of rhetoric among loudmouths about this, surveys suggest most people know who to blame.
deleted by creator
Exactly. Frankly, Democrats no longer need to cater to Republicans at all in order to win. They just need to inspire their own base, which if that excitement and energy is strong enough will sway some enlightened centrists over.
Don’t get complacent; while the policy changes are rallying Democrats to vote in order to reverse them, they’re also rallying Republicans to vote to keep the regression train going.
Yup they’re getting the evangelicals all frothed up with the thought of taking away birth control entirely
I just want to say I was surprised and so fucking happy when I got a notification that a payment did not go through for my student loan and logged into my loans website and seeing that the 7100 I had left was suddenly paid off.
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They just need to make student loans dischargeable in bankruptcy. High earners who can afford their student loans will be dismissed like any bankruptcy court applicant who makes enough money to pay their debts, and the people who are actually struggling will get relief at the penalty of 7 years very bad credit.
Bankruptcy works for every other kind of debt, it was written into the Constitution by the founding fathers, and it’s the perfect system designed exactly for problems like the student loan crisis.I’d rather have both the forgiveness and the bankruptcy option.
These shitcunts are reveling in the idea of making people poor & miserable.
It was never a secret and yet the poor and miserable keep voting for them.
