They’ve just been brainwashed into thinking it just means authoritarianism.
Idk if I’d even call it “brainwashing” per say. A lot of it boils down to mass media exploiting ethnic and economic bigotries. Just stimulating the very human impulse to be afraid of other people - especially people who don’t look or speak or act like you. Then asserting that these Other People are trying to Take Over.
I could go on, but you get the idea.
For a lot of these core ideas, the very pitch-line for them is corrupted. Even removing the question of rich people having an edge, you have these core messages that only justify the status quo.
Democracy as a system of surveying the public mood and mapping policies is great. Democracy as a means of putting arbitrary lists of policies to a vote and then blithely executing the majoritarian opinion isn’t great. At some level, you have to recognize that “Two wolves and a sheep voting for dinner” isn’t going to end well for the minority, even if the proverbial Two Wolves are wearing different team jackets.
Similarly, Freedom v Tyranny is often couched within the (very deliberately mischaracterized) Ben Franklin quote “Those who value safety over liberty deserve neither”. But a better analysis might be “Freedom protects but does not bind, Tyranny binds but does not protect”. Because you need safety in order to be free. Freedom of choice is predicated on available choices not being harmful. All too often, policies that serve to protect the weakest members of society are pitched as somehow being tyrannical to the strongest, strictly because they prevent one group from bullying another.
Meritocracy is also larded up with an innate fondness for eugenics and other Social Darwinism. There’s this idea that a meritocratic society will subtly weed out the undesirables via a system that leaves no single individual culpable for social murder. “Hey, you’re homeless because you’re physically disabled or mentally ill? That’s not my fault, because I have proven myself to have merit and you clearly haven’t.” Again, even if we were rewarding hard work, we’d just be punishing the weak and promoting the strong in a Might Makes Right bureaucratic system.
So-called Innovation rewards growth at all costs. Exploitative change is championed purely on the basis that the “innovator” generates profit. Even as we do build things, we focus entirely on the upfront costs versus long-term revenues, without respect for the core function of the system or the long term sustainability of the project.
It’s just really hard to make the jump from having people agree with these things to realizing that the system itself is to blame
I think there is a general recognition that our economic system is broken. But time and again, we’re limited in the remedies we’re allowed to discuss by individuals invested in perpetuating fascist policies.
And when the contradictions of the system mount, we’re told that we must overlook them in order to defeat The Evil Outsiders - Russia, China, Mexico, Iran, Somalia… And that any effort to buck existing policies or curb fascist impulses is a tacit alliance with the Villainous Foreigners Who Want To Destroy Our Way of Life.
Then asserting that these Other People are trying to Take Over.
Yeah that’s a more accurate analysis I think. When most people reject socialism out of hand, I don’t think they’re really engaging with any of it’s actual ideas, they’re just associating it with scary foreigners.
For a lot of these core ideas, the very pitch-line for them is corrupted. Even removing the question of rich people having an edge, you have these core messages that only justify the status quo.
Yeah. I do get that. There are plenty of these aspects of society that I would want to change to be more fair, compassionate, etc. But when it comes to discussing these ideas with regular people, you need some kind of starting point and using the system’s own premises against it I think is a reasonably effective tool to do that. Once we have a political and economic system free from the control of a handful of greedy people, I think it’ll be a lot easier to take the next steps.
Idk if I’d even call it “brainwashing” per say. A lot of it boils down to mass media exploiting ethnic and economic bigotries. Just stimulating the very human impulse to be afraid of other people - especially people who don’t look or speak or act like you. Then asserting that these Other People are trying to Take Over.
For a lot of these core ideas, the very pitch-line for them is corrupted. Even removing the question of rich people having an edge, you have these core messages that only justify the status quo.
Democracy as a system of surveying the public mood and mapping policies is great. Democracy as a means of putting arbitrary lists of policies to a vote and then blithely executing the majoritarian opinion isn’t great. At some level, you have to recognize that “Two wolves and a sheep voting for dinner” isn’t going to end well for the minority, even if the proverbial Two Wolves are wearing different team jackets.
Similarly, Freedom v Tyranny is often couched within the (very deliberately mischaracterized) Ben Franklin quote “Those who value safety over liberty deserve neither”. But a better analysis might be “Freedom protects but does not bind, Tyranny binds but does not protect”. Because you need safety in order to be free. Freedom of choice is predicated on available choices not being harmful. All too often, policies that serve to protect the weakest members of society are pitched as somehow being tyrannical to the strongest, strictly because they prevent one group from bullying another.
Meritocracy is also larded up with an innate fondness for eugenics and other Social Darwinism. There’s this idea that a meritocratic society will subtly weed out the undesirables via a system that leaves no single individual culpable for social murder. “Hey, you’re homeless because you’re physically disabled or mentally ill? That’s not my fault, because I have proven myself to have merit and you clearly haven’t.” Again, even if we were rewarding hard work, we’d just be punishing the weak and promoting the strong in a Might Makes Right bureaucratic system.
So-called Innovation rewards growth at all costs. Exploitative change is championed purely on the basis that the “innovator” generates profit. Even as we do build things, we focus entirely on the upfront costs versus long-term revenues, without respect for the core function of the system or the long term sustainability of the project.
I think there is a general recognition that our economic system is broken. But time and again, we’re limited in the remedies we’re allowed to discuss by individuals invested in perpetuating fascist policies.
And when the contradictions of the system mount, we’re told that we must overlook them in order to defeat The Evil Outsiders - Russia, China, Mexico, Iran, Somalia… And that any effort to buck existing policies or curb fascist impulses is a tacit alliance with the Villainous Foreigners Who Want To Destroy Our Way of Life.
Those are some good points/better ways to say it.
Yeah that’s a more accurate analysis I think. When most people reject socialism out of hand, I don’t think they’re really engaging with any of it’s actual ideas, they’re just associating it with scary foreigners.
Yeah. I do get that. There are plenty of these aspects of society that I would want to change to be more fair, compassionate, etc. But when it comes to discussing these ideas with regular people, you need some kind of starting point and using the system’s own premises against it I think is a reasonably effective tool to do that. Once we have a political and economic system free from the control of a handful of greedy people, I think it’ll be a lot easier to take the next steps.