Wealth inequality in America: beliefs, perceptions and reality.

[u/ProgressiveSpark]

What do Americans think good wealth distribution looks like; what they think actual American wealth inequality looks like; and what American wealth inequality actually is like.

[u/Next-Wrongdoer-3479]

Unfortunately, democrats being absolutely insufferable makes a lot of people consider the other option.

Which is just plain idiotic, lol. "You guys are clearly the better of the two options but you're also annoying, therefore I've come to the conclusion the best thing to do is shoot myself in the foot to teach you a lesson." That's the basic logic those people are using.

[u/monkwren → u/Next-Wrongdoer-3479]

Which is just plain idiotic, lol.

It is, but ignoring the idiocy of human nature in your messaging is also idiocy, albeit of a different kind.

[u/major_mejor_mayor → u/monkwren]

So what would you have Dems do?

Be direct and assertive and you're being rude and condescending, but explain things fully and you're patronizing and elitist.

Respond to deplorable Republicans and you're indecent, ignore them and you're weak.

Truth is, most of the people whose thoughts you are trying to rationalize are inherently irrational, ego driven people. They (like most of us) make decisions with their intuition and come up with reasons later.

They don't like Democrats because their egos are threatened, the errors in their preconceived notions are made aware to them, and they react defensively.

That's mostly it, fundamentally small, confused, and weak people reacting emotionally to warped perceptions of reality.

It's genuinely tragic when you think about it.

[u/monkwren → u/major_mejor_mayor]

I mean, you just have to not be arrogant and condescending, that's all.not exactly a high bar to clear.

[u/Kennys-Chicken → u/Next-Wrongdoer-3479]

Yeah….the guy down the street from me with his “fuck your feelings snowflake” and MAGA bumper stickers is totally the neighborhoods favorite guy. He’s not insufferable at all /s

[u/37au47 → u/Next-Wrongdoer-3479]

I mean that's literally what Bernie or bust was, and now we lost abortion rights.

[u/Next-Wrongdoer-3479 → u/37au47]

What...? Tell me you have absolutely no idea what you're talking about without telling me /u/37au47. Try again, bud

[u/37au47 → u/Next-Wrongdoer-3479]

Bernie or bust was when people decided to either vote for Bernie or no one. So many people didn't vote for Hilary and Trump won, giving him supreme Court nominations you dumb ass.

[u/Equivalent_Missions → u/37au47]

While I agree, the Democratic Party was divided. I wonder if their votes would have mattered in the electoral college. Hilary won the popular vote but lost anyway.

I am hoping Trump has divided the Republican Party. But his effects on the Supreme Court will take decades to correct. RLG should have left when Obama was in, what a folly.

[u/Next-Wrongdoer-3479 → u/37au47]

Hillary won the popular vote....You may want to research the electoral college and how little your individual vote means/used to mean (the laws have since changed regarding the electoral college and how they can vote) before you spout off anymore, lol.

Finally, based off my original comment you're saying both Hillary and Trump would've been better off for this country than Bernie would've been, which is just silly and completely undermines the entire "gotcha" you're trying to get me with.

[u/37au47 → u/Next-Wrongdoer-3479]

Ya you may want to research what bust means. Bernie for their candidate or bust, the word bust meaning no one else and they are excluding themselves from voting. This is why the person above said liberals are insufferable. People like you make it harder to vote Democrat, you really make people want to cut off ones nose in spite of their face. It's right there in the wiki as well https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernie_Sanders_2016_presidential_campaign#Bernie_or_Bust ""Bernie or Bust" refers to the intention of some of Sanders's supporters not to vote for Hillary Clinton if she won the Democratic nomination, but rather to write in Sanders, vote for a third-party candidate such as Jill Stein or Gary Johnson, or not to vote at all.[201]"

[u/Next-Wrongdoer-3479 → u/37au47]

Lol, you and the other user still have the whole thing backward. The Bernie or bust was people not wanting to vote for anyone but Bernie because he was the best candidate. What I was talking about are people who know one candidate is better but refuse to vote foe them for one reason or another. You and the other user's example is literally the exact opposite of what's being discussed. Funny how the people who argue in favor of conservatives are never all that bright.

[u/37au47 → u/Next-Wrongdoer-3479]

Ya never that bright, I'm sure you are America's next billionaire. Good luck making ends meet, at this point I'm financially insulated enough to vote against my own wants if it means your ass is worse off.

[u/Next-Wrongdoer-3479 → u/37au47]

Imagine equating intelligence to wealth despite how demonstrably untrue that is lol. Thank you for proving me right. I love that you actually think this comment is a win for you.

[u/37au47 → u/Next-Wrongdoer-3479]

Ya go read the Bernie or bust wiki you dumb ass. People like you are why abortions are illegal. I don't love that you think that is a win. People like you have hurt democracy more than you will ever realize.

[u/37au47 → u/Next-Wrongdoer-3479]

Ya the electoral college that's been around since the beginning, why don't you look at the map, Hilary lost Wisconsin by 23k votes, Gary Johnson 106k votes Jill Stein 31k votes, Hilary loses Michigan by 11k votes Gary Johnson 172k votes Jill Stein 51k votes, loses Pennsylvania by 44k votes Gary Johnson 146k votes Jill Stein 49.9k votes, loses Florida by 113k votes Gary Johnson 207k votes Jill Stein 64k votes. That's 75 electoral votes. If those states went blue instead the outcome is trump 231 vs Hilary 307. Even without Florida that's Trump 260 vs Hilary 278.

[u/Particular_Mouse_600 → u/Next-Wrongdoer-3479]

Democrats can’t seem to ever figure out how to govern anything. Can’t blame anybody for being skeptical about them. They’re not perfect, they actually do some things worse than republicans

[u/proletariat_sips_tea → u/Particular_Mouse_600]

Right. That's politics. It's not perfect. It fucks up. But it's better than kings and the ai overlord isn't ready yet. Reality is, it'd what we got and it works.

Amd you said some. One is obviously better more often than the other. You should vote Democrat. We can make it better once the boomers die off and stop voting in their classmates.

[u/Particular_Mouse_600 → u/proletariat_sips_tea]

Right but there’s a middle ground which is the independents, Barry sanders and Kennedy were and are much better candidates than Biden or Trump. They just don’t have an entire party to back them so they usually lose sadly.

[u/proletariat_sips_tea → u/Particular_Mouse_600]

Yep and it fucking sucks. Start interactive democracy in your area. That's the future. Fir now we gotta fight for our future.

[u/major_mejor_mayor → u/Particular_Mouse_600]

Tf?

The only times in recent memory that we have had control over our debt/ deficit were all under Democrats, and almost every Republican in the last 60 years has drastically increased spending without having any genuine benefit

What government failures by Democrats are you using to set up this wild alternate reality where Republicans are better at governance than Democrats?

Because what you just said is pretty objectively untrue from all of the data and factual information I am aware of.

[u/Downtown_Feedback665 → u/[deleted]]

Fellow centrist here, believe this video perfectly explains the chasm that is our two sided political system. Where people on both sides think they’re right and compassionate.

Most people can tell that democrats are the best on most if not all social issues, think we need more taxes to pay for more social services.

Republicans don’t like paying taxes because many poor folks that are on the bottom scale of that video feel squeezed for every dime they pay in tax. Rich republicans obviously don’t want to give up their wealth to the state.

Republicans want tax cuts to cut revenues and force capitol hill to spend smarter to fix root cause issues, democrats want to throw money at every problem thinking that that will actually fix things.

Meanwhile we spend $0.60 per dollar of federal taxes to fund the military industrial complex to go do things like fund genocide.

As a centrist, I wish we would zero base budget every dime on the federal level. Figure out a way towards fiscal responsibility as a nation, and figure out a way forward that works for all Americans like the ideal chart said.

With all the good stuff like civil rights for all and bodily autonomy and the right to choose along the way, and no war and genocide would be nice. However, neither candidate is doing anything remotely close to what I would like to see happen.

I’m in the middle poor section, and I wish we would all start hating each other less and hate that one rich ass hole more.

[u/Cory123125 → u/Downtown_Feedback665]

Dude, what? Literally all of the republican messaging is about hurting people.

Occasionally someone will pay lip service to the opposite, but its rah rah these or those people are bad.

I mean just look at ... everything trump says, and its the trump party now, unmistakably.

[u/Downtown_Feedback665 → u/Cory123125]

Idk about you, but I’ve met a lot of never Trump republicans. And if you think Biden is a good candidate, you’re out of your mind. We are fully funding two wars and one is a genocide of children all while the wealth gap is greater than ever and everyone is getting squeezed.

My vote is probably going to RFK and I don’t even like the dude. But he may set a precedent of an “independent” making it on the ballot in all 50 states and maybe next time through, centrist people can organize and maybe materially do something about the duopoly that is razing this country.

[u/major_mejor_mayor → u/Downtown_Feedback665]

If they claim to be a "never Trump Republican" but vote for Republicans then they are liars and are simply deluding themselves.

Trump/ MAGA is the Republican party now, there is no separating the two as it currently stands.

[u/Downtown_Feedback665 → u/major_mejor_mayor]

You’re buying into a narrative that isn’t actually real. Go outside and talk to people. I work in tech and the vast majority of republicans at my company voted for Hillary and Biden. They are still republicans and hate most if not all democratic policies. But always hated Trump.

Stop listening to left wing media telling you how right wing people feel, and maybe go talk to some right wing people.

[u/Downtown_Feedback665 → u/[deleted]]

I said I didn’t like him and I’m afraid you may be the one not reading enough.

Biden will make it harder for asylum seekers after creating refugees in two foreign lands

95 billion to Ukraine and Israel

1 in 4 Americans see both Trump and Biden unfavorably.

Gotten from the DHS, NPR, and Pew. Not right wing news.

Democrats somehow think that a documents trial that’s upgraded to a felony is the card they have to play. When in reality, the political calculus of the trial was severely flawed for democrats regardless of the outcome. If he wins, it’s a witch-hunt. If he loses, it’s lawfare. All while getting more free press just like 2016.

Meanwhile the judge presiding over the case donated money to democratic political campaigns, and his daughter works in the Biden administration. All while Trump has gotten these slaps on the wrist LONG BEFORE he was president many times over. If we were going to try him for something, it should’ve been Jan 6, but we didn’t. All this did was if you already hated Trump, you got more evidence to feed that belief. For everyone else undecided, apolitical, independent, it garnered support for him.

And if you think democrats are actually ameliorating the wealth gap I genuinely feel sorry for you. You’ve bought into the narrative of one head of a two-headed snake. Acting as if democrats and republicans are vastly different when really they will continue to hoard power and have you fight about absolute nonsense in order to distract you from the fact that if we cut all of the defense budget today, we wouldn’t meet our interest obligations on the national debt.

WE WOULDNT MEET THE INTEREST ON NATIONAL DEBT IF WE CUT ALL OF DEFENSE SPENDING. Do you understand this situation? The fact that this is a dying empire and people want to talk about abortion rights or crypto or trans rights or the southern border, and nobody wants to talk about the fact that we’ll either have to be taxed to 100% for every person, or cut social security, Medicare, and defense spending drastically.

You’re under a rock and can’t read the temperature of the room. I never wanted Trump to be president but people like you will end up pushing him back into office. Good luck alienating undecided voters.