re: #543 iceweasel

They sure do. Maybe especially if.
Not quite sure how that works. Possibly the full flowering of internalising American Exceptionalism (wingnut version). Going something like this:

1. America is exceptional!
2. I’m an American and therefore exceptional!
3. Wait a minute, I don’t think all Americans are as equal as me— some of us are more exceptional than others. Some of those other so-called Americans don’t seem very American to me. Why, they even vote Democrat sometimes!
4. When other people are poor, that’s their bad choices and a just punishment. If I’m poor, well, that’s an exception to the rule for all the other poor people.

I can’t do it, it’s making my head hurt.

Part of it is based on wishful thinking and false association. Some of it is caused by the lottery effect in which people tend to think they’re rich because someday they might be rich because of the fictional idea that anyone can become rich. It’s something like the working classes marching at the Tea Party protests like 912DC which is some akin to “poor people marching for billionaires against health care reform.”

The cognitive dissonance runs deep. That’s what we saw people marching against the public option while they themselves are either on Medicare or Medicaid. Now they’re say “that’s different” but they seem to forget that Ronald Reagan considered both socialized medicine during his stint as spokesman for “Operation Coffee Cup” and which is also part of the theme in his speech “A Time for Choosing.”

The same applies with people kvetching about entitlements while being beneficiaries of entitlements themselves. I assume a large part of this is also denial but a large part of it is based on hubris, self-censorship, and a false hope on an American dream that never really made a foothold for the majority of Americans. The reality is that most people will never “strike it rich”.

“Gordon Gecko’s” phrase that “greed is good” is a false premise since profits do not necessarily require greed and most companies that apply greed as their mantra tend to fail. But they still admire this fictional character Gecko even though his kind work against them in their every day lives who for the majority means a life a toil, drudgery and boredom that will never match the fictional ideal that they are bombarded with daily on television and movies.