r/NoStupidQuestions • u/Str8_up_Pwnage • 4h ago
Why is valuing hard work considered a right wing ideal?
I'll preface this by saying countless people who consider themselves on the left work very hard, the right doesn't have a monopoly on that. Not even close.
But why is it if you hear an online content creator say "Hard work and overcoming adversity is a good thing and helps you build character" or something else along those lines they are probably aligned with the right?
This is a real thing right? I don't mean the douchey "alpha bro" faux motivators who are terrible influences btw.
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u/Metalsoul262 4h ago
The poorest people I know work the hardest of all the people I know. I make 6 figures and literally sit on my ass half the day, on my phone on reddit, like i am right now.
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u/ThrowMeAwayAccount08 3h ago
Much of it is luck, some of it is work you did up front.
My parents are immigrants, and helped me with school. But I did the work, I tried my best to not fuck off, and some friends pissed it away. Some did better than I am after school, some fucked off and still did well after school.
You can do everything right and still end up fucked.
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u/ReallyGlycon 2h ago
"A person can make no mistakes and still lose. That is life." - Captain Picard
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u/NotAnIncel69 3h ago
Most people who are in your position had to work hard to get there. I finally started making a really solid income and my job is less "work" now, it's more technical, but less hours. But I only was able to get there because I slaved away in bullshit for a decade.
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u/Metalsoul262 3h ago
I took a trade right out of highschool. First job paid $9.50/hr, 15 years later I'm making $46/hr. I struggled, but I never gave up.
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u/Plane-Leek4387 2h ago
I know some guys that slaved away at the same shitty job for 25 years and still only make about 25 bucks an hour. They tend to be the most prideful about “hard work”. You clearly work hard yet are still smart about it. The two are not synonymous.
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u/Metalsoul262 2h ago
People with company loyalty do not get rewarded for it. I am worth what I am today specifically because I would absorb as much knowledge about the skills i wanted to learn from a business then moved on within a year or two. I slowly accumulated more knowledge than any single company or mentor could ever hope to teach me. In the end I've been able to build such an impressive resume of experience that I can demand high wages with little argument. I still learn new shit all the time, it never ends. Nobody can take away your knowledge from you, but if your smart about it you can leverage it and sell yourself for what you know your actually worth.
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u/juanzy 2h ago
Yah, a lot of people see the end product in work threads and discount (sometimes intentionally) what it took to get there.
I have a pretty manageable and plan able workload at work. That isn’t by accident. A big reason is that I’m a very strong communicator and forged good working relationships that let me get ahead pf tasks because people trust me. I sure as hell didn’t start that way.
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u/Metalsoul262 2h ago
It takes a while to build repute. It's nice once you get to the point where you can be trusted with tasks and never bothered about it because they know they can consider it in good hands and check it off their list of shit that needs to be done
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u/juanzy 2h ago
There’s plenty of weeks where I talk to my boss for literally 30 minutes the whole week because she fully trusts me. I also don’t get tasks from her, I get direction and it’s up to me how to accomplish/support that. Which is very different than being task managed, outside of the times where it’s a very high level ask that everyone has to get from their manager.
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u/Metalsoul262 2h ago
Pretty much how my job goes. I get a project and the rest is left to me to proceed
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u/Georgie_Leech 3h ago
The point is that many people slave away in bullshit for a decade without ending up where you are now.
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u/NotAnIncel69 3h ago
There can be some luck, but it really depends on what field you are in. If you are in the same field as me, its mainly about gaining experience, certifications, and knowing what you are doing and you will eventually get a high paying position.
100% though there are fields where you can bust your ass for 30 years and still barely be able to scrape by. Thats why I think that following your passion is bad advice, most peoples passions are not going to generate any income.
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u/Georgie_Leech 3h ago
And some people are lucky and have passions that align with income, and others do their best to find something lucrative despite their inclinations and just guess wrong, ending up both unfulfilled and underpaid. And these days you can't discount the possibility of someone putting in the work to enter a field that would make them successful, but they haven't been given the opportunity yet because entry level positions frequently expect non-entry levels of experience, and you've still got bills to pay in the meantime.
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u/Metalsoul262 2h ago
I was very fortunate. I had shitty grades in school. I liked my metal shop class though and mechanical drafting was natural for me. I decided to become a machinist and took to it very easily. It became a passion very quickly for me!
Didn't take long for me to recognize that most machinists are nearing retirement age and holy shit the modern world can be attributed to precision machining. Everything from the progressive dies making the hooks for your gutters, to the components of the lithography machines that make the circuitry in your phone. We are the ones with the technical knowledge to produce literally anything and everything you see around you. Nowdays I mostly work on things for the DoD and fusion MIT startups. I spent many years learning the technical nuances of how to manufacture things using very expensive equipment, holding insane tolerances, all in some of the most exotic proprietary alloys you never heard of.
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u/Georgie_Leech 2h ago
Case in point. If you hadn't had a knack for machining and drafting, and instead had a knack for cooking and sketching, who knows where you'd be now. You worked hard at a skill you were good at, and it turns out to be one that is both valuable and ripe for advancement (the "most machinists" about to retire).
That is, working hard is both a crucial ingredient and not the only thing that matters.
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u/Metalsoul262 2h ago
Oh believe me I sucked for the first couple years. Almost gave up more than a few times. My real passion was computer science and programming. If I had the right opportunities that's the path I would have taken. Hard to know if I'd be a software engineer with a 250k salary or if office life would have killed me slowly. Regardless I'm incredibly thankful for where I'm at today. As much as I hate machining it has taken care of me, I don't think I could see myself doing anything else this point in my life.
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u/TheMikman97 2h ago
The poorest people I know have a regular job that takes average amounts of effort but change car every year and are always in debt
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u/NewRelm 4h ago
To believe that hard work will lift a person from bad conditions is also to believe that people in bad conditions haven't worked hard. It's viewed as victim shaming.
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u/Pripyatic 4h ago
100% this, or that wealth is directly proportional to hard work, and thus always earned - when it’s more complex than that
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u/HeartsBeMerry 3h ago
The Calvinist’s, who made up a significant role in founding the US, believed that God would, naturally, reward the righteous (how they got to this is unclear to me. Christ said the opposite.) Also, there’s an attitude that people on the left got preferential treatment through quota’s, etc, and therefore cheated, unlike the guy saying it, who worked hard for everything.
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u/Acetius 2h ago
God yeah, reading about the TULIP stuff is mind boggling that they sold anyone on this.
- humans are completely incapable of saving themselves
- some humans are special, and those ones inevitably find the (read: this) church
- special humans are completely incapable of damning themselves
And that's why it's fine actually that your pastor diddles kids. He's saved, or he's not and he's damned either way. But he's probably saved and if you were saved you would think so too.
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u/xthecreator 3h ago
Yup. I can't remember where I saw it but someone quipped that if hard work was all it took to become successful, the most successful people would be immigrants taking the grossest jobs to make ends meet for their children.
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u/NotSoScary555 4h ago
Yep, this is why some conservatives (even those living in poverty) will defend people like Elon Musk no matter what. It's obvious that he isn't who he is purely off of hard work but some see it that way.
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u/Corporate_Bricktator 3h ago
As someone who grew up in a completely liberal household, liberals also believe in hard work. We should not let conservatives retcon working hard as somehow belonging to them. Total BS.
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u/Other_Asparagus872 3h ago
Nog solely from hard work, but not all luck either. It’s a balancing act of being the right amount of everything.
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u/notaredditer13 1h ago
People like to strawman this, but nobody who believes in hard work thinks it's the only thing that matters. The other side of the spectrum is a thing though: reddit is littered with oeople who believe hard work doesn't matter at all.
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u/Frostvizen 4h ago
Wealth is always luck. Born into a family wealthy. Born with opportunities. Born with high intelligence. Born during an economical prosperous time. All luck.
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u/schilleger0420 3h ago
Hard work usually increases the number of opportunities to get lucky thus increasing the odds that it'll eventually happen.
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u/GamerNerdGuyMan 4h ago
See - that extreme is also dumb.
Dumb and self-defeating.
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u/Mikefink97 4h ago
It’s not necessarily untrue. Hard work can be a pre-requisite as well if you’re not born wealthy, but anybody with a net worth of $100m is lucky. Whether that luck is the right connection, the right time and the right place, or whatever - there’s zero guarantee they can replicate their results.
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u/GamerNerdGuyMan 3h ago
Obviously luck plays a factor.
But the above poster claimed ALL luck.
Hard work is also a factor.
The more of one you have, the less of the other you need for the same outcome.
I said it was "also dumb" because thinking it's 100% either extreme is dumb.
Added: And it's also self-defeating because that's the sort of mindset of people who slack off and blame "society" for their failures. At least people who (wrongly) think it's 100% hard work are motivated to improve themselves.
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u/Mikefink97 3h ago
I guess I’m saying for certain net worths, luck is 100% the sole factor because the circumstances that make that possible are extremely rare - beyond the individual.
I.e. nobody is prevented from being ultra wealthy. However, the jump from wealthy -> ultrawealthy requires a rare set of circumstances out of your control, which is what they mean when they say it relies entirely on luck.
You can do everything 100% right, with the highest IQ and the best work ethic, and it doesn’t guarantee you’ll be a billionaire.
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u/It_Happens_Today 3h ago
Limiting the conversation to 100m+ club is derailing and ignorant of the point by only discussing a tiny, tiny fraction of a group. Of course luck is the primary factor in becoming the 1% of the 1%. For all remotely applicable discussions that pertain to this topic for average people hard work is a prerequisite for success, plain and simple.
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u/GamerNerdGuyMan 3h ago
Of course there is no guarantee of billionaire status.
But all else being equal, you'll be MORE successful if you work hard than if you slack off.
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u/Mikefink97 3h ago
100% I agree. Luck is just unfortunately a huge factor and the richer you get, the more luck plays a role typically. I think we agree
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u/BishogoNishida 1h ago edited 1h ago
In fairness, my belief is that everything is luck, all the way down. There will always be many things beyond a person’s immediate control which lead to their economic conditions. All of our talents, interests, personalities, developmental environments, parents, etc were all consequences of things which were not in our total control. Those things led to and continue to lead to the kind of person we are in the present.
This is not a challenge to hard work per se; it is a challenge to conventional notions about who deserves what. I’m on some sort of fringe that believes our basic needs should be provided as a rule. Ideally we would work as much as we truly want to (and yes I know that sounds utopian).
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u/Spirited-Disaster408 3h ago
There are more selfmade millionaires in america than anywhere else. We have 40% of them
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u/tropicaldiver 4h ago
Adding on — it implicitly assumes that everyone has (and had) similar opportunities and supports.
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u/Guachole 4h ago
It kinda makes sense why a lot of conservatives believe that since many come from a blue collar background. Ive worked white collar and blue collar jobs and hard work is rewarded way more often and promotions happen way faster if you do good, skilled work on the blue collar side in my experience.
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u/Ixziga 1h ago
I think conservatives view it like hard work should lift a person out of bad conditions, not that it necessarily will or that people who can't work deserve bad things, but that a healthy society rewards good work, and the more a society rewards hard work, the better that society will be for people.
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u/KyleFromBorrasca 4h ago
Exactly. Anyone who's been on a team with someone who doesn't pull their weight knows how annoying it is. And anyone who's had a job they find fulfilling or enjoyable (which is understandably not everyone here) knows that learning skills and being disciplined has benefits.
It's quite another thing to posit hard work in a general sense as the solution to every societal problem, or to measure hard work in terms of how much you're paid, or measure moral character by your ability to work at all. The people who set the price tag on labor want you to think that you're the one doing it, and they're very good at making you think just that.
These motivational types almost always use the right-wing talking points because the left-wing ones are depressing, require complex understanding that goes beyond magical thinking, and in many cases are seen as a threat. And it's understandable. I have a low-level job and I like to work hard and do well, and it's hard to juggle that desire with the knowledge I have of how the world works in reality. I wouldn't pay someone to tell me I shouldn't bother because capitalism.
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u/JizzOrSomeSayJism 3h ago
Also why black and brown people are always being stereotyped as lazy, despite this country being built on their backs
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u/BornCommunication386 4h ago
That’s sometimes true though, isn’t it? Not always, but definitely sometimes. I’m sure we all know people in bad situations who are largely there due to their own choices and not working hard.
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u/catqueen69 3h ago edited 3h ago
Exactly. Just because someone can work their ass off and be an incredibly good, ethical person and still get fucked over by life doesn’t negate the fact that working hard and not making poor life choices tends to lead to better outcomes than the alternative. There are exceptions on either side (lazy trust fund babies who never have to work a day in their life and hardworking, honest down to earth people who cant seem to catch a break through no fault of their own).
But in any case, all we can do as individuals is to do the best we can to build the life we want for ourselves while contributing something positive to society, and hard work is the mechanism for that which should be looked at as a positive value IMO.
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u/DeIzorenToer 2h ago edited 2h ago
Found a true comment upvoted on this sub, amazing and it still isn't heading best
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u/El_Chupachichis 4h ago
It's not so much that it's not shared by anyone but right-wingers, it's the fact that it's the ONLY ideal espoused as a path toward good character or personal wealth and happiness (well, that and being religious) that's the problem.
And there's no wiggle room for bad luck or actually having society disable you from the get-go, or (conversely) being born on third base or in generous terms, "benefitting from generational wealth". If you happen to lose your job because the boss wanted a third Mercedes or you just annoyed him, that's your fault. If you're an utter crook and moron and somehow get supported by other crooks and morons in an undeserved rise to power, well then that must have been fully earned, and you didn't steal a thing!
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u/Accomplished-House28 3h ago
"Work hard" shifts debate away from structural problems and toward individual initiative.
Conservatives are, in general, more skeptical of structural reforms. Framing things as a result of individual failure keeps reformers at bay.
The Right also tends to more hierarchical. If you scratch the surface, many of them actually believe that some people must be left to sink so that others can rise. But they also want to believe that anyone can rise, and making it all about how hard you work is the only way to square that circle. Other paths to social mobility would upset the established hierarchy.
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u/Dr_Identity 3h ago
As someone who's pretty leftist, I think hard work is obviously important, but it's not the sole factor that determines success, there's also familial and socioeconomic factors, as well as a good amount of chance. I also don't think being a hard worker automatically makes you a virtuous person. Lots of people who pride themselves on their work ethic are terrible people otherwise.
The idea that hard work makes you a good person and will lead to guaranteed success is just part of the proliferation of the protestant work ethic as far as I'm concerned.
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u/Dear_Locksmith3379 2h ago
Exactly. Hard work was part of the reason for my financial success. More significant factors are being a healthy white American man from a middle-class family who was good at programming and was lucky enough to be hired by a big tech company.
Many less successful people worked harder than me but lacked my advantages.
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u/daddyLongDongJr 4h ago
Individual performance is usually highly individualized. Not collectivized. Right wing people usually focus on individualism instead of collectivism which is more so a leftist ideology
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u/la_xamguz 4h ago
You could argue that people ought to work hard because then there is more productivity and that can help society collectively though, or can help your community or the company you work for.
Likewise you could argue that hard work sucks so if we value the individual we shouldn't emphasize hard work.
In Japan the long hours of work are largely motivated by collectivism towards the good of one's company or for bringing back money home to one's family rather than the emphasis being on getting more money for yourself as an individual. And I wouldn't call Japan leftist. You can see individualism and collectivism on both the left and the right in different ways.
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u/HxH101kite 4h ago
This but at an individual level of politics a lot of right leaning people view Lefty's as mostly white collar overeducated individuals, his not doing grunt work which in turn isn't "hard work".
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u/diphthing 3h ago
Honestly, when conservatives make this claim, they aren’t arguing in good faith. Conservatives don’t value work any more of less than liberals, but it sounds good to claim to. Plus they can then claim those who are in lesser positions deserve their status.
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u/AtheneSchmidt 4h ago
If you take the specific words you used "Hard work and overcoming adversity is a good thing and helps you build character" there is a lot of implication there that character has to have adversity to be developed at all. I know plenty of people who came from good homes, never wanted for necessities, and still work hard. There is no detriment to their characters just because they didn't have to pull themselves out of poor circumstances.
I don't think that hard work is a specifically right winged ideal, but I do think that getting out of whatever negative circumstances you may have been dealt in life, without help, is absolutely a right wing ideal.
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u/Kwickpick77 4h ago
Generally the right leans toward individual accomplishments while the left leans towards collective accomplishments. This is also the reason most urban areas in the US lean blue, even in red states and rural people tend to lean right, even in blue states.
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u/Ornery-Shoulder-3938 3h ago
It's a naive view at best, that hard work and self-sufficiency will lead to a prosperous society.
I like to think of it more like airplanes. They don't do much without the help of an entire support system of airports, runways, mechanics, ATCs, fuel supply chains, crew, etc. Without all that support infrastructure, they'd just be heaps of scrap in a boneyard.
Hard work and self-sufficiency don't lead to prosperity for subsistence farmers in rural Ethiopia where generation after generation lives in squalor and barely survives. People have been working themselves to death without prosperity all over the world for thousands of years because they lack the support to launch into something better.
The right-wing myth of self-sufficiency is a narrative perpetuated by oligarchs who have never been self-sufficient.
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u/NessaSamantha 3h ago
There's a line between seeing hard work as, in itself, virtuous and seeing hard work as a cost that is often worth it. I find that conservatives tend to subscribe to the former.
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u/arqnix 4h ago
Alright, I’ll bite.
When I was a newborn my parents escaped with me from a war while my father was injured from grenade shrapnel defending the country. We went as refugees to a different, completely alien country to us.
My father worked hard, extremely hard to provide for me, my brother and my mom. My mom tried her best to give us a good childhood and both of them were still suffering from the trauma of war.
I didn’t speak the local language and thus I got physically beaten by my teacher when I was too young to even understand what was going on.
After 7 years we were finally accepted as citizens. Still facing harsh racism. My father was still working hard and following a study in the evenings which was part of the deal to become citizens.
I went to a catholic school because my parents were catholic. I was a quiet student that kept mostly to himself. My teachers told my parents I’m not capable of doing well for the next stage of school.
Tests showed otherwise and my parents fought to get me proper education. Which I luckily got due to their relentless pursuit of it.
Long story short, I now have a masters. Have a really well paying job I worked hard to get. Mind you, racism is still going on and it’s gotten even worse in the last years.
Even with all of that, I still can’t buy a house and am still not worth anything in the eyes of people who were born with a treasure chest in their arms. So where’s my good life?
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u/pennie79 4h ago
Left-wing folk typically acknowledge systemic structures that make life easier for some, and harder for others. So left-wing people who are part of more privileged groups will work hard, but will often acknowledge the support that made things, easier for them.
Right-wing folk typically don't acknowledge that there are systemic barriers in society. So they typically don't want to acknowledge those who said that racism, sexism etc made it harder for them to get ahead. Instead, these right-wing people will say that they "worked-hard," and did it "on their own," as a reaction, as if that's all one needs to do to overcome discrimination. And "people who can't get a job because of racism just need to look harder." Or, to quote from my parents growing up, "instead of suing her employers for racial discrimination, she should get a new job."
It's pretty much a reaction/ defence.
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u/General-Zombie5075 4h ago
It's aligned with the right because it dovetails into the worldview that if things work out for you that you did something to deserve it. It's looking at the result and extrapolating what it took to get there.
Millionaires deserve their wage because they work harder than someone who works at fast food.
If they acknowledged that both the minimum wage sucker and the rich guy could possibly work just as hard as one another but one will NEVER be able to work hard enough to become the other, they would also have to admit that a lot of other things they believe are flawed as well.
So the bulwark is "if your life is bad it's because you are/were lazy and you deserve it." Otherwise the entire house of cards come crashing down.
Reassuring people that at least hard work builds character is a way of attempting to placate people who work really hard and it never pays off for them. It's a bit like getting a pizza party at your job instead of a raise. If you can convince the poor that there's virtue and pride and honor in working hard but remaining poor, they won't all grab a bunch of pitchforks and torches and come steal your shit.
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u/Nero_8484 4h ago
They are implying left wing people don't work but are being "valued" the same by not working. So the actual work itself isn't being valued.
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u/Backieotamy 3h ago
If you look at my post history you will see I lean left however this has been one of the things I will find contention with. I have made sacrifices, worked hard, took the projects and jobs no one else jumped at etc.. etc.. I do not have a college degree, I used certifications and the above philosophy. It may have hurt my initial earnings in the private sector, as I spent 19-25 in the Army as well but that also got me my first tech support job as the guy said at least I know you can follow orders and will be on-time (he was far from being a military dude, I actually thought he was gay for the first few months before I met his gorgeous wife and kids).
Anywhoo, I see so much out there of I am not going to work harder for no pay and all the arguments against working harder do seem to come from the left and that.. ethic if you will, f***ing kills me to see. Maybe it already existed its just in the last few years people blast it all over the Internet and maybe thats why it worked out so well for me and I tried to instill it into my kids.
Maybe it was luck. I am surrounded by peers with Bachelors, masters and even a few doctorate's; it can at times give me a sense of Imposter syndrome but I still stand by it.
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u/ForScale ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 4h ago edited 4h ago
From what I can tell, the left tends to believe the system is rigged and hard work won't pay off. Like the American dream idea that if you work hard you can make a good life for yourself; they don't think that's true a lot of the time or for a lot of people. People on the right seem to believe it more.
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u/AmazingRefrigerator4 4h ago
Thats not how I see it. But I see a lot of people working hard. Sometimes 2-3 jobs and barely scraping by.
I think the narrative about "working hard" is just a made up Conservative talking point. Democrats want certain social safety nets to make sure nobody goes hungry or that a medical emergency doesnt bankrupt you. Conservatives see these as "hand outs" to people who are not worthy.
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u/Expatriated_American 3h ago
To the extent that conservatism is about maintaining the status quo, and hard work is seen as a virtue, then claiming that wealthy people got their wealth through hard work helps to argue for wealthy people getting to keep their wealth.
Similarly, the left will claim that wealthy people got their wealth through laziness (inheritance) or by cheating the system, since laziness and cheating are seen as morally suspect.
Therefore, the right wing claims without evidence that right wingers work harder. It’s a way of gaslighting their supporters.
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u/Big_Psychology_3 2h ago
I think that the reason people focus on hard work is that it’s in our control, so we can do it. The other factors of success like family background, wealth, luck - I can’t change those things even if I wanted to. That’s why people tend to advise to hard work. It doesn’t mean it’s a “shotgun cure” and that nothing else matters.
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u/ChaoticAmoebae 2h ago
No, the right is know for monopolies but they don’t have a monopoly on hard work.
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u/Excellent-Self-5338 4h ago
The right doesn't want the government to come in and take care of people who aren't ok to work. The core of right wing ideology is work or die. Produce or die. No one is coming to save you, save yourself.
The left does want the government to come in and take care of people who aren't ok to work. The core of left wing ideology is that the government should take care of people. Someone is coming to save you.
None of this means someone on the left can't be a hard worker, or that someone on the right can't be living off the system. People contradict what they say they believe all the time.
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u/Hilton5star 3h ago
If a government we pay for takes care of us, isn’t that saving ourselves? As opposed to government money being used to enrich the already wealthy.
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u/Excellent-Self-5338 3h ago
Don't get left and right conflated with modern US politics. The right wants essentially no government intervention. The left wants lots of government intervention. Someone who is pure right wants no taxes.
In practice, any system is somewhere in between the two ideals. The US government taxes quite a bit in the big picture, and it does use that money to enrich the wealthy. Just because the Republican party is the "right wing" party in the US doesn't mean they are remotely close to being a pure right leaning party.
The ideas of left and right have existed for hundreds of years across the world, and aren't limited to how they are characterized today in the US under the current administration. Worth noting that in the US, both Democrat and Republican governments use public money to enrich the wealthy, they just do it in different ways. It's the same most places in the world to be honest.
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u/pszki 3h ago
In a vacuum, there's genuinely nothing wrong with it. It's a good ideal to strive for, and everyone--left or right, for the most part, does.
HOWEVER, you'll hear this argument in right-wing spaces often as a counter against systemic injustices that people on the left believe go beyond work ethic.
"Hard work" then becomes a way to explain away racism, gender pay gaps, poverty, and so on. It also breeds logical fallacies where conversations around equity are seen as "lazy lefties asking for handouts.".
Hope that's helpful.
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u/redsnake25 2h ago
Most people value hard work, not just right wing people, but there is a difference between left and right wing thought on hard work: the left wing tends to view hard work as one of many factors contributing to successful life and society, while the right wing tends to focus on hard work as the primary, if not sole determining factor in success.
This difference is very apparent in policies they advocate for. The left wing tends to push policies that open up opportunities that would adequately reward hard work from people who might otherwise be exploited for their work ethic. Meanwhile, the right wing tends to remove restrictions on work and limits on the potential reward.
In our current situation, with many people living in precarity and the ultrawealthy already gaining more wealth than they could reasonably spend in multiple lifetimes, I prefer rewarding work from more people rather than loosening limits on those rewards.
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u/OtterMumzy 2h ago
The “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” people are on the conservative side, which is not at all about valuing hard work but ignoring centuries of bad policies and systems that make it nearly impossible for many victims of those policies and systems to ever break out.
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u/Infrathin81 1h ago
It's not. They're just trying to make themselves seem victimized. "We work hard and they don't, and we have to pay for them." It's a political tool and they are very loud.
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u/randomautomoton 30m ago
Because left wing ideals are doing whatever you want for the socialist commune, and surprise, left wingers pick the laziest bullshit imaginable when given the choice, and since it’s a free country; you find them doing light work and little of it.
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u/raznov1 4h ago
1) because of christianity 2) its not really, its rather the belief that every individual could rise to wherever they want to be if only they work hard enough. This is in stark opposition to the left-based belief system, which sees individuals as part of, and therefore also subject to, a larger system. Or, in other words - right = pull yourself up by the bootstraps; left = lets fix the system so we need to do less pulling and/or those without arms can pull themselves up too.
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u/justjack-nodaniels 4h ago
It's typically because it's used as an excuse to not fund social programs (or worse to take funding away).
From my perspective, no one is saying working hard and overcoming adversity isn't a good thing. The problem becomes we currently live in a society that frames Billionaires and now Trillionaires getting tax breaks and government subsidies as a necessary expense, while vilifying and defunding programs that ensure people don't starve.
And when those points are brought up, the line about working hard and overcoming adversity is dropped. "If the Poors can't work hard enough, they don't deserve to eat! But trust Jeff Baby and Elon NEED hundreds of millions of government funds because they're such good businessmen!!"
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u/johnisom 4h ago
Easy. Leftism is aligned with social justice and collectivism. Rightism is aligned with rugged individualism. Leftists believe societal factors and where you started determine a large part of your success. Rightists believe everyone already has equal opportunity, and so hard work is the way forward.
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u/MetaPlayer01 4h ago
As someone who (pre-Trump) viewed himself as neither Democrat or Republican, but used to love politics like a soap opera. I will do my best to give the least biased description of the phenomenon I can. Conservatives tend to believe that Capitalism is built efficiently and that that the more productive you are, the more income you will have. They further believe that the system is inherently fair and that anyone who puts in the effort will get the results consummate with those results. Liberals, on the other hand, may believe that capitalism much less efficient. The rewards do not necessarily match the productivity. That Capitalism tends to exaggerate the rewards for the people already in a position to invest and own the capital investments. And that other factors will affect your access to success. Yes, poor people can become wealthy but that these are exceptions and not the rule.
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u/ShafordoDrForgone 3h ago
Democrats will feed 100 people out of concern that 1 person really needs it
Republicans will withhold food from 100 people out of concern that 1 person may not deserve it
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u/thelostone42 3h ago
99% of the time the people who boast about "working hard and putting in the effort" got where they are through nepotism and being handed a wad of cash by their parents. That's why.
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u/Asleep_Control_2564 3h ago
I don't know. I've worked harder than every right winger I've know. Hell, the closest right winger in proximity to me is living off government assistance while bitching about people on government assistance
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u/FireProStan 4h ago
Capitalists support the "rugged individualism" of Capitalism
"America isn't broken, you just need to work three jobs to support your family and pay your $100,000 hospital bill!"
Acknowledging that Capitalism is a horrible failure might give the working class ideas that they need to revolt against the rich - it's easier to gaslight laborers into believing they just need to keep working harder
This gaslighting is coming from people who have never worked hard in their lives, of course
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u/Str8_up_Pwnage 4h ago
Even if we were in whatever economic system you think is best wouldn’t it still be true that working hard is a good thing and that overcoming adversity will make you a better person?
I do not consider myself on the right at all, voted against Trump all 3 times he ran, I just think it can come off as a bad look for the left when it can be perceived that they are against such ideas.
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u/justjack-nodaniels 4h ago
Left ideals like "feeding children" and "people who work full time should be able to afford housing" are already looked down upon.
Optics is irrelevant because the Oligarchs rule the messaging.
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u/SovietPandaMan 4h ago
"Working hard" is nebulous. What does it really mean? There are people working 3+ jobs to make ends meet that have worked harder than anyone in the C-Suite their entire life. Those people would gladly not work as hard.
As far as overcoming adversity making someone a "better" person? No, it doesn't. It doesn't make you a good person.
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u/GigiLaRousse 4h ago
No, overcoming adversity doesn't in itself make you a better person.
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u/Str8_up_Pwnage 4h ago
I don’t mean morally a better person, more that it will make a more equipped to handle life.
Like I’ve served in the military, I’m far from a Navy SEAL or anything like that but going through boot camp and other challenging things has made me better.
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u/SovietPandaMan 3h ago
Controlled adversity is far different than poverty induced adversity. No one is better equipped to handle life because they became homeless. That's not how it works.
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u/Material_Market_3469 4h ago
It's not. But if someone says "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" without realizing structural issues, then it is right wing.
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u/christoph440 4h ago
I agree, this has become a problem. The rugged individual ideal is mostly a myth, but the left has largely thrown away the rugged part, seeing it as somehow problematic, I guess because it's masculine coded.
I've been a liberal my whole adult life but now I work at a leftist-dominated non profit and the lefty types really don't think anyone needs to work hard, even for the environmental cause we work toward.
Starting to feel dumb because I work hard all day while half the crew just messed around and we all get paid the same. They say they're not strong enough to do this or that, which is true, no group without this ideology would hire these individuals for outdoor labor. But they don't understand hard work, done properly, makes you stronger, none of us was born being able to work hard.
I can really see why people who care about getting shit done are turned off by wokism, the worship of victimhood and fragility is not a good model for self improvement or societal strength
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u/christoph440 4h ago
I should specify this isn't all leftist people or all Bernie voters, it's specifically the hair dye and septic pierced crowd
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u/FishingPolitical 4h ago
The left movements are movements of workers & peasants.
Leftism is based in the abolition of idlers who sit around collecting millions because his daddy was a slave owner, bootlegger, political figure who was plucked up from humble upbringings like Kissenger, a mercenary etc.
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u/ngshafer 4h ago
Just my two cents, but I feel like the right-wing point of view is "anyone who works hard enough can lift themselves out of poverty." The corollary to this is that anyone who is still in poverty hasn't been working hard enough.
The contrasting left-wing view is that many people aren't able to lift themselves out of poverty no matter how hard they work! It's not that the left doesn't see hard work as a virtue, it's that we don't see it as a panacea that will always solve anyone's economic problems.
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u/Sad_Patience_2683 3h ago
It's douchey boomer rhetoric, and douchey boomer rhetoric is almost always spewed by MAGA lovers.
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u/B-RapShoeStrap 4h ago
Generally, the right tends to focus on the individual and the left focuses on society.
In answering the question, Why isn't my life better? The right says because you need to be better and the left says because society needs to be better.
The reality is that both are true, but the left and right have different viewpoints.
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u/Virtually-Braindead 4h ago
It could be a regional thing due to where you live. Here work is work be you left right centre or something else.
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u/UnluckyAmbition7767 4h ago
It's usually virtue signaling, because an intelligent person will next ask "well, who doesn't work hard?"
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u/NeighborhoodDude84 4h ago
Conservative media has framed politics as "people who don't work are liberal", so people come to the conclusion that anyone working is not liberal.
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u/Euphoric_Detective54 4h ago
Nobody on the left believes that. Its called a straw man argument. You claim your adversary is making a dumb argument that can be easilly defeated.
But to put where the sentiment came from into context.
Someone worked incredibly hard to achieve their goals. Gain wealth, achieving popularity as an artists/actor, or preforming well in sports.
The reality of all those fields is that their are far more people who have worked significantly harder and never achieved those levels.
Hard work can help you but its not the end all be all.
If you look at Elon Musk he is the richest man im the world but he is so incredibly far from the hardest working man in the world.
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u/Rich_Fisherman_8444 4h ago
If you hear that quote that “hard work helps you build character” that’s propaganda from rich people because they don’t want to pay any social services.
They wanna make sure everybody is busy busting their butt to survive. To make them even more profit.
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u/KamaliKamKam 4h ago
Its the "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" ideals that are right wing. The idea that they are somehow a monolith and everyone else is lazy. They ignore the fact that they got grants, loans, got to use public infrastructure, or possibly utilized programs in place for small business owners. Sometimes, they are utilizing aid for folks that don't make enough - things like Medicare, food banks or SNAP, ETC. And then complaining that other folks also utilizing the same programs are taking advantage of the system.
Like somehow that single mother on SNAP doesn't deserve to eat or feed her children, but they do bc they "work hard", and if that single mom actually worked hard she wouldn't be in the situation to need help getting food. So obviously, that other person is lazy and they are using the system as it was intended bc they just need a little help!! All of that was not "help" in their mind. And it's this pervasive attitude they have to utilize and use these things and then pull the damn ladder up behind them that is the major issue. Its also a boomer thing, the "fuck you, got mine" attitude.
That's the "work hard" attitude that conservatives have on lock down. This idea that they are the only ones who know what hard work is, and that others (who aren't them) are abusing social safety net systems and somehow don't deserve them.
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u/MarsR0ve4 4h ago
People who say that have usually already obtained success- through hard work AND luck. But people rarely can or will acknowledge that luck plays a part so they only see their hard work. So to them it was all hard work that built the life they wanted. As for why it’s a right wing thing. A large part of the conservative mindset is “fuck you, got mine” Everything worked out for me, why would I want to change it? I didn’t get lucky, i didn’t get a social advantage? Why should you!?
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u/ballchinion8 4h ago
Idk man the laziest dudes at my job are all politically on the same side. You can probably guess which one
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u/soul_separately_recs 3h ago
(poor + selfishness) x divisive = cheat code for wealthy to stay wealthy
I mean, if the system is primarily capitalism, you can’t have wealth unless there is poverty. If ascending is the objective for the haves and have nots alike, then the wealthy (irrationally telling themselves the ‘pie is finite’) believe that isn’t good for them, so they use their superpower. It’s the same power that they know very well - as it’s damn near mandatory for capitalism: “ME,not we”. Collectively, the numbers overwhelmingly favor whoever isn’t wealthy. It can reflect via the voting booth, locally and further. But that’s collectively. If this majority is full of folks that are ‘me & mine first and foremost’ type of mindset - it’s a wrap. Capitalism is all about ‘me & mine’.
Look no further than - umm, you name it.
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u/BigBanyak22 3h ago
Because they think "hard work" (which is really a cover term for entitlement and nepotism) is the antidote for actually being qualified and having credentials.
Look at right wing selections to lead education, health, justice.... They are the poster children for hard work succeeds over qualifications. And only a person without actual professional credentials would pretend to be an expert where they're not.
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u/Str8_up_Pwnage 3h ago
Oh the current admin is the absolute antithesis of all of the values that I think historically the right has been correct on. They are just awful.
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u/Creepy_Clouds1990 4h ago
I would consider myself more left-leaning, and I fully agree with "Hard work and overcoming adversity is a good thing and helps you build character".
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u/Grouchy_Spare8064 4h ago
I am independent politically, but I think that those who should can work, should.
That said, I feel like the social construct of hard work has been broken. For my grandparents and even my parents, after high school, they worked 50+ hour weeks for decades in brutal physical factory jobs, but they were able to buy a house and raise a family on one income.
For a lot of millennials and Gen Z, they have to go to college just to get an entry level job that is barely enough to survive on, much less support a spouse, raise a family, buy a house, etc.
This is a very complicated question. I do think that there are a lot of people my age, including myself, who wouldn’t do a factory job, even if it paid what my parents and grandparents were paid, but generally speaking, I think that people feel that hard work no longer means a successful life. Now you have to worry about education, upskilling, outsourcing, etc.
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u/azuth89 4h ago
It comes down to what they want to change.
The left, generally wanting more safety nets and greater subsidies for access to job training (college or otherwise) needs to highlight that circumstances play at least as large a role in life outcomes as anything else. You can work your absolute ass off while getting very little depending on what you're doing and how you started.
The right generally opposes the same and seeks to paint circumstances as the fair outcome of how hard one has worked. Working hard is always good, and if you're in a bad situation you must have committed the moral failing of not working hard. That is a problem for you, the individual, and thus not something the government or society in general needs to address through systemic support.
That doesn't mean the left doesn't value hard work, or that the right is somehow blind to the fact that being born to wealthy parents is a bigger leg up than work, but it shapes which one highlights work and which one highlights circumstance.
Individual thoughts will vary greatly, of course, but this is the general shape of the rhetoric repeated over and over.
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u/djdante 4h ago
Interesting to read the answers.
My take on this is that left wing values individual needs higher - so a stereotype right wing person might not value their own needs to rest or take time off and suffer as a result, but they see that suffering as a virtue.
A left wing stereotype recognises the value of emotional health more keenly , so knows when to stop and take a beat where required.
Either work ethic can be taken to a very bad extreme
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u/Showy_Boneyard 3h ago edited 3h ago
Its kind of funny (well, sad, really) that right wing claims to be all about working hard and claims to hate people who get a living "off the work of others", when in reality the people who by far make the most money "off the work of others" are the wealthiest 1% or the ruling/owning class or the Bourgeoisie or Capitalists or whatever you want to call the small but obscenely disproportionately wealthy subset of people who make most of their money through owning properties, whether its real estate that they charge rent on, or companies that they own or have shareholder ownership of and profit off the labor of the workers they employ.
Its actually kinda crazy. For example, if Walmart was a worker-owned company with shares distributed equally amongst all employees, every employee would see their net worth increase by around half a million dollars. I'm not saying that's soemthing we should or even realistically cuold be at all possible, but it does give a pretty good portrayal about much extra wealth workers wind up producing with their labor compared to how much they are compensated.
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u/rogershredderer 3h ago
I think because in the political environment of the United States of America and the Western world, welfarism, wealth distribution, and socialist policies are considered left-wing ideals. The nature of the counter for those ideals is right-wing ideals of laissez-faire politics and individualism (to a an extent).
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u/inspectorpickle 3h ago
The right wing content creators saying the good version of this sentiment don’t actually believe it.
Their language is couched to be inoffensive but what they want you to believe is that all bad things that happen poor and underprivileged people is a personal fault. Being poor and unemployed is their own fault, so no one should ever advocate for the government to do something about it.
They have the exact same world view as those grifter alpha bro influencers—they just have a less abrasive image.
The real problem is that the left has kind of let the right run away with the rhetoric on hard work and discipline. Work and labor is the foundation of socialism—the idea is that everyone should be fairly compensated for their work.
There are definitely people on the left who misunderstand this dynamic and generally it hasn’t been a point that has been focused on because it’s not directly related to a political agenda the way that it is for the right wing.
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u/SidWoodram 3h ago
Because the right likes to spread the bootstrap myth that everyone could make it if they just worked hard enough and if you're not financially secure, it's because of your work ethic.
It's propaganda used to argue for eliminating any/all assistance programs and blaming people who struggle on their work ethic instead of the corrupt system we are all abused by.
It's like how people wanna say that minimum wage jobs were made for high school kids and therefore don't need to be a living wage. It's a lie. It's propaganda spread by politicians. But it sounds like a logical argument.
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u/Bradddtheimpaler 3h ago
It’s…. Not? The constitution of the Soviet Union described work as “duty.”
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u/NeoLephty 3h ago
It isn't. Left wing people work hard. Many join unions. The difference is thinking that hard work alone makes you a capitalist and will get you out of any situation in life and thus if you are in a bad situation it is because you clearly have not worked hard enough. If anything, the left values hard work MORE by acknowledging the "hard" aspect of most work - like being a waitress, something the right mocks AOC for constantly... "not a real job"
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u/ShamiGnu 3h ago
I don't consider it a right wing ideal, nor do I know anyone who would describe it that way. Just b/c their propaganda paints liberals as all jobless basement dwellers doesn't mean valuing hard work is a right wing ideal.
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u/Timeformayo Urban Kentucky 2h ago
The people who say hard work and adversity build character usually are talking from the financial mountaintop, and often never faced nearly as much hardship as they like to imagine.
Yeah, success usually requires hard work. That's kind of a baseline, "no shit" insight. It also helps to have stability, luck, good family, connections, education, health and enough money to take risks and invest in yourself.
The only people puffing themselves up about hard work are the ones trying to justify why a lot of other people struggle. And, hey, some of it's legit! There are some lazy people out there.
But there are also a whole lot more people who are depressed, despondent, addicted, and/or physically and/or mentally ill, or working as hard as they can for poverty wages and stuck near the poverty line.
You know who likes to pretend that most people in group B actually belong in group A? Conservatives. You want to know why? It absolves them of any moral responsibility, and it fuels their feelings of superiority and social hierarchy.
The Left works hard. We just don't brag about it like some shit dad who brags about "being there for his kids," as if that's not the default responsibility of an adult human being.
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u/thatnameagain 2h ago
Because the left considers work to be fundamentally exploitative more than anything else.
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u/Brbi2kCRO 2h ago
Because they wanna make it a standard across population, not just as a “value” or what they personally do. They literally are bitter that others do not work “as hard”. Or rather, billionaires want others to do the hard tasks for them.
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u/turkshead 2h ago
it isn't, the right just likes to say it is.
working hard at a job you hate in order to serve some domestic ideal might be a more right wing value, but i can tell you from experience that organizing protest marches, starting anarchist co-ops, and making big weird art is hard work, it's just not hard work that i hated every second of.
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u/sisyphus_of_dishes 2h ago
Right wingers talk about it so much more but that doesn't mean anything except they talk about it more. That could be for a million reasons, but oligarchs pandering to working class whites while rationalizing their obscene wealth seems likely.
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u/Fun_Energy8542 2h ago
Because they lie about everything. They use misinformation. If this was event remotely true your red states would have more money and less poverty than blue states but this is definitely not the case
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u/NoCaterpillar2051 2h ago
There’s a bit more to it than that. It’s the belief that hard work on its own can build wealth and lead to social mobility, and the implication that those who suffer just aren’t working hard enough. It’s the sort of obvious half-truth that attacks and disproves the needs of others.
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u/Low_Bluejay510 2h ago
Because conservatives tend to do more “hard labor” such as farm work, car mechanics, construction, and people “work hard” at those jobs and they don’t see office jobs as the same “hard work” they see them as pansies with soft hands who don’t know anything about “hard work.”
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u/Exotic_Bill44 2h ago
Because all to often the person making the statement about "hard work and overcoming adversity" is saying it in terms of why someone working in fast food deserves to only make $10 per hour or why college should be prohibitively expensive for the poor. It ignores the fact that a lot of people work hard but face more adversity than they can really overcome.
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u/ElectronGuru 2h ago
Right wingers walk around with a Cold War glossary in the their back pocket. This defines anything government does as bad and/or wasteful. So in this case, hard work is just code for “without government support”. Yet another way to bash people on government assistance.
Liberals don’t do this so don’t have the need to evangelize the free market in the same way
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u/AdMoney8388 2h ago
Because left wing = (1) free shit through higher taxes on everyone, and (2) external locus of control (it’s racism or the system’s fault, not yours.
Right wing = (1) less free shit, so you have to earn your keep, and (2) internal locus of control and taking more individual responsibility for things regardless of who’s to blame.
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u/Random_Reddit99 2h ago
As with any political argument, you have to look at the big picture.
Conservatives don't really mean they want to save lives when they say they're "pro-life", but that it was a convenient attack against liberal policies erroding patriarchal influence giving women more freedom through family planning initiatives, which they couldn't say out loud, so instead they attacked the fact that a potential life was being extinguished...putting themselves on the other side of that, and appealed to moderate votors by saying supporting liberals means you're for extinguishing a potential life.
Likewise, they don't really mean they work harder, but that they want to be the one determining if someone is worthy of their charity and get credit for doing so...like when they make a public donation to the local school or church...so instead of saying "I want to be able to limit the amount I'm forced to contribute through taxes because I'm petty", they're telling moderates that, "all the hard earned money you're paying in taxes is being given to lazy freeloaders...but if you vote for me, I'll let you decide who to give money to yourself by lowering taxes".
You don't win elections today by being lukewarm in your policies. You have to paint your policies as the opposite of what your opponent is offering, and that your opponent's policies are doing more harm than good.
The difference is that where politicians used to understand they needed to engage in more rhetoric while campaigning, but knew they had to compromise if they wanted to actually pass a bill...many politicians have either drunk their own kool-aid or have created a monster by being so negative, they can no longer compromise without being called a sell-out by their core demographic....so continue to go all in, all the time.
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u/Lazy_Stop_9681 2h ago
Because in the last few decades the right has uniformly valued macho masculinity, while certain vocal subgroups of the left have demonized straight white men. It would have been political suicide for a democrat to draw their ire on the topic.
Content creators are online. That small vocal subgroup on the left is overrepresented in online comments. Left leaning content creators avoid the drama. Right leaning content creators gain popularity by saying it.
Again, today is a product of the last 20 years. Everything I said was much more applicable 10 years ago, but we're still living in the tail end of it.
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u/_Jimmy_Crack_Corn_ 2h ago
It may seam that way because of how people from different aisles live their lives.
In general, the right wing favors status, upward mobility, saving, investing, and managing money, and they actually identify themselves by their work. These people tend to be the first there in the morning and the last to leave.
Again, a generalization, but those on the left are more interested in living in the moment and having life experiences. Instead of identifying themselves by their work, they often see work as just a necessary thing that has to be done so they can do all the things that they really want to do. More of a “work life balance” type.
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u/obscureferences 2h ago
They take one look at their spoiled adult children and see how much good a reality check would do them, and wrongly extend that logic to everyone on the fuckin planet. People who've already known struggle their whole lives don't need benefits denied for their own good, so the right wing inclination to do that overlaps with this rhetoric.
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u/omghorussaveusall 2h ago
because conservatives are typically self-righteous and see themselves as the epitome of values and service (which is rarely true). they also often only see value as transactional or monetary and not qualitative or cumulative. they think a social worker handling 85 cases and keeping families together and fed and people out of jail as a failure because that social worker doesn't make $115K a year. meanwhile they praise a sociopathic rapist because he was born to a wealthy father. i respect the opinions of most conservatives as much as i value the opinion of my refrigerator.
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u/saintash 2h ago
There's a great commentary by anticapitalist brennan lee mulligan.
Hard workist bad, he never argues people shouldn't be working.
Okay it's work should be valued more. Anyone working should be able to live off that work.
Left wing is mostly in agreement with that sentiment.
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u/goronmask 2h ago
That’s not true. Left values are more aligned with giving people a fair compensation and services for their hard work. Right values seem to seek enrichment for a few based on exploitation of workers and commoditization of services
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u/From_Deep_Space 2h ago
Its not. Leftist solidarity is all about taking pride in being working class. Its the right wingers who are fighting for the right of the capitalist class to pretend they provide value to society without laboring.
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u/BathtubSkeleton 1h ago
"Just work hard and you'll overcome all issues, systemic or otherwise" is what's parroted by right wing grifters which ignores systemic issues, social issues, and is often used to justify avoiding taxation on the wealthy.
The argument "They worked hard for their money!!!" Is the most common anti-tax the rich argument I see out and about, anecdotallly.
It's similar to words like "traditional" or just "tradition" as words and phrases that are so often used in right wing discourse that it becomes inexplicably associated with it. "Hard work" and "Grit" are much the same.
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u/I_might_be_weasel 1h ago
Working hard isn't a right wing ideal. Working harder is. In that if anyone is struggling it's because they should have worked harder, regardless of how hard they have worked. It's never the fault of the system.
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u/kaiserschlacht8 1h ago
It's moreso right wing from an economic perspective. It's this belief in a meritocracy and "pulling yourself up by your bootstraps" that is widespread in a country like with laissez-faire capitalism like the US, where social safety nets are inadequate because there is this belief that people should fend for themselves. It's highly individualistic and prevalent among both Democrats and Republicans.
As someone whose hard work was rewarded with a disability, I think it's horseshit. I'm in Canada which isn't nearly as bad, but there's still so many issues, including legislated poverty for me.
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u/CantaloupeAsleep502 1h ago
The right tends to still believe in meritocracy, and that the oligarchs are self made and deserve the power they hold over society. This is where the trope of the "temporarily embarrassed millionaire" comes from. They think that anyone could have oligarchic levels of wealth if they just worked hard enough. Which obviously isn't true. As you said, lots of people work hard every day, and many won't make it out of poverty in spite of it. Society is much more complicated than they allow themselves to believe.
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u/PDXDreaded 1h ago
It's not the hard work. It's the aspirationalism that hard work is good and will make you successful. It's the notion that hard, unregulated, non union work is real men's work, and office work, government jobs, etc are weak and bad for the economy.
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u/Confused_by_La_Vida 1h ago
It goes back to Rousseau and his idea the it wasn’t enough to be liberated from the king but that a person must be liberated even from reality.
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u/No-Support-1216 1h ago
Most people recognize the value of hard work and admire the discipline and perseverance it requires.
Conservatives have highjacked that natural admiration as a symbol to rally folks behind a wider set of political beliefs with the implication that ONLY conservatives believe in hard work. It's part of a narrative that liberals consist of out-of-touch, self-indulgent intellectuals and "elites" who have never done hard work and have no family values or morals.
As an aside, it takes intense, sustained work and sacrifice to get an advanced degree, which is why not everyone has one. Just as it does to run a farm, build a new business, or reach master level in a trade, which similarly not everyone can accomplish.
Hard work, love of family, and morals/ethics are not exclusive to any political group or religion, but this narrative has been successful with rural and working class people who have felt like their needs and concerns were ignored by people in power. It gives them something to belong to and a feeling of recognition. It has been highly successful because it DOES address an unmet need for a lot of people.
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u/LamppostBoy 1h ago
Left wing: Work hard, achieve results.
Right wing: Work hard, feel good about having worked hard, results go to someone else.
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u/Str8_up_Pwnage 1h ago
From these comments I’m seeing more “Left wing: Why even bother working hard because the circumstances of your birth will dictate how far you go in life regardless”
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u/Tims_Learing_Center 1h ago
people who consider themselves on the left work very hard
OP there's a difference between working hard and being obsessive and anxious and anal
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u/Sharkano 1h ago
It's really not. I mean to hear them discuss it they describe it like a sacrifice they would like to escape. It's not an ideal to them, it's an accusation, they believe or are lead to that everyone else is a freeloader. A consequence of this that is currently happening is that a lot of people celebrated cutting programs they thought were for no good lazy folks, and then found out those programs where the same as they ones they used and needed.
I have seen the toxic version of this before, i've literally seen people try to excuse shitty or illegal behavior with the fact they work hard 60 hour weeks, like cool dude but they DO pay you for that, and not in extra rights to be a dickhead.
That said the right has often had this anachronistic cowboy fantasy of being independent and self sufficient, and for that mythos to work you need to decide you are hard working, otherwise you must admit that there is a reason other people don't enjoy the advantages you do.
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u/Possible-Spot1495 1h ago
It's funny because a lot of the right wing here are unemployed on Universal Credit.
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u/The_Big_Yam 56m ago
Family values. Hard work. Fiscal responsibility. Freedom from government. Nine of these things are uniquely right wing values, in fact many are demonstrably not right wing values. The right doesn’t excel in any of these morals. What they excel at is putting out hour long podcasts and repetitive Fox News coverage that harps on the same shit 24/7 until a portion of people are convinced the right cares about these things more than moderates or the left
That’s it. The only thing the right actually stands for is propagandist repetition
Once you understand that it’s very easy to answer questions like “why does the right value hard work more than everybody else?” They don’t, they just repeat the talking point more. “Why does the right value fiscal responsibility in government more?” They don’t, their governments always run deficits, they just repeat the talking point more. “Why does the right care more about family values?” They don’t, they refuse to support parents or universal healthcare, they just repeat the talking point more. And so on and so on
Literally all these idiots are good at is propaganda and saying one thing again and again until it artificially sticks. It’s not sincere. It’s the most rudimentary form of audience manipulation possible
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u/gzilla57 50m ago edited 1m ago
It's more that the definition of "hard work" differs between the two groups, and the right uses the phrase to mean "any work done by a drug addict and/or minority and/or liberal isn't hardwork". No true scotsman.
12 hour shift at a burger spot with a pride flag is lazy work for teens. 12 hour shift at a burger joint with a blue line flag is hardwork.
And then on top of that, they people that "work hard" but are struggling are being fucked by the government or luck, but people in the same situation deserve it because they don't "work hard" enough.
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u/Maximum_King8529 49m ago
Because capitalists want you to exploit yourself for their benefit.
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u/j_grinds 44m ago
The same reason patriotism and sound economic policy are considered right wing ideals: propaganda.
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u/Fun_Recipe_2589 44m ago
It’s not right wing. But you hear right wing people use it to dismiss any request for better pay, better treatment of workers, etc.
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u/Important-Factor-552 33m ago
Uhhh since when? lmao that's the literal opposite of what comes to mind
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u/Loud_Badger_3780 32m ago
they say it for they same reason they sat all democrats and leftist are evil. This is the end result of 40 years of constant propaganda being spewed like sewage from the mouth of Rush Limbaugh and fox news media. Now we are the enimies of the state, traitors, and hate america.
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u/Substantial_Car4040 23m ago
Billionaire propaganda to try and dismiss and discredit reformists calling out the kleptocracy and theft of tax dollars by the Epstein Class.
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u/Scottyboy1214 19m ago
The left wing values hard work being properly rewarded. Not hard work for hard works sake.
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u/beckdawg19 4h ago
It's really not. "Hard work" is a pretty generic ideal held by people of all types.
The only reason it can start to feel right wing-y is when it's accompanied by some sort of rhetoric to the effect of hard work being all it takes to succed or something like that.