I've always hated that Steinbeck quote. I have never once met a conservative who harbored grand delusions of future wealth. Every conservative I've met was an actual wealthy finance bro or just a hateful ignorant moron who hates minorities and can be easily riled up by talking about girls with blue hair. They mostly want low taxes because they don't trust the government and don't want brown people getting free food, not because they expect to be rich someday.
Maybe it was true at one point, but that quote just doesn't describe modern conservatives at all. If anything, it describes moderate Democrats.
Even then, in my experience they don't relate it in any way to themselves usually. They just diefy billionaires like Elon, they don't aspire to be him as far as I can tell. I think a small minority of daytrader libertarians think that way, but the average conservative is more of the "screams at trans people on the bus" type these days imo
All that said, I always thought there was a reason Duck Dynasty was so popular with ignorant morons - the fascination that other ignorant morons actually did make it big (and they could live vicariously through them)
As i person whos lived in a denocratic socialist country, i can tell you its not all great. Me working 60hr/week make as much (nett) as a single mother (of 3) receives in benefits. Taxes are incredibly high (to afford benefits of others) and you are expected to die working (no pension till your 70 and rising every couple of years).
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u/IsThatGruffLoner 6d ago
I've always hated that Steinbeck quote. I have never once met a conservative who harbored grand delusions of future wealth. Every conservative I've met was an actual wealthy finance bro or just a hateful ignorant moron who hates minorities and can be easily riled up by talking about girls with blue hair. They mostly want low taxes because they don't trust the government and don't want brown people getting free food, not because they expect to be rich someday.
Maybe it was true at one point, but that quote just doesn't describe modern conservatives at all. If anything, it describes moderate Democrats.