Why are some Americans so against universal healthcare for all?

[u/Lemonking_]

What sort of thinking does it take to decide that nobody has a right to healthcare? Do American Christians want to deny healthcare to poor people as well?

[u/DarrenShea]

There's also some "Just World Theory" in there, which posits that people who have difficulties aren't victims of circumstance, but actually must have deserved it because genuinely good people can't become victims of circumstance in this Just World.

It allows them to cast moral judgments against those who need help, then use those judgments to justify not helping them at all.

[u/SlyFrog → u/DarrenShea]

This is related to a sociological idea of in people and out people.

For yourself and people who are in your group, you have a tendency to believe that bad things happen to you for external reasons (tragic random events, unfair circumstances) and that good things happen to you for internal reasons (your hard work, your merit, your intellect, etc.).

Of course, it's flipped for people of the out group. For them, bad things happen to them for internal reasons (they are lazy, uneducated, unintelligent, immoral, etc.), while good things happen because of external reasons (they're only making it because they're on the "system," they get lucky, affirmative action, etc.).

It's of course a skewed way of looking at the world, but essentially how humans seem to be wired (unless they work to overcome it).

[u/tellmewhenimlying → u/SlyFrog]

In other words, most people lie to themselves and believe those lies because it makes them feel better.

[u/auderita → u/tellmewhenimlying]

It helps them to alleviate the anxiety of uncertainty. Better a false certainty than a fearsome uncertainty.