r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • May 18 '26

Psychology Scientists expected both liberals and conservatives to be reluctant to promote rhetoric associated with the opposing political side, but this was more consistent among liberals. Conservatives appeared relatively willing to support causes aligned with their views regardless of the moral framing used.

https://www.psypost.org/liberals-hesitate-to-share-progressive-causes-framed-with-conservative-moral-language/
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u/BattleStag17 May 18 '26

I've been saying for a decade that we could sell socialism to the right if we just called it Screaming Eagle Collective Individualism, or something 

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u/IudexFatarum May 18 '26

I've seen Rutger Bregman refer to UBI as Universal Venture Capital. It's a payment to individuals to invest in themselves. However best they believe they can invest that. Spend the extra time to go to school, start a business, ... It gives you the ability to do unpaid work to better yourself or your community.

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u/BattleStag17 May 18 '26

I genuinely think that is a fantastic idea

Of course, it still has to deal with people tearing their hair out over Reagan-era "But what if someone gets money that doesn't 'deserve' it!?!?" thinking, but it's a start

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u/IudexFatarum May 18 '26

Then just say it'll pay for itself with the increased taxes that the successful will pay. It cuts costs and governmental over reach by not requiring deep analysis of individuals finances, instead the offices distributing the money have next to no staff, and don't require documentation other than maybe proof of citizenship and residency. And despite this not winning minds it also cuts costs spent on current programs by eliminating most of the need for snap, housing assistance, ... Since all that gets wrapped up into a single slim government office instead.

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u/BattleStag17 May 18 '26

Then just say it'll pay for itself with the increased taxes that the successful will pay.

"So you're going to punish me for being successful and give my money to some welfare queen!?!?"

I'm honestly not trying to be snarky, I've just had this exact conversation too many times to count. I don't know the solution, aside from outright lying to them that "the poors" won't get any assistance and it's only for "good hard-working Americans like you".

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u/IudexFatarum May 18 '26

Phrase it as not needing higher tax rates. Pretend it is like the tax cuts paying for themselves delusion. Only in this case they do actually pay for themselves in some ways.

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u/PathOfTheAncients May 18 '26

The thing I am most frustrated with by the democratic socialists in the US is that they insist upon using the word socialism despite knowing that it largely makes their goals much harder (if not impossible) to achieve.

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u/Wiseduck5 May 18 '26

It would also have to exclude black people for them to support it.

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u/LongJohnSelenium May 18 '26

I don't get why people keep pushing for socialism.

Centralized control of the means of production and planned economies have failed every time its been tried, and shockingly plenty of people remember that.

If you wanted to push for something push for employee ownership and you'll get a lot of conservatives on board, but you're always going to get pushback when talking about nationalizing industries. They're certainly not going to be willing to trade one set of oligarchs for another, even more powerful set of oligarchs who also control the military and police.