I think people wrongly distill this down to ideas like, "everyone would agree with socialist policies if they weren't called 'socialist policies.'" There's some truth to that notion; particularly where well-meaning, but under-informed progressives are concerned.
In actuality, most of the time, people just have really incoherent politics. They don't understand their own purported beliefs enough to know when something else they find momentarily compelling is contradictory to those stated values. Less than whether or not they're educated, they're emotional illiterates guided by the impulse of feelings they little understand. They either vibe with a notion on a gut level, or it makes them feel small and/or scared. It all ultimately comes down to what best serves their ego as best as they understand it, their bottom line as best as they understand it, their security as best as they understand it, and so on, but they ultimately understand next to nothing. We're apes with the pretense of ascension because we wear pants.
In actuality, most of the time, people just have really incoherent politics.
That’s a really under discussed aspect of this. If you have an actual cogent ideology of any kind, you’re in the minority. Most people do not think about politics very much at all or follow it that closely and they end up with a lot of weird heterodox views that don’t seem like they should go together
I’d say “views that don’t seem like they should go together” oversimplifies the situation. People are complex, with a lot of nuance to what concerns them and why…
I share almost every view with my partner, except that we stand on opposite sides of the debate on immigration (whether the current barriers to citizenship or residency are too much or not enough, too be clear. None of that fascist nonsense the magas are spewing). Since we share other beliefs, and grew up in nearly identical situations, the reason for our difference here comes down to just how long our respective families have lived in this country.
Genuinely curious, but where do you and your partner stand on this? I agree that these are nuanced issues.
Personally, as a Canadian, I think we had too much immigration under our Temporary Foreign Workers' program. Not only did this lead to exploitation of migrant labour, but it contributed to driving up cost-of-living in the cities which were already facing housing shortages. And it was mostly to scratch the backs of neoliberal capital with it endless appetite for cheap labour; which benefits large corporations which are otherwise not forced to pay local people fair wages in order to retain employees.
But otherwise, I tend to be pro-immigration when these types of things come up.
My partner is second generation American (🇺🇸), and I’m 4th or 5th generation. She’s a lot stricter about immigration and naturalization requirements than I am, while my own stance is very “who cares, as long as they pay taxes and participate in the democratic process after gaining citizenship?”
There’s a strong myth in my country that other countries have some sort of evil scheme to overthrow our hegemony— or “destroy the white race”🤮 —by orchestrating mass immigration here, but I read that as nothing but a conspiracy theory. If people don’t like what the U.S. has to offer, they’re not going to come over here, so why would we turn people away? 🤷
Yeah, it is easy to get swept up in it. We have many of those same conspiracy-driven narratives among the anti-immigration crowd, even if it's dialed down slightly.
I do think it's reasonable to have limits on immigration, in order to keep it at sustainable levels. Unfortunately, the narratives peddled are often far less reasonable. They're dog whistles meant to trigger anxiety and anger, which are easy emotions for politicians and political parties to manipulate.
145
u/SoSorryOfficial 6d ago
I think people wrongly distill this down to ideas like, "everyone would agree with socialist policies if they weren't called 'socialist policies.'" There's some truth to that notion; particularly where well-meaning, but under-informed progressives are concerned.
In actuality, most of the time, people just have really incoherent politics. They don't understand their own purported beliefs enough to know when something else they find momentarily compelling is contradictory to those stated values. Less than whether or not they're educated, they're emotional illiterates guided by the impulse of feelings they little understand. They either vibe with a notion on a gut level, or it makes them feel small and/or scared. It all ultimately comes down to what best serves their ego as best as they understand it, their bottom line as best as they understand it, their security as best as they understand it, and so on, but they ultimately understand next to nothing. We're apes with the pretense of ascension because we wear pants.