politics

conservatives view social hierarchy as a necessity which must be enforced. if you’re at the bottom, you deserve to be there, and if you’re there, you suffer because you deserve it, and because you’re at the bottom, you deserve to suffer. cruelty is the point, and without it, there can’t be the joy of their success.

anything else, to them, is profane and must be fought/destroyed. anyone who tries to climb above their position must be punished.

relevant videos:

The Alt-Right Playbook: Always a Bigger Fish

Endnote 3: The Origins of Conservatism

"I'm not getting debt relief, so why should they" is their only argument. They're just greedy.

If people can organize instead of work overtime…

Along with the usual "the cruelty is the point" responses, I'd like to remind people that this is a direct strategy championed by Mitch McConnell, who has been championing this strategy long before Biden came along.

First, McConnell believes that the GOP should not have any policy positions on anything at all. If you have a policy position, that position is subject to criticism. Rather than champion policies that he fully admits would be unpopular with the voters, McConnell believes in simply pointing to the Democrat policies, pointing out the flaws in those policies, and just making vague promises that the GOP can do better without actually defining how. Ever seen the meme of the guy tapping his own head while saying something profoundly stupid? That's exactly what this is. Picture McConnell doing that while saying "Can't be criticized for your terrible ideas if you just don't have any ideas at all!"

The other part, also championed by McConnell and others, is that no matter what it is, if it originally was a Democrat idea, then a Republican must be against it at all costs. Not only must they be against it, they must treat every Democrat policy as a threat to American society as we know it. Take a look at Romneycare in Massachusetts. A healthcare bill created by a Republican that was considered widely successful and basically the cornerstone to Obamacare. But the second a Democrat suggesting nationalizing the program, it was suddenly the worst program in the world that would collapse our healthcare system and lead to death panels.

And sad to say, but it's been a very effective strategy for them. It's easy for the GOP to get their voters to blame Democrats for problems because deflecting blame is easy, and people are always looking for someone to blame for whatever problems they have in life. People tend not to do their own research or critical thinking and often just prefer to be "told" what the "right" answer is, especially if what they're told jives with their own personal worldview. If voters want to believe that Democrats are the root of all evil, and their elected leaders are saying that Democrats are the root of all evil, it's not much of a stretch to get them to believe that anything or any ideas associated with Democrats are also evil and must be eradicated.

It's all about maintaining political power through obstruction. Doesn't matter how bad your own policies are just as long as you continue to make sure voters believe that the alternative is even worse.

When you view life as a zero sum game it turns you into a real selfish cunt.

Because either they got theirs and fuck everyone else. Or, they never got theirs and fuck everyone who might get theirs.

They've become so focused on political "points" and afraid of the other "team" scoring a "point" that they're willing to do anything, regardless of the optics.

Because they don't stop and look at the bigger picture - it's just political capital they can push around or dangle as a carrot in front of voters for future elections.

That's why it drives me nuts when people get a cynical and say both parties are the same or that your vote doesn't matter. Pay attention to how the different parties vote!

They just want to hurt people. Imagine voting to keep people indebted. That's them.

I think it'd be more accurate these authoritarian motherfuckers don't want anyone to be anything other than their slaves.

Cato Institute was cited in the article, and, being a fervent right-wing think tank hater, they don't talk about profit. Instead, they'll argue for some shit like short term limited duration insurance because they're less regulated than other health insurance plans. This falls in line with their "De-regulate Everything" argumentative scheme. In other words, it's perfectly a-okay if companies can rip people off without federal oversight.

But for programs that in any way help other people...well...they're unconstitutional or an abuse of executive power.

It's interesting (except not at all, because they're all hypocrites) how they haven't said anything against DeSantis's use of executive power in Florida. Somehow, everything he does is constitutional and within the reach of executive power.

The student loan interest rates are exuberant, while I support the nullification of times past, I'd also like to see the core issue being taken care of

I know so many people that have no issues paying what they borrowed, but at this point, they've already paid back the initial amount and still owe more than they initially borrowed and it's fucking ridiculous.

I would be okay if it were set to a mandatory percentage, like 2%.

It's federally backed so the risk to lenders is incredibly low. What right do they have to charge some of these new students 9 percent interest on a loan that the government is paying them to give?

Yep, cap education cost if you don't want to make it free, have the federal government provide zero interest loans if states don't want to do it, reap the reward of having a more educated population, including better salaries which means more taxes paid which compensates for the zero interest loans.

Well right because those clearly trickle down as you can see by the constant record-breaking wealth inequality.

i should sue for all the ppp loans that were forgiven. how unfair is that. rich people got loans forgiven yet you or i cannot.

It was never a secret and yet the poor and miserable keep voting for them.

The number of times I've seen people complain about Biden not doing anything about student loans begs to differ. Republicans drag their feet or block, and democrats suffer for not doing enough.