• argv_minus_one@beehaw.org
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    11 months ago

    That’s because a lot of Americans are under the impression that poor people are poor because they’re lazy, and not because they’re victims of oppression. They even cling to this absurd belief when they themselves are the victims of similar oppression. Must be lead in the water or something…

    • FaeDrifter
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      11 months ago

      I’ve lived in very poor, rural, white American places, and it’s unironically all about skin color.

      White and poor? It’s because the Democrats illegally steal your money with taxes, and any welfare is just you getting back less than you deserve.

      Black and poor? It’s because you’re bad, and any welfare is the Democrats buying your vote and supporting you destroying the country with your violence.

    • gabe [he/him]@literature.cafe
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      11 months ago

      It’s an outcome of puritanical Protestantism in the modern day. It’s nicknamed prosperity theology. Lack of wealth is seen as a moral failure, rather than a societal one. To be wealthy is to be granted abundance by God, and to be poor is to be punished for misdeeds in the eyes of God. It’s a cruel ideal that is deeply embedded into right wing American religious spaces.