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submitted 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) by Davriellelouna@lemmy.world to c/progressivepolitics@lemmy.world

Words matter.

You aren't writing an academic paper. Always use simple direct language.

  • Help the poor
  • Healthcare for everyone
  • Good treatment at work.

Don't use complex words.

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[-] yarr@feddit.nl 10 points 1 day ago

Reminds me of how many people were really against Obamacare, but loved the Affordable Care Act.

[-] Phegan@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago

Reagan's smear campaign on welfare is still paying dividends

[-] toppy@lemy.lol 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 23 hours ago)

Why US americans are against welfare ? In europe most nations are pro welfare and pay appropriate taxes. Why are US americans against helping each other ?

[-] bss03@infosec.pub 1 points 17 hours ago

Why are US americans against helping each other ?

For many people "freedom" only occurs when you don't (think you) depend on others.

And, maybe it's just a me issue, but I think a lot of Americans dislike receiving help because in their experience it always costs, and often costs more when the person giving it make it seem free.

But, mostly it's Capitalist / Protestant propaganda that anyone that receives assistance is a moral failure due to the "sin" of laziness.

[-] WHARRGARBL@lemmy.world 2 points 22 hours ago

Why are US americans against helping each other?

There is no simple answer to your question. Generally speaking, the US ethic is largely built on a foundation of rogue settlers who were encouraged to take what they wanted by force and duplicity. Whether it was the attempted (and ongoing) ethnic cleansing of the tribes, or total destruction of the environment, or massacring fauna to extinction, or the brutal subjugation of African people, early americans operated at a level of entitlement, ignorance, and the absolute belief in a zero-sum competition.

This mindset has been useful to the people in power, and it has been frequently stoked to manipulate a large minority of the population into a fearful and angry existence, effectively preventing a cultural shift that embraces social enlightenment. Even the US education system is designed to perpetuate the propaganda while preventing critical thinking skills and empathy.

Interestingly, even the most virulent USers, on an individual basis, exhibit selective social welfare tendencies, while still maintaining their cultural bigotries. To be fair, most US americans are in favor of social welfare. The rich in the US, who are in control, will always fight reform, because it isn’t profitable to them.

[-] Madagaskar_sky@lemmy.world 24 points 1 day ago

Anyone can be poor, but only they are on welfare.

Publishers note: They usually refers to African Americans, but can be used for any suspicious minorities.

[-] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 7 points 1 day ago

its almost always used as negative connation against blacks, or unsavory demographics. while the people, white conservatives railing on these people are the biggest welfare queens.

[-] pyre@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago

don't forget wall street and corporations. if you fuck up, congratulations now you're homeless. if they fuck up, congratulations you're gonna bail them out.

[-] DannyMac@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 day ago

I'd bet if we started calling them "societal subscription fees" people would be much cooler with taxes.

[-] Narauko@lemmy.world 1 points 17 hours ago

Nah, gotta go all in with that Battle Pass. Unlock perks like drivers license skins, use of the HOV lane, etc. really gameify the system and get those hardcore competitive type-A executives working on high scores.

[-] Snowclone@lemmy.world 22 points 1 day ago

Don't use the buzzwords Republicans have spent decades poisoning.

[-] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 4 points 1 day ago

yup, including entitlements, Woke,,,,etc.

[-] Lyrl@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Entitlements is a weird one. A person who wrongly believes they are entitled to money/power/respect is "entitled" in a derogatory sense. A person who has paid into the Social Security and Medicare programs for three or four decades is truly, genuinely, entitled to the payout of those programs.

And Republicans believing entitlement programs are bad, when so many of them are dependent on these programs to maintain a basic standard of living, is an astounding level of doublethink.

[-] Mamdani_Da_Savior@lemmy.world 37 points 1 day ago

As someone that works with the general public.

People are fucking dumb. Like not I'm not even kidding, there's a skill gap to even get to a site like this...and not everyone has the ability to do it...I'm not even kidding. People are just stupid.

[-] NoMadLadNZ@lemmy.nz 26 points 1 day ago

Yep. Never use a ten dollar word when a 50 cent one does the job better. The left wing needs to dump it's highbrow (and cringe celebrity endorsements) and use the language of the common people in simple terms that cannot be demonised (or would sound insane to try).

Also, this is a prime example of how demonising words, especially buzzwords, is the strategy they use to make it lose all rationality with the public... the notion of being "woke" originally a good thing, welfare a good thing, etc...

[-] Sheldan@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago

They managed to make DEI a divisive word, I presume because they always used the abbreviation, because how else can you poison these words.

[-] Soggy@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago

Doesn't work, they take the cheap words too. "Fake news" was originally used for right-wing propaganda. The only solution is education so that future generations are more aware of and resistant to dog whistles and doublespeak.

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[-] Doomsider@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago

Psychological damage is present.

[-] brown567@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 day ago

Nobody is immune to propaganda

[-] fishy@lemmy.today 3 points 1 day ago

Yup, I consider myself better than most at critical thinking, playing devil's advocate, and identifying sources of propaganda. I'll still find myself getting overly agitated and upset when I read five articles and posts within thirty minutes that all tell me why to be upset and who to be upset with.

[-] pjwestin@lemmy.world 16 points 1 day ago

Just want to point out that this negative association is based on racist dog whistles like the, "welfare queen," which were propagated by right-wingers to convince low-income whites to hate the programs designed to help them.

[-] isaaclw@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

And I think theres a place to break that association, but .aybe candidates that are running to change our system dont need to be the ones to do it.

[-] pjwestin@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

I would actually say that would he a great strategy in building working-class solidarity. Making poor whites realize that their declining standard of living isn't caused by minorities accessing social programs but the ruling-class gutting the those programs is key to building a progressive coalition.

[-] Daft_ish@lemmy.dbzer0.com 15 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

The issue is entirely a media problem. Can you tell yet?

[-] cybervseas@lemmy.world 145 points 2 days ago

One of many lasting “gifts” of Reagan.

[-] slaacaa@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Wym? Just a few more decades, and the trickling down will surely start. I can already taste it on their boots

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[-] SuperCub@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 day ago

I get the critical comments here, but I think there's a basic association of the word "welfare" with the CURRENT system of assistance which leaves too many people out. Democrats have made the current apparati too hard to qualify for with their means-testing. If they were sincere in working for the masses, they would push more universal programs, but at least on the national level, they are bought out by the same corporations as the Republicans.

[-] S0ck@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

Democrats have made the current apparati too hard to qualify for with their means-testing.

I kind of doubt that democrats are the ones who MADE it too hard, but they definitely are the ones that preserve it's difficulty.

[-] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 1 points 23 hours ago

One of Clinton's major accomplishments was working with Republicans to "reform" welfare.

Republicans wrote the bill, but a Democrat signed it.

[-] plyth@feddit.org 19 points 2 days ago

Assistance implies that it is temporary, that it is help to help themselves.

Welfare implies that it is continuous.

If you have to continually support a part of the population then you have a systemic problem. The correct solution would be to change the system. People who support the continuation of the current system either profit from it or don't see an advantage in a change.

[-] renzev@lemmy.world 10 points 2 days ago

Assistance implies that it is temporary,

Not it does not. Ever heard of "aim assist"? "Assisted living"? "assistive touch" (the iOS feature)? I don't see how any of these are temporary.

But yeah the correct solution is indeed to change the system. There will always be naysayers who argue that "no one system can suit everybody" so I guess we'll need a system of systems.

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[-] hansolo@lemmy.today 20 points 2 days ago

One of the main reasons why USAID was the first part of the government targeted was because of things like this.

If you frame their work as "Assistance to disasters" or other variations, plus the context of it being under 1% of the Federal budget, Americans were find with it. If you call it "giving taxpayer money to foreigners" then it's wildly unpopular.

Which is to say that the lesson is that most people are idiots and have no idea what's going on in the world. Framing a narrative can get the same individual to simultaneously support and hate literally the same thing. It can get people to support policies and actions that directly harm them.

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[-] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 38 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

because welfare has been propagandized as used by "lazy and homeless, and poors, and blacks" its usually based on racism as well, the true welfare queens are Conservative voters.

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[-] Stern@lemmy.world 21 points 2 days ago

IIRC "ACA" and "Obamacare" had similar divides. Propaganda is a helluva drug.

[-] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago

Did the study define the kinds of assistance at all or was it simply the choice of terms?

“Welfare” is defined and had a lot of baggage with it. Opinion about welfare can be wildly different individually and demographically.

“Assistance” isn’t defined, people can place their own restrictions on what that hypothetical assistance is, who gets it based on their own prejudices, needs, and ideology.

[-] zalgotext@sh.itjust.works 13 points 1 day ago

Nah, see, you're falling into the trap. "Welfare" has baggage only because conservatives have attached baggage to it via their relentless propaganda campaigns. In practice, welfare is literally just assistance. In practice, the two words are synonymous. The fact that you perceive a difference in them is evidence that the conservative propaganda is working.

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[-] DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 13 points 2 days ago
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[-] Graphy@lemmy.world 70 points 2 days ago

Propaganda works

I’ve always said that if you really wanted communism or socialism to take off in the states you’re gonna have to call it something else

I also don’t use cis because the machine has already made that a thing people don’t want to be called

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this post was submitted on 03 Jul 2025
1047 points (100.0% liked)

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