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submitted 3 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) by Davriellelouna@lemmy.world to c/progressivepolitics@lemmy.world

Words matter.

Always use simple direct language.

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

Don't use complex words.

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[-] cybervseas@lemmy.world 147 points 3 weeks ago

One of many lasting “gifts” of Reagan.

[-] Reverendender@sh.itjust.works 50 points 3 weeks ago

We’ve got to get all those ~~welfare queens~~ 25 year old males playing video games back to work! They’re getting a free ride that they don’t deserve. People only have value when they are working!

[-] Zephorah@discuss.online 28 points 3 weeks ago

He started that evil welfare queen idea back in California. It gained traction there so he continued to use it on the national side.

[-] TimewornTraveler@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 3 weeks ago

dont you love the misogyny in that "queens" label? because who makes a better scapegoat than black mothers?

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[-] BetaBlake@lemmy.world 18 points 3 weeks ago
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[-] Graphy@lemmy.world 73 points 3 weeks 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

[-] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 38 points 3 weeks ago

I don’t mind being called a cis male, but I’m secure in my sexuality and manhood. Conservatives not so much.

[-] salacious_coaster@infosec.pub 23 points 3 weeks ago

This one gets it. The key takeaway should be that humans are very fallible and propaganda works alarmingly well.

[-] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 10 points 3 weeks ago

We shouldn't be trusted with our own care.

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[-] Catoblepas@piefed.blahaj.zone 15 points 3 weeks ago

Yeah, straight/heterosexual people didn’t want to be called that, either. They want being cis and heterosexual to just be “normal” and any variation to be abnormal. Fuck that, they’ll do the same thing to whatever euphemism you pick instead.

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[-] WatDabney@fedia.io 41 points 3 weeks ago

"Think of how stupid the average person is, then realize that half of them are stupider than that." - George Carlin

[-] liverbe@lemmy.world 11 points 3 weeks ago

I heard a working theory that we have too many humans on the planet. Some of them were supposed to be reincarnated as ferrets or insects but came back as humans instead. These are the people who are now in charge.

[-] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 39 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks 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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[-] Mamdani_Da_Savior@lemmy.world 39 points 3 weeks 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.

[-] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 38 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Ah, ~40% of Americans are complete fucking morons, that sounds about right.

~40% of Americans also read and write at an elementary school level or worse, but I'm sure that's just a coincidence.

... I think we've found the mythical 'independent, median voter'.

[-] explodicle@sh.itjust.works 13 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Ah, ~40% of Americans are complete fucking morons, that sounds about right.

You're leaving out the 29% who are against it no matter what you call it.

[-] thevoidzero@lemmy.world 15 points 3 weeks ago

Those are evil people, who do not want to help other people. But this 40% are the people who would do the correct thing but they are convinced it's bad and vote against their interest

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[-] shawn1122@sh.itjust.works 10 points 3 weeks ago

54% of Americans read at below a grade 6 level.

Welfare is may litterally just mean 'moocher' to an American who has been drowned in propaganda their whole life.

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[-] NoMadLadNZ@lemmy.nz 26 points 3 weeks 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...

[-] Soggy@lemmy.world 7 points 3 weeks 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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[-] Madagaskar_sky@lemmy.world 26 points 3 weeks 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 8 points 3 weeks 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 3 weeks 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.

[-] Zephorah@discuss.online 25 points 3 weeks ago

The timeline is this. The 1950s boomed and created the middle class. Why? FDR decided subsidizing the American people, instead of the robber Baron class, was the way. This subsidy approach to the working class had never happened before in American history.

A middle class cannot happen organically in a capitalist society. It requires government subsidy.

The 50s were built on the backs of women, forcibly ejecting them from workplaces to be housewives, and excluded people who were not white. But the American middle class was born due to these subsidies.

And so it went.

Then, in the 80s. The concept of the evil welfare queen was touted on the national level, and our government decided subsidizing corporate instead of a middle class was the way.

This doesn’t happen overnight, but they begin chipping away at subsidies for Middle Class America and flip those subsidies to corporate America. The belief is, or at least the sales pitch is, subsidizing corporate America is more fiscally efficient than subsidizing the middle class and will ultimately benefit everyone to create a booming, thriving nation.

And so it goes for 40 yrs. Both parties, in tandem.

The chipping away to go back to the subsidizing of a middle class started in the oddest of places. 2020. After the massive destruction of the middle class, and abject proof of how disastrous to the working class subsidizing corporate America is, absolutely squeezing everyone making less than $300k/yr, by the numbers, it was that old man’s admin that tried to shift back on the disaster. Infrastructure, junk fees, internet as an essential utility, student loan forgiveness, etc

The breadth of the problem cannot be fixed in 4 yrs. Or even 8 yrs. Consider how long it took from the 80s to truly feel the oppressive shift of the subsidy change. (I’m old. I mark ~2012-2014 when things started to feel squeezed.)

Also note that you can’t mention Reagan or trickle down economics in this or you lose people.

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[-] jjjalljs@ttrpg.network 25 points 3 weeks ago

People are emotional creatures.

Someone was joking in another thread, but maybe we should seriously consider just taking socialism and calling it, like, americanism.

[-] Sterile_Technique@lemmy.world 17 points 3 weeks ago

Yeah if you want to pitch socialism to people who don't know what it is, just describe its parts as individual policies. Don't actually use the word "socialism" - that makes the rednecks scurred >_>

[-] merc@sh.itjust.works 6 points 3 weeks ago

And if you do say socialism, say it along with something they like that isn't scurry. For example, "socialism, like the fire department".

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[-] Snowclone@lemmy.world 23 points 3 weeks ago

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

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[-] Stern@lemmy.world 21 points 3 weeks ago

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

[-] hansolo@lemmy.today 20 points 3 weeks 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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[-] plyth@feddit.org 19 points 3 weeks 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 3 weeks 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.

[-] ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world 8 points 3 weeks ago

Also, "assistance" is something that is given out of the kindness of your (or the government's) heart and that the recipient should feel gratitude (and/or have to grovel) for. "Welfare" is seen as something the recipient is entitled to as a right. FWIW I support a UBI that is adequate for food and shelter and the necessities of life - as an entitlement for everybody.

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[-] Henson@feddit.dk 8 points 3 weeks ago

But it doesn't have to be the same group in the population. Probably a portion is the same but the larger picture is all those you help up again so they can help support the community/country/state, and the price is helping the group that otherwise make the community unsafe so they in large can ... act decently to others and live a life without violence

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[-] Lushed_Lungfish@lemmy.ca 18 points 3 weeks ago

Having briefed a number of senior American bureaucrats and military officers I find it best to use:

  1. words of one syllable or less.
  2. no more than three primary colours.
  3. no numbers larger than 5.
[-] pjwestin@lemmy.world 16 points 3 weeks 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.

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[-] Daft_ish@lemmy.dbzer0.com 15 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

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

[-] Archangel1313@lemmy.ca 13 points 3 weeks ago

Americans are one of the most gullible populations on Earth. Russians are worse...but Americans are not far behind.

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[-] DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 13 points 3 weeks ago
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[-] yarr@feddit.nl 12 points 3 weeks ago

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

[-] FundMECFSResearch 12 points 3 weeks ago

Could you share the source for the graph please?

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[-] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 11 points 3 weeks ago

Americans, what a bunch of morons

[-] Gates9@sh.itjust.works 9 points 3 weeks ago

Soon there will be a critical mass of people who have nothing left to lose

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[-] Phegan@lemmy.world 9 points 3 weeks ago

Reagan's smear campaign on welfare is still paying dividends

[-] merc@sh.itjust.works 7 points 3 weeks ago
  • Help the poor
  • Healthcare for everyone
  • Good treatment at work.

I like the idea, but I don't think those are very well phrased.

Take "help the poor". When you say "the poor" it sounds like you're talking about a certain group of people who are born poor and die poor. Often the characterization is "the poor" are that way because of personal failings, like that they're lazy. Nobody wants to think of themselves as poor, and they definitely don't want to consider themselves part of "the poor". So, even poor people are going to have a bad reaction to being told that we should "help the poor".

IMO, a better slogan would be something like "Help people who fall on hard times." because it makes it more clear it's temporary help, and that it's not their fault. I think poverty should be eliminated, and billionaires should be, ahem "eliminated", but I think the average American would be much more likely to accept a social safety net rather than expected to continuously help "the poor".

For "healthcare for everyone", I think the issue is that it sounds like people are imagining high-end luxury healthcare for everyone at no cost. Something like "basic healthcare for everyone" is something more Americans would accept, and is more likely the kind of improvement you could actually get from American voters. Those of us who live in developed countries are used to the idea of "equal healthcare for everyone", but I don't think you could get that past the average American voter.

As for "good treatment at work", what American actually thinks that they'll get good treatment from their employer? Americans are used to thinking that it's a doggy dog world out there, and don't expect loyalty or love from an employer. What's reasonable is fairness, so why not "fair treatment at work" or "fair treatment for workers"?

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[-] SuperCub@sh.itjust.works 7 points 3 weeks 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.

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[-] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 7 points 3 weeks 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 3 weeks 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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[-] Doomsider@lemmy.world 7 points 3 weeks ago

Psychological damage is present.

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this post was submitted on 03 Jul 2025
1059 points (100.0% liked)

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