The only reason people think it’s fancy is because of some dumb commercials made in the 80s.

That is some perspective.

It reminds me of another conversation starter about wealth inequality. Where do poor people buy their bed sheets? The answers are usually Walmart or Salvation Army. Where do middle class people buy sheets? Nordstroms or some other department store. Where do rich people buy sheets? They don’t. They have people for that.

I have MAGA family. The first thing they always mention about SNAP is how "welfare queens" are gaming the system, even though they were all on food stamps at one point. It's purely all about racism and punching down. They don't like the idea of black and brown people eating on "their" taxdollars. However, when my brother was on food stamps, it was out of "necessity" because he relied on SNAP to feed his step children.

There's one brand of mustard I genuinely love and would go way out of my normal wheelhouse to get.

It's called Lars Own and I've never had better mustard before or since

It’s also like $4 to get a bottle of Gray Poupon, absolutely ridiculous to be trying to whip people into a frenzy over that to begin with.

omelette au fromage

Plus, different mustards for different foods. I like a yellow with a lot of things, but on a hotdog is pretty classic. I like a spicy brown mustard with some chicken. And maybe a stoneground for a deli sandwich. Chinese mustard from some restaurants, like with spring rolls, is also quite the treat at times, if you like the spice level! I'm hungry.

If you’re not “poor enough” to need snap, and you can’t afford to buy whatever food you want, within reason, then either, you need snap and you’re in denial, or you need to learn money management.

There are breakpoints where earning slightly more money can cost you more benefits than you gained in pay. I could also totally see someone being in that range where they're only a little out of range for SNAP and as such have to eat on their own income while someone earning a bit less gets supplemented to a higher total budget than they have.

Snap recipients are forced to spend the money on food, since that’s the only place that money can be spent AFAIK…

I mean without doing shady shit, yeah. But then in lots of places there are known and routinely practiced ways to launder SNAP into cash. One that was popular here for a time a while back was a convenience store that would buy cases of canned soda of specific kinds from anyone who came in with them for less than wholesale price. People on SNAP who wanted to launder it into cash would go somewhere like Wal-Mart, buy cases, go to this store and resell them at a loss to get cash while the store stocks shelves at a discount.

Yes, we are. I have nothing to put them on though, I'm just pouring Poupon straight down the throat hole.

It also bothers me that there's the implication that poor people don't deserve any luxuries. As if being poor is a moral failing, so you should suffer.

Of course, what's really absurd is the trillions of dollars the US spends on military bullshit every year, not the fact that some unemployed worker might be able to buy top-shelf mustard.

Yes, it was one of the more contreversial changes he did. Before, you had to be "vetted" by xitter staff as being both notable and who you said you were. That wasn't a great system, and was effectively a nepotism/who you knew game, but you wouldn't see blue checkmarks for fake accounts.

It used to be a sign of trustworthiness.

Now anyone can get one for a monthly fee.

Life isn’t zero sum.

That is the crux of it. They believe it is. Wholeheartedly. It's part of their core being at this point. If someone is receiving something, they must be losing something in return. It's their tax money.

They're incapable of making the mental connection that corporations and the rich aren't paying anywhere near even a fair share of taxes that could entirely pay for those programs to apply to every citizen, including themselves. And the media preys on that to further pit themselves against their fellow citizens because it's all owned by those same rich assholes.