The Trump administration has asked a federal appeals court to issue an emergency stay of a judge's ruling Thursday ordering the administration to fully fund SNAP.
Republicans want a hopeless electorate as someone who is facing desperation more likely to compromise against their own best interests to meet short term needs
It’s this. A rational person would be fine with the court order, because Trump’s argument was that it wasn’t legal to continue funding SNAP.
But Trump and Republicans aren’t rational. They “lost” the court battle and now must appeal to save face. The subject of the court order is irrelevant - fascist ideology does not permit the autocracy to admit defeat or allow their absolute rule to be challenged.
It’s so simple and yet so damn infuriating. Why are people still under this spell even after everything that has happened?
I have to credit a random Redditor from 10 years back or so that had some excellent analysis I haven’t seen elsewhere or since. This Redditor’s thesis was that the GOP have two core concepts:
Society is zero-sum. For someone to gain something, someone else must lose something.
Each person has a certain class level in society and that each person should stay in their class. If you are poor, you should stay poor. If you are rich you should stay rich. Attempting to move up into a higher level class should be restricted by any means of government possible.
Looking at these two together explain nearly every GOP initiative or position. So lets apply it to your question:
Why is he so against feeding the poor?
Applying the first concept: For the poor to be fed (gain), those that are not poor have to pay (loss). The GOP in power are largely rich, so they see the poor being able to eat through SNAP as a personal loss to the GOP.
Applying the second concept: SNAP may allow someone to spend what little other non-SNAP money they have on things that would advance them into a higher social class such as:
more education to be able to earn more for higher skilled work
more efficient transportation allowing them to access higher paying jobs either farther away or at more available hours
specialized tools that could be used to earn higher income
So the GOP don’t want the poor to be fed because they believe the poor should be poor and stuck there forever.
To quote Trump: “We won with the poorly educated, I love the poorly educated”.
Also that LBJ quote: “If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.”
That conversation didn’t go that way, but I think the answer to why the poor voting would vote for the GOP is addressed by the (possibly misattribution) Ronald Write quote:
“John Steinbeck once said that socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.”
― Ronald Wright, A Short History of Progress
That cartoon is just a variation on zero-sum, isn’t it? The wealthy man in the middle is trying to convince the man in the helmet on the right that he must lose if the immigrant on the left is to gain.
“If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.”
The “logic” that anyone on SNAP is capable of paying their way up the “ladder” is complete horseshit. (though I know you phrased it as what the 1% believe, not reality in any way) Also, there is no ladder.
The “logic” that anyone on SNAP is capable of paying their way up the “ladder” is complete horseshit.
By his own admission, the mother of JD Vance (VP) was on that era’s equivalent of SNAP (Food Stamps). Her son became a US Senator and now sitting VP.
“He explained, “I was raised in a working-class family. My mother required food assistance for periods of her life. My grandmother required Social Security help to raise me. And she raised me in part because my own mother struggled with addiction for a big chunk of my early life. I went to college on the GI Bill after I enlisted in the Marine Corps and served in Iraq.””
The key word here is “paying”. Nothing you provided in reply qualifies for that term. He’s simply jumped from hand-out to hand-out and clearly has been looking for a way sneak out onto the upper crust the whole time.
The key word here is “paying”. Nothing you provided in reply qualifies for that term.
I’m not following you here, please clarify. The only time I used the term “pay” was in the context of the zero sum example. I don’t think that’s what you’re referring to. The next time “paying” is used is you saying it. So I guess I need to ask what you mean when you said “paying their way up the ‘ladder’”. Can you explain what you’re meaning there?
Nah. I’m spent. This bullshit is all too real for me and carrying on with fellow rando anons online is only hammering the dark AF reality that nothing is ever going to change. We just get used to the new fuckery every generation. Cheers.
It’s not GOP led, it’s just Trump being a little bitch and you give him too much credit.
That would actually require Trump to be smart, which he is anything but. He is simply a cruel sick fuck who doesn’t think or give any fucks about anyone but himself. If he does appear to give any fucks, it’s only because in his mind it will benefit him. Literally anything he does is because he thinks it’s good for him.
He’s not rich, he’s so deeply underwater the Titanic is dry by comparison —not to mention he’s always been fully compromised & passed around like a village bike since at least the 80s.
Look, I too wish that were true. But he is filthy, disgusting rich. Through Crypto scams alone his family has made more money than you or I will ever have earned in our entire lives, combined, by order of magnitudes.
And all that is over-leveraged against innumerable debts. That’s not “rich”, that’s gambling with extreme risk and zero padding. The only reason he’s still alive is because he’s far more valuable to said creditors as a fuck puppet.
I don’t think you realize how much he is grifting out of crypto right now. It’s mind boggling. Two years ago he was more or less insolvent, now they think he has made over 3 billion in crypto alone.
The catch is that a lot of that is tied up in crypto tokens that aren’t exactly traded widely. If started dumping the entire amount the price would crater before he could sell it all.
Forbes estimates it a bit lower, they say his liquid net worth and crypto is a little over $2B, but they admit they are devaluing the crypto because he can’t sell it all at once:
The unlocked market cap of $TRUMP alone is over $3B, and people suspect he owns much of that personally. There are also a ton of shitty tokens owned by World Libery Financial, which he also owns a good chunk of.
All this crypto literally didn’t exist during Trump’s first term.
Side question about the username: Are you death or are you a baby with opinions? One we wish on him a thousandfold and the other he drools over. For clarity’s sake, just curious.
Because he knows this is the only way he “wins” the shutdown.
The Democrats will eventually cave because… they know their base cares about not killing people. Right now we are all getting our lib on and relying on states to pick up the slack but people are gonna get REAL hungry REAL fast and the Democrats will have no choice but to just give up healthcare as harm mitigation.
Actually feeding people removes that pressure and just makes trump et al look even stupider for refusing “very reasonable” deals (that are actually poison pills meant to restart all of this right before the 2026 elections…).
Why is he so against feeding the poor?
Republicans want a hopeless electorate as someone who is facing desperation more likely to compromise against their own best interests to meet short term needs
Also authoritarians can’t stand any challenge to their absolute authority.
It’s this. A rational person would be fine with the court order, because Trump’s argument was that it wasn’t legal to continue funding SNAP.
But Trump and Republicans aren’t rational. They “lost” the court battle and now must appeal to save face. The subject of the court order is irrelevant - fascist ideology does not permit the autocracy to admit defeat or allow their absolute rule to be challenged.
It’s so simple and yet so damn infuriating. Why are people still under this spell even after everything that has happened?
Maybe that’s what they think but it can also lead to galvanization, which I think is what’s actually happening.
No, that’s when you dip the poor in molten zinc. That’s only scheduled for next year.
Kinda hard to make that happen when all his actions are all public knowledge.
You’d think that…!
But if even the short term needs aren’t met, over and over again, anything becomes a weapon.
Pitchforks.
I have to credit a random Redditor from 10 years back or so that had some excellent analysis I haven’t seen elsewhere or since. This Redditor’s thesis was that the GOP have two core concepts:
Looking at these two together explain nearly every GOP initiative or position. So lets apply it to your question:
Applying the first concept: For the poor to be fed (gain), those that are not poor have to pay (loss). The GOP in power are largely rich, so they see the poor being able to eat through SNAP as a personal loss to the GOP.
Applying the second concept: SNAP may allow someone to spend what little other non-SNAP money they have on things that would advance them into a higher social class such as:
So the GOP don’t want the poor to be fed because they believe the poor should be poor and stuck there forever.
So what you’re saying is they’re sociopathic monsters?
I can’t even tell if I’m being sarcastic. One question: what did they say about the poor also seemingly voting to remain poor?
To quote Trump: “We won with the poorly educated, I love the poorly educated”.
Also that LBJ quote: “If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.”
That conversation didn’t go that way, but I think the answer to why the poor voting would vote for the GOP is addressed by the (possibly misattribution) Ronald Write quote:
“John Steinbeck once said that socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.” ― Ronald Wright, A Short History of Progress
Identity politics also plays into it. Pass the blame on to another demographic and promise to do something about it.
That cartoon is just a variation on zero-sum, isn’t it? The wealthy man in the middle is trying to convince the man in the helmet on the right that he must lose if the immigrant on the left is to gain.
“If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.”
Lyndon B. Johnson
I’ve always thought of the man in the middle in that pic as Rupert Murdoch, founder and owner of Fox News
The “logic” that anyone on SNAP is capable of paying their way up the “ladder” is complete horseshit. (though I know you phrased it as what the 1% believe, not reality in any way) Also, there is no ladder.
By his own admission, the mother of JD Vance (VP) was on that era’s equivalent of SNAP (Food Stamps). Her son became a US Senator and now sitting VP.
“He explained, “I was raised in a working-class family. My mother required food assistance for periods of her life. My grandmother required Social Security help to raise me. And she raised me in part because my own mother struggled with addiction for a big chunk of my early life. I went to college on the GI Bill after I enlisted in the Marine Corps and served in Iraq.””
source
By joining the military and using a GI Bill for state uni, scholarship to Yale.
The key word here is “paying”. Nothing you provided in reply qualifies for that term. He’s simply jumped from hand-out to hand-out and clearly has been looking for a way sneak out onto the upper crust the whole time.
I’m not following you here, please clarify. The only time I used the term “pay” was in the context of the zero sum example. I don’t think that’s what you’re referring to. The next time “paying” is used is you saying it. So I guess I need to ask what you mean when you said “paying their way up the ‘ladder’”. Can you explain what you’re meaning there?
Nah. I’m spent. This bullshit is all too real for me and carrying on with fellow rando anons online is only hammering the dark AF reality that nothing is ever going to change. We just get used to the new fuckery every generation. Cheers.
You’re free to go away
I’m free to stay too, citizen.
It’s not GOP led, it’s just Trump being a little bitch and you give him too much credit.
That would actually require Trump to be smart, which he is anything but. He is simply a cruel sick fuck who doesn’t think or give any fucks about anyone but himself. If he does appear to give any fucks, it’s only because in his mind it will benefit him. Literally anything he does is because he thinks it’s good for him.
how do you think he got so rich in the first place
He’s not rich, he’s so deeply underwater the Titanic is dry by comparison —not to mention he’s always been fully compromised & passed around like a village bike since at least the 80s.
Look, I too wish that were true. But he is filthy, disgusting rich. Through Crypto scams alone his family has made more money than you or I will ever have earned in our entire lives, combined, by order of magnitudes.
More than everyone that uses lemmy combined in their lifetimes.
And all that is over-leveraged against innumerable debts. That’s not “rich”, that’s gambling with extreme risk and zero padding. The only reason he’s still alive is because he’s far more valuable to said creditors as a fuck puppet.
I don’t think you realize how much he is grifting out of crypto right now. It’s mind boggling. Two years ago he was more or less insolvent, now they think he has made over 3 billion in crypto alone.
The catch is that a lot of that is tied up in crypto tokens that aren’t exactly traded widely. If started dumping the entire amount the price would crater before he could sell it all.
You seem exceptionally well-versed in that secret knowledge there. Got any citations to back up this confidence in your own veracity?
Forbes estimates it a bit lower, they say his liquid net worth and crypto is a little over $2B, but they admit they are devaluing the crypto because he can’t sell it all at once:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/danalexander/article/the-definitive-networth-of-donaldtrump/
The unlocked market cap of $TRUMP alone is over $3B, and people suspect he owns much of that personally. There are also a ton of shitty tokens owned by World Libery Financial, which he also owns a good chunk of.
All this crypto literally didn’t exist during Trump’s first term.
Whatever helps you sleep, I suppose.
Aww, you think I sleep. That’s adorable.
Side question about the username: Are you death or are you a baby with opinions? One we wish on him a thousandfold and the other he drools over. For clarity’s sake, just curious.
Neither! Tot as in tater tot, though I know that it’s German for dead or something like that because I get asked this every once in a while lol.
Carry on, then. 🖖🏼
Something to do with bootstraps idk
Because he knows this is the only way he “wins” the shutdown.
The Democrats will eventually cave because… they know their base cares about not killing people. Right now we are all getting our lib on and relying on states to pick up the slack but people are gonna get REAL hungry REAL fast and the Democrats will have no choice but to just give up healthcare as harm mitigation.
Actually feeding people removes that pressure and just makes trump et al look even stupider for refusing “very reasonable” deals (that are actually poison pills meant to restart all of this right before the 2026 elections…).
He hopes that he can direct the blame on his political enemies.
Think of it like the US is one big concentration camp. There’s no ovens yet, but there is just stopping food.
He’s worried there won’t be enough hamberders left for him.
They don’t like him and can’t give him money. So they need to die.
No, they do, both. They need to be kept poor and desperate.
To own the libs!