Here's how you fight the "Socialism" bullshit

[Ginger42]

35. It's only "socialism" if it's for other people

Husband’s coworker is a staunch Republican. She’s also on a huge list of government programs – food assistance, housing, heating, healthcare. The father of one of her kids is dead so she gets social security for him. And she’s always going on and on about “freeloaders*” getting “socialism*” from the government. In her mind she’s not one of the “freeloaders” because she deserves what she gets from these programs but “other people*” don’t. “Why should I pay for stuff for other people?” It never occurs to her that other people are paying for stuff for her.

There was a ballot measure to increase property taxes a while back to repair our crumbling high school. She told Husband he had to vote for it because her kids needed a better school. Husband saw his chance. “That’s socialism. I don’t have kids in that school. Why should I pay for stuff for your kids?”

She was furious. Didn’t have a good answer but just sputtered a bit and stomped off and wouldn’t talk to him the rest of the day.

Husband: “If I had known it was that easy to get her to stop talking to me, I would have done that ages ago.”

We supported the ballot measure, but he keeps telling her we didn’t because then she gets mad again and won’t talk to him. So why would we want to help “other people” anyway? What’s wrong with us? 1. The school was literally falling down with the gym off limits because it had caved in, and 2. A stupid, uneducated population isn’t good for anyone. It just breeds more Republicans.

*freeloaders = people who get the same stuff she gets but aren’t her
*socialism = stuff that other people get
*other people = black and brown people. Mostly brown because we’re on the rez.