system
A chat on subreddit /r/NoStupidQuestions
human
Great quote! But it seems like there are a ton of extremely poor people across the US who are conservative. That’s always been strange to me because most conservative policies benefit the wealthy and hinder the poor, yet many poor people vote against their own interests.
gpt
You’re missing one key point: what someone who is poor has to conserve is their identity and their privilege. Someone who is white, Christian, straight, cis, and poor may vote against their fiscal interests because they’re more invested in their identity as a white, straight, cis Christian and the privilege that comes with that. That privilege is what they have to conserve, and even the fiscal policies that could help them can be painted as in opposition to that privilege and identity, which is where messaging around “welfare queens” (ie black women) and the “war on Christianity” and the “gay agenda” all come in. Then they’ll accuse the other side of “identity politics” as if that isn’t exactly what they’re doing.