Tornado Alley (PROG)

[brooklyn13]

The thing that gets me is the apparently easy manipulation of the masses. Starting in the Civil War, when the wealthy Southerners somehow got the impoverished masses to be convinced that they should fight for the right of the wealthy to continue owning slaves. It's all about pitting the working / middle classes against each other to distract from the bigger picture.

And, to this day, the Kochs, DeVos family, the Bushes, the Trumps, the Mercers, the Broads, Bezos, the moneyed conservative elite has convinced the less moneyed to take up their causes, "What's the Matter with Kansas"?. It boggles the mind what fools these mortals be.

https://jacobinmag.com/2019/07/billionaires-and-stealth-politics

In return, we get the usual scapegoats, the blacks, the Jews, the immigrants, Asians, the coastal elites, welfare mooches, and, actually, women, all groups to resent and blame for our problems. Why tackle the enormous problems caused by income inequality, when we can just get the rubes to resent the poor? Paul Ryan is still pissed we haven't gutted the social safety net, those damn lazy people should just get third and fourth jobs:

https://www.businessinsider.in/policy/economy/news/paul-ryan-griped-that-trump-didnt-pursue-cuts-to-medicare-and-other-safety-net-programs-since-they-were-too-unpopular/articleshow/91134183.cms