Resisters, we are out of time. tRump is accelerating his authoritarian take over of our country; arrests Judges, continues to deport Americans without due process. Protesting and General Strikes must be peaceful, endless and relentless! We must stop everything until tRump is removed from the WH!
They don't believe in the public good. That is, the public should not have anything good, if it means they must participate in the provision of that good. All the services they're attacking are public goods.
The billionaires think that rather than taxpayers paying for their own good, they should pay subscriptions to billionaires for any of those things that might be made profitable.
How are poor people supposed to "pull themselves up by their bootstraps" when federal minimum wage has not been raised in 16 years? The billionaires talk about individualism but they got handouts from their daddies to go to college or start a business. Nobody can survive without help. Not even Musk.
Someone posted a while back that the origin of the phrase "pull yourself up by the bootstraps " was originally meant to express something impossible.
#EatTheRich
I always found the cliche, "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" to be nonsensical. Because when one does that, all that happens is you smash your knee into your face...
As is the myth of American farming. Let me show you Missouri agricultural land ownership breakdown, 31% is China. 83% foreign owned, perhaps farm lands should fly the flags of the countries that own them. That'll make rural areas look much different, no?! 🤡 🇨🇳
The GOP opposes a decent minimum wage & social programs such as Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, food stamps, welfare etc. because they allegedly "foster dependence" & "sap initiative."
Yet they eagerly hand out billions in subsidies & tax breaks to the rich & to big corporations.
“Americans of all ages, all stations in life, and all types of disposition are forever forming associations... If men are to remain civilized or to become so, the art of associating together must grow and improve.”
Love your takes. Does abusing a kernel of truth in a proposition for selfish greedy power grabbing purposes transform the entire proposition into a myth?
Yeah, what’s with the 4-day school week? Now I have to PAY for my child to attend Friday when it used to be part of what my tax dollars covered already. And did my property taxes go down in compensation? Hell no, they went up another 10%.
Well you know who they pointed that pull yourself up by your bootstraps was geared towards Black people but again white people Never said anything ⚪️ actually ran with it NOW NOW y'all⚪️ will see what we have been thru since 1619 @reeciecolbert.bsky.social #GMA #Blacksky @jemelehill.bsky.social
"Pull yourself up by your bootstraps" used to be a metaphor for trying something ridiculous & falling on your ass - until Reagan normalized it as a good thing & people stopped listening to its actual words. Now it's just a string of meaningless phonemes.
it’s time to start counting elections results manually. Also, as people, together we have more power than we imagined. Protest! Go on the streets! They are coning us by loans, credits, taxes because they want us to keep working for them and not protest. Rich don’t pay, we do.
Or Mississippi or Alabama or Louisiana. We are trying to turn Arkansas back into Arkansas and get rid of the red hat carpet baggers that gave us the Huckabees who are among the worst frauds in my lifetime!
Jess, I really wish you would run against Sam Graves. I bet David Hogg’s Leaders We Deserve organization would help fund your campaign. I would certainly do all I can to get out the vote for you In Liberty. Please at least consider it. He has to go!
Pulling your bootstraps was always intended as mockery because it describes an act that is literally physically impossible. If you put on a pair of boots and tried to pull yourself up by the bootstraps the absolute best you could manage is a faceplant.
I'm sure the Republicans want you to pull yrself up with yr bootstraps. Of course that means falling flat on yr face while attempting the trick, or you can have yr parents purchase yr very own bootstraps already adjusted for wealth.
These politicians need to stop watching so much goddamn TV shows like Yellowstone or handmaid's tale. Your constituents are not cows. So take your cowboy govt and shove up you know where because don't try to do it anywhere else where people are involved
There can be no "rugged individualism" in a society, as a society be definition is a group of people that has voluntarily assembled for the benefit of all of them. "Individualism" negates the concept of "society".
How long would these "individualists" survive if all that society provides were taken?
You are a hero in a world where children are not being included, just used as pawns. I believe you really care.
THANK YOU from every child and parent that you helped without hearing it.
I’ve been saying for years, and I mean more than a decade, that the USA’s individualism will be its own demise. Being from Puerto Rico and people from the US asking me if I need a visa to come here is the clearest picture of that.
And is when you realize they want to keep the people here dumb.
Trump, lying weird pervert
Bondi runs her personal Gestapo
Leavitte is the new Goebbels
Patel is a crazy Bondi clone
Hegseth the drunk wanna be soldier
Miller the Nazi dickhead
Homan, head of concentration camps
Kristi 'cosplay'
Marco Rubio walks on his knees
‘Hoping’ will get y’all killed…that’s what got y’all in this mess in the first place. And if Americans think they’re getting another free or fair election without PHYSICALLY removing these Nazis, they’re already dead.
Pulling up by their bootstraps. 🙄
I know a farmer in ND who’s received almost half a million $ in farmer welfare in the past 5 years. He lives off the gov’t, NOT his land.
Everything he did was to enrich himself. He wants to privatize everything. He will then offer his employees & services to the government for a huge profit. He also eliminated all the investigations & agencies designed to stop crooks like him. Everything benefits him in some way.
How can any pull up their bootstraps when the system is rigged. The rich get richer without any problems, but everyone else has to pony up and get less and less services until there’s no one left but rich or poor. Nothing in between and noway out.
I am tired of stupid people not taking the time to understand the shit that Republican lawmaker are trying to do to them!
Democrats need more forceful, angry messaging. If fear and anger on the right got us into the mess, in-your-face anger on the left is going to get us out.
Agreed. And not to mention the fact that those preaching “rugged individualism” always come from states that receive more money from the federal government than they contribute.
I took Howard Lamar‘s course on the history of the American West at Yale in 1990, and one of the themes of the class was that the myths we tell about the American West and the truth are radically different. The myth is “rugged individualism,” but the truth was cooperation (cf Mormons/Utah).
I know the feeling.Waking up to more bad news & our democracy under attack. Democrats & the Judiciary are fighting like hell. Citizens, must join together against evil tyrannical malfeasance trying to destroy America.
And ALL we see Maga congress and Trumpers in government doing is at the billionaire doners request, funneling OUR tax money to themselves and the right-wing billionaire bros! The FACTS are there, Maga are losing BILLIONS from their retirement 401ks their farms land!
ALL TO THE BILLIONAIRES!
"Rugged individualism" is a Hollywood myth. If you delve into our nation's history beyond what was needed to pass the final exam, you learned that the only way people survived was by working together: raising barns for each other, bringing in the harvest for the newly-widowed farmer's wife, ...
... traveling in caravans instead of each family striking out on its own, so they could circle the wagons to fight off (understandably) angry natives, etc.
Rugged individuals got killed a lot. Cooperation is how we prevailed in the Revolution and "won" the West.
This is ridiculous. We need to shut this country down. There’s more of us than there are of them and they need us to make their billions. Shut it down till we get rid of this whole current administration. Trump will fold like he always does when someone stands up to him the big bully. Shut it down!
Propaganda at its finest. You can't tell me the original Missouri pioneers (my family) didn't have help from their communities. Community is the lifeblood of rural living. The "bootstrap" mentality is pushed to divide us so we can be easily conquered.
Lyndon Johnson got it exactly right:
“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.”
It will always boggle my mind that so many poor people in “red” states vote to continue to allow themselves to be denied services by the GOP while the rich get more tax cuts. I’m sure some of it is messaging by the Dems. But even when the message is strong, it often comes down to abortion.
It’s the anti union propaganda they’ve heard for a century. It’s engrained in their moral code. It’s going to take a lot of soft words before the chips on their shoulders are gone.
*but most importantly we must not fail them. They’ve been let down over and over again. They vote for their destruction because they’re ill informed. Uneducated uncultured people fall for GOP lies bc they’re unable to talk to their neighbors. Unable to have meaningful community across distance.
I mean, yeah, but I think it’s also a result of the assault on intelligence that we’ve seen in this country. The GOP attacks smart, capable people. They devalue education, so of course people don’t want to read, they’ll just listen to whatever Jesse Watters tells them to think.
Many either sit out voting because they have been told their vote doesn’t matter or isn’t gods will! Others are paid to vote against their values. And far too many vote along with coworkers or supervisors in their workplace to avoid the hassle of being different!
You described many of my in laws with that last point. Working in a shop atmosphere with talk radio going all day and hearing their coworkers talk about “libtards,” they’re being radicalized without hearing any opposing viewpoints.
I grew up working-class. School for me was one long hazzing. There were decent people, but they kept quiet, fearing the bullies. My mom, who was one of those special, brilliant people, encouraged me to fight back. Bullies are cowards; fighting back works.
I don't know how much (or little) things have changed, but back in the 60s/70s, I was bullied because I was smart. It may have been worse because I was female, on top of being smart. The misogyny among my peers was palpable. As a kid, I didn't understand why I was singled out. I was just different.
I loved classic movies & books, history, science, politics, & LEARNING... All set me apart from most of my peers, who were busy being ignorant to fit in. I wanted to go to university. But my peers just wanted to slack off. Aspiring to be anything more than was suspect & punished by ostracization.
Add to this the abuse that goes on, both in families & elsewhere, & you have a population that is conditioned to bow down to bullies, is suspect of anyone trying to better themselves, & traumatized.
I bet this is all still true among most working-class areas. Those of us who have some abilities &
My parents have pretty much always voted red and now they are loudly complaining about the cuts to all services, the economic collapse, housing, the constant recalls and low food quality, their relatives quitting edu and medical. I'm like, you voted for this my whole life, just shup up, Mom.
I feel for you. I know so many people who are going to be hurt, and the reality is, they don’t necessarily love the guy, but they fell into the talk radio/cable news pit and aren’t exposed to verifiable news sources.
I mean, my parents can read, write, and do basic math, but they looked at his election materials from the first campaign and shrugged. It was all about cutting EPA, FDA, deregulating banking, education, and business, and they just shrugged. Hating a woman was more important to them than all of that.
"Rugged individualism" is Macho Libertarianism, the belief that no one benefits from being part of an interconnected society, and other fallacies, but drives an F-150.
This is the big lie the GOP sells the working class to continually convince them to vote against their own self interests. Just a few more tax breaks for the wealthy and the benefits will "trickle down" and they'll find themselves wealthy too.
Rugged Individualism was some bullshit that HOOVER sold to the struggling--so they'd latch onto the pride and not notice how they were getting screwed.
Four days of school a week? Then your children only get 4/5 of the education other kids get. Hard to pull yourself up in your bootstraps when you’re disadvantage from the start.
There was this large study where they looked at what predicted good results in school. The one thing that stood 1/2
Out was the level of education of the parents.
So when these 4-day-school children grow up and have children, these children are already disadvantage. Makes me extremely sad for them.
History tells the tale. The elite convinced certain American immigrants to give up their identities/heritage and stop organizing' with Black and Brown people to be embraced as "White." Fast forward, there are people making 20k and on Medicaid who still continue to believe the lies of the elite.
The other part is "Who is actually paying for the services corporations use every day?" Is it a coincidence that these same corporations fund GOP candidates?
I worked with a guy who tried to tell me that he pulled himself up by his own bootstraps. I asked him how. He said when he got out of the service he had nowhere to go or live so his girlfriend’s family gave him a room and a job at their cafe while he went to school using the GI Bill. 🤣😂
Far too many of the privileged class only pull themselves up by their nepotism! The best way for most people to succeed is by being born rich and politically connected. I learned that fact too late. Stupid me!
Comments
Boots = Housing, Healthcare, Education, etc.
They don't want anyone to even have boots.
#bootstrapsarealie
#bootstrapsarealie
#EatTheRich
An old story, for sure.
The GOP opposes a decent minimum wage & social programs such as Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, food stamps, welfare etc. because they allegedly "foster dependence" & "sap initiative."
Yet they eagerly hand out billions in subsidies & tax breaks to the rich & to big corporations.
THIS!!!
John Adams
Alexis de Tocqueville
Thomas Jefferson
In 2026 we need 400 more just like her to fill Congress!
How long would these "individualists" survive if all that society provides were taken?
THANK YOU from every child and parent that you helped without hearing it.
And is when you realize they want to keep the people here dumb.
It is a myth that started with Reagan, I believe, and kept on being perpetuated by the Republicans.
Trump, lying weird pervert
Bondi runs her personal Gestapo
Leavitte is the new Goebbels
Patel is a crazy Bondi clone
Hegseth the drunk wanna be soldier
Miller the Nazi dickhead
Homan, head of concentration camps
Kristi 'cosplay'
Marco Rubio walks on his knees
YOU are to be used
I know a farmer in ND who’s received almost half a million $ in farmer welfare in the past 5 years. He lives off the gov’t, NOT his land.
Democrats need more forceful, angry messaging. If fear and anger on the right got us into the mess, in-your-face anger on the left is going to get us out.
Or 3.41 million population. = the 1%
🇮🇪🇪🇺
I know the feeling.Waking up to more bad news & our democracy under attack. Democrats & the Judiciary are fighting like hell. Citizens, must join together against evil tyrannical malfeasance trying to destroy America.
https://www.fiftyfifty.one/
https://www.mobilize.us/democratsworkforamerica/
Except the part that gives me money."
-Elon Musk
And ALL we see Maga congress and Trumpers in government doing is at the billionaire doners request, funneling OUR tax money to themselves and the right-wing billionaire bros! The FACTS are there, Maga are losing BILLIONS from their retirement 401ks their farms land!
ALL TO THE BILLIONAIRES!
Rugged individuals got killed a lot. Cooperation is how we prevailed in the Revolution and "won" the West.
https://youtu.be/xTInS5_xczg?si=U0ap78A7wepLnBtu
“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.”
*shows them the link on her site with 75 pages of detailed plans for economics, healthcare, education, infrastructure investment and voting rights*
“Oh that’s just word salad I won’t read all of that.”
*douses myself with gasoline, lights match*
Mebbe.
I grew up working-class. School for me was one long hazzing. There were decent people, but they kept quiet, fearing the bullies. My mom, who was one of those special, brilliant people, encouraged me to fight back. Bullies are cowards; fighting back works.
I bet this is all still true among most working-class areas. Those of us who have some abilities &
In other words, the working-class isn't exactly a hothouse of human nobility.
Not that I think the middle or upper class is much better. They're not!
We can't change human
Tax the Christian church!
There was this large study where they looked at what predicted good results in school. The one thing that stood 1/2
So when these 4-day-school children grow up and have children, these children are already disadvantage. Makes me extremely sad for them.
Just like anyone who came from humble beginnings & succeeded he explains how a lot of his success was owed to helpful folks along the way.
Nobody pulls themselves up by their own bootstraps.