There’s two big things to understand about the way America is right now that I think helps explain a lot of it. First, while the civil rights act and other laws prevent outright discrimination based on race and other factors, America is still extremely segregated. Second is the role that the just world fallacy plays in a lot of these mentalities that certain Americans have.

Taking segregation first: while metropolitan areas are more diverse and consequently tend to be more liberal and desiring of social programs, much of America lives in suburbs, rural areas, or other areas where pretty much everyone in town looks like them and is similar to them. People tend to have friends that are their same race and economic status. Because fair housing standards and the like didn’t come about until only several decades ago, most property is owned by white Americans. As a result, it is still extremely common to have areas of the country where everyone in a town is white. Because of the disadvantages presented by black Americans before housing and loan discrimination laws, a disproportionate amount of black Americans own property in poorer counties and neighborhoods. Don’t get me wrong, plenty of white Americans live there as well, and they get discriminated by other rights as well as as being “white trash” because of their socioeconomic status. So when you don’t live near anybody that’s a different race or socioeconomic status than you, and the ones that you do know live in areas of town that you never set foot in, you come to stereotype and also make certain conclusions about those that are in those spaces. Assumptions get made, even simple things like the reason why there aren’t nice lawns in the poorer areas of town is because people are lazy and don’t care about the neighborhood, when the real answer is people don’t have the time or funds to keep up with a grass lawn. The civil rights act happened in the 60s and affirmative action was a thing until it was recently struck down by the Supreme Court, and there’s a lot of white conservatives who think that black Americans should’ve caught up by now because of the “reverse racism” though anyone who has played a game on Monopoly knows that that is pretty much impossible when one player has been allowed to take 100 turns before another player is allowed to do anything.

Why am I bringing up a race so much when there are plenty of white people that take advantage of social programs and by far the largest percentage of groups on food stamps are children in the elderly? It’s because people have a tendency to support programs when they feel like it’s people like them that take advantage or would see the benefit. Much of the social programs that we have today were passed as part of FDR’s new deal and white Americans were very supportive of it when they believe it was people like them that would receive the benefit. However, it has been documented in studies that many white Americans drop their support for social safety nets when they learn that minorities are the ones taking advantage. People generally as a whole do stereotype, and the influence of those stereotypes can ramp up when you don’t have friends or people that you personally know that belong to minority groups that are not you. You don’t have exposure to some of the things that those people deal with, and unless you seek it out, it is much harder to put yourself in those persons shoes.

So with this lack of exposure to other individuals also brings in what it can be known as the just world fallacy. So the fallacy goes that in a perfectly just world, if you do things the right way, and follow the rules, you will be rewarded with a secure life. And if you don’t follow the rules, Van, you will not have a comfortable life. So whether or not you have the type of life that you want is entirely dictated by your choices. What many people that hold this mentality don’t like to think about is the fact that they could one day be a person that is in need of those services. In their mind, they followed the rules and they did everything right, so they will not be people that will be needing to rely on the public. But, if that day, whatever arise, then it is their circumstances that made it to where they need the services and thus they are deserving. In a just world, because circumstances outside their control led them to poverty, they are deserving of the services and support. But when they look on people who they feel are undeserving, who they tell themselves are just lazy, don’t feel like getting a job, have money but spend it all on drugs, or some other kind of propaganda, then they instead believe that a person’s poverty is a factor of their character. They are poor because they are people that don’t work hard and didn’t make the sacrifices that you did, so if they are now unable to buy food for their families, then it is their own fault. It’s why they will support policies like drug testing for certain benefits, even though the admin costs of drug testing exceed the cost savings from denying benefits to an addict— to them, the costs of these tests to determine a person’s worthiness is worth it. These are the kinds of people that will readily vote for and cheer stripping away social services, and then be completely gobsmacked and astounded that when they need the services, a special exception is not made for them.

You hear it called rugged individualism, and that is true. But really it comes down to the logical fallacy that if you do everything right, then you are guaranteed to be OK, and if you don’t, then it’s your fault that you’re in the situation that you are in. This is why they support Social Security, but at the same time want to strip Medicare and welfare. For Social Security, they worked during their life and paid into the system so in their mind, they did what they were supposed to do and they deserve their payout because they have earned it. Meanwhile, for other kinds of programs, they believe the person did not do what they were supposed to do and instead of just being lazy or trying to rely on government to take care of them instead of taking care of themselves like they believe they had to and did.

There’s a bit more to it, of course, and lots of various nuances. But it really comes down to that. If you are doing poorly, then that is a consequences of who you are as a person and your character. If they themselves find a need for social services, it is entirely because of their own individual circumstances outside their control and not anything to do with their morality or who they are as people.

I will conclude with the final note that I mentioned people in metropolitan areas tend to be more blue and it’s because of exposure to people that are different than them and understanding that sometimes life just deals people a shitty hand. This is also why you hear the same kinds of conservative people scream about how colleges indoctrinate students to become liberals and it really isn’t in that. It’s that college is often the first time that many of these young adults are being exposed to individuals who come from very different places than they do and circumstances than they do and they are able to gain the perspective that comes from listening to other people stories and realize that the world is not so binary and the stories behind poverty are way more complicated than someone being “good” or “bad”.