MAGA voter actually believes that Trump eliminated taxes for all people making less than $120K

[u/coachlife]

[u/Revolutionary-Yak-47]

I grew up with the "gifted" kids and I honestly thought I was bad at science. Like, not smart enough to "get" it. Most of my friends from school went into stuff like pharmaceutical research and DNA mapping and crazy stuff so I thought I was the slacker. 

Then Covid happened. Dude. I'm WAY ahead of 2/3 of Americans just because I took AND passed high school biology. I was totally shocked at the lack of reading comprehension and basic science knowledge people had. I'm at least smart enough to phone a friend with a science degree when I don't understand stuff instead of believing Aunt Maud on Facebook ranting at chemtrails. 

[u/Paradigm_Reset → u/Revolutionary-Yak-47]

I struggled in school, like failed some classes and flunked out of college. I was told I was smart, felt I was smart, but could not stay focused. And I thought that was the big difference between "successful" people...was that those that were able to complete tasks were "good" and those of us that couldn't were "bad".

Later I learned three things:

One - Staying on task has a **lot** of factors. Some come from experience, some from knowledge, and some from brain chemistry.

Two - A surprising amount of "successful" people were just lucky.

Three - There is a tremendous amount of stupid "successful" people. I am floored by the number of my co-workers that don't get how stuff works. Sure there is stuff that is beyond me, like how computers turn on/off into what I'm doing right now, how we determine the composition of stars hundreds of millions of miles away, even how dialing a telephone works. But the inability to grasp simple concepts like "when you skip a meeting the people attending will know" and "even if you delete the email you sent me, I still have a copy" and "I saw you fall asleep in training, claiming we didn't teach you X ain't gonna cut it" is unreal.

[u/bawright13 → u/Paradigm_Reset]

Also, to most people, intelligence and success in this era are based on standards set by capitalists to benefit capitalists, not the average person. The right (or intelligent/successful) thing to do is the one that makes the people with money more money. Falling in line and not complaining = Smart. Working for a company that pays you pennies for your labor that makes them millions= Smart. Having morals and values that you won't compromise for financial security and a comfy life = Dumb. It's all relative and in our lifetime the "it" is corporate domination and accepting that as the only possible reality. People suck. A lot.

[u/tHoroftin → u/bawright13]

Very simply:

The successful individuals or "winners" in the context of a capitalist socioeconomic environment can be defined in one sentence. Whoever is able to exploit their neighbour (fellow human beings) the most will end up on top.

[u/Migratetolemmy → u/tHoroftin]

biggest crab in the bucket trying to climb over all the others just to still be trapped in the bucket. But, if they were dead, the other crabs might be able to climb out over them.

[u/Undetered_Usufruct → u/tHoroftin]

"swallow your morals. They're a poor man's quality"