> This stems from the fundamental conservative beliefs that the system is fair and your station in life is a result of your actions or efforts.
I don’t think I’ve ever heard a conservative say that life is fair. It’s more common to hear talk about “life isn’t fair” and how people shouldn’t expect every unfair thing to be corrected for them by someone else.
There’s definitely still some who believe in the American dream idea, where anyone who comes to America and works hard can pull themselves up by their bootstraps and become successful.
That often leads to the idea that if you’re poorer than me, you’re probably not working as hard as I am. And giving you handouts is unfair and offensive, because you just need to work for it
> There’s definitely still some who believe in the American dream idea
America is objectively and statistically one of the better places to succeed in this way, despite the shortcomings. If you believe that nobody or very few people think the “American Dream” is real, you’re probably in a bubble. This kind of out of touch cynicism is only really rampant on social media.
Objectively and statistically speaking, it's really not. The Global Social Mobility Index 2020 places it at 27th place. Considering its economic place in the world that's pretty bad. At best you could say it's slightly above-average.
> "There’s definitely still some who believe in the American dream idea, where anyone who comes to America and works hard can pull themselves up by their bootstraps and become successful."
Which, in the case of immigrants coming to the United States, is often exactly what happens, proving that it is still mostly true.
I don’t think I’ve ever heard a conservative say that life is fair. It’s more common to hear talk about “life isn’t fair” and how people shouldn’t expect every unfair thing to be corrected for them by someone else.