Did any other US Americans hear this shit growing up from pretty much every teacher or authority figure? Maybe I did just because I grew up in a conservative area. Like, you can talk about how overwhelming majorities of Americans support increasing the minimum wage or universal healthcare. But the response is always something along the lines of “well sure but people aren’t smart and you can’t just going along with giving people what they want. That’s how you get another Hitler!” I’m sure there’s a lib version of this argument but growing up I heard this particular variant from conservatives around me.

And yet these same people tout how wonderful our “democracy” is and how anything other than liberal bourgeois democracy is “authoritarianism”.

FWIW I also sort of grew up among people who while not rich, were usually upper middle class and fairly comfortable. There was always a decent amount of classism / hatred of the poor in what they said. As if they are the wise parents telling children they can’t have any candy or something. Hatred of the poor is such a huge driver of political opinions in the US, but that’s a topic for another thread.