[jimmydddd]

I think the old "har har those dopes are voting against their best interest" is over simplified. It seems to assume that the only best interest is immediate simple financial self interest. But people are complicated and have many interests beyond immediate simple financial interests.

[beardyw]

> I think the old "har har those dopes are voting against their best interest" is over simplified. It seems to assume that the only best interest is immediate simple financial self interest.

You can't mischaracterise a phrase and then say it's wrong. That isn't what it means.

[ARandumGuy]

The thing that any "voting against their best interests" critique misses is that most people are willing to vote "against their best interest" if they feel like it's the morally correct thing to do.

Like, I'm an adult who never intends to have children, but I still support robust public education. I could make some arguments about how paying taxes for schools is somehow in my best interest. But the reality is I support public education because I think it's the right thing to do, not because I think it will personally benefit me.

The thing is, conservatives and Republican voters don't lean that way because they're just too stupid to vote for Democrats. It's because they have a different moral framework. And that's something that can be hard to reconcile and address. Changing someone's political views requires changing their entire worldview, which is incredibly difficult.

[danaris]

I do believe that supporting public education will benefit me. (And I, too, have no children nor any intent to have any.)

Robust public education would have gone a long way toward preventing the disaster currently unfolding. The very fact that Trump is aggressively gutting every part of the government that once supported education and science is (indirect) evidence of this.

An educated populace makes better decisions, and requires me to spend less time standing out there with a sign stating the painfully obvious.

[dpkirchner]

The only explanations that makes sense are immediate financial reward, standard christian "bring about armageddon/death cult"-ism, or proud ignorance.

[xnx]

Spite / revenge/ "owning the libs". Some people don't care if their lives get worse as long as someone else is suffering even more.

[krapp]

I mean, they're voting against their long term financial interests as well.

[assword]

> It seems to assume that the only best interest is immediate simple financial self interest

I blame Clinton and his “it’s the economy stupid” nonsense people believed.