Debunking The Biggest Right Wing Myths About Welfare
Elon Musk is pushing easily debunked claims about welfare and UBI.
A tweet shared by Elon Musk that has been seen over 70 million times claims that we already live in a “post-scarcity” society, that Universal Basic Income is effectively already here, and that the U.S. economy is being propped up by government handouts. The tweet claims that Democrats are behind the fraud, and that a shrinking minority of “real” workers are carrying everyone else.
This is a textbook example of how right-wing political conspiracies get built online. You take a few real things—welfare programs, pandemic fraud, a complicated economy—strip out the context, exaggerate the worst parts, and turn it into a fantastical story about systemic corruption and moral decay.
In this video, we break down exactly how that argument is constructed, where it goes wrong, and what it’s really trying to get you to believe:
A transcript of the video is available for Banter Members below:
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