"that is so true. relatedly: some folks i've encountered are absolutely certain that people who support socialism are lazy. i encounter this all the time and it never fails to floor me."
It's interesting...all the little short circuits that have to happen to make this so.
First, the whole wet dream of capitalist success is to get so rich you don't have to work; others will work for you and you will thrive upon the profits they generate. But nobody is very explicit about that.
Second, from what I've noticed in the workplace, the lefties are the hardest working of the bunch.
But, all this is effectively undermined by the representation of socialism as state directed redistribution from the "workers" to the "idlers". The fact that these idlers might be too old, too young, or too sick to work does not seem to come into the equation.
The idea that socialism might mean the democractic control of the production process by workers is never, ever, ever mentioned in any media I've encountered: left or right (except for the radical left).
j.