You forgot to add that the people who are steering that narrative are literally billionaires and millionaires who are actively publishing propaganda to brainwash the masses.

And it isn’t just undereducated people who fall for it. This is an effort that has been going on for 50 years. The conservative ideological points have been worked into ads, schools, and main stream television. Touting American exceptionalism while downplaying the socialist programs that have ushered in the golden era of America’s general populace prosperity. Medicare, Medicaid, social security, welfare, and even agricultural subsidies are all social programs enacted with the intent to bolster a strong populace. These downplaying and demonizing efforts are being paid for in full by multimillion dollar corporate conglomerates run by millionaires and billionaires. Conservative voters in both well educated places and undereducated places have been thoroughly convinced that these programs are horrible and are “stealing money from their pockets to give to dirty immigrants and poor people who don’t want to work.” Reagan, over 40 years ago, coined the term “welfare queen” which is the single dumbest term in the history of the world. No one living on welfare is living “like a queen”. And yet the term still gets airtime and ink in not only conservative rags but moderately liberal spaces as well.