Yes, much better to have poor people fighting each other than coming after them.
Basically, yes. So most of us have been conned. Or bought off with small change. Also, "scroungers" serve as object lessons, so they must be painted with fear and loathing.
Indeed. As I'm arguing downthread, a lot of this is driven by sensationalist media and TV reporting that tries to use the most extreme cases to smear everyone else. Very few people who aren't on benefits have an accurate idea of how the system works and how obstinate it is.
Wasn't the lesson of Trump's election that the rich and powerful don't have significant influence over the media that people actually consume (social media) anymore?
Is Trump not rich and powerful?
Yes, Trump is rich (and powerful, now that he's president), but he doesn't control the media in the sense that the person I was responding to was referring to. I think they had someone like Jeff Bezos, who owns The Washington Post, in mind.
He might not control the media in the traditional sense, but we have to give him credit for how he manipulated it into giving him endless free coverage and exposure. He turned the lack of media control INTO the powerful position.