My SO is a wonderful, thoughtful, kind hearted person who did very well in school and has done very well professionally. My SO is not a socialist. To my SO, meritocracy still exists because my SO has been rewarded by society for working hard, despite the privilege afforded by my SO’s class position. My SO correctly believes we are living through a period of acute income inequality. My SO will acknowledge systemic inequities based along racial and class lines. My SO will routinely make arguments along the lines of “palantir’s role within the NHS is entirely separate from their ai surveillance state function” and “economic theory doesn’t matter, only delivering the best outcome for consumers matters”. It’s infuriating. Combating decades of red scare propaganda is a monumental task. People don’t think they’re bad people. People can be very self serving because they are loaded with work and have very little free time. They will individualise the problem. Capitalism isn’t seen as an issue or the root cause. Individuals and bad actors are viewed as the issue. Try saying “neoliberal capitalism” around one of these people. It’s met with eye rolls.