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kingsumo_1 t1_jap2zl3 wrote

Reply to comment by [deleted] in TIL "to pull oneself up by one's bootstraps" is an example of an impossible task. The idiom dates at least to 1834, from the Workingman's Advocate: "It is conjectured that Mr. Murphee will now be enabled to hand himself over the Cumberland river or a barn yard fence by the straps of his boots. by meat-juice

That's the dark humor in it. Republican's love to use it as an excuse to not help people in need. But at the end of the day it is an impossible task, and one they almost certainly were never in a situation that would require it. Or, for those that were poor growing up, relied on the same social safety nets that they want to gut.

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