Yup, this is extremely real. I've literally seen conservative carpenters do a political 180 when they saw a bunch of socialists (including a lot of LGBTQ+ folks) be the ones to show up and fight alongside them when they went on strike. Best way to get people to stop blaming the scapegoat of the week is to point to what the actual problem is.
In my experience, no matter how you spell it out doesn't work. You can get them to agree (common example a few years back was EMT workers making 15/hr) that EMT needs to make more. You can get em to agree that if McD upped their pay EMT be tempted to change jobs to something easier.. but then when you finally try to close the deal and get em to say "yes more pay!" They instantly melt back into their Fox/Facebook programming loop.
People whom I respected all my life fail this concept no matter how much I can make em agree on some details. Problem is they already made up their mind (shitty jobs get shitty pay) and will not budge.
Also if you wanna crack the simulation ask em who's gonna Flip Borger during school hours (it's a job for teens!!!) They've never came up with a response to that but can't agree with it either.
As for your last point, i feel it bears saying: young people deserve a real wage for their time, too. A job "for teens" is not an excuse to take advantage of people.
If you want to crack the simulation break away from society and live a life of solitude away from societies influence
Capitalism is a prison that has turned people into nameless parts of an exploitative machine that produces lavish lives for the rich elite that gaslight the same people they exploit
This is likely due to the outrage machineainly perpetuated by the right wing parties used as a tactic to manipulate their target audiences emotion to change the playing board in their favour
"I won't change my mind, cause I don't have to. Cause I'm an American. I won't change my mind on anything, regardless of the facts that are set out before me. I'm dug in, and I'll never change."
How does one effectively run for a national platform without courting big corporate, given that we know definitively it takes millions of dollars to even have a chance of winning a national level race?
You don't start at the national level. You start at the local level, which is far more important when it comes to stuff like this. You can propose labor laws as a city councilman, or your state's general assembly. You can also find candidates in those elections, and assist them by campaigning, canvassing, etc.
To a lot of people, being paid the same as a burger flipper would be demeaning, even if the pay is more than enough to sustain their lifestyle. To them, it is not enough to be comfortable; those they deem unworthy must also be uncomfortable.