>People just parrot that viewpoint without asking whether some amount of Keynesian economics is useful, because you know, government is evil.
This just isn't an accurate portrayal of any of the serious criticisms of Keynesian economics.
>It got us out of the Great Recession and it’s been 12 years. Maybe the consequences haven’t fully manifest, but another Great Depression would have been guaranteed hell.
It feels like an unfair argument you're having because of course the opponents' whole argument is that the consequences haven't manifested AND that they would be far more dire than a continuation of the Great Recession / another Great Depression. As wealth gaps widen, as inflation rises, as our debt grows, it's possible to see a worse future ahead than one where we continued into a depression.
In hindsight, we all know the problems which led to the fall of various empires (Roman, Mughal, etc.) but if you lived at the time, this same argument could be made against you for sounding the alarm: "Yeah, maybe it's better to not constantly expand our Empire and rely on mercenary soldiers who have little loyalty to a place they've never even been to, but can you imagine the hell if we lost the war against the Gauls??" (forgive me if I mangled the history there).