If only they just used the current 'investors' money to pay the retirees. They actually use the social security taxes to pay for "whatever" and hope they can come up with the rest when they need it.

If you were paying retired people with investors money then why does SSA have a giant surplus of nearly 3 trillion [1]?

The surplus is because of all the people that have payed into the program and haven't retired yet ...

[1]: https://www.ssa.gov/oact/progdata/assets.html

This is how it works, but it is not how it was sold (and all the "work tracking" confuses people as to what it is doing).

The issue is that, for me and anyone else who reaches retirement age after 2034, only about 80% of that basic income will be available. For reasons I'm not super clear on, this idea tends to get coded as a conspiracy theory in many circles, despite being uncontroversially true and widely reported on.

I'm pretty sure they understand how social security works. You missed the point they were making.