“They got you fighting a culture war to stop you fighting a class war”
Political parties are part of the culture war too. The rich don’t fit into a party. They like right wing economics because it keeps them rich, sure, but they push left wing culture because it gets people off their backs. As a whole, they play the two parties against each other, and we probably won’t be able to stop that unless we can get more parties into the running.
Political hatred - probably the most prominent form of hatred in the US - is driven by the dichotomy, the “you’re either with me or against me” that’s made so convenient by the fact that everyone has to fit into one of two buckets anyways. Throw more parties into the mix, and it’s harder to make that distinction because any given party works with you sometimes and against you at other times, and if you label them all as enemies, you’re going up against the majority of the country.
It’s easier said than done, though. Duverger’s law states that the maximum number of viable political parties is the number of seats in a given election + 1. So we can’t just will another political party into viability without booting out one that we already have. We have to change the voting structure. Proportional representation in congressional elections sounds good, and with fewer voting districts, it’s also harder to gerrymander. But that’s gonna be hard to push for.
Once we can accomplish that, the hatred will slowly subside (but not entirely,) and people will be able to see more clearly to deal with the class struggle. Plus, with more parties, we might even be able to vote in candidates who support the actual economic changes we want instead of just paying lip service to the lower classes.
It’s not about the gays vs straights or blacks vs whites or the Romulans vs The Federation. It’s about the billionaires vs everybody else. It’s a class war. It aways has been. And life is never going to improve for most of us until we figure out where the REAL source of our pain comes from. Like George Carlin once said:
“That’s the way the ruling class works in any society. They keep the lower and middle classes fighting with each other so that they . . . the rich . . . can run off with all the f*cking money.”
If you think capitalism didn’t create and still heavily relies on racism, sexism, ableism, cisheteronormativity and so on (and no, comparing real life oppressed groups to fictional characters doesn’t help) to literally exist, you’ve not been paying any attention.
Fighting only a class war still leaves an imperialist white supremacist cisheteronormative ableist theistic patriarchy.
Intersectionality is the only way everyone gets justice and equity.
Last time I checked fighting class war resulted in antitheistic antimonarchistic country where supremacism and patriarchy was counter-revolutionary crime(see “Women and pro-literacy propaganda” and “Campaign for non-Russian speakers”).
Conservatives: “George Carlin is a Republican!”
Only in a social context where “liberal” just means “polite”.
Why do you stop at billionaires, and not include the politicians and the people that hold power?
Politicians are part of the state, which is shaped by the economic system which, in most of the world, is currently capitalism.
The root of the problem is class society and the capitalist system where the ruling class are the capitalists. So it doesn’t really matter who the politicians are until the economic system, and thus the ruling class, are changed, which can only happen by organizing outside the capitalist political system whose only purpose is to protect capital.
You forgot the journalists who frame narratives and the intellectuals who secrete the ideology that makes it all possible.
Many middlemen are getting played, too.
You all need to read gramsci.
If you think racism is an issue of “whites vs blacks” you either have never seen racism (good for you) or never really heard the people affected.
Hegemonial culture is a thing, and it plays a major role in keeping modern systems afloat.
Can’t fight capitalism without addressing inequalities and fighting for a just society for everyone.
This is the literal concept of solidarity: also fighting for causes you are not personally affected by.
You’re so close.
Can’t fight capitalism without addressing inequalities and fighting for a just society for everyone.
So very close!
Because you think we end capitalism an poof, all other problems are gone?
Sure, can’t overcome e.g. racism without overcoming capitalism, but also can’t really have a better society without addressing the discrimination in the system.
If some other working class member tells you about the discrimination he receives, and you make the face in the meme, you’re helping capitalists by splitting the working class.
The fights are interwoven guys, can’t do “this first” or “that first”
You need to address the problems (yes that means also cultural ones) and stand together in solidarity to have a chance of building a better system.
Splitting the working class by making this face when people talk about how they are discriminated just because your not affected is only helping capitalists
Class inequality is not the same thing as anti capitalism. I like capitalism. I see it as a vehicle for those who contribute being rewarded.
We have classist structures outside of more things than business. Politics is the big one, but it’s nowhere near the only one. I’m for tearing down those who get power without needing to demonstrate the skill needed to wield it. Those that are given it either through nepotism or cronyism.
I truly believe that the system doesn’t care about race or gender or whatever. It cares about looking after it’s friends. If you’re not in the club you’re trodden underfoot. So pitting black against white and man against woman is a distraction. We all need to be fighting together against the “landed gentry”.
Okay okay okay. You talk about class inequality but say you like capitalism? What classes are you talking about?
And life is never going to improve for most of us until we figure out where the REAL source of our pain comes from
Yeah! Consensus reality!
Nobody is free until everyone is free
Real easy to dismiss “culture war” issues when you’re not on the receiving end of them. Race, gender, religious prejudices predate capitalism and will likely be with us long after it’s gone.
Race, gender, religious prejudices
All secondary contradictions as consequences of class society, which is currently capitalism; it being feudalism in most of the world before that instead of capitalism doesn’t change that it was, and still is, class society. Tackling the symptoms alone won’t solve the core issue.
Racial, gender, queer emancipation are all part of proletariat emancipation. It’s not an either/or.
The man’s talking about class differences in general though. Pretty sure those predate us apes even knowing there were other different colored troops.
Either way it kind of feels like a bit of a chicken and egg discussion. Were we hierarchical animals first, then leveraged arbitrary and irrelevant traits to enforce that hierarchy, or vice versa.
To me it’s really simple. You adress class issues -> you adress “culture war” issues (those disproportionally impacted get disproportionately addressed, as they should be). You address “culture war” issues -> shitshow ensues.
I know what I’m gonna focus on.
The city where I grew up in England is over one quarter South Asian. There was friction between the “sides”, but what few noticed was that actually no-one was doing very well. The city had been abandoned by the government long ago.
When hes a white male and doesnt understand the repression he faces isn’t the only important.
For real though, repressing minorities is a tool which at the moment capitalists use to get days of unemployed, wage slaves or to split the working class. By fighting the capitalists you can help minorities, but you dont nessescarily do so.
It’s important to remember, that discrimination predates capitalism and won’t automatically perish by fighting the class war but by fighting it in solidarity and activley addressing all kinds of unfair and unethical behaviour together.
If you make that face when a women talks about being denied an abortion or a subaltern not able to participate in discourse, you haven’t understood solidarity and won’t get very far.
Everytime
Not a word.
Gr8 b8 m8