Tas Starks
Any policy that addresses the issue of extreme wealth inequality will be called communist or socialist. Not because those issues or policies are inherently either of the two, but because both ideologies are rooted in understanding societal inequality and the need to address those issues. Both in wealth and political power.
Wealth inequality looks like billionaire record profits while the majority of people, even those who work, risk complete financial ruin. It looks like 5 mansions for some, while homelessness is rampant, and many homes are left to become condemned. It looks like the best prepared meals for a few and child starvation for many. It looks like a growing crime rate and drug abuse as people find ways to cope with a miserable existence. It looks like a mental health crisis and increased suicide and homicide. It looks like a skills shortage because most working families can’t afford college or trade schools without crippling debt. It looks like police are given more funding and leniency to harm and even kill civilians. It looks like bigotry and prejudice growing, as the ignorant find people to blame.
We are dealing with rampant wealth inequality, and any time we try to address it with accessible higher education, universal healthcare, public transit systems, infrastructure bills, housing assistance, universal basic income, or taxing the ultra rich. We are met with this intolerant and willful ignorance who stubbornly want to push for this hell that is existence to be worse. Then they blame the socialists and communists for the hell they created. They blame the “immigrants” who are indigenous people to these lands. They blame BIPOC for the poverty crime and drugs that were pushed into these communities by systemic racism. They blame everyone else but themselves. The infamous they, the pseudo patriot waving the flag and Bible, the xenophobic and bigot nationalist. The Fascist.
Call me a socialist, I’ll wear that title, but at least I’m not a Fascist willfully ignorant attacking solutions to rampant wealth inequality that is going to destroy this country and leave a power void across the world, based on red scare propaganda, that has fueled the intolerance and the polarity that exists. It is one group, and one group alone that is the cause. It isn’t the leftists, the LGBTQIA+, BIPOC, indigenous people, or any other scapegoat, It isn’t reasonable people trying to address all these inequalities. It’s Fascist destroying our communities and society.
I’m angry, and not without just cause!
You know what I do? I garden. Attend events and find people who care who need working hands. With my cut up hands, exhausted body, I roll up my sleeves and get to work. Not for money, but for the hope of community. We just gotta keep working. While the wealthy and lazy complain, make excuses, and don’t wanna be bothered, we work. Whether through art, communication, making meals, networking with care providers, growing food, or even just listening. We use our different strengths to work.
Working people of the world Unite!
RRCC 