Who or what do you blame for the poverty that exists in the world? The answer to this question defines for a great part where one stands on the spectrum of political ideologies; this article will attempt to make the case for the leftists' point of view while dismantling the myths of the other side.
Image by DavidCardinez - source: Pixabay
Right wingers and conservatives will say it's the fault of each poor individual for not making the right choices in life, not taking enough "personal responsibility", while leftists and progressives are much more inclined to blame the overarching system, and rightly identify that this system requires a poor, disenfranchised and marginalized underclass to even function. This dichotomy is often framed as big versus small government, but ultimately comes down to a strong belief in the sanctity of the individual on the side that fails to reckon with the systems under which those individuals operate. The sanctity of the individual is currently, and has been for a long time, the dominant ideology as it is part of the capitalist paradigm. We are lucky enough though, to live in a time when that paradigm is failing and under attack. Where conservatives are unwilling or unable to criticize the existing paradigm, and explain the rampant police violence we've witnessed lately by the existence of a few "bad apples" in the police force, progressives see that these individual cops operate in a system that's failing them as well as the rest of society. Right wingers will then propose the removal of the bad apples while investing more money into police training, while leftists will recognize the systemic nature of the problem and propose to defund the police in order to free money to be invested in schooling, housing and other fields that define the poverty at the root of most criminal behavior.
When leftists say that "All Cops Are Bad" (ACAB), they don't mean that each and every individual cop is a bad person, but that all cops, even the very best among them, contribute to the continued existence of a bad and failing system. Being a leftist means being able to recognize that it's almost impossible to make meaningful individual choices when our lives are dictated by unfair, unbalanced and rigged systems. Being a right wing conservative means that you'll immediately play the "victim-mentality" card upon hearing this argument, and thus proving that you're unwilling or unable to recognize the systemic causes behind most individual choices, decisions and behavior. They'll say: "stop blaming other people for your misery" and maybe present you with a copy of Jordan Peterson's "12 Rules For Life" and claim that it's a gift out of compassion. But it's precisely the lack of compassion and empathy, cultivated through decades of unhealthy idolization of the individual and individualism, that moves Jordan Peterson to write that book and his conservative fan-base to keep on blaming the victims of a fundamentally unjust and unfair system. This right wing individualization of problems leads to some very ugly convictions; when failing to see the systemic racism behind the incarceration of disproportionately large groups of black men, one seeks other, individual causes for this phenomenon, often reaching the conclusion that individual black men must be prone to making bad choices in life. Which leads to the idea that it must be something in their culture or even in their genes, and before we know it, another racist Proud Boy is born. And still Jordan Peterson acts surprised when he's confronted with the fact that so many far-right extremists are among his fans, and still Ben Shapiro reacts bewildered when he's mentioned in the manifesto of a white supremacist terrorist mass-shooter...
Steven Crowder wants you to go into debt
If we want all individuals to be able to make meaningful choices in and about their lifes, there has to be a reckoning with the system that dictates much of those individuals' lifes. There is no real freedom of choice in a system that limits the amount of choices for specific groups and classes. There has to be a leveling of the playing-field, which is impossible in the current system that allows for the existence of billionaires right next to abject poverty. If a person has become insanely rich within this system of exploitation and suppression, we shouldn't care about that person's philanthropic escapades; he or she still exploited the labor of workers to become insanely rich, and "giving back" a fraction of those riches doesn't erase any of that.That billionaire isn't a "bad apple", not by definition an evil person, but a product of the same system that requires both classes to function. It's the extreme individualism inherent to the capitalist ideology that cultivates reverence for the likes of Bill Gates and Jeff Bozos, and disdain for the downtrodden. It leads to the idea that studying the arts, or going after other "useless" degrees, is only for the rich. According to Crowder, poor people are only allowed to study in order to become a cog in the wheel of the capitalist machine... The above linked video illustrates that, where Steven Crowder says that it's your personal choice to study the arts, so it's your own fault if you end up not being able to pay off your student-debt. He ignores the possibility of another system where all individuals can make a true free choice to study whatever they like or excel at.
I hope all this makes sense. But even if it doesn't, I invite you to watch this video; it does a much better job at explaining this disconnect between the sanctity of the individual and the failure of the systems under which we live.
The Myth Of “Personal Responsibility”
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