Sometimes (often?) I think that people who blame everything bad on capitalism don’t realize that greed and oppression predate it. By a lot?

I’ve been cranky about memeified anti-capitalism at least since the rise of the Bernie Bros in 2016… because I feel like if these people would actually talk to me about what they want we’d agree about most things. But their communication seems to start and stop with “capitalism is fundamentally toxic and the root of all evil” at best and more often just “ugh, capitalism.”

Which leaves me feeling like there are two extremely vocal groups; one thinks I’m a socialist who wants to ruin their life and hates America, and the other thinks I’m a capitalist who wants to ruin their life and hates poor people.

I want socialized medicine, education, roads, internet, & other utilities (and probably other things not on the top of my head). I want regulations keeping workers and consumers safe. I want universal basic income. I want essential workers to be paid like they’re essential, not disposable. I want safe clean housing for everyone, and I want renters to have more rights than landlords. But I also want self-employment, mom & pop shops, even mega-corps if they can get big while playing by the rules, because no one’s ever told me why I should care that no one has more if everyone has enough (we’ve never been in a status where everyone has enough).

And since the right can’t abide regulation (and is big into oppression these days), and the vocal parts of the left are religious about the shibboleth of anti-capitalism, I feel isolated.

Maybe growing up in one evangelical environment has made me more sensitive to dogma… I’ve certainly left various groups because they reminded me too much of toxic religion.

Maybe I just want us to be for something, and not against the boogieman du jour.