this post was submitted on 26 May 2025
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9/11 brought billions of money to the rich and was a good excuse to arm the government to better oppress the working class.
Covid was the same.
I dont see your problem. /s
What I'm trying to say is all of this is just a way to maximize power at the top, always has been.
Please join unions and vote left.
except most unions aren't doing shit for covid workplace safety. that doesn't mean unions are bad, just ignorant
Unions would do that if more people who cared about it joined unions and pushed for it. Unions only work if you're actively doing stuff in them. It's democracy, it only works so long as you partake.
OK, let's say I'm disabled and I wanna partake in said democracy. I show up to the union meeting and everyone is unmasked, there's no air filtration or ventilation. am I just supposed to put myself at risk of infection until the union members get their shit together? that might take months to years during which I can't afford to be repeatedly reinfected.
this is not hypothetical, I've been part of multiple leftist spaces where my only options are to leave or to put myself at risk of harassment when I hand everyone N95s because I'm being "pushy".
Mm. You're describing someone very dear to me, because of whom I wear an n95 mask every day.
People you describe fight an uphill battle, and I don't see that changing anytime soon. They can ask for accommodations, but a lot of people won't meet them. Meetings can be held digitally, of course, and one can advocate for oneself digitally as well. In time they can hope to win allies, and with them also get advocates that are willing to help amplify their voice.
I'm sorry, but I don't have any good solutions. The world is neither kind or fair, the best we can hope for is to build communities with people that empathise and see us.
I wish you the very best.
I'm glad you understand, thanks for the reply.
I'm also glad you reached the point I wanted to make, that people like me become extremely cynical when unions are brought up as a solution because even with digital access we're still seen as second class members. they're not gonna invest as many resources in the digital meetings because there's no incentive to
I think it'd be hard not to get cynical when in such a situation. It's why it's so important to amplify the voices of marginalised people and bring them into the fold, they have needs as a society we need to see to them. It really shouldn't be that hard. Unfortunately a lot of people don't realise that being healthy and able-bodied is a temporary state, and at some point or other we're all going to need some form of support.
We all benefit from ensuring it's there.
I agree. Regular unions arent my personal favorite either.
But that is why you can choose where to go and which union to join.
Try and join a base democratic union and watch your decisions be the only things that are done.
Our problem isnt that unions dont do our bidding. It is that we dont support those that do and that is by design. We're taught from a young age to not express our thoughts and wishes, to stay calm in the face of injustice. Of course people are angry and desperate.
I suggest you read about subversive groups and what is happening around the world in terms of turning these things around.
I chose to vote middle since the left parties seem to have no idea of how taxes work and will fuck me over even more than the tax system already does. Edit: I am in the lower middleclass
I took a moment and checked if i can pinpoint where youre roughly located so I can understand your point.
From what I see you seem to be somewhere around dach (germany, austria, switzerland) or the netherlands (which would fit the nl tld youre using). I'm not privy to the situation in all countries but leftism is A LOT more than taxes.
There also is no lower middle class, not even a middle class. There are working class people and capitalists. If the existence of your fellow humans is completely unimportant to you, it is still good for you to vote left: everything positive in the regions i just mentioned is socialist in nature. Universal healthcare is socialist in nature, affordable rent, unemoloyment benefits, public restrooms, public playgrounds, public baths, etc.
If the individual party is trustworthy is something that you need to determine. I can try and help but voting middle in this day and age is not the solution at all.
I am in NL and in the previous election the left where absolute trash which if their plans would continue they would destroy me.
The middle party was way better for the middle class. And yes that exists. They actually went for a more fair progressive tax system and would be able to pay for universal healthcare
I dont have the power today to explain the middle class lie to you but if you want to read about current situation worldwide.
But from a short wikipedia read, you dont have an actual leftist party. The socialist party of the netherlands does not look leftist to me tbh.
Remember that we Dutch are pretty direct and don’t overexeccurate that much. So yes we have leftist parties.
Also yes we have a lower, middle and upper class. Basically lower is people who uses social security, middle is people who themselves don’t receive anything anymore and upper is well the rich
I dont think i understand the point about exaggerating (did you mean that?).
You dont have a leftist party like what I'm talking about. One that wants to abolish hierarchies between people. One that guarantees food and shelter for everyone, no matter where they are from.
The socialist party of the entherlands, at least from my short read, wants to stop immigration and identity politics, both are right wing takes.
Your idea of many classes is exactly what actual leftists are trying to get out of your head because it is detrimental to you.
People who receive say unemployment benefits arent another class. They simply dont have a job. Dividing people into classes makes them weak and conquerable.
If you have to sell your time for money, you are working class, like all others. Currently, this working class is under attack by the capital. Incomes for the mahority of people is not going up and by dividing us into many classes we can be told this doesnt concern us.
This leads to folks driving a ferrari through a part of the city where people starve on the streets. That is a sign of fully deleted empathy to your fellow humans.
Actual leftists have the sole goal of destroying homelessness and hunger. Thats what we do.
The left parties here generally do want everybody to have the basic necessities, they are generally pretty shortsighted in where to get the money from to fund that.
Why? It is fact that you have multiple classes. I see it on a daily basis (I work in finances) and people have different goals in life based on where they sit. There are other ways of looking at it, like working class and not-working class or whatever, but that's nothing more than a different opinion.
There is way more social security than just unemployment benefits. There is a massive amount of people who (need) to live of social security. Who cannot work because they are suck, or well they are in between jobs or whatever. We need to financially support those people, but it shouldn't be the case that if you start to work, you get less money than when not working. That is currently an issue since social security stops at certain incomes and if often happens that people who barely get out of the social security system get less money. But in the tax system those people are different than the working class who receive none and generally they have a different look at social security because they marginally (taxes they pay plus the loss of social security) pay a lot of taxes (up to 80% or something like that even when earning like 30k a year).
I believe that you are forgetting that a lot of the working class is also the part that is causing stress on the capital or whatever you want to call it. There is an economic flaw in the current system of always wanting more salaries wanting more profit, revenue etc. Most people have savings which banks invest into companies to then generate a profit or people do it together.
Just because somebody owns or drives a Ferrari doesn't mean they don't care for others? We had a client who had to win in advice here how to give money anonymously to a food bank. The dude is pretty dang rich (a couple 100k euro to spend a year), but generally does things like that on a regular basis.
No, that's YOUR opinion on what leftists sole goal is. I have talked to others who's main goal it is to create a better environment for war victims, which in turn causes more people to be here. Most people shouldn't really be homeless in The Netherlands unless their either choose to be homeless (some people do, but they might be sick, idk) or the more realistic case of them falling in between the social security benefits due to the current structure. Which is also the reason why sometimes working more or getting a pay raise will result in less money to spend in a given moment. UBI will fix that, but we need to get that and fund it. Or people who went into shit with the company or just generally don't make a lot of money from their company. Those get barely any support from the government.
In theory, the minimum income somebody should have if they would be homeless is a bit more than 2k a month.
In a lot of countries (like the US f.e.) there are no middle parties so then I can understand that people either not vote or vote for what they feel like is the lesser of two evil. I have the ability to vote on the person I feel like will do the best job in the parties that will do the best job. And even those I am more middle aligned I am also for getting actually rid of hunger/homelessness etc. But I also want people to be able to run a company (not a massive corporation) and be able to make it so they can live of that company. I feel like a lot of parties (and people) just have a general hate against companies unless you specifically mention that it is the local bakery or something.
I also don't believe in you are either left or either right or whatever. People can have opinions and make statements, and those statements can make a person more left leaning or more right leaning. The most important part is that we make sure everybody has basic needs, but also to impact peoples lives in a way that benefits them fairly. And there are different ways of doing it and going into it in an extreme way generally doesn't help.
I'm very sorry but i dont have time to read your blog. I understand that we have different opinions. You're taking some of what i say at face value which doesnt help the conversation at all. Of course i know there are more social benefits than unemployment. It was an example.
Someone recently said that moving people politically needs them to suffer first. Since this is a given in capitalism, I'll just let you be and wait for you to hit the wall every worker hits, statistically. But good luck of course.
I understand your way of communicating, we are all busy but you acting like you are better doesn't help your point of view. I have said that to more people who are really left leaning like yourself, if you want to help people convert you don't want to "hit" them (be mean or acting like you are better etc) you want to support them and show them why your opinion is better.
I already pay like 80% marginal tax, I get no benefits, I get shafted with every political decision both left and right leaning parties make or are planning to make. Why would I get converted to the left? There is a bigger chance I get converted to the right because that is where my food is since I work in finances.
Look, now youre making accusations about my supposed opinion of you or myself. That is an ad hominem attack that helps to make someone stop if you dont have better arguments than them.
I dont see myself as better. I just know because statistics are on my side. Its not status, its truth. I also dont believe in status, thats a capitalist lie. I believe in (working) class.
I have no clue what marginal tax is. I tried reading about nl tax rates here: https://taxsummaries.pwc.com/netherlands/individual/taxes-on-personal-income
Trying to understand how 80% tax would come together I checked this: https://taxsavers.nl/dutch-tax-system/2024-2025/tax-brackets-and-tariffs/
But i still dont get it. Feel free to help.
Marginal tax is the percentage calculated using the following formula:
(Tax paid + missed social security benefits) / income before tax.
It basically means that the missing of social security will impact the middle class a lot more than the rich percentage wise.
Not sure what statistics you are talking about