Unless we start making the connections between #fascism, #capitalism, #colonialism and #imperialism, the ultra-wealthy and powerful are going to keep continuing to do what they're doing, with impunity.

[weekendspy@mastodon.nz]

Unless we start making the connections between #fascism, #capitalism, #colonialism and #imperialism, the ultra-wealthy and powerful are going to keep continuing to do what they're doing, with impunity.

There are a lot of people in this country who justify voting against their own interests due to some misguided moral compass. They'll call it being raised conservative, traditional, or "having faith". It skews their judgement, and their biases are then used against them, by untouchable elites with deep pockets, that fear nothing more than losing all their acquired riches, because money and capitalism is how they have shielded themselves from a world they've taken everything from, and have contributed absolutely nothing of value towards.

To those stubborn people: please stop defending them. Stop simping for them. They're not going to pick you. You don't actually have a seat at their table. You are only useful to their agenda, until you are not.

The groups you've been taught to fear: queer, immigrant, disabled, etc; they don't actually influence your life in any significant way. But the class above you works non-stop to influence the technology, media, and governments that impact your daily life.

They control lobby groups that dictate how much money you earn, your access to clean water, your ability to use public transport, and your news feeds.

When tragedy strikes, the people with the least to give away, are usually the ones who step up. The maraes, the nurses, the schools, even the gangs.

And that is the real test of humanity. You need to look at how differently people treat you, after you've lost everything. And in that moment, when you turn around, do you still see a friend beside you? Because that will tell you everything about the camp you've chosen.

[weekendspy@mastodon.nz]

Think about just how many Nazis got away with fascism only a few decades ago. How so many of them, have not been arrested after the holocaust. They have not been held to account - AT ALL. Because that is a feature of this system. It subjugates and oppresses to maintain an artificial sense of order and hierarchy.

Think about why the rich only ever hang out with other rich people. Even though they truly can't stand each other. Being in proximity to whiteness and money, feels safer, because being in proximity to poverty, and to people of colour and their struggles and lived reality, inevitably forces them to question their existence and purpose in life. It would be absolutely frightening to admit that, achieving their privilege by accumulating the kind of wealth that can never be spent, only inherited, while others suffered around them is morally and ethically intolerable.

That is why they hoard land and artworks that are meant to be in a museum. The real estate gives them a buffer from the dirt and grime of the masses, and the looting of art, turns beauty and joy into commodities they can procure at will. An addition to their collection of pure vanity, a desperate attempt to prove they have "taste" and "sophistication" as a way to distract themselves from the fact that their empires were built on the backs and blood of slaves.

To take away from a publicly accessible gallery, so that other people no longer get to appreciate a masterpiece, is the epitome of selfish arrogance.

And these are the people you choose to vote for? These are the people you call "successful" and that you want to emulate?

We don't need more billionaires. We need artists, and philosophers, and book readers.

We don't need soldiers, we need lovers and chefs and trees — big, beautiful trees.