Socialism is Family Values… Or why there’s no such thing as a left or right wing position

Welcome to another stream of consciousness political rant. May or may not make sense. This is my space to rant about politics and current events. Stuff that doesn’t fit into my classic rock blog so I throw it here for the world to see.

Everyone is hung up on what’s right wing or what’s left wing. Go on politics Twitter and it’s tribalistic. If I had to pick a theme song for Lefty Twitter, it would easily be The Kinks’ “Hatred: A Duet”:

“You wanna be my friend, well it’s too late
My love for you has turned to hate
And I think that it’s a permanent condition
You say you wanna make the peace
Smile and turn the other cheek
I can’t put myself in such a weak position
Now I’m willing to accept this fate
You and me just can’t cohabitate
We agree to hate and that’s our fast decision

Hatred, hatred is the only thing that keeps us together”

The left hate each other more than the right hate us. Like the saying “nobody hates women more than other women”, nobody hates leftists more than other leftists. Each side have their tribes, but doesn’t it seem like the left hate each other more and that’s what’s sabotaging the left?

Why is that though? I don’t like right wing politics, but one thing I admire about the other side is how united they are and how that leads to efficiency and getting things done. But are the right really that united? Yes and no. They have common goals: make the rich richer, spread traditionalist values, pollute the planet, start wars and keep war going, colonise the global south, control women’s bodies, oppress gay people, disenfranchise non-white/mixed people, you know.

“When two tribes go to war, a point is all that you can score”

— Two Tribes by Frankie Goes to Hollywood (1984)

There’s a culture war on the right with different tribes: your supposed “populists” who like Trump and DeSantis and your more elitist old guard establishment people. They hate each other, but they have similar goals.

My theory on why the left hate each other so much is that the definition of left wing is so nebulous. What’s left wing? While we’re at it, what’s right wing? What are the boundaries? The left for sure includes communists, socialists, and democratic socialists. If you ask the “far left” side the spectrum what is considered left, many will say that social democrats are not on the left. Some leftists on the libertarian side of the spectrum think that authoritarian leftists are not true leftists. Centre leftists might say that communists and socialists are not leftists, but radicals.

You see these conflicts in real life and on the internet. People are rightfully frustrated with The Squad. I’m one of those people who are frustrated. During campaign and election season they talked tough and said they were going to go to Washington to fight, but for what? Talk a big game on Twitter, but then cuck to the establishment and make excuses for President Biden?

What I’m saying is it’s all relative. Every part of the world is different. One thing that frustrates me is the Americanocentrism of social justice circles. It’s understandable though. Your reference point is what you know best, your surroundings, who you are.

As someone who is American, but as spent most of their adult life overseas, I am more cognisant of the Americanocentrist bias, but I’ve only lived in countries where English is spoken so my experiences are limited. However, I am half Venezuelan and still have a connection there even if the last time I visited was so long ago it was before Chavez was president (and everything went to shit), as my mother was born there and a lot of my family are still there. Socially, Venezuela is still very conservative and religious.

Left wing in Venezuela is more anti-capitalist (I’m sure average leftists there are very different from the PSUV, who are incredibly corrupt, hell, Hugo Chavez’s daughter is a billionaire, that’s all you need to know about their brand of “socialism”), but socially… where are they when it comes to women’s rights or LGBT rights? Abortion is still not legal in most of Latin America. LGBT people are still treated poorly. Social issues and economic issues are linked. No one is free if people are still being oppressed for their identities and things they can’t help. And I don’t say this because I’m a bi woman and it’s about people like me. It’s all about respecting people.

Let’s look at something else. Healthcare. Once upon a time, the biggest issue to Americans was jobs and the economy and now it’s healthcare. Can you believe after two terms of Obama that healthcare has gotten even worse? When I was a kid, my parents always had health insurance and copays were low. My dad didn’t complain about the cost of insurance in those days. As part of his job, he had to look at different insurance companies for the company he worked for and year after year, premiums kept going up, costing both the company and employees lots of money. You pay a lot of money in taxes, only to pay a private tax again to have healthcare. Premiums for a family of 4 can cost more money than a lot of people make in a year. And the paying doesn’t end. Don’t forget about deductables, copays, and maximums and stuff. American healthcare, just like American taxes, is confusing.

Health insurance companies are no different from the Kray Twins. Americans reading this might not know who the Kray Twins were. Basically, Reggie and Ronnie Kray were two of Britain’s most famous mobsters/gangland criminals. They were involved in murder, armed robbery, arson, and protection rackets. A long rap sheet. Basically, the Kray Twins were just like the mafia, but they actually killed people, they didn’t have other people do it for them.

Back to how insurance companies are protection rackets. A protection racket is a common organised crime scheme where a dodgy, dangerous group offer protection to a company or person (especially to a company or person who are the target of threats) in exchange for money. Wait, so how is this different from legit security guards? Well, in a protection racket, the racketeers coerce and threaten the person or business and are part of the problem.

And if you don’t pay up… things might just start breaking. Objects? Your legs? A bloody severed horse head shows up? The racketeers are the problem and they sell you the “cure”. You see how that sounds just like for-profit healthcare? In the case of a health insurance company, you pay them thousands in premiums for “protection” and to get the government off your back for not having healthcare, only to have to keep paying more if something goes wrong with your health: an accident, an illness, or hell, even going for checkups for prevention.

If people need a thing to survive (shelter, healthcare, food, education), it shouldn’t cost them money out of pocket and no one should go into debt for the necessities. The government are there to look after people’s basic needs, that’s it. Money shouldn’t be the reason you don’t go to the doctor or don’t go to university to follow your dreams.

Look at Canada and Australia, even the conservative parties there aren’t against universal healthcare, but in the US, the supposed “left wing” party don’t support Medicare For All. Sure, some elected Democrats do, but it’s far from all of them, and not only they need to support Medicare For All, it needs to be supported by some Republicans.

The examples above is a good example of why left and right don’t mean much to me. From my western perspective, homophobia and transphobia is associated with the right wing, but there are are people in left wing parties in other parts of the world who are homophobic or transphobic.

I’ve tweeted about this before:

“People need to stop calling policies left or right wing. The reality is you can make a left, centrist, or right wing argument for any policy. I try to understand the other side by trying to find right wing arguments for leftist policies so I can win them over to my side.”

I grew up in a liberal family who were loyal Democratic Party voters, but I am now an independent and have been for some time because of disappointment from the party and establishment liberals (read: champagne socialists) as a whole who will pretend to care about poor people, but then not do anything to help them. At this point, I’m done with parties. I support people and policies, not a party. I believe the Democratic Party is rotten to the core and can’t be saved at this point, but if people truly want to do it, I encourage them to. Not just one approach works and credit to anyone who gives the people what they want: universal healthcare, homeownership being a right, and more rights and protections for workers (long overdue, especially in America).

Back to the title of this post and what I came to mainly rant here about: family values and how “socialist policies” are the most family values policies out there. Am I a traditional or not? Well, I don’t think I can be placed in a box. Most people can’t. In some ways, yes, I am traditional: I got married at a young age, I am monogamous, I mostly wear dresses, and I have very long hair. In other ways I’m not: I do not want children, I take pride in my androgynous side, I believe women and men are equal, I can’t cook to save my life (damn you poor motor skills), and I took an unconventional path after I left education (I guess the fact I got a masters is modern too since women were often told to get married very young and not go to university).

Looking at my own generation, a lot of us aren’t “traditional” (as in looking like a 1950s sitcom): married with 2 kids and a nice house with a picket fence and a dog. Conservatives whinge incessantly about this and will propagate racist conspiracy theories like “the great replacement” and bang on and on about “degeneracy” and how leftists “hate family values”.

But don’t they realise that their party’s policies have contributed to young people not having kids and buying homes? You don’t get to complain about immigrants “replacing” the native born, but then screw over the native born youth who end up emigrating to have some chance at a decent life. Investing in your citizens is important. And it’s not a left wing policy. Right wingers can support this too. Centrists can support this too.

People always associate family values with the right, but why is that? I guess because it’s used as a dogwhistle for sexism and homophobia. But what if I told you that socialism is family values? Socialist policies are conducive to young people starting families and buying homes and providing for their kids.

Why don’t people from my generation have kids? Well I can’t speak for everyone, but I’ll list my reasons (which are common among people my age) and what policies can change that. Sure it won’t change my mind because I don’t want kids, but maybe it would for other people who want kids.

1. Financial reasons: can’t afford kids. What will fix that? A living wage for workers so they feel rewarded for a hard day’s work. More jobs and free retraining for those who are out of work and want to go into fields that need workers. Education is an investment in the people and more money needs to go towards that than to the military.
2. My disability: I struggle with it and have no support for it. What will fix that? Universal healthcare that covers mental health. Healthy citizens are more productive citizens. As well, the cost of childbirth and healthcare for a child will not be a problem if we have free at the point of service healthcare. UBI, so disabled people don’t have to prove they’re disabled enough, no more red tape. Even if you’re a stay at home parent or homemaker, you do important work and UBI will reward that.
3. I don’t have my own house: How can I raise a child if I’m still renting and living with roommates? What will fix that? Ban on foreign (non-resident) nationals and investment funds buying houses: it’s a nationalist and populist policy. Homeownership being a right for all citizens and permanent residents. Lower the prices of houses. Cap on rent: rent should never cost more than a mortgage payment.
4. Climate change: Who would want to raise kids on a planet on fire? What will fix that? Green New Deal. Invest in green technology and energy: creates jobs. More public transport. Get off fossil fuels as quickly as possible.

Now you can see why socialism is family values and is arguably the most family oriented ideology, way more so than conservatism that’s for sure. But forget about labels for a second. Doesn’t this all sound good? Isn’t this what a government should be doing? Looking after the people?

People like to put people and things into neat little boxes. Categorising things is human nature, but I think we need to question our need to categorise or put things in an order or spectrum. Instead, let’s all work together on making the world a better place. I’ll happily work with right wingers and libertarians if they support what I support, and I’m sure some might even like what I have to say if I just don’t label it as left wing or socialist. These labels harm more than help and only divide people more.

About Angie Moon

Angie Moon is the creator of The Diversity of Classic Rock, a blog that challenges pre-conceived notions about classic rock being music for straight white men. She writes about LGBT musicians, non-white/mixed musicians, and musicians from all around the world.