The other day, I was discussing with my 12 year old daughter about taxes. (It is tax time). Her teacher was talking about welfare and trying to compare it to charity. Her socialist teacher was determined to convince these 11 and 12 year old kids that the Democrat party is the only moral party because they vote for bigger welfare systems, and therefore are more caring.
This led into a huge discussion about why people vote the way they do. Democrats tend to be on the two ends of the economic spectrum. Either they are not wealthy at all, where they are a tax liability, and receive more goods than they provide, or they are the super rich who have all they want economically, but would rather have the political power that comes from big government and being able to share other people's wealth.
This got me thinking, why is it that socialists tend to be more collectivist? We saw a big political shift in the South when the segregation era ended in the 1960's, and that spirit of collectivism shifted toward individualism. While the people were not much better off as far as wealth, the KKK pretty much disappeared (outside some white trash trailer courts) from the south and the BLM and CARE in the cities blossomed. Still, these racist groups cropped up in the leftist ideology, not in the right as portrayed by the media.
There is definitely a connection, and it is a worldwide phenomenon. The Jews benefited in WW1 and the decade following and outgrew their welcome. This was followed by the Nazis who turned the tables and were even more violently socialist in return. Everywhere slavery is tolerated, there is a strong group identity politicia going on.
Everywhere a strong welfare state, group identity politics is huge. IMO, the reason is people know deep down that receiving wealth through the force of the state from someone else for no compensation is immoral. They have to justify it in their own minds. For a black ghetto dweller, it is "They owe us because we were enslaved". For a illegal immigrant, it is "They owe us because they cheated us out of California", or something. For a woman it is "They owe us, because men are sexist pigs"......the list goes on and on. The thing is, I never enslaved anyone, I never stole land, I never beat my wife, I never burned crosses in someones' yard, I never done any of that. But to think I owe individuals for something I had nothing to do with, except be the same sex, the same color, the same religion, have the same preferences in music, or whatever, is extremely sexist, racist, and bigoted.
The remedy? Look at people as individuals. Be kind to your neighbors, if your neighbor is a Latino, and he is a jerk, treat him as such. If he is a good guy, treat him as such. Nobody deserves any special treatment because they are of a certain race, but neither do they deserve any foul treatment.
This may be easier said than done if you are dealing with collectivists, unfair family courts, unfair hiring practices and such. If they look at everything through a racist/sexist/homophillic lens, they will see normalcy as racist/sexist/homophobic.
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