"Take it from a former liberal - it's time to become a communist."

Believe me, I used to be a liberal type. Today, though, I consider myself a communist. I get the appeal of passive pro-establishment liberal belief systems - the idea that equalizing social class, a lack of revolution, and elimination of the status quo is inoffensive, and socially acceptable - and the broader lens through which socialism is seen attributes it to several expressly authoritarian ideologies - China, Russia and North Korea are some of the Western world’s greatest nemesis, heavily associated with fascism, so it stands to infer that they’re well-tested theories that just don’t work.

Let me clarify what I mean when I use these two terms, because I think they get thrown around a lot without a specifically agreed upon definition. When I say “liberal”, I refer to capitalist leftist legislation - when I say liberal, think of wealth distribution, equality among ethnicities,and enforcing religious freedom. When I say “Communism”, I am referring to the political ideology largely popularized by Karl Marx, founded on the goal of equalizing social classes out of a belief that capitalist economics are unfair and unequal.

There is one fundamental system that distinguishes liberal thinking from communist thinking. Liberal thinking says systematic problems should fall fully within systematic lines. The correction of wealth distribution should be for the classes to be closer together, equal opportunity for all to live safely with government assistance for those in need. The correction of prejudice should be democratically electing legislators who will enforce the dignity of human life.Communism, on the other hand, believes the solutions to the system’s problems should fall outside of its bounds. The solution, then, to unequal social classes, is to establish systems without social class - where currency is not a necessary part of keeping people safe. To a socialist, then, the solution is conceptually simple: if power is being used to abuse people, eliminate power - why does someone need to have it?

There are a lot of reasons it’s easier to be a liberal than a communist. The system in place is big, and the rules seem so close to morality, it’s so easy to think breaking the rules is some terrible act of cruelty. Most important are two fundamental truths about communism that people miss. First of all, Communism is an end goal - not a method. Specifically, it believes in eliminating power, equalizing social classes, and making a world with more equity by treating all of our people with respect and dignity. 

Second of all, communism hasn’t been given a fair shake. Authoritarian states tend to claim they are communistic - but this is largely deceptive. Karl Marx’s original communist framework asserted that the people should seize control to make sure the ruling class couldn’t regain their power. This stage is oftentimes exploited by authoritarian seekers of power to gain and maintain power under false pretenses. It’s easy to point at nations like China or North Korea and say they’re proof that communism has been tested and failed, but that’s a dishonest framing - China and North Korea aren’t communist states - they are just states that exploit those who support the project of Communism to establish systems for injustice. True communism hasn’t been given a shake - not yet. 

And it’s relevant to keep in mind - liberalism and conservatism have just about the same goal. The Overton window - the range of political values seen as common - leans far right in the United States, and as a result, the norm in the US is to see communism as a more extreme form of liberalism, but that isn’t accurate. Liberals and communists can’t work together, they don’t share a goal - the liberal believes fundamentally that we need to ease the pressures between people, and unify people to make the system work better. That can’t ever be reconciled with communism - liberalism can feel like a safer, less offensive option because it’s so close to the way things already are, but they differ in a fundamental sense.

Being a liberal feels so much easier - and it feels so close to communism that it can feel like it’s a safer, more comfortable option that won’t ruffle any feathers - but in times where people are being mistreated, in a world where the system is getting more and more extreme, it’s a necessity that we accept something - liberalism is a conservative ideology. It serves conservative ends - and resolving the problems the system makes by correcting it placates the biggest problems in the world.

“Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious.” - George Orwell, 1984. The system doesn’t want you to have the energy to think, and it wants thinking outside systematic bounds to be tiring, frustrating, stressful and overwhelming. Remember - if there is a discussion to be had, there’s a fight they can lose. There’s something on the line - but if you never even realize anything is on the line, you can’t make any choices. You’ll accept things without realizing you’re accepting them.

The injustice we are seeing right now is tragic - the harassment ICE has been engaging within, the far right-wing regime that has been holding the population hostage - it has all been quite tragic. I think vitally, we need to recognize that this is not some perversion of the system we’re looking at - it’s the culmination of the rules we’ve been writing, the systems we’ve been using, and the methods we’ve been governing with since the dawn of modern society. Nobody snuck in to ruin it - the way things are now is the end product of the way things have been going for the entirety of human history.

At the end of the day, I think that most liberals and I can easily agree on a simpler core premise - that people all have an inherent sense of dignity, and that it is terrible, when we do not honor that dignity. And at the end of the day, I think there’s a very simple truth about what is happening in the world right now that Liberalism never substantively addresses - first of all, the system in place lets every historical injustice we have ever seen happen. Secondarily, that same system is the one liberals want to protect.