Socialism and communism are both becoming increasingly common ideologies adopted amongst youth. Attention-seeking demagogues and clickbaiting media outlets are quick to create a buzz around this phenomenon. These figure heads claim that socialism and communism are ideologies for the weak, the lazy, and those who don’t believe in hard work. But upon examining it further, it’s clear that these buzzwords are actually traits of capitalism.

I consider myself to be open-minded. I’ll have a conversation with almost anybody about politics and leave having learned something new and insightful. Where the open-mindedness ends is when people start to generalize qualities for massive proportions of the population. Like when people say that homeless people are lazy and should get jobs, or that poor people just need to “work harder” and they’ll magically be millionaires, simply ignoring the individual circumstances that accumulate over generations for many.

Values that are championed by capitalists, like individualism and anti-authoritarianism, are quite the opposite of what actually occurs under the economic system. I mean, Jeff Bezos gets to play space man whilst murdering the atmosphere with pollution, but the workers that make his toddlerish wishes possible barely get a crumb?

Upon being born in a capitalist country, the vast majority of people are coerced into working for their entire lives to fill the bank accounts of the one percent and their investors. If you’re lucky, you’ll get to retire and enjoy the last ten or twenty years of your life in retirement, given that you’ve taken the necessary steps to survive without working during that time.

Before anyone complains and says that socialism is worse, I’d like you to explain how. Most attempts at creating a socialist or communist government have been shut down by imperialist coups from capitalist nations, so pointing a finger at these examples doesn’t mean much.

The communist theory favors the rights of both the community and the individual (I know, shocking). Marx wrote that workers should work as much as they can and receive as much as they need (that doesn’t sound like laziness to me). And there are so many different types of socialism that some combination could result in a very equitable and realistic society. Oh, and just to clear something up, you can still own your own house and personal belongings under communism, you just can’t use that property to exploit the labor of others (so no, this society wouldn’t communally own your toothbrush).

Human nature isn’t what is stopping us from having a fair and just society. Human nature is a result of the way we are raised. Growing up in a capitalist society is what creates excessive greed. The barriers to equality lie within the interminglings of capitalism, imperialism, and militarism.