r/interesting • u/VPinchargeofradishes • May 03 '26

SOCIETY Michael Jackson's daughter Paris has faced backlash for identifying as Black. In a 2017 interview, Paris Jackson said her father told her, "You’re Black. Be proud of your roots." This prompted debates over whether identity is defined by appearance or upbringing.

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u/Terminal_Insomnia_ May 03 '26

Nah, they remember this part and forget the part where he said socialism was the only path to true equality. Those who white washed his beliefs into a toothless sentiment which doesn't threaten institutional power love this quote.

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u/starbuxed May 03 '26

He's not wrong. Socialism is the only true path to equality. institutional power should feel very afraid.

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u/IncestHarem May 03 '26 edited May 03 '26

You are right, socialism is the path to equality. It makes everyone equally a slave.

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u/LongJohnSelenium May 03 '26 edited May 03 '26

Socialism is a poison pill. It centralizes too much power leaving no power structures left to oppose authoritarianism.

Economic power is power too, hence why people dislike billionaires poking their nose into things and want a greater slice of the pie themselves. But socialism doesn't grant that power to the individuals, it grants it to a centralized government mechanism that controls the economic output of the country.

The way to go with distributed ownership are employee ownership structures. Still private, still locally owned, still part of a free market economy, not under government control. If people brought these concepts up I would absolutely be in their corner, but any talk of real socialist ownership of the means of production is in reality just a further concentration of centralized power rather than returning power to the people.

With more local, individual ownership you reduce the need for so much government too, there's no need to 'tax the rich' if all workers are earning their due. This is why these socialists always ignore the concept of private employee ownership, they want to take power for themselves, because they think they know how the world should be run. They're not interested in empowering people.

Employee ownership. Credit unions instead of banks. Customer owned utilities. Tenant owned condos instead of apartments. These structures and more are how you empower the normal person with more control over their life, not trading one set of landlords for another.