Teen Vogue says tornadoes caused by capitalism
December 14, 2021
A little note for Teen Vogue – tornadoes are not caused by capitalism. Nor are the damage they cause, the deaths that happen during them. But that is the claim that’s made:
“The priorities of that system, which we call capitalism, were on grotesque display this weekend, and not just in areas hit by the storm. At a Sioux Falls, South Dakota, hockey game on Saturday night, 10 local teachers competed to grab as much of $5,000 — in single dollar bills — as they could in five minutes, to put toward school supplies that might otherwise come out of their own pockets.”
The tornadoes were not caused by capitalism, nor were the deaths. Teen Vogue tries to shimmy to that conclusion by saying that they were at work, capitalism is work and that’s why they died. Except that work exists in every human society, however it is organized, whatever the economic system. In fact, the socialist economies were rather worse at working people to death if you recall all those stories about the Gulag and the prison camps.
Work is just part of the human condition and even if you were a rabid Marxist – we are talking about Teen Vogue here after all – you should know that Karl Marx himself pointed out that it is capitalism that will liberate us from it. Sadly, that’s eventually, not right now.
As to the teachers scrabbling for the dollars, we agree, that was not a good look. Except think on it for a moment. The teachers are paid by the government, which is not capitalism. They’re working in public schools, which is not capitalism. In fact, they’re at the mercy of the government, not the capitalists and the evil markets. Even, it’s the folks not set free by capitalism who end up scrabbling for the dollar bills.
Teen Vogue claims to be “educating the influencers of the future” and gains some 4 million views a month. It’s an important part of the aimed-at-teen-girls media. Everyones’ daughters deserve better than this lightly warmed-up – and theoretically incorrect – college socialism.
Capitalism doesn’t cause work, nor factories, warehouse or tornadoes. Trying to connect the deaths at work from tornadoes to capitalism is simply so misleading as to be shameful. Teen Vogue should do better – the big question is whether they’re capable of doing so.