Nothing unites a country quite like a common enemy. And if you don’t have one? Well, you can always manufacture a few. Just ask the media conglomerates and the Republican Party, who’ve turned division into a billion-dollar industry. Workers against unions, Black against white, native-born against immigrant—it’s all part of the grand illusion. But when it comes to the real divide, the one between the ultra-rich and everyone else, suddenly we’re all just Americans. Funny how that works.
Turn on the news—any channel, pick one—and you’ll be treated to a spectacle of outrage. The elites who own the networks know that a divided public is a distracted public. And a distracted public doesn’t notice when wages stagnate, when healthcare is treated as a privilege, when billionaires hoard wealth like dragons sitting on piles of gold. Instead, we’re too busy blaming each other. The blue-collar worker is told the union is bleeding him dry, the struggling white family is told immigrants are taking their jobs, and middle America is told city dwellers are the enemy. And so, we fight amongst ourselves, while the ones at the top laugh all the way to the bank.
It’s a perfect con. The same politicians who cut taxes for the rich and deregulate industries to pad corporate profits are the ones screaming the loudest about “working-class values.” The same billionaires who fund think tanks to convince us unions are evil are the ones profiting off our cheap, overworked labor. They talk about family values, but their real family is a tight-knit club of CEOs, hedge fund managers, and lobbyists who make sure the system works exactly as intended—for them.
And yet, the truth has always been simple: it’s not Black versus white, native versus immigrant, worker versus union—it’s them versus us. The top 1% owns more wealth than the bottom 90% combined, and we’re supposed to believe our biggest threat is each other? Please. It’s time to wake up. The real battle isn’t left versus right; it’s top versus bottom. And as long as we stay distracted, we’ll keep losing.
So, the next time a talking head tells you who to blame for your problems, ask yourself—who signs their checks?
by Robert Cain