Throughout American history, those in power have understood one thing very clearly: a divided working class is easier to control. And so, time and again, cultural issues have been used to fracture, distract, and defuse class solidarity. Culture is often used as a camouflage, a way to keep the working class from realizing how much they actually had in common.
In the digital age, that same strategy has been supercharged. We spend a significant portion of our lives online, on platforms that we don’t control, and don’t fully understand. Algorithms are private, opaque, and profit-driven and they decide what we see, what rises to the top, and what gets buried. They reward outrage, amplify division, and track everything we do. Most of us don’t know why certain stories appear in our feeds. We don’t know how we’re being categorized, profiled, or targeted. We don’t even know, always, if the person we’re arguing with is real.
This creates the perfect environment for division. When we can’t agree on facts, when every issue becomes personal and every disagreement a threat to identity, then there’s no room left to talk about the force that shapes all of our lives: wealth inequality.
To be clear, cultural issues matter. They shape our identities, our relationships, and our lived experiences. They deserve care and debate. But culture is not where the largest levers of material power are held.
It is entirely possible to fight for dignity and justice and to recognize that a unified working class, across race, gender, religion, and background, is the only real force that can challenge entrenched economic power. The internet, for all its flaws, still gives us a chance to connect outside the filters. But only if we’re willing to look past the noise and ask: who benefits from this division? Who profits from our distraction?
Because if we are spending our energy tearing each other down over symbolic cultural ground, while billionaires accumulate record profits and institutions quietly consolidate control—we are losing. Not just as individuals, but as a society.