A society is a collection of people and institutions at it’s most simple definition, but often when we discuss societies there a lot of factors we consider. In contemporary societies, we look from quite a wide scale all the way down to the behaviours of specific groups.

Historically, Anthropology (the study of humans cultures, languages, etc) and Sociology were close fields – and both were used to justify awful descriptions and atrocities of people – similar histories to Genetics & Psychology (which stemmed from Eugenics) and Biology/Healthcare. But these fields can be and have become much more advanced. There are still issues which must be addressed, and we do that by informing ourselves and learning.

Feminism is the school of thought pertaining to acheiving equity between men and women. A pre-requisite to thinking as a feminist is understanding that there is a lived difference between a Man’s experience compared to a Woman’s – with nuances in those experiences depending on the person’s gender expression, racial identity, sexual orientation, nationality, etc.

Feminism has been a contributing force for equality being acheived across the world for both men and women. Many different schools of thought exist under the umbrella term of ‘Feminist Theory’.

We are likely in the fifth generation wave of feminism. The works of Black Feminist authors bell hooks and Mikki Kendall are recommended for an intersectional insight into Feminism.

Racism is the systematic discrimination between different groups of people based on their perceived racial characteristics. In this definition, the key word is ‘perceived’.

Why is this?
Well it’s because race is a social construct – this means that race as a construct is made to exist because us living within a society agree that it exists.

What does that mean though?

Race is not real in the way you may be thinking it is. There is no genetic way for us to test for someones ‘race’ – it is purely a social definition. This is one of the reasons why you can not tell where someone is from directly by looking at them – racial ambiguity exists because race itself is an ambiguous thing.

The important part to make note of is the fact that racism is a system! And when humans ‘are being racist’, they are expressing ‘racist ideas’ – this is a key distinction as even if there were no racist ideas being expressed by people, racism would still exist as a system and so would continue to have real world effects. The only way to combat racism is by being anti-racist (by extention, this means there is no way to be non-racist, you’re either for it or against it). Race is an important tool for capitalists to keep groups of people divided in an effort to reduce class unity.

I recommend the works of Kwame Ture, Ibram X Kendi and F.D. Signifier for discussions related to racial capitalism.

Classism is the systematic discrimination between different groups of people based on their financial standings. Essentially, it is the judgement and oppression directed towards poor people (i.e. the non-Capitalists – workers, farmers, teachers, the working class of a society).

Classism is entrenched in everything within a capitalist society. Those who are poorer are treated worse, and when class identity intersects with racial identity, the oppressive structures compound. As a result, those who are poor typically face the most stress, anxiety and difficulty in day-to-day life.

To be poor in a society is to be a part of the 99%, but classism is internalised amongst the poor due to the institutions which pass off classism to individuals by making poverty seem like a personal failure. This is a necessary function of capitalism, as capitalists do not want the working class of a society to recognise they are the generators of wealth within a society.

Classism expresses itself through negative attitudes about groups, and often intersects with racialised terms as well. An example would be the term ‘ghetto’ – stemming from the state-mandated entrapment of ethnic minorities (used in Germany and the United States) – referring to something being of a lesser quality / lower class origin.

Sexism is the systematic discrimination between men, women and other gendered groups. Sexist thoughts often time present as misogyny, and sexism is more often than not carried about by men toward women.

The root cause of sexism comes from the Patriarchy – the structures within society that push misognystic values and oppress women. Note that the patriarchy is also harmful towards men as well, but it manifests very differently. Despite men experiencing negative effects from the patriarchy, since they still draw a benefit, they continue to uphold the patriarchy as well. 

Sexist ideas are ideas that place men above women with no basis, often to portray a certain narrative about the world. A common one is ‘men are naturally stronger than women’ – whilst on the surface it may seem true, it is very subjective based on what we’re discussing, and who we’re talking about. It’s aim is to make men seem as though they’re naturally more capable or fit to lead, but this is not true. To put it shortly, it is way too general of a statement with clear bias.

Sexism is necessary for capitalism to operate – as without the oppression of women, we cannot have the oppression of anyone else. Sexism also then creeps into and informs homophobia and transphobia. For men, sexism redefines masculinity to be the absence of femininity, which unfortunately serves to keep men isolated and emotionally defunct in order to keep their male performance in-tact.

Ableism is the systematic discrimination and oppression towards people in society who are not able-bodied or neuro-typical.

Within capitalist societies, it’s necessary to alienate and demonise groups of people who cannot produce labour for the society, and as a result, disabled people are extremely ostracised. They are often times left at the behest of struggling government institutions, and frequently with sub-par care. Corporations and governments routinely abandon disabled and neuro-divergent people across society.

Once again, this intersects across gender, racial and class lines. The experience of a poor disabled woman of colour is very different to that of a rich disabled white man. The level of care and compassion they will be shown is dependent on how the society around them sees them.

A society that doesn’t care for those who need it the most is truly sick society. When we consider that there is more than enough to go around, but it is being hoarded by the capitalist classes, it’s even more frustrating. We must combat ableism where we see it manifest.

Gender is a social construct within a society. That means that we only believe in certain ideas of gender because we socially agree on them.

The concept of a ‘man’ and ‘woman’ is dependent on the region of the world you go to, time period, cultural values and economic standing of the region. It changes across societies. Typically in the West, the concept of a ‘man’ and ‘woman’ is also closely linked to the persons proximity to whiteness. Gender is racialised, too.

Gender has no inherent biological property. The concept of Sex and Gender are seperate, only related to one another by social discussions unifying the two. You will not be able to determine someones gender identity and expression via their genetic make-up.

Our ideas of gender are also informed by coloniality, as is much of the rest of the definitions we see here. The model of gender that is adhered to globally is rooted in the European colonisers idea of gender. They pushed and enforced strict gender binaries across the globe with brutal militarised force. They enforced the concept of homophobia and transphobia, and instilled monogamy as the dominant relational archetype. We see the effects of this to this day.

Capitalism is the systematic organisation of society around the capitalist class owning the means of production. Translation: A capitalist society is one in which ultra rich people own things instead of the workers or rest of society.

Capitalists are sometimes referred to as the ‘bourgeoisie’ – those who hoard wealth within a society. Other terms are ‘ultra rich’, ‘wealthy elite’, ‘elite class’, ‘ruling class’, etc.

A capitalist society is a society that operates to secure profits for the corporations operating within said society. Typically, workers will go to work, produce value from their labour, and their corporation will make profit from the labour generated in exchange for paying the worker a wage. This is known as wage theft – the company steals the excess value created from the labourer who created it.

In 2017, The Economic Policy Institute calculated that wage theft in the US is more costly than all property theft combined (including all roberies, car thefts and burglaries).

Socialism is the systematic organisation of society around workers (or the working class) owning the means of production.
Translation: A socialist society is one in which the workers own things instead of rich capitalists.

A society based around socialist principles will oftentimes reduce wealth inequality between different class groups, and nationalise resources for public benefit. If you are aware of any policies that make essential services free or easy to access, these are socialist principles (i.e. free water, free healthcare, free education).

You may think that “there are capitalist states that have free healthcare and education” – yes, because capitalism requires socialist principles to survive. This is most effectively seen with how when Capitalists tank economies, public funds are used to recoup the losses – often referred to as ‘bailouts’.

Communism is the systematic organisation of society around the people owning the means of production.
Translation: A communist society is one in which the society owns things instead of solely the workers or ultra rich.

A society based around communist principles will have abolished the need for money being exchanged for basic necessities. To put it bluntly, this would mean no financial exchange would be necessary for access to shelter, food, water, or education – all things necessary for a human to survive.

Oftentimes, communism is labelled as a utopic ideal, but this is largely in part due to ‘capitalist hegemony’ – the process of capitalists passing their values to the rest of society (discussed by Antonio Gramsci) whom would prefer their working class labourers do not understand communism.

If you raise that it’s within human nature to kill, steal and exploit (to justify capitalism), I would reply with how natural it is for us to love, care and grow as well. If war and conquest were our natural states, why do we need conditioning for it?

Defined as the destruction of the natural environment by deliberate or negligent human action, ecocide is the decimation of the Earth.

Ecocide is a common side-affect of Capitalism. Due to Capitalism requiring natural resources for production purposes, the pursuit of profit naturally brings the exploitation of these resource abundant regions.

Whether it is for oil extraction, or logging for timber, or razing the plains for minerals, Capitalist greed brings about ecological harm and suffering. This occurs precicely due to the lack of care and lack of regulation toward such matters. 

We must take a more active voice, especially with the threat of climate change becoming increasingly serious in the same moments the Capitalist classes are generating record levels of profits.

Resource Extraction is the process of taking natural resources from the Earth. This may happen via mining, logging, quarrying, fracking, etc.

Resource extraction is not inherently a bad thing, as resources are needed and used across the globe. The huge difference now is that resources are extracted in an exploitative capacity. They are used without adequate replacement, items are not re-used, much is not recycled but outright disposed of, and a lot of resources are hoarded by the ultra-rich (capitalists).

This imbalance leads to ecological disaster, droughts, famines, economic hardship and social struggle. In many places across the globe, there are nation states that see a miniscule fraction of the worth their raw minerals are valued at due to exploitative contracts and military involvement between different nations and companies.

Without nationalised resources, with the aim to publicly own them and redistibute them equitably, resource extraction will drive humanity to a dark place as it has been doing across the last two centuries. 

The concept of a nation state is the most monopolised and imperialised form of capitalism. The nation state should be seen as the epitome of a capitalist structure.

What a nation state presupposes is a national identity – one which requires rigid borders and social contracts to uphold. This most commonly is done in the form of denoting sections of land as privately owned, unified by a national identity.

The issue with this as a concept is the fact that nation states presuppose a unifying identity for all of its subjects, and forces assimilation into whatever form the national identity becomes. The only way to uphold this, as well as the unnatural borders of the nation carved into the natural world, is by exercising military force.

You need to militarily procure resources (extraced from across the globe), done by pressuring allies and other political entities, and use them to police subjects within your state that do not fold into the hegemony of the state. The concept of a nation state is not a universal human truth, and they’re fairly new in human history. We do not need them!

Identity is the complex intersection of the characteristics, memories, history and reality of a person. Each person has their own identity, and for sociologists we can sometimes group large numbers of people based on the way they express their identity.

The identity of someone often informs how they see and interact with the world around them. Similarly, the way we perceive someones identity informs how we may see and interact with them. This is also true for social institutions.

We may form our own thoughts about someone based on the way our identity uniquely exists amongst their identity. For example, a racist white man who bases their identity on the ‘superiority’ of his race will get frustrated by seeing a non-white person proud of their identity irrespective of the racism they face.

Our identity is our everything. It informs the foods we love, the experiences we cherish, our outlooks on things, our favourite movies, toys, books, and more. Each and every person on the planet should be free to explore and affirm their identity in whatever way they deem fit as long as it doesn’t bring harm to others, or reduces the capacity that someone else can express their identity.

If your confidence is rooted in someone being beneath you or not being able to ‘access your level’, chances are your identity is built on shaky foundations and should be unpacked.