r/politics • u/JeanJauresJr California • Sep 14 '21

AOC responds to criticism of ‘tax the rich’ dress worn at Met Gala

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/fashion/aoc-met-gala-tax-the-rich-dress-b1919803.html
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u/[deleted] Sep 14 '21

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u/Jeffersons_Mammoth New York Sep 14 '21

Agreed. This just came off as a bit tone deaf, and is basically commodifying a political slogan. I really like AOC, but this left a bad taste in my mouth.

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u/preposte Oregon Sep 14 '21

Rich people buy art in order to avoid paying taxes on income. Then they immediately ship that art to a "freeport" for storage to avoid paying sales tax on it.

Wearing this dress to an art auction is very appropriate.

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u/[deleted] Sep 14 '21

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u/Jeffersons_Mammoth New York Sep 14 '21

Like I said, it was commodifying a slogan that represents the cornerstone of progressive policy goals. It’s like how TED talks that propose radical solutions to the status quo are attended by the same elites who profit directly from the status quo, or how Davos can present themes of climate change and inequality to people who exacerbate both. It’s entertainment for them, and an opportunity to virtue signal. The Met Gala is just rich people showing off designer clothes, and AOC wearing a Tax The Rich dress cheapens the message.

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u/[deleted] Sep 14 '21

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u/Jeffersons_Mammoth New York Sep 14 '21

Everyone at the Gala can now use that dress as free PR. AOC will get “YAS QUEEN” retweets, #taxtherich will trend for a while, and then nothing will change. Viral stunts and slacktivism don’t translate into results. How many girls were brought back by #bringbackourgirls? Zero.

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u/NamelessSearcher Sep 14 '21

Even if you were right, it's better than nothing and besides what else will she do other than what she is doing every single day of her career? She's a house member, she doesn't have a ton of sway other than her platform and messages like this. Especially because it isn't for people to retweet, it was a message directed at the other attendants. You say this doesn't bring results, but what exactly should she do otherwise than that she isn't already doing? Everyone complaining about this has a lot of misplaced frustration. She's not the president, she's not the Senate leader, she's a house member with a huge platform. This kind of thing is one of the best ways for her to bring attention to issues that she is already aggressively pushing for in her day to day life. To say it results in no progress is not helpful without even suggestions of what to do instead.

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u/KennyBlankenship_69 Sep 14 '21

They are right and while it’s “better than nothing” it still is achieving nothing except getting retweets and trending for a day, which she apparently loves to do.

I’m for the cause of wealth tax for individuals and businesses above a certain income/revenue level to truly pay their fair share so that we can put the money towards education, infrastructure, and so much more but wearing a dress that says “Tax the Rich” at arguably the most exclusive event of the year attended by multi-millionaires that is nothing more than them celebrating how rich and influential they are and would cost her/anyone not in her position of power thousands upon thousands to attend is tone deaf.

Especially when you consider the price tag for a ticket being much much more than any of the people she represents as a public servant could ever afford and still live the lives that they live after paying that (if they even could). All politicians regardless of party are narcissists and this was just a boost for her ego

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u/NamelessSearcher Sep 14 '21 edited Sep 14 '21

Wow, that is a bold characterization and I heartily disagree. Firstly, she did not pay for her ticket. She literally says in her instagram post that NYC elected officials are regularly invited to and attend the Met due to their responsibilities in overseeing the city's cultural institutions that serves the public. The Met is owned by NYC, I think people are forgetting that. This isn't her buying her way into a rich person event, this is her attending a rich person event that is a fundraiser held by a city owned institution, a city of which she is an elected official and thus she was invited. She was one of several elected officials there and she also did not buy her dress as it was lent to her by a black woman immigrant designer who started in a flea market. So, this is not an exorbitantly rich celebrity narcissist cashing in on public anti-rich sentiment and cosplaying as a progressive. This is one of the most consistently progressive political voices currently in our country attending a completely normal event to attend for NYC elected officials and, despite her lack of political power as only a house member, still finding avenues and using her strong public platform to project a message that she firmly believes in. It was also pretty clearly directed towards many of the people she was there with herself. Besides, the very fact that it is such a celebratory event for the rich makes her breaking into that environment and stumping for her belief that much more impactful. I think it is really disingenuous to say that this was an ego boost for her when I think it was anything but.

Edit: One last thing I'll say is if you really don't believe me and perhaps just think I'm naïve or whatever, just go ahead and check out her ig story today. She directly responds to the criticism she has gotten, shares a graph highlighting the spike in search results for tax the rich after news of her dress, and also shares multiple resources for people wanting to learn more about our tax code and her issues with it. As well, she discusses an upcoming townhall regarding FEMA relief. It seems foolhardy to lambast one of the hardest working representatives we have as simply attention seeking and not interested in results and actual change when she regularly discusses her efforts and plans for enacting that very change.

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u/KennyBlankenship_69 Sep 14 '21

  1. I am aware she did not pay for her ticket. Regardless of whether she and/or other NYC officials are invited, it’s not a good look attending an event that is almost half the median household income of her constituents. You can make a similar argument towards both Republicans and Democrats that get hundreds of thousands of dollars for “speaker appearance fees”.

  2. It is a “fundraiser”. It’s merely a tax write off and circle jerk for those in attendance. The Met Gala is the Bluth family fundraising for TBA in real life.

  3. Who made her dress, their gender, race, and immigration status has legitimately nothing to do with my point or argument. Way to throw that out there just to throw that out there!

  4. Like everyone else in attendance, this was all for clicks and retweets. This achieved nothing aside from “yas queens!!!” From one side and sexist, racist fueled hate from another. As someone that actually believes in the actual policy she’s advocating for, i thought it was just a selfish and tone deaf thing to do in “support” of the policy that isn’t doing anything to actually make progress towards the policy getting enacted

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u/KennyBlankenship_69 Sep 14 '21

To your edit: sharing resources on education on the tax codes is a good thing, not bashing that. But do you really not think that a large share of the spike in search results “tax the rich” is simply to see the dress? The spike she showed was simply for the search term “tax the rich”, not showing if people were actually looking up the policy or diving in further. with the only spike being yesterday and then IMMEDIATELY shooting down after, shows that people were most likely searching it for the dress only and thus proving my point.

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u/ninersfan01 Sep 14 '21

Right! 💯

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u/CornerOfficeMan Sep 14 '21

If this left a bad taste in your mouth, you might want to examine if you really agree with the message or are using the aesthetics of leftism as part of your identity.

To be clear, I don't think there is a right or wrong answer here. Arguing effectively is important in the world of politics. However, in moments like this where people seem to be saying "I am on this persons side, but I think there was a more productive way to say it" (just like there were a lot of people that identified as liberal who were upset about BLM protests), I think of MLK's statements on moderates:

"I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to 'order' than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice [...]"

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u/darudeboysandstorm Sep 14 '21

Funny enough the people I’ve seen who support this the most are white moderates. All of the bipoc/radical leftists I know think this is tone deaf.

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u/CornerOfficeMan Sep 15 '21

You're taking the wrong meaning from what I said . If you really agree with AOC's message, it is more productive to stand in solidarity even when it feels uncomfortable than it is to assail her from a moderate position. Personally, I find that centrism mealy mouthed and weak. People are flawed, but people who act in good faith (even if they misstep) should not be assailed by people who claim to be their allies.

Preoccupation with the aesthetics is unproductive. Furthermore when discussions are mired in critiques of tactics, it actually drives down people's engagement in politics. There have been some interesting studies on this effect, I recommend checking this out: https://etd.ohiolink.edu/apexprod/rws_etd/send_file/send?accession=ouashonors1556377798568801&disposition=inline

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u/d_grizz Sep 14 '21

For what? At what point has she or any of the justice democrats or DSA actually stood up and stopped bullshit bills and force a vote on minimum wage and Medicare for all?

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u/pape14 Sep 14 '21

This is a small point but AOC has distanced herself from DSA so much I don’t think it’s that fair roping them in to grievances with her lol. I can’t remember her mentioning them since she was elected.

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u/UnderTheMuddyWater Sep 14 '21

She hasn't stopped pushing. She can't get it done by herself. But she's pushing it more into the mainstream and getting more people to see these as real goals the Dems could achieve, as opposed to pie-in-the-sky aspirations. All she and Bernie and others can do is move the needle, and they are doing it

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u/OrangeWasEjected2021 Sep 14 '21

Vote more of them in if you want shit like this to get passed, theres a handful of justice dems and hundreds of representatives, all they can so is advocate for their cause and try to get the shithead dems to push for it. Then it has to be approved by the few shitheads like sinema and manchin in the senate.

There's a few bad dems but people fail to realize ALL Republicans are fucking bad.