Britney Spears is not in charge of a lot in her life, but she has retaken control of her Instagram, at least. I think her Twitter is still being handled by her communications/business team. But for several years now, Britney posts whatever she wants on IG. For the most part, “what she wants” has included endless selfies, dance videos, workout videos and random photos and memes she finds on the internet. Britney has shared messages of compassion in this time of global crisis, but she took it one step further yesterday when she posted a socialist message about the redistribution of wealth.
This is actually a longer quote from Mimi Zhu, although Britney did not attribute it to Zhu. Britney also included three rose emojis, which is apparently a symbol of the socialist cause online, which I did not know. Zhu posted on Twitter about Comrade Britney:
hi ~ so @britneyspears reposted my work yesterday and i’m rly grateful ! she didn’t tag me and i’ve seen the image floating around. i am the artist and wanna remind to credit artists and put them on 🧡 i love her and hope she sees this and my original post on ig: @mimizhuxiyuan❕ pic.twitter.com/4Q0DAhs3Pp
— MIMI ZHU ☁️ (@mimizhuxiyuan) March 24, 2020
at the end of the day i think this is funny and sweet and i’m happy my work moved her becuz she moved me a lot while i was growing up ~ comrade britney is an icon and i’m glad we are connected on this wavelength
— MIMI ZHU ☁️ (@mimizhuxiyuan) March 24, 2020
After that, people had such a good time examining Comrade Britney’s long-standing calls to dismantle the bourgeois class and how, obviously, “Toxic” is a metaphor for late-stage capitalism.
When Comrade Britney said “You betta work bitch” she meant you better unionize and seize the means of production from the bourgeoisie in this treatise i will https://t.co/3uvJeb40mW
— ☕️🌿 (@mmkaybi) March 24, 2020
remember when comrade britney rocked the red star at the 2002 vmas? 😍 a political statement pic.twitter.com/Ej9xxmoDiN
— ✎ (@according2b4r) March 24, 2020
Comrade Britney is trending. I'm screaming. pic.twitter.com/w9FEmOzb83
— Fan Account🌱 (@outtathispussy) March 24, 2020
Photos courtesy of Instagram.
I’m a proponent for wealth re-distribution. No one needs billions, or even hundreds of millions, especially because their vast fortunes are rarely (if ever) made in a benign way. They are almost always made on the backs (social, economic, or physical) of others. At a certain point it’s just greed for greed’s sake.
Just tax the rich like Senator Warren has said. A wealth tax would help immensely.
plus, they could literally NEVER spend all that money. once you reach a certain point, you really don’t need any more coming in to live VERY comfortably for the rest of your days.
and yes, a wealth tax would help the less fortunate SO MUCH…meanwhile, a wealth tax for the rich just means they can’t buy another yacht this year.
amen sister
Agree with you. The salaries of the top people should be tied to the least paid workers’ pay. Top gets a raise or a bonus, so will the rest in the company. Everyone has helped to build it.
I just… can’t. Does she not realize the redistribution of wealth would directly impact her as well? I have a hard time believing she saw this as anything more than a ‘pretty’ photo with a nice message to share. I just don’t see this as being a practice what you preach moment with her. Not that she has the control to do anything with her finances anyway, I guess. Maybe she is just done with the fame and money.
I don’t think she totally understood the quote. If she did she’d realize she’s part of that circle 🙄
Yeah that’s part of what makes it so funny. She definitely didn’t fully understand it.
Maybe she did though and if that’s the case then props to her. Not many wealthy people are willing to give away any significant portion of their wealth.
Maybe she’s just sick and tired for being her whole family’s piggy bank. Didn’t her kid just tell her to go back to work so she could “make serious bank”?
Did you consider the fact that Britney knows it will impact her and is okay with that? Maybe she recognizes she is not the only valuable person in the world and is ok with redistributing even if she has to give up some of her money? It is not novel to be able to empathize with people who are worse of. Your comment makes me nervous for you.
Before lecturing me, read the rest of my post. ” Maybe she is just done with the fame and money.” I literally said it was a possibility. Your reading comprehension makes me nervous for you.
Why does it need to have anything to do with fame? Some people just want everyone to have a good life and are willing to give if they have more.
I agree that she does know it would impact her. She grew up poor in a small southern town….she’s not delusional to struggling and is smarter then people give her credit for.
Erinn >> You dont need to be worried for me, sweetie. English is my third language and I read fine. Have a good evening, Ill be here in Denmark with free healtcare.
Um Katrina, pretty sure Erin is from Canada so I’m not sure what point you’re trying to make with your free healthcare dig. Also, bragging about having free healthcare while 100s of million don’t in the middle of a global pandemic is pretty shitty.
While realistically I agree with you, I still like to entertain the thought that having spent years under a conservatorship, working to earn millions, and having none of that money directly under her own control, has disillusioned Britney to paternalistic capitalism and caused her to learn sympathy for the proletariat.
I’m choosing to believe this as well lol.
Perhaps she would be fine with the text if she understood it too? It’s not like being a money machine all her life actually made her happy. And she would still be well off afterwards anyway.
Most of the rich would only go down to middle class if their money were taken away and redistributed so it’s pretty funny how anti-tax and hysteric they are about it.
They need to be taxed now or they will be eaten, at least metaphorically, later. Listen to the ted talk by billionaire investment capitalist Nick Hanauer. He puts grotesque wealth inequality into historical context and it doesn’t usually end well for anyone.
Greed is what has kept people pushing her to work when she was not fit to do so. Money machine is a great term for it. I hope she does get that and has had enough.
She was talking about all those OTHER rich people’s wealth. She probably doesn’t even realize it would mean her money too.
She doesn’t have control of her money so she may not even know what she is worth. She could carry just as much money as the next person. Yes her expenses are paid but when you don’t see the millions in the bank and have $10 in your wallet it seems unfair that other people have millions/billions.
So? Some people don’t mind having less. Some people aren’t greedy.
Which I SAID in my post. “Maybe she’s done with the money and fame”.
But let’s not pretend that it doesn’t come off with a huge lack of self awareness that she’s worth over 200 million dollars and is talking about the need for wealth re-distribution.
that’s my question too lol. I don’t think she has any concept what her life would be like without money and wealth. but at least she’s not as tone deaf and clueless as others, like goop paltrow.
And that’s just it. I don’t think she’s lying or anything – I just don’t think she fully understands what the message is saying. And that’s okay. But had she not been mega wealthy, there’d be a good chance that she would be dead by now. She was a danger to herself and the kids – not on purpose of course, but due to her mental state. And we know how quickly the world forgets about those struggling with mental health issues when they’re not celebrities.
for what it’s worth, Britney has never seemed to have expensive taste to me. Even before the conservatorship took away most of her financial autonomy, she was always making trips to Target in her regular-person mall clothes. She probably has some nice handbags and shoes and sunglasses but I think she otherwise lives a life that is more similar to a middle-class American, than many of her celebrity cohorts. She’s just always struck me as a down-home kind of gal. And I think she has probably soured a lot on money and fame because of how it all affected her mental health, and she probably has no idea how much she’s worth because her father manages all of it. I believe she’d be much happier away from the public eye, being able to spend time with her kids, with an upper-middle-class kind of lifestyle.
I love Britney so much. She told people that shes willing to give them money if they need it directly through cash app and actually has. She’s always been a kind soul.
Omg really?!!! That’s so beautiful! God Bless her!
She did that this week in response to the COVID crisis. I saw a kid on twitter who screencapped a $100 payment from Britney. I think there are celebrities who are far more selfish than Britney. She may not have read Marx and Engels, but she’s doing her part.
Hate when ppl do this tho, your name is on the image, you guaranteed you’d always get credit for your work but literally putting your name on it, and she posted it without cropping? She did give credit? And she’s sending a positive message? Soooo where is there a problem here, we really can’t just be like “okay she did a good thing”?
Yeah, I didn’t get that at first either but apparently tagging the person is important in the IG world. I’m with you in thinking the artist overreacted a bit. Sigh.
I agree. I liked the message but was put off by the artist’s “you didn’t tag me!” complaint. Geez, her message got out to millions of ppl, could she not be happy about that? Massive eyeroll.
I’m glad the artist’s name is still there, that helps. Tagging would be nice, but she clearly isn’t trying to take credit for it, at least, and there’s no money lost to the artist, thankfully.
I know an artist who has had several paintings digitally stolen, reposted, named removed, watermarks ignored, etc. A few people were making products with some of her work (they’ve been stopped). People grab and use her stuff a lot without a care as to who it belongs to – including a Kardashian, so it went out to their (inexplicable) millions of followers.
Tags = likes and follows and visibility = (hopefully) $$ and recognition. So for artists especially those with limited means, an actual @ tag is very important. Without it, you have no idea who is seeing your work and it can be shared by the millions (such as by a star like Britney) and you would never know. In this day and age, in the world of social media, an actual tag is everything. Otherwise, everyone else profits or benefits from your work except for you.
Comrade Britney is an icon. Peace be with her.
While I have my uncertainties about the genuine feeling behind it, one can’t really argue Britney hasn’t been somebody directly exploited by the elite classes for the improvement of their social standing. Even though she’s benefitted directly from it financially, being a child star at the mercy of abusive parents and capitalist agents definitely did not influence her life for the better over all.
ooh well said!
This.
And I would like to add: she is smarter than most people think.
team Britney!
I mean, if BritBrits situation isn’t late stage capitalism, I don’t know what is.
Forced to work, despite being determined incapable of running her life. She’s making money for other people in a high stress and high impact workspace (singing, dancing, performing are HARD work). Depending on the conservatorship, it could be very close to slavery. I would be miserable and livid and horrified all at the same time if someone did that to me.
I can see how seizing the means of production and putting the excess value back into the workers hands would appeal to her. She’s been forced into a show pony role, to the possible detriment of her own health, to keep her ‘empire’ going. Empire being all the people making money off *her* labor.
Do I think she’s some great Marxist thought leader? Well no, but I admire her for putting the message out there, and even feeling empathy for those less fortunate financially despite her situation.
seconded.
Great comment. 🙂
Excellent comment
She is ALSO offering to help people. She is judged harshly but besides her mental health (likely triggered by being the provider of her family since a child…) she never did anything wrong to anyone- zero stories about her being a b to others or mean. Besides, she is smart enough to provide for her ex and father of her kids- sign of a rational and kind mind if you ask me. Plus she was poor and usually- people never forget what it used to be- may even hoard money to avoid going back there but also willing to hand a hand knowing too well not everyone can feed their family. Again, she asked fans to dm her if in need…I find some comments here beyond what rational and kind call for.
I think she’s smarter than we give her credit for, and maybe she remembers the days of her family practically living in a beat up van and barely getting by. I think we should be a more humanistic society that takes care of our poverty stricken and the disabled and the mentally ill who are living on base wages. Not to mention the elderly who should not have to choose between eating or paying for medication. Our country should be ashamed of the fact that we have no basic healthcare for everyone. People are going to the ER for a problem that could have been solved by a family doctor. And by the time they are at the ER, it has become a major medical problem which ends up being more expensive than a year of basic healthcare. It’s just ridiculous that the politicians are covered with excellent health insurance which is paid for by our tax money, and yet they are unwilling to provide us with just the basic healthcare. I don’t see a problem with an injection of Socialism into our country. When FDR created the Social Security program, Republicans were calling it Communism and now it’s what most elderly people depend on for their living expenses. I think George Washington was right when he wanted to just have one political party in this country. He said that having two or more parties would create divisiveness and greed.
Britney has always donated a lot to charity too
The commenter Erinn here just doesnt get it 😀 Sigh
@Katrine quite trying to make Danes look bad.
My husband is Danish, and I have been there many times. The people are kind and humble.
YOU are not a good example of your country or it’s people, go take several seats.
“Comrade Britney” -LOL reminds me of Animal Farm. Do they not teach that book in school anymore? Socialism won’t fix our inherently capitalistic society.
Hi, economist here. Nothing about capitalism is “inherent”, it only came about since the late 1600s. Capitalism is not the only economic model that there has ever been, and you should be able to cite something other than that twee trash “Animal Farm” at your big age.
Katrina. You pissed me off with your snide aside about free healthcare. Your next comment adds no value to this conversation. We get it, you are superior. Take several seats and bless your heart.
Co-sign on all this.
On that note, what was that saying?
“Pride comes before the fall?”
She might want to remember that.
As a person who was born in a post soviet country, I’m deeply opposed to neocommunist ideas while remaining leftist. Britney should walk the walk and redistribute her own wealth to the people. See how well that works out for her.