November is truly the season of giving. With Thanksgiving rapidly approaching, many student organizations have decided to help their communities by organizing food drives around campus.

It is a very generous effort and one that is well received by recipients of their aid. However, it seems that some organizations have decided to use this opportunity to cause some very unfestive conflict.

The Kent State Turning Point USA chapter decided to promote social welfare for once and start their own food drive. However, they decided to sully the occasion by challenging the Kent State chapter of the Young Democratic Socialists of America to a capitalism vs. socialism event where the winner will be whoever collects the most cans.

The YDSA declined their offer, stating they would not work with a group who endorses hateful ideologies. 

Predictably, TPUSA reacted with outrage. Fueling their anger with pretentious disillusions, they claimed the YDSA group had somehow violated their beliefs. They claimed a moral high ground that didn’t exist.

What they didn’t deny, however, were the allegations of bigotry, sexism, racism, homophobia and transphobia. All were accusations that they saw no reason to refute.

But why would they? These are folk who claim racism against whites is a real issue gripping America and who wear diapers in outrageous protests against some poorly defined idea of the “safe space.”

Where is their outrage regarding the mass shooting epidemic? The opioid epidemic? The incredible amount of police brutality?

None of that matters to them, obviously. They would rather dress up as cops and hand out “trigger citations” to prove some sort of point, although the meaning of that stunt admittedly escapes me.

It would be very remiss of me, at this point, to not point out the irony of taking the side of capitalism in a very socialist activity such as a food drive. One would think they would be against redistributing food resources, but they are full of surprises.

How fitting, however, they would take the side of the very institutions that create the need for such charitable works in the first place.

If the wealth of our country wasn’t concentrated in such a small minority, perhaps we wouldn’t need to gather our spare cans and present them to those that our economy has forsaken. Perhaps they would already have been fed if those with incredible wealth were taxed to pay for socialist welfare programs that would take care of those who need the help.

But why take the time to put such safety nets into place when we can just rely on the goodwill of the wealthy, trusting that they will so generously provide from their own miserly pockets a measure of relief to the destitute?

Seems like a fine system to me.

Matthew Olienechak is a columnist. Contact him at [email protected].