\n<\/p>\n
Would you steal from Whole Foods to make a statement?<\/p>\n
Some Democrats answer that question with a resounding yes, but it leads one to wonder what happens to a society when the most basic forms of morality are at stake.<\/p>\n
In a recent episode<\/a> of The New York Times podcast \u201cThe Opinions,\u201d leftist streamer Hasan Piker and New Yorker writer Jia Tolentino joined Times opinion editor Nadja Spiegelman to discuss a new kind of public expression \u2014 \u201cWhy petty theft might be the new political protest.\u201d<\/p>\n The conversation began with a quick exercise on their moral code, in which Spiegelman asked questions such as \u201cWould you dine and dash from your local diner?\u201d and \u201cWould you steal a book from the library?\u201d<\/p>\n To these, Piker and Tolentino both responded \u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n When asked, \u201cWould you steal from the Louvre?\u201d Piker said he thinks it’s “cool,” and that “we\u2019ve got to get back to cool crimes like that: bank robberies, stealing priceless artifacts, things of that nature.\u201d<\/p>\n From there, the conversation pivoted to the kind of growing socialist rhetoric where actions that used to be widely considered wrong are now justifiable: “Because the rich don\u2019t play by the rules, so why should I?”<\/p>\n When Spiegelman asked, \u201cWould you steal from Whole Foods?\u201d the duo was almost gleeful in declaring that they had no reservations about doing so.<\/p>\n Tolentino proudly said she would, and admitted she regularly had, \u201cI think that stealing from a big-box store \u2014 I\u2019ll just state my platform \u2014 it\u2019s neither very significant as a moral wrong, … But I didn\u2019t feel bad about it at all,\u201d she added. This is the same Tolentino who owns<\/a> a $2 million house in Brooklyn.<\/p>\n Piker agreed, declaring he is \u201cpro stealing from big corporations, because they steal quite a bit more from their own workers.\u201d His defense is that stores already inflate prices with inevitable robbery in mind and still “end up having increased profit margins.”<\/p>\n The anti-capitalist who praises Hamas and believes America deserved 9\/11 is also a millionaire who owns a nearly $3 million house in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n Though Piker admitted he himself does not steal, he added, \u201cif someone needs the food, they should absolutely steal it.\u201d<\/p>\n But when pressed whether the same mindset would apply to a Zohran Mamdani-run, city-owned grocery store with lower prices, apparently, the sentiment is markedly different.<\/p>\n “No, I would not, because I feel like that\u2019s taxpayer-funded, it\u2019s union labor, and the prices are also adjusted regardless,” Piker admitted.<\/p>\n Spiegelman further questioned the root of the new protest \u2014 anger at the rich. “What I\u2019m seeing on TikTok and social media is people saying that they\u2019re stealing from Whole Foods not just for the thrill of it, but out of a feeling of anger and moral justification.”<\/p>\n “I feel part of what I\u2019m seeing around me is that people feel like the laws are immoral. The rich don\u2019t play by the rules. We live in a society where there are billionaires; where the top 1% holds 32% of the net worth and the bottom 50% holds 2.5%.”<\/p>\n “So, at some point, if the laws don\u2019t feel moral, do you start to question your own sense of having to abide by them?” Spiegelman asked.<\/p>\n To which Tolentino responded, “Of course.”<\/p>\n