Since her unexpected ascent to congress, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's intelligence has been routinely dismissed by her Republican colleagues, despite her various academic achievements and the astute questions she asks in committee hearings.
Ocasio-Cortez is a vocal critic of the existence of billionaires, citing the rampant wealth inequality in the United States and the scarcity of resources for public safety nets. AOC is a proponent of a marginal wealth tax, which increases taxation on each dollar after a certain amount—usually around 50 million dollars.
The public health crisis in the United States and its ensuing unemployment have highlighted the unsustainability of resources such as health insurance, food supply, income, and housing under the current system.
When news broke that billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates was having to convince other billionaires to contribute in the fight against the virus, Ocasio-Cortez called for a system that billionaires would pay a certain amount of their income to, required by the government.
She was facetiously presenting the United States tax system as though it were hypothetical, to show the need for increased taxation on the wealthiest in our society.
If it helps, they could think of it as a subscription service to living in an advanced society.
Just imagine billionaires paying enough so teachers in the US don't have to work multiple jobs and sell their own blood plasma to survive. Call me radical, but it might be worth it
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) May 13, 2020
But men all too eager to dismiss her intelligence took her joke in earnest, and soon began "informing" a United States Congresswoman that there is such a thing as income tax.
Ocasio-Cortez called them out, and many of them deleted their tweets and even their entire accounts in response.
People hailed AOC's latest Twitter clapback.
One of her targets even deleted his account after being called out.
When will they learn that AOC is matchless when it comes to Twitter comebacks?
For a deeper look into the intricacies of misogyny at play in everyday conversations, check out Men Explain Things to Me, available here.
