Politicians and news organizations love to fan the flames of specific social issues where there is public disagreement. What you rarely see is any of them discussing wealth or wages and you NEVER see them actually doing something that will help the bottom 95% of income earners. As wages stagnate and inflation roars, times are getting tougher every year for the majority. To answer this, the billionaires' henchmen, our politicians and media outlets, force feed us stories to make our blood boil about literally anything else that will take our minds off our indentured servitude.
Unless you are born rich, society is structured to keep you indebted your entire life. College, housing, vehicles, children and others put you in a state of owing money to the banks, so you need to work to pay them back. Only, you are never able to get ahead and it is probable you will always owe the banks money and they will collect interest off you until you die. In your attempt to pay your debts and survive, you spend the majority of your time working for some Ahole that marks down every time you use the bathroom or look like you have any sort of independent thought. They tell you to work 8 hrs each day but expect you to work 10 to 12 hrs with no additional pay. When you add in getting ready for work, commute time, preparing meals for work, purchasing clothes/other items for work and all other daily chores, you have little to no time to spend on anything you enjoy. You are also teaching your children to be a slave just like you.
Back when slavery and indentured servitude were called their proper names, the masters had to clothe, feed and house their subjects. now the masters have it even better since they aren't required to do so at all. They can pay unlivable wages to the working poor and those employees can collect government subsidies paid for by the middle class, a group barely better off. The corporate overlords structure their businesses to not pay taxes since all their income was magically earned in the Netherlands or the Bahamas. In fact, the middle class must also pay corporations each year for all the “research” they do to improve their profits overseas.
These companies and banks push us into recession after recession and their minion politicians give them big fat checks for it. hundreds of billions went to banks in 2008 and most of that money went into stock buybacks and executive bonuses. During the Covid-19 pandemic hundreds of billions went to big businesses and the PPP loans went to people like Kanye West who's businesses were booming. Banks were in charge of distributing the funds and they were paid based on how much they paid out, so they prioritized large businesses who would receive large payments. People were pissed and starving so the government sent peanuts to us and the media and business owners had a fit that this is what is bankrupting the country.
Remember-the media is owned by billionaires and they control the content and information the public receives. As times get worse for the public we see more contention over social issues. the media and politicians are stirring the pot to get everyone riled up about these social issues and the government keeps our anger alive by passing terrible laws and doing things like overturning Roe vs Wade.
Wealth inequality and poor wages are the source of our anger and they are diverting that anger into other issues. Our rage would lessen if we had livable wages. The majority of people would work for a livable wage, crime would be reduced, and we wouldn't have blame cast on “others” such as immigrants or people with a different color skin than our own. But then they couldn't control us.
Sorry for such a long rant!
tldr: the wealthy are insatiable and create an endless succession of dumpster fires to get our minds off the real issues: low wages and wealth inequality.
Edit: just to be clear, I'm not saying these social issues aren't important. I'm stating that they are being used to keep our eyes off wealth. Also I believe people wouldn't be so angry and contentious if we were paid adequately and had more free time.