I’ve often been surprised at how living in America is perceived by the world. I’ve met a lot of people from all over the world, and while some have actually spent enough time here to understand the good and the bad. The rest who have not seem to believe in the shiny veneer that we export in our movies and television.
We are absolute wage slaves here. We are one missed paycheck from homelessness. But sure, blame the slaves for not overthrowing their owners.
You are wage slaves who have a higher standard of living than the other wage slaves that are exploited in order to enable the availability of cheap consumer goods which keep the people docile.
This is about the English (and written in 1882) but now also applies to the USA:
Engels wrote: “You ask me what the English workers think about colonial policy. Well, exactly the same as they think about politics in general. There is no workers’ party here, there are only Conservatives and Liberal-Radicals, and the workers gaily share the feast of England’s monopoly of the world market and the colonies.”
This is an expert from Lenin: Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism which I think should be read prior to Settlers if only to disarm the reader from defensiveness. Sakai didn’t invent the idea of the bourgeoisie proletariat, he was building on the ideas of others.
Yeah, in America control is done with Circus & Bread, with the “Circus” being not just Entertainment (which includes “Faux News”) but also hyper-consumerism, whilst the control via “Bread” being with things like Private Healtcare and Student Loans.
People run around happily being shafted (and not even in a good, sexy way) as long as they have the latest smartphone and claim they pay much less tax than Europe whilst paying for the by far most expensive Healthcare and Higher Education in the World (both in average being actually worse - worst healthcare outcomes and most universities also worst - than in other countries).
How many Americans are actually politically aware and willing to fight for their rights?!
Mind you, some of this shit has been exported and at least here in Europe adopted to quite an extent, though clearly nowhere as much as in the US, though not for lack of trying.
I don’t think the US can be said to be exerting imperialist power over the Chinese though. China is probably the place least vulnerable to the US trade sanctions, for example.
Imperialism is the export of capital and the import of resources, profit from capital and labour.
I dont understand the logic though so please help me here. I have lived in the US and do have a good idea of how shitty things are (or were even back then). Things will not improve by inaction and are objectively getting worse. So yes, you risk a lot by acting but if you dont your life will continue to get worse and you’ll end up homeless anyway. Or worse.
No one is coming to save you. You live in the most powerful country in the world. Nobody is going to come in and liberate you. Your only option is to save yourself.
Nobody is claiming it will be easy, simple, or clean. But what other option is left? This is why the rest of us are baffled. Especially since the US has built up the reputation of having a rebellious spirit. Where is that spirit now?
This might be it, because you do pay change for the better with blood, the history is filled with it. The army is brought in, it goes overboard and they open fire on protesters, in every country everywhere throughout history, before people realise what’s happening.
I know that. No one is saying you as an individual need to do this right now. We are saying you need to organize. I think this is a cultural misunderstanding.
When I say ‘you’ I am not referring to an individual. Im referring to you as a people. Maybe that misunderstanding is evidence of the hyper individualism your country has subtly snuck into your lives that prevents you (again a collective you) from doing so.
Yeah, because they’re all too busy enacting fascism in their own country to do anything about the growing US threat except lick boots. Save us? Lmao you better be thinking about saving yourself once the consequences start rolling in.
Strategically, the best option other nations have to solve the American Problem is to prepare to weather the storm and let the country collapse by itself.
Historically what’s going on now with the US is a pretty straightforward “fall of the Empire” scenario (the biggest Empires invariably fall from internal problems as the generations that created the Empire are replaced by generations which know nothing more than wealth extraction) and interfering with that is a great way to be targetted as a scapegoat by the falling empire’s elites and suffer the side-effects of that empire’s death throes.
Looking from the outside, even if Trump is stopped, the problem will at best be delayed since the other party of the Power Duopoly that controls America is also deeply corrupt and done their part in the decay of that country for the last couple of decades (by weakening unions, deregulating Finance, unconditionally saving big companies, having Financial and Economic policies which reward Rentierism above Work, and so on) - Trump is not the malaise that’s killing America, he’s a symptom of that malaise and removing him will not solve the problem, will not stop another one like him to take over in the future and will not alter the trendof decay, only the speed of it.
As for the idea that Fascism is taking over in other countries, well, the rest is well behind the US in it and it’s exactly the point of the OP that people in other countries are already starting to push against it, well before it gets to the level seen in the US of jackboots (for the US that would be ICE) going around arbitrarilly arresting and even killing people.
Seriously. The global ultra rich are all working from the same basic playbook. It’s just happening here first due to the extreme concentration of wealth.
“No one is coming to save you” is such a petty, disgusting thing to say when the people you’re looking down on are being turned into the cogs of a machine that has the entire world in its sights. The world needs to save itself from us.
I’ve often been surprised at how living in America is perceived by the world. I’ve met a lot of people from all over the world, and while some have actually spent enough time here to understand the good and the bad. The rest who have not seem to believe in the shiny veneer that we export in our movies and television.
We are absolute wage slaves here. We are one missed paycheck from homelessness. But sure, blame the slaves for not overthrowing their owners.
You are wage slaves who have a higher standard of living than the other wage slaves that are exploited in order to enable the availability of cheap consumer goods which keep the people docile.
This is about the English (and written in 1882) but now also applies to the USA:
This is an expert from Lenin: Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism which I think should be read prior to Settlers if only to disarm the reader from defensiveness. Sakai didn’t invent the idea of the bourgeoisie proletariat, he was building on the ideas of others.
The Chinese aren’t protesting either. For similar reasons too.
I’m not sure the connection? (Genuine)
They’re some of that forced slave labor making the goods that the Americans are wage slaves to consume.
Yeah, in America control is done with Circus & Bread, with the “Circus” being not just Entertainment (which includes “Faux News”) but also hyper-consumerism, whilst the control via “Bread” being with things like Private Healtcare and Student Loans.
People run around happily being shafted (and not even in a good, sexy way) as long as they have the latest smartphone and claim they pay much less tax than Europe whilst paying for the by far most expensive Healthcare and Higher Education in the World (both in average being actually worse - worst healthcare outcomes and most universities also worst - than in other countries).
How many Americans are actually politically aware and willing to fight for their rights?!
Mind you, some of this shit has been exported and at least here in Europe adopted to quite an extent, though clearly nowhere as much as in the US, though not for lack of trying.
Oh, I see.
I don’t think the US can be said to be exerting imperialist power over the Chinese though. China is probably the place least vulnerable to the US trade sanctions, for example.
Imperialism is the export of capital and the import of resources, profit from capital and labour.
Who said the US was exerting imperial power?
The cheap goods are exerting economic power on the US (and Europe too for that matter).
I did, in the comment that this thread is replying to.
https://crazypeople.online/comment/11884955
Export to US is 11% of Chineese foreign market. Not nothing, but incredibly far from “control”
I’d rather have less buying power to buy useless shit I don’t need than to be one paycheck away from homelessness
I think that’s a pretty universal opinion.
I dont understand the logic though so please help me here. I have lived in the US and do have a good idea of how shitty things are (or were even back then). Things will not improve by inaction and are objectively getting worse. So yes, you risk a lot by acting but if you dont your life will continue to get worse and you’ll end up homeless anyway. Or worse.
No one is coming to save you. You live in the most powerful country in the world. Nobody is going to come in and liberate you. Your only option is to save yourself.
Nobody is claiming it will be easy, simple, or clean. But what other option is left? This is why the rest of us are baffled. Especially since the US has built up the reputation of having a rebellious spirit. Where is that spirit now?
I can make this simple: would you be the first to step in front of the firing squad when you have no idea if others will join you in rushing it?
We are not a united people here.
This might be it, because you do pay change for the better with blood, the history is filled with it. The army is brought in, it goes overboard and they open fire on protesters, in every country everywhere throughout history, before people realise what’s happening.
Good luck Americans, this seems to be your turn.
I know that. No one is saying you as an individual need to do this right now. We are saying you need to organize. I think this is a cultural misunderstanding.
When I say ‘you’ I am not referring to an individual. Im referring to you as a people. Maybe that misunderstanding is evidence of the hyper individualism your country has subtly snuck into your lives that prevents you (again a collective you) from doing so.
What did you think I meant by, “we are not a united people”?
You can’t organize peace with people who idealize a fascist society
I mean sure, ignore the protests from earlier this year where millions turned out across the nation, but sure…
You dont need everyone to mount a resistance. Why does it have to be all or nothing? And who said you had to organize peace with fascists?
You need enough, and we don’t even have that.
Come live here for a while and then tell me how easy it is.
I have lived there. Ive been involved in community action during the first administration. If you believe its impossible, youve already lost.
I never said impossible. I was also involved in a lot of community action during Trump’s first admin.
See how far that got us?
So you could have stayed and fought… but you left and are now yelling from the sidelines.
I agree with a lot of your points, but it rings a bit disingenuous coming from someone who threw in the towel.
Yeah, because they’re all too busy enacting fascism in their own country to do anything about the growing US threat except lick boots. Save us? Lmao you better be thinking about saving yourself once the consequences start rolling in.
Strategically, the best option other nations have to solve the American Problem is to prepare to weather the storm and let the country collapse by itself.
Historically what’s going on now with the US is a pretty straightforward “fall of the Empire” scenario (the biggest Empires invariably fall from internal problems as the generations that created the Empire are replaced by generations which know nothing more than wealth extraction) and interfering with that is a great way to be targetted as a scapegoat by the falling empire’s elites and suffer the side-effects of that empire’s death throes.
Looking from the outside, even if Trump is stopped, the problem will at best be delayed since the other party of the Power Duopoly that controls America is also deeply corrupt and done their part in the decay of that country for the last couple of decades (by weakening unions, deregulating Finance, unconditionally saving big companies, having Financial and Economic policies which reward Rentierism above Work, and so on) - Trump is not the malaise that’s killing America, he’s a symptom of that malaise and removing him will not solve the problem, will not stop another one like him to take over in the future and will not alter the trendof decay, only the speed of it.
As for the idea that Fascism is taking over in other countries, well, the rest is well behind the US in it and it’s exactly the point of the OP that people in other countries are already starting to push against it, well before it gets to the level seen in the US of jackboots (for the US that would be ICE) going around arbitrarilly arresting and even killing people.
Seriously. The global ultra rich are all working from the same basic playbook. It’s just happening here first due to the extreme concentration of wealth.
We are thinking about that. In fact, as per OPs post, many are acting on it.
No, I meant this part:
“No one is coming to save you” is such a petty, disgusting thing to say when the people you’re looking down on are being turned into the cogs of a machine that has the entire world in its sights. The world needs to save itself from us.