this post was submitted on 02 Apr 2024
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It's not a "cut off" it's a material relationship. Anyone who gets to have a portion of the superprofits from imperialism distributed back to them can be deradicalized by this material relationship. They materially benefit from cheap commodities produced in the global South, cheap imported fossil fuels (and cheap externalized costs of climate change), cheap food grown on the backs of undocumented workers, etc.
This isn't to subdivide the workers further, it's to explain why someone in a cushy software engineering job isn't going to want to sacrifice their comfort and security for the sake of strangers. They have no class solidarity because their class interests are not working class interests.
I think that this arrangement is decaying as the empire goes into decline - that's actually what "inflation" is! People who were once bought off by cheap commodities and energy and food are now finding their budgets squeezed tighter and tighter. We are all being de-bourgeoisified by the decline of the empire and will once again find our material interests realigned with the rest of the working class.
This was a historical anomaly produced by US hegemony and it's coming to an end.
Software engineers will be on the picket line with the rest of us soon enough.
I don’t disagree with any of that; I think we’re basically saying the same thing. I think ultimately what you described applies to all first world inhabitants, particularly Americans, regardless of their job. The cheap comforts of capitalism via third world exploitation even for low paid workers is a significant barrier to class consciousness but the magic sauce is quickly evaporating. We’ve all been brainwashed at some point in our lives and eventually we woke up. Everyone is on their journey, and we’re all going to be on the same side in the end. my goal is to reduce exclusionary rhetoric to accelerate that goal but ig that just comes across as “um ackshully” to some folks.
Also I like your username lol
I think, in the first world, the cheap comforts of imperialism (and they are comforts of imperialism specifically, not just capitalism) don't actually get evenly distributed among all first world workers. It's all tied back to race, language, gender, religion, immigration status, etc. These internally colonized people within the imperial core are not beneficiaries of imperialism, they are only exploited by it.
The brainwashing is basically irrelevant imo - it's the material relationships that matter, people can't wake up from the reality that their own lives are materially better because they live on the backs of the superexploited global south and internal colonies within the imperial core. It's not a wake-up moment we need, it's organization of de-bourgeoisified workers and internal colonies within the imperial core.
Remember the BLM uprisings? That was a rebellion of internally colonized people against their imperial oppressors and was joined by debourgeoisified masses, which is why it also became the largest protest movement in American history. We weren't organized so the revolutionary energy burned itself out, but for me it serves as a stark reminder that America's chickens are coming home to roost.
As inflation continues and wages stagnate, those "cheap" commodities and energy and food won't be so cheap anymore.
And if we aren't organized we'll let yet another revolutionary moment pass us by - and we don't have a lot of those left!