• Keld [he/him, any]@hexbear.net
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    2 days ago

    The existence of a social democratic project does not elevate a country to the imperial core, that is not the difference between exploiter and exploited. Western Europe is part of the “First world” they are the colonisers and part of the imperial core because they benefit from the superprofits extracted from the imperialist and colonialist machine, not because they have a welfare state. If an exploited nation builds a social safety net it doesn’t become part of the imperial core, if France had a sudden economic crash but retained its colonial extraction it wouldn’t cease to be the imperial core. This isn’t fucking materialist analysis, this is just someone saying “Some Americans are poor so they’re not part of the first world”, it is pure nonsense that seeks to excuse Americans from their role as exploiters of the rest of the world, and acting as if I’m unserious because I point out that they’re literally saying that.

    Edit: The argument presented wasn’t “There are parts of the US that are internally exploited in a way that resembles the relationship America itself has with the third world”, it’s “The average Western European has better personal access to the spoils of empire in the form of a higher standard of living, so western europe is really the imperial core” and that is again literally what is being said.

    • CyborgMarx [any, any]@hexbear.net
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      2 days ago

      Welfare states are absolutely a sign of imperial coredom, for the simple fact their continued existence implies a lack of western bombs and coup attempts, operate your analysis historically not mechanically

      if France had a sudden economic crash but retained its colonial extraction it wouldn’t cease to be t he imperial core.

      Nobody said that, you seem to be fighting with phantoms in your head

      this is just you saying “Some Americans are poor so they’re not part of the first world”

      Nobody said they didn’t live in the first world, your hyper-moralizing is blinding you to obvious FACTS; are Native Americans not colonialized huh? Are black people not subjected to a militarized police state and systematic state depossession? Are Appalachian hollers not toxic wastelands disconnected from centralized power and resources

      Stop playing punisher in your head and analyze the real conditions, an empire can indeed eat itself alive

      • Keld [he/him, any]@hexbear.net
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        2 days ago

        So how does this account for statements like

        The average American is an exploited colonial subject.

        and

        The average Western European materially benefits from the spoils of imperialism and lives a high quality life because of it.

        Because those are of course literally statements that the quality of life is what makes the difference between coloniser and colonised, completely ignores any power relation, and of course directly says that the average american is exploited by an imperial machine centered around Europeans. I can read, you can read, why are you lying?

        edit:

        Welfare states are absolutely a sign of imperial coredom, for the simple fact their continued existence implies a lack of western bombs and coup attempts, operate your analysis historically not mechanically

        Ok well my historical analysis tells me that the US didn’t neglect to distribute its superprofits to its population because it feared being nuked by the US.

          • Keld [he/him, any]@hexbear.net
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            2 days ago

            Yeah man it’s wrecking to say that “The average American is a colonial subject” is a silly statement, my bad.

            Edit: I just don’t find your argument of “Actually the thing that was said isn’t what was said, and if you take my totally made up version of the thing that was said and interpret it using a heuristic that wasn’t applied then actually it means something else. Also btw imperialism isn’t about capital relations but about whether there’s a functional welfare system. You’re such a wrecker for not getting that” very convincing.

            • CyborgMarx [any, any]@hexbear.net
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              2 days ago

              There it is again, that obtuseness, that brain-dead caricaturization, 3 month old account huh?

              What, did you think coming in here spouting half-baked simulacra of anti-Americanism while mentioning (not quoting) Settlers was gonna be decent camouflage to troll the lefties? Nice try

                  • Keld [he/him, any]@hexbear.net
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                    2 days ago

                    Sure man I’m a troll-wrecker-redditor-infiltrator trying to bring down hexbear from within, I’ve set up my 3 month long sting operation and I’m ready to strike with my master plan of pointing out that I don’t think the average American is an exploited colonial subject of Belgian overlords.