Extractivist fundamentalism as the American economic model

The US economy, from the antebellum period to the present, has a long throughline of extractivism as its mode of operation, with a disruption during the post WWII era to the 1970s in which capitalism started to work (however imperfectly) for the majority of people. Extractivism is not capitalism. It's neo monarchy, corporatism and neo slavery, with the tools being different but the outcomes largely the same. The white working class has all too often been coopted to see itself as "above" black people, opting for a psychological wage of racial hierarchy instead of a real wage. It has partaken in its own exploitation so long as someone else was being treated even worse. Meanwhile, economic elites (slave owners, sharecrop plantation owners, titans of industry, and now the broligarch AI/tech moguls and neo Nazi/Red Pill charlatan billionaires and grifters) have reaped the benefits and kept everyone else distracted. What we need in this country is working and middle class solidarity, a demand that capitalism return to the Virtuous Cycle of the post WWII era, and an end to culture war distraction. Whenever a discussion devolves into "why are we give trans people rights?" remind the person that trans people are not the problem; the extractivist elites are. Remind them of the patterns that the data clearly shows. Remind them that economic inequality and extremes of wealth disparity existed long before trans people were ever a part of the national conversation. Remind them of who is getting fleeced and who's benefitting.

Share this excellent series by Lukium on his American Manifesto blog: The Freedom Illusion — Part I - by Lukium

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