Conservative Southern Values Revived: How a Brutal Strain of American Aristocrats Have Come to Rule

[HiPointDem]

83. people who live in western cities don't personally exploit others (unless they do). what you mean

is that they have more consumer goods than people in some countries, they have more amenities than people in some countries, and part of the reason they do is because their countries have been pillaged and dominated by western countries and their people are used as a cheap workforce by western countries.

iow, those countries are going through circumstances similar to those americans had in the 17th-19th centuries -- being dominated by foreign powers, exploited for resources, used as a cheap labor force. and are now beginning to go through again, as wages are jacked down, working conditions worsen, benefits taken away.

how is that *your* individual fault? because you don't rise up and say "stop"? i can guess that you probably do, whenever you are able -- probably go to protests, try to buy non-exploitative products or buy little, try to speak up whenever you can.

does anything stop? no.

been there, got the t-shirt. bought into all that 40 years ago, did it for 30 years -- and the world got worse. my nun-like purity did absolutely nothing to change the world, & now i must perforce endure being lectured by 20-year-olds (as i probably lectured my elders, lol).

because contrary to what ordinary americans are taught, we don't have much power to affect much of anything unless we're organized, and the ruling class -- while we were buying puka shells collected by fijian co-ops or whatever -- the ruling class was busy destroying the labor movement and breaking up all indigenous venues where people came together that might form a basis for organization around common interests, not to mention dividing us along identity and class/status lines. to the extent that people have forgotten their own history, like a conquered people. which is what we are.

and telling us (as the ruling class always does) that *we* are exploiting others (as if the guilt were shared around equally) is one of the ways they render people (especially the kind of people likely to care about such things and want to do something) stupid, guilt-ridden and ineffective.

and it ain't just westerners: plenty of chinese elites exploiting other chinese, africans exploiting africans, etc. plenty of asians and africans who would love to be in the position of exploiter, consumer of goods, owner of big house, etc.

I don't pay that stuff much mind anymore unless it's something egregious. shopping choices aren't going to change the balance of power and aren't going to save the planet. only a direct attack on the power of capital is going to do so, & it doesn't look like there are many takers for that fight.