we're the links of America...

[tielan]

Because if you're American, then sticking your head in the sand never actually worked as a strategic solution.

And if you're not American, then when your neighbour is poisoning their land, you should still pay attention because that shit's gonna be on your land sooner or later.

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ProPublica: Voting in America Is NUTS. Here’s How to Plan Ahead.

Does America have Capitalist Stockholm Syndrome
Marx was right. Capitalism does produce a false consciousness. Those who’ll never be capitalists are exactly those who defend it most. The imploded middle classes — in Marxist terms, the upper proletariat and the petite bourgeoisie — these days, are capitalist’s staunchest and truest defenders. Not just because they “hope to be capitalists one day” — a cognitive cause. But because capitalism replaced their sense of self.

Comments

[kore]

"Do you see the kind of Stockholm Syndrome at work here? Let me make it clearer. Who are the biggest losers from capitalism over the last few decades? It’s white American men. Their life expectancy is falling. Their income is cratering. Their suicide rates are rising. They’re suffering what Angus Deaton, the renowned economists, calls “deaths of despair.” And yet they’re also the ones who defend capitalism most, tooth and nail — even while its sealing shut their coffins. Women don’t, minorities don’t, young people don’t — yet they haven’t lost nearly as much as middle-class white men have. Isn’t that strange? Bizarre? Gruesome?"

That is a really good essay. I really liked how clear-eyed but sympathetic and honest it was.

[tielan]

Yeah, that's definitely one of the things that caught my attention - both the identification of the problem and the identification with the victims.