You must log in or # to comment.
It wasn’t a fluke - it was a benefit from the capitalist overlords to workers in the belly of US imperialism to hedge against workers coming to a class consciousness that might have them taking over ownership of the means of production as they did in the Soviet Union. It was an indirect benefit because of the USSRs existence. That is how scared of communism the ruling capitalist class is…they gave us a little to lose because when we have nothing left to lose, we will start to mobilize as a working class.
Arguably, the fluke was Germans shitting the bed and failing to have a communist revolution. If Germany went communist instead of fascist in 1930s, then the rest of Europe would’ve almost certainly followed. The US had a strong isolationist movement at the time, so it likely would’ve remained a regional power. There was also a strong communist and union movement as a result of the great depression, and with Europe being communist, it would’ve had a huge amount of international support. So, we basically live in one of the worst possible timelines thanks to the Germans.
So, we basically live in one of the worst possible timelines thanks to the Germans.
Wer hat uns verraten? Sozialdemokraten!
Middle class is and always was just a third class aristocracy that preside over the stolen labour of the imperial periphery. That includes me and I imagine most Western Lemmy users whether we know that’s what’s happening or not. Maybe not as bad as the real aristocracy but very far from blameless for the exploitation happening in the world. Not wanting to live off the exploitation of others is not an excuse for it actually happening. We’re all culpable.
I’d even go as far as to say there is no true proletariat in the imperial core because of how pervasively the spoils of exploitation is distributed here. The poorest person here still actively lives off the labour of even poorer people in the periphery.
Yeah once you get woke to the chain of misery and inequity that trails your regular existence in a capitalist democracy you see how we’re like a little echo of the aristocracy. Gotta fix this state of things somehow so we can actually build the real world for everyone
They’re pulling up the ladder behind them and kicking you in the face when you try to climb up the sheer cliff they “already climbed.”
It wasn’t a fluke, it was a period of power re-distribution forged from the destabilizing affect of a world war. The vote for the average man was also a product of needing men to go to war. They never give us anything unless they absolutely have to. I wish we’d figure that out and get back to making them have to. I’m done with conversation and dialogue that they build labyrinths from. They will never voluntarily give up power, they are psychologically incapable of doing so. There is only one end to this, as it has always been between the cruelly selfish and the rest of the community.
The middle class has always been systematically crushed under capitalism, which has been a primary project and function of the state. This pressure is felt by the middle class and forms the human basis for fascism.
This is why fascism is an intrinsic part of capitalist social relations. As long as there is a middle class to squeeze, there will be the structural basis to blame someone other than those responsible.
I’d be careful to say that the middle class is being turned into peasants. Its not completely wrong, but its a rhetorical statement (peasant bad, middle class good) rather than a materialist statement based on understanding social forces. I’m unconvinced that by destroying the material basis for the middle class, the capitalists are creating a whole new class, or reproducing older ones. If anything, destroying the middle only brings more attention to the central feature of capitalism that creates two diametrically opposed classes rather than many differing castes or classes, which stabilized previous modes of production. Capitalism creates capitalists and workers. Everything else is unstable or illusory.
well put
The middle class is what happens when a reserve currency taxes the word through money printing. Now that we are in 39 trillion in debt and countries are dumping Treasury bonds, the middle class is going away.
It won’t be coming back anytime soon.
I’d argue it started with FDR not the cold war. FDR did end up helping many Americans, but the concessions given slowed and/or completely stopped many workers movements in the US. Halting further progress amongst socialist or communist parties in the US.
The middle class wouldn’t emerge until the late 1940s, but the groundwork was set in the 30s
It was the same fear though, there was a really strong working class movement in the US after the great depression, and a lot of communist organizing happening within unions.
That is why I called them concessions
fair
I like how slightly appeasing the socialists made the country way better for decades. Moar!
It also dampened the flames of revolution, preventing things from becoming extremely way better forever. Social democracy is a concession that can always be taken back by the capitalist class. Socialism and the elimination of classes should be the goal.
RIP left wave USA 1930-1975
RIP right wave China 1980-2015Removed by mod
The way this is written… It’s just so far from reality.
Rich people (most of them) aren’t plotting to fuck us over for sinister reasons… They’re fucking us over because they are selfish, greedy assholes.
The problem isn’t that we’re all being stepped on, it’s that we’re being used as steps to elevate these psychopaths.
Is a very important distinction, even if the results feel the same. You can’t typically fight a problem effectively without understanding it.
It doesn’t say anything about any sinister reasons actually. It simply states the fact that there is a systematic effort by the ruling class to extract more profit from the working majority.
Capital has no use for social democracy anymore. In Germany that is obvious since the 2000s. Social Democrats turned so hard on the working class, but that was a cul de sac.
Silence, the two braincells of a progressist are working now.
You can be right all day but if no one listens what’s the point? Join the enemy and exploit the stupid peasants, too.
Seriously though, once we’re pushed below a certain point, we physically can’t escape. We won’t have the time, resources, knowledge, cooperation or skills to execute a strategy, even if we know one that would work. Poverty is powerlessness and if we’re too powerless, it no longer matters how we feel or think about our lives, the wealthy no longer know we exist at all, nevermind care.
The irony is that cooperation has always given us the power to overcome them but we can’t figure out how to actually accomplish that for any length of time.
You may want to look into how wretched things were in pre-revolutiom China
Unless you actually give me a reason, I’m not wading through a massive field of history on a hunt for a point you didn’t bother to make.
Okay. It was unimaginably worse than the circumstances you seem to think are prohibitively bad.
Recommend: The Blind Spot: How Oligarchs Dominate Our Democracy - Jeffrey Winters
There are two classes, the senatorial class and the plebeians. Just like in Rome with the worst psychopaths at the top.
Just like in Rome
As was noted by P.K. Dick …
Noted where? I only know the Scanner Darkly film from 2006…
Probably the exegesis. I haven’t read it but the time period of the book of acts features prominently.
This is why I advocate for, hear me out, liberal arts. 🤢
Soc 100 or 101, can’t remember which, taught this.
After not enjoying Applied Calculus, I took Modern Math, AKA Math For English Majors, to complete my math requirement.
It was a great class! Lots of useful, real-world math skills. It didn’t use anything much more complicated than simple algebra, but we talked about the traveling salesman problem and ways to fairly split up an estate.
We also talked about election math, and how first past the post is objectively a terrible election system, and how there are several systems readily available that are mathematically more representative of the will of the people. I don’t even know if the teacher had a specific political stance, or if she was just mathematically offended by our outdated democratic operating system.
Great class. Wish they would start teaching subjects like that in high school.
As a STEM grad who spent 2 years undeclared, it sounds like a course even STEM people could use.
I’m so thankful that I sort of accidentally backed into a well rounded education. I cannot say the same for the majority of my STEM colleagues.
I think especially STEM students should have lib arts requirements.
100%. Some of the most useful courses that I took were either electives or simply did not count toward my major. Specifically: a logic course, a course about the history of socialism, and a writing course (including research papers)
Critical thinking and logic 101 (syllogistic logic) were infinitely valuable, imo. I think critical reading should also be required.
lib arts requirements.
There must be better ways.
We sort of touched on it, here:
https://lemmygrad.ml/post/12070694
Not exactly, but the respondent to my question gave a really good answer I think can probably be extrapolated, somewhat.
They should also start teaching basic psych in grade school. Kids need that and adults’ bs may be mitigated, but they won’t teach it, and that’s why.
Unfortunately, HS teachers in places which need to know these things the most are also the most likely to lose their jobs for it. E.g. In my HS, learning ‘history’ stopped at the beginning of the 20th-century.
I advocate for a socialist revolution instead.
Don’t worry about that, the threat will be back.
We just have to reach the level of peasantry that started the communist revolution.
Worry about that.
