chat

From talking to some petit bourgeois types, I think the issue is that they more staunchly believe in the american dream than everyone else. I built my success. Lazy people are stealing my hard earned money with taxes and medicare. My family and my needs come first. As long as they can afford luxury goods they'll fully believe in themselves over others.

And the worst part is that some of them were immigrants who literally started at the bottom.

I think if capturing the western petit bourgeoisie is a goal it will be a difficult one. Most of the well read dirtbag leftists with the willpower to act don't seem to be able to relate to these people at all. And they seem more likely to join conservative trucker or farmer protests than anything with proletarian character.

It's surprising certain people are so hostile to the discussion of financialization in the core countries and assume this is some kind of Proudhonist simping for industrialists. (Was Mao simping for the national bourgeoisie when he conscripted them to the anti-imperialist struggle? Just a short detour.) This is not about the exploitation of industrialists, nobody is crying for them, this is about the competition between industrialists and the FIRE sector to exploit labor. It presents an opportunity in third world countries because contradictions are starker following covid 19 and the sanctions on Russia. I hope Biden sanctions Iran. Do it you old bastard. I dare you

It really resolves the whole question of why Americans can be some of the richest people in the world, make the highest wages, and give it all up to the system and die, when you see stuff like JP Morgan Chase making 80% of its income from mortgages. This site is one of the best places to find discussion of this despite the occasional outbursts of idealism. Don't we all joke about where the money of the top 10% Americans gets wasted? Gotta finance another SUV! We need real analysis not tweets and literary references. Yes, small proprietors are evil, they grab people's asses, they talk shit for no reason, but it is a fact that they are screwed by financialization, by suppliers raising prices in "anticipation of rising costs". It seems like some people are looking for reasons to avoid any coalition with anyone rather than actually looking at the contradictions.

For most people, imo they're inundated with fear, not the American Dream. I think their uncertain precarity makes some dude who only knows how to post screenshots of Engels and imply they're relevant talking down to them about how they believe in propaganda because it makes them feel better about being a pampered westoid v unlikely to produce any success.

It's completely misunderstanding US inequality to assume these things. People are in fact pissed and not living the dream. Look around.

Could you explain why this contradiction is something worth focusing on or explaining? I see it and don't fully understand it. I like pineapples every now and then but I agree I am far more fearful that we survive on the whims of capitalists. If you believe that rising food costs (which is terrifying) have a liberal economics external cause you can misdirect that anger towards whatever the NYT tells you, but when you realize it is done by capitalists it becomes a lot scarier for people who need to feed, house, and provide for their families.

Is that something you think should be confronted first and most importantly? Or am I missing a more basic point?

You only have a limited amount of time, energy, and resources to organize, agitate and educate

Why waste your time with the most difficult workers when you can target the ones most likely to listen?

I can promise you, you'd accomplish almost nothing trying to agitate finance, sales, business, of tech people compared to "blue collar' workers