Every liberal does it too, from center right radlibs to far-right “conservatives”: the most extreme right fringe liberals hate the mainstream liberals for not being bigoted enough, the mainstream libs hate the radlibs for not being cruel enough, and the radlibs hate the left for not being chauvinist enough.
Denouncing chauvinism in particular is like a liberal moral event horizon, a cardinal sin against their self-interested belief in the righteousness of the imperial hegemon that keeps the treats flowing at gunpoint.
I thought it was because, despite wanting things like universal healthcare and welfare supports, they don’t want to let go of capitalism. I’m not from here, and not all the way to where you are, but that’s my outside view.
That’s called social democracy. It is fed by imperialism and shits out a labor aristocracy. The capitalist class uses social democracy in the imperial core to appease the workers and postpone revolution. But it requires exporting suffering to the “developing” (colonized) world.
You see this in the so called “nordic” countries. People will admire the nordic countries without questioning how imperialism keeps them afloat.
Thanks for the response. That second map is really helpful to put into perspective how much my country (the US) is screwing me, but I’m still trying to wrap my head around the bottom section.
A few questions if that’s okay:
What is the imperial core?
Does this mean things like mining lithium, or exporting labor to other countries because it’s cheaper?
Sorry if these questions sound dumb. I’m a liberal with dreams of socialism in my head, but Hexbear makes me feel like maybe I don’t understand what those dreams actually mean, so I’m trying to get a better understanding.
The countries that are the center of (neo)imperial exploitation of the global south, ie the US and its other economically developed allies. So mostly the US, Canada, UK, EU, Australia, New Zeland, Israel, Japan, and South Korea. YMMV a bit on who counts, some EU nations are very poor and exploited by the more powerful ones. So Its probably better to say “Western Europe” than “EU”. Its a complicated issue, especially since the two Asian countries I listed are both exploited and exploiting at the same time. But they’re both developed and capitalist enough, as well as closely aligned with the west enough, to probably count. (I’m not super well read on this issue and may not be the best person to answer this ,but this is the sense I’ve gotten from talking to other socialists).
Yes those are good examples! Not the only things, like another example are the general actions that the IMF takes with developing countries, or the way the banana industry tries to run South America, but you pulled two examples that are very good out of your hat even at the level you’re at so that’s pretty impressive.
ETA: Also thank you for asking these questions with genuine intellectual curiosity.
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I said both “EU” and “Western Europe” but I can see how we’d want to like especially stress France.