So as I’ve had my fair share of a lurking/grass-touching period and my brain being the 3 year old philosopher it is, I have collected questions overtime that I haven’t quite be able to fit in anywhere. As they would have no use to me wasting away in a notepad, I decided I would share them with you guys in order to develop opinions. You can answer any or none at all, just releasing the valve so my brain doesn’t explode.
-Even though the Scots-Irish are now culturally absorbed into American “Whiteness”, is there still a subconscious bias against them/colonial scars?; Of course not the “Irish” politicians and oligarchs, or someone refusing a Big Mac because it was made by a Paddy–the slur, not to be confused with the bun, which is reasonably rejected as that middle bun is but a cosmetic deviation from a McDouble to make you spend more and causes serious TMJ upon unhinging the jaw for consumption-- but the bias against the Scot-Irish in the guise of classism, with treatment of rednecks and “white trash”. Now I myself have never lived in the south, but I have my own experience of being poor and surrounded by rural fly over America. Forgetting the transference of ethnic prejudices into classist ones, the actual territory of predominately Scots-Irish aren’t known for their economic strength. Appalachia and the South are still deeply poverty stricken and lagging behind the rest of the States. I do not mean this blurb to be whining as an “irish american”(mutt) or anything, but more so an example for the colonized and marginalized of how being “accepted” by the state isn’t the same as empowered and liberated with reparations. The libs will just come up with new terms for stereotypes and ignore any real change.
Wasn’t much of a question was it hahaha. Sorta ties into second question (you’ll see)
-Does being blue collar or “working class” (American sense) tend to bring social bigotry itself, or has the state purposely planted seeds of bigotry into the minds of manual labourers knowing they posses a revolutionary character which would be in deadly combination with liberation groups for the marginalized? Frankenstein question, has the petite bourgeoisie and intelligentsia been “focused” on social change because it separates them from the working class? (In the image sense for their own classist reasons, but also in the political solidarity sense with pressure from the state). Why you find bigotry in areas heavy with the working class and poverty, regardless of the demographic make up there. Also the natural drag of the rural behind the urban.
This one is less of a theory question but more of a personal one.
-For you guys in the imperial core with me, do you ever wonder why it was us who happen to be the lucky few who have become Marxist Leninist and have managed to dodge all the propaganda, especially with the “left” bootlicking? Is this some weird destiny of being born in the Empire, Living through the empire’s death, and actually being able to see it while others around can’t. To be ahead of the tides as Imperialism turns inward. Why us be the seeds to plant and grow the resistance within the bloating belly of the beast before it bursts? I know it’s not using DiaMat, but it feels surreal. Not just in this weird destiny talk, but seriously what made us able to be radicalized materially? We are so few, but what was the common thread?
I think I was supposed to have more, but if I come across some I’ll let you know, feeling burnt out from this lol.
Edit: Knew I was forgetting something >:)
-How come the Far Right have enough emotional intelligence to parrot leftists talking points, or misconstrue them, while being absolute bigoted pieces of shit themselves?
I can answer some of these from my perspective.
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The way I see it, it is impossible to ignore the contradictions of capital for the human psyche, so something must be used to explain them. Because of the lack of education, corporate funded media etc. etc., the blame falls on immigrants and poor people. Also because of the widespread notion of the “middle class” nobody really sees themselves as the lower class.
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I am not born in the empire but i do live in it. And i really don’t like the exceptionalist attitude. Being ML doesn’t make you a “chosen one” or the lucky few. In terms of common thread, it’s material conditions necessary to be dissatisfied with status quo+ interest in history/politics.
- Yeah fair enough with the exceptionalist attitude. I think its less intentionally to be “The One” trope as more its myself making sure I actually try to move radicaliztion along in a critical moment of change for the Empire, instead of just keeping it to myself and withering away. I think the attitude stems more from my whimsical imagination than my actual beliefs. Just weird to think about lol. As for being radicalized, of course material conditions with being dissatisfied and interested in history/politics, but what are those conditions in particular? Tons of western leftists have similar interests, but many have stayed on their pro western side, Anti-AES and Pro-NATO. Its seems to be a right time right place for us, but we need to figure out what was exactly behind that setting which allowed us peel back another layer of ignorance and to be able to create a similar situation for other comrades.
I think at the moment being against the empire within the empire is kind of an outlier situation. Materially, most people benefit from imperialism (in the empire). But then there are areas where capitalism fails no matter the material conditions, even for the imperial core, like climate change or queer liberation. For me personally the gateway to marxism were queer studies. I think with the contradictions sharpening (i know, very cliche), there will be more gateway topics like these to use as anchors for further class consciousness, and with worsening material conditions there of course will be more questions towards the status quo.
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For the second one I think you might be overstating that this is the case regardless of demographics. Look up the demographics in a lot of American towns. There are plenty of poor midwestern working towns that have like 1 black person in them, for a lot of American built environments conscious separation by race was a guiding principle of planning and zoning. I think it’s actually very easy and normal to develop solidarity across ethnic lines if you actually share a neighborhood and workplace with many kinds of people but American cities and towns were often built specifically to foreclose that possibility.
I think American history also gives a good illustration of the reality that racism and bigotry are not class delineated: the ruling classes here were historically the most invested in creating and propagating beliefs that made them superior to everyone else, many of the most vocal and ‘thoughtful’ racists in American history were bourgeois.
To say nothing of the fact that it’s very easy for a rich white community in California to vocally be anti-racist while offering no resistance to the racist policies being pursued there. We might be giving the wealthy and educated libs more credit than they deserve by taking them at their word.
To your “blue collar or working class” question…
That is basically the whole conception of whiteness and race. During the pre-industrial European settling of Turtle Island, there was not really a shared “white” identity. Instead, you had Portugese, Spanish, British, French, German, etc. migrant laborers who all had significant differences with each other and eventually started to see that they had common interest with the enslaved African population. Look up Bacon’s Rebellion if you’re not familiar with it yet. While sadly an anti-indigenous partnership between settler and slave, it still was notable for the solidarity between the two laboring classes and resulted in the ruling government of Virginia to strengthen and solidify the racial caste system through legislation.
Racism was very much imposed on and ingrained into the working class from the emergence of capitalism and we continue to deal with our collective hangover from it.
Scots-Irish people on Turtle Island are actually not necessarily Irish at all. We are Scottish people who colonized Northern Ireland and then came over from there to Turtle Island. There’s the possibility of mixing between Scots and Irish but we are some of the most settlers to ever settler.
WHAAAAAAAT. Okay that’s wild, especially considering that I had originally put just Irish but changed it to scots-irish because I thought I was leaving them out 😭 😭 . Please do tell more, and why there’s a distinction.
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Regarding the second question, the capitalists has done everything they can to mask class as defined by their relation the the means of production.
And the main way that they’re doing this is to intensify inter-class contradictions to further sub-divide the working class. You’re not working class, you’re black, or you’re Hispanic, or you’re a woman, or you’re a red neck, or you’re a democrat, etc.
bigotry is heavy in America because these differences are sold as being the defining factor of who you are so YOU DO NOT DEVELOP CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS.
You will never see the working class described as a class in mainstream media. There will never be any mention or coverage of labour movements. Instead, literally every other thing will be put in the forefront.
