Got the one-two punch of anti-Chinese nonsense and eugenics adjacent fetishization of IQ. It’s literally 
edit: I’m sorry I’m such a chronic abuser of rules one and two :(
Got the one-two punch of anti-Chinese nonsense and eugenics adjacent fetishization of IQ. It’s literally
edit: I’m sorry I’m such a chronic abuser of rules one and two :(
The thing is, US (and Europe) does conquest through economics and trade too, via the IMF, WTO, World Bank, and similar institutions. It’s absolutely brutal. They loan foreign money (like USD or euro) to countries who need help, but then these counties lose control over their debt because it’s in a foreign currency. Attached with these loans are strict rules about how to run your state after usually related to austerity, like what happened to Greece and many states in Africa.
The terms of these loans are such that they are forced to destroy their own economic and political structures. They have to do things like destroy their welfare states, privatize their own natural resources and sell it to foreign firms, prioritize paying back loans over investing in their people, forced to organize their governments for the West and against communism, things like that.
China is very different. First, they’ve forgiven lots of loans given out. In addition, even when they don’t, their BRI projects provide infrastructure that actually helps bring in more money, while Western loans make you strip the copper from your own state’s walls usually causing you to bring in less money after. They also come with a lot less rules and more generous terms to pay it back. So they’re even different in the way they do “economic imperialism”, if you want to call it that.
Noting though, that the West can do those things because of the threat of military option, not to mention the coups that have made the receptive government possible. The West is an organized crime family running a protection racket vs China building a symbiotic relation with other countries.
Like, being able to explain this shit still comes down to your audience acknowledging the difference between 2 consenting countries making a business deal and one country with a gun to its head ceding sovereignty to the global north.
True. The economic imperialism is a direct result of their military might and espionage.
I really need to read that book. It’s hard to explain this stuff to people but it really does explain why a lot of countries are poor and others rich.
Admittedly, I haven’t read it myself, yet. 🤫 He’s gotta bunch of good talks/interviews on it though. This one is probably the most concise.
https://michael-hudson.com/2015/12/super-imperialism-in-84-seconds/
The whole interview is well worth the listen imo.
Excellent point. Thank you!
It’s honestly difficult to remain rational with so many contradictions occurring around me. This is worse than 1984 why in the world did they teach me how to think if they don’t want me to do that. It’s just endless psychic damage
Well from what I’ve heard, they’ve learned their lesson and are now trying not to teach kids to do that so much lol. (More in some states than others, but still.)