Okay, what the hell. This guy has been making too many dangerously-close-to-based takes lately, despite being dyed in the wool bourgeoisie. Is this an attempt to preemptively co-opt socialist rhetoric?
I don’t think so. A lot of US academics that aren’t either intellectually dishonest paid shills, or idiots, can’t ignore the damage that the US and neoliberalism has done to the world, or ignore the successes of those like China pursuing other models. Its pretty likely this neoliberal is not one anymore.
In particular, while I would hesitate to label him a comrade, as its hard to assess how much he’s changed ideologically, his takes come from an academic point of view, which should serve to validate the truth of our claims. Just as scientific publications from bourgeois institutions are still worth citing(and often support all kinds of communist talking points), I think it is easier to use his recent takes as a way to introduce people to the deep contradictions of capitalism.
I think a lot of non-communists can still have based takes, especially if those takes are just “America is imperialist/violent/evil”. As long as their takes don’t serve reactionary standpoints(e.g. american “libertarians”), in my opinion they deserve at least some degree of critical support. I do respect his courage and hope that he helps radicalize people against US imperialism.
I think it’s fair to consider that maybe he isn’t as consciously driven by ideology as much as his past role would lead to believe. He strikes me as someone who had a sincere belief in neoliberalism leading to collective wellbeing. And now his current stances can be simply explained as him witnessing the results of that experiment and adjusting his worldview in accordance. Hindsight 20-20?
That might be right. Though I still find it very hard to forgive him for his role in destroying Russia during the 90s.
What is this weird world, where Elon Musk and Jeffrey Sachs are suddenly starting to say things which make sense?
It’s mostly the mainstream that went more to the right in the last half year than in the previous 25 years.
That makes sense. Honestly, I never understood how close liberalism is to fascism until this year. Pretty much from birth, it was drummed into me that “liberal democracies” like Britain and the US defeated the Nazis and Imperial Japan (role of USSR was glossed over), and that liberal “constitutional government” is the only defense against Hitlerism. Seeing the mainstream press openly refer to Russians as subhuman orcs is horrifying and surreal.
Exactly. Ngl that scares me to see how the inert masses of liberals can be moved so fast and easily into the most horrible direction. It’s kinda like in the horror movies when the mind control suddenly kicks in, on society scale.
His comments about the way people (he speaks generally, but is more or less talking about westerners) think about democracy, and what really constitutes democracy are also pretty based. He has a materialist perspective of the origin of governments of other countries too Some things I disagree on (i don’t think at this point in time the US can just “talk” with China because they have diametrically opposed destinations and foundations…maybe in the future they can) but for somebody like this to come out on a liberal stage such as this really deserves a handshake.
Someone has not been studying US history from before 1950 it seems.
I recommand reading “War is a Racket” by Smedly Butler
It’s in the public domain, here is an online version: https://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/warisaracket.html
And I found an audio book for those that prefer that: https://librivox.org/search?title=War+Is+a+Racket&author=Butler&reader=&keywords=&genre_id=0&status=all&project_type=either&recorded_language=&sort_order=catalog_date&search_page=1&search_form=advanced
Relevant quote:
“I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.
I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914.
I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in.
I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street.
I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912.
I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916.
I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903.
In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested.Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints.
The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.”― Smedley D. Butler, War is a Racket
i mean to be fair, yeah i think the british empire probably qualifies as the instigator and supporter of the most global violence before 1950 or so, when the US took control over the british and other empires. this isn’t to say anything good about US colonial and imperial violence before that, just a statement of fact.
Jeffrey what are you doing all of a sudden
The right wingers are doing infighting, they can’t stop copying us
