They aren't lead poisoned and they aren't brainwashed, they instinctively know they're living off the oppression of others and they're fine with it. https://redsails.org/masses-elites-and-rebels/

[–] darkmode@hexbear.net 11 points 1 year ago

The prevailing populist narrative grants the People (of the West) moral innocence by attributing to them utter stupidity and naivety; I invert the equation and demand a Marxist narrative instead: Westerners are willingly complicit in crimes because they instinctively and correctly understand that they benefit as a class (as a global bourgeois proletariat) from the exploitation enabled by their military and their propaganda (in Gramscian: organs of coercion and consent). [6] We’re not as stupid as we’re made out to be. This means that we can be reasoned with, that there is a way out.

settlers

[–] WithoutFurtherRelay@hexbear.net 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I’m starting to really disagree with the premise of this article. It made sense to me at first when I read it, but the more I think about it the more absurd it is to me that we “subconsciously” intuit something as complex as international politics.

[–] BigHaas@hexbear.net 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

It doesn't take intuition to be aware that there are rich countries and poor countries, and that they are in a rich country. The lack of political understanding plus the convenient absolution of any guilty role in the matter is the reason they are willing to embrace liberal explanations of the world. Even though the explanation is always obviously ghoulish (you don't have to be informed to see the problem with "there aren't enough resources to both feed all these people and build all these missiles and megayachts, so we should reduce the amount of people"), they still find it preferable to giving up their treats.