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[–] 5 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago) (1 child)

Pump the brakes. I’m not revising American history as you seem to suggest with “pinning everything on Trump.” Good lord, obviously previous US presidents are to blame for their various actions in many different countries.

We’re gonna have to try and find a happy medium here. Because we can’t simply say “all presidents have done this and it’s as simple as America having an imperialist attitude” because we need to hold every single one of these people accountable.

I’m a non-American observer. You’ll notice that Obama’s reputation is intact globally and most consider him to be an excellent president in hindsight despite many transgressions like his popularization of drone strikes.

Bush should be held accountable. Obama should be held accountable. Trump should be held accountable.

I think we’re arguing two sides of the same coin here. I agree we can’t ignore the past but we also can’t ignore the present. And Trump has taken his predecessors’ ideas of imperialism to a whole new level - no denying that.

I’m a Canadian. Threatening to annex Canada? You better believe our attitudes here are going to be far more hostile to Trump than they ever were towards Obama. That’s just the way it is.

We’re in agreement - the United States of America (irrespective of who heads the executive branch) is at odds with most of the world. You guys are stuck in a centuries-old attitude of conquest and I can only hope for the world’s sake that you can eventually break free of this perspective.

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  • [–] 9 points 18 hours ago* (1 child)

    I'm not trying to be mean here, just take your point to a higher level, one that gets at the heart of the issue. I disagree that the US Empire is being imperialist because of "an imperialist attitude." Imperialism is not merely a whim, it's a material process that evolves from earlier stages of capitalism. As capital consolidates, forming monopoly finance capital, it seeks to endlessly expand beyond its borders. This search for new profits leads to the establishment of military monopoly, IP monopoly, dollar monopoly, and cultural monopoly. This is the origin of institutions like the IMF, NATO, and more, and are how the US actually gains the wealth it has at it's highest levels.

    What's important here is it means that an individual president cannot stop it. It also means that the west in general is reliant on these very same institutions, and thus benefits from it. Canada is an interesting point to bring up. Canada, like the US, is both an imperialist state, and a settler-colony. Canada too is reliant on imperialism and the very same institutions the US is. The US, however, is hegemonic, while also rapidly losing its unipolar position thanks to the rise of China and the global south in general. This leads it into conflict with its former allies, secondary imperialist powers, much the same as how Germany began colonizing Europe the same way Europe colonized the rest of the world.

    What remains necessary is as I said, ending capitalism to end imperialism, and we can only do so through the establishment of socialism.

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  • [–] 2 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago) (1 child)

    Ending capitalism would be lovely. But let me know how we’re supposed to achieve that in the context of US imperialism, tech companies and billionaires hoarding wealth, and the average person gradually losing their voices.

    It seems to me that nearly every system in place is there specifically to perpetuate capitalism.

    Trump viscerally hates the average American so it seems very clear this movement can’t and won’t begin in the US. He doesn’t want his voters to prosper. And, further to that, Trump has an army of sycophants foaming at the mouth to take over if he dies or god-willing just goes away.

    We’re clearly on the same side here in most respects.

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  • [–] 7 points 18 hours ago (1 child)

    Well, the first step is understanding that we need socialism and to end capitalism. We are already there, you and I! The next is understanding how revolutions actually work. Throughout all revolutionary history, one central through line is common: it is the great masses of society that actually make revolution. This means that class consciousness must grip the masses, and that these masses must be organized.

    This is where we can and must be proactive. We can and must start with our own education, our own study of our existing conditions. We must also build up a disciplined group of workers that, through constant political work amongst the rest of the workers, gain their support and respect. When crisis hits, and it inevitably does on a regular basis in capitalism, we take the momentum of the working classes and use our own experience and study to help steer it in a positive direction.

    This general process has unfolded in Russia, China, Cuba, and many other places. It's a proven strategy, one that we can rely on. We need to adapt to new surveillance, and the crackdown on speech, but revolutionaries have been in worse positions before. Over time, organizing has won more rights that cannot be as easily taken away. The intense concentration of wealth in the hands of fewer and fewer people only serves to bolster our ranks and further outnumber them.

    In essense, it's the age-old adage:

    EDUCATE!

    AGITATE!

    ORGANIZE!

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  • [–] 4 points 18 hours ago* (2 children)

    I like you, as it turns out. You’re espousing much of how I feel in a more coherent manner than I can muster. I appreciate the optimism too. I will say I’m closer to a pessimist but I recognize in no uncertain terms that socialism is how we can fix this. I sure hope we can someday.

    Thanks for chatting.

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