darkernations @ darkernations @lemmygrad.ml Posts 0Comments 3Joined 9 mo. ago
Though Trump and his ilk may not have the most comprehensive understanding of American imperialism, he and his ilk are allowed to do the things they do because their system of capital allows for it ie there appears to be competing interests of capital here.
For example, there may be here capital interests that feel programmes and networks like USAID have outweighed their usefulness versus capital that feels the services like USAID are vital in maintaining imperialism despite their cost.
Why and how the former has gotten an upper-hand over the latter would warrant an analysis on its own but likely the heightening of contradictions of capital such as the reduction of real productive capacity within the imperial cores, the reduction in leverage of superexploitation against the global south, the general reduction in rate of profit, along with cultural issues secondary to lack of sufficient education of how American imperialism works even among the "elites" that capital felt was not necessary to maintain the system may have all contributed to this.
Remember one does not necessarily need to know how an engine works to drive a car but that lack of knowledge becomes more signifcant when the car breaks down. The engine of the car could almost be considered reified in this analogy; capitalists could be considered priests at the altar of capital.
/Edits: clarity
Not exactly what you asked for but a lot of these "post-marxist" philosophies have at least some of their roots - intentionally or not - in Proudhonisim. Proudhon wrote Philosophy on Poverty after which Marx responded with his critique, the Poverty of Philosophy, which you may find of interest.
"The history of all hitherto existing societies is a history of class struggles"
As there are class struggles of women against the oppression by men there are class struggles of nations of peoples against their imperialist/colonial oppressors. If one understands that material conditions can often inform one's worldview and if those material conditions lend to the privilege of white supremacism then one can easily see why some suffragettes could, for example, support the British Union of Fascists.
Always think about dialectics (for example the interaction between the evolving ideas of a person and their surrounding environment, how they influence each other back and forth) and one will see, unfortunately, why solidarity is not universal and why some people's empathetic intelligence is stunted.
TLDR: they wanted a more equitable share of the white bourgoisie's loot.