cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/22447069
The difference between Russian and American authoritarianism
America was founded by genocidal slavers who were angry about being unfairly taxed.
America has never been a moral nation. It is literally founded on stolen land, paved over the bodies of that land’s natives, and built by the labor of the enslaved.
I would agree that America is not the only nation in the world with many of these problems. I’m an anarchist, so I fundamentally don’t really believe that a completely moral state is ever possible. But even so America stands out particularly starkly even in comparison to other contemporary states.
I think your point is valid, but what I am saying is we shouldn’t begrudge the past its lack of perfection. Let’s look at where people are now, and where they can go from here.
Looking for answers in the past is often a fools errand. We need to shed the baggage of our forefathers.
You know, there’s a story from one of Rousseau’s that I’ve read before that goes a little like this:
After hoarding a bunch of ressources from the people, the rich started to get resistance from the peasants, and their property was in jeopardy. So they just said something along the lines of: "Isn’t it awful that we are fighting each other? Let’s make sure that we make laws so that everyone’s property is protected, and a power to enforce these law ". The peasants then started to cling to what little property they had, and justified the rich’s property. Never mind the torturous work they went through, the starvation, the poverty, it would be wrong to steal from someone. How would you feel if somebody stole from you. This is easy to think when you just “move on from the past”.
Black people still didn’t get compensation for slavery. Indigenous people got everything stolen from them, and didn’t receive any form of compensation. Marginalized people are still affected by stuff like systematic racism and capitalism. America benefits from its past imperialism, and present one (Israel)
