The US still has slavery in place. Not merely the prison population but another kind. Instead of enslaving humans the US has enslaved resources. It has resource slavery. If you enslave humans or enslave the resources that humans need to survive what’s the difference?
This enslavement of natural resources is commonly called closing of the commons and started during the enclosure movement.
It is a form of murder. It is not survival of the fittest it is murder by denial of resources. It is intentional starvation.
If you murder someone or if you block them from food and shelter until they die of heat exhaustion or freeze to death or die by starvation or by eating rotting food what’s the difference?
These social diseases didn’t exist in indigenous communities. These social diseases follow every place that Europeans have invaded or colonized. It is the feudalism, the landlordism, the closure of the commons such as the robber barons inflicted on innocent communities that cause the miseries we see over and over again.
“But we can’t just give everyone land?!”
The US has 600 million acres of public land. It was not its to own in the first place. It didn’t create the Earth. It has no right to decide who has access to land and who doesn’t. No person has more right to land than another person.
The US cannot claim to be the land of the free when it has slavery. When it coerces people in to work by the threat of starvation and homelessness otherwise known as wage slavery.
“But but but… it worked for me, a crusty old white guy!”
Is it working for indigenous communities that have had their land stolen or have had relatives been murdered through germicide?
Has it worked for the African american communities who have and had their lives and labor robbed by slavery and poverty inflicted by the slave state?
In other words the US is a slave state.
So what is an oppression denier? It’s the person who comes along and says, “It’s not so bad.” What they mean is, “It’s not so bad (for me) — someone who has never had their land stolen, never had ancestors enslaved, never had relatives murdered by racists.” They typically gaslight, invalidate or gatekeeper others experiences or pain.
So what are oppression maintainers? These are the people who keep the oppressive (harmful social structure in place). They don’t upgrade it or try and improve it but maintain the statist quo.
So what is an oppressive system? It’s the societies that are harmful to their citizens and sometimes citizens of other societies. They actively do harm, and they usually deny they are doing harm. It books and stories they are usually the antagonists, the villains or the bad guys.
“Can you explain it another way?”
In books and stories there are usually characters who are callous and indifferent to the suffering of others. They are people like this in real life. The characters in the stories who are like this are usually the bad guys.
