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I wouldn't even say "capitalism" straight up. A lot of this shit is the result of capitalism at least in so far as these are all WW2 veterans who got the Settler Colonial bump from a plundered American continent and a decimated European rival market.
This was a singular moment in time, during which American Fascism delivered the goods for its popular loyalist base. What changed was that the Fascists at the top of the system did what Fascists always do and began eating their own seed corn rather than share with subsequent generations. The empire turned inward, crushed the popular social democrats of the 50s/60s/70s, and consolidated their gains within the robbery barony strongholds of the modern finance system.
If you want this moment back, you need to... well...
That means either doing a Socialism or a Barbarism. And we know what @creation247 thinks the answer is, but I doubt many folks in his audience are going to be excited about serving as cannon fodder in his next Glorious White Nationalist War. No more than the poor bastards shoved up into the front lines of the Russia-Ukraine war appear to be enjoying themselves, anyway.
Edit: Can I just say that Twitter, in its current incarnation, is slow and jenky af? Nothing fucking works on this website anymore.
Also FDR correctly saw that capitalism needed to be saved from itself and put a generation of administrators and politicians in position of power through the new deal to stave off the collapse, which it did, but then his head exploded and the erosion started back again (but with the working class effectively neutered then)
(but with the working class effectively neutered then)
It took decades to properly neuter the working class. I might argue that labor militarism wasn't really put in the ground until Clinton. I've definitely seen a few folks around here posit that the end of the USSR was the real death blow of domestic labor agitation, entirely because there was no countervailing global force. Although I'm more inclined towards the theory that the Volcker Shock of the 70s was what laid all the union efforts low.
But its always worth mentioning how, even into the '08 crash, life in the US was relatively fat and happy compared to our global peers. Its only in the aftermath of the Great Recession that you can say quality of living in the US has taken a solid step backwards. And then COVID was another big step back. And now we're just waiting for the next shoe to drop.
Hard to be a labor militant when going along to get along is nice enough. Less hard as living standards grow more and more dire.
Maybe saying the working class was neutered by the new deal was a bit too strong, but I still believe the moment the labor movement in the US hitched itself to the Democrat coalition, it was joever
the moment the labor movement in the US hitched itself to the Democrat coalition
It was eat or be eaten. A populist movement divided was not going to stand. The Labor movement's real failing wasn't hitching itself to the Democrats but failing to hollow out its leadership and wear it like a skin-suit into the next century.
Second this.
The US objectively had the best deal post WWII. Other than Pearl Harbor, there were no bombings so our infrastructure was back in place. The war was a boon for the economy (but for once it was based since the enemy was the west), we got the economic miracle like many other countries. Noncompete has a video on it that does a good job explaining this leagues better than I can
Now thanks to capitalism becoming a religion rather than a flawed economic system where any smart capitalist would at least try to find a synthesis or side with the workers upon every contradicion, we've clawed our way back to "normal" in great depression/1930s times. However, the red scare has done its damage and with fascism being seen as the 'perfect' ideology by the lumpens. we're going to hit the cool zone.
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
We had a US president that's considered one of the best in history, and he realized that capitalism as an absolute totally sucked.
Post-WWII Burgerland really was a singular moment, which white boomers inherited and assumed was the normal, sustainable state of affairs. It’s impossible to Make America Great Again, and given that its greatness was through neoimperialism, it oughtn’t be.
Yup turns out being the only country with a significant manufacturing output when the rest of the world has to rebuild everything is pretty much an infinite money cheat code.
Which in typical boomer fashion the next generation totally learned from by exporting all of our manufacturing and transitioning us to an economy where you have to provide a service deemed valuable by the people who took all the money.
The subsequent generation were still kids at the time. It was silent & boomer generation capitalists who implemented neoliberalism and exported manufacturing.
And white boomers were easily convinced that all the social benefits that helped them shouldn't be shared with the unworthy. And took away said benefits.