We have come to differentiate between economic and physical violence, but why?

Slaughtering hundreds of thousands of people on purpose, like the Nazis or the Khmer rouge did, or like the Israelis are doing now in Gaza, is labour intensive and economically demanding. It requires an infrastructure.

What the Trump gang has managed to do is plan on mass repression through the complete dismantling of all the guardrails that keep a large society fed and in health.

Basically, destroy the infrastructure and people can reliably left to ‘sort’ themselves into survivors and cadavers. In a way, there is a very Maoist/Stalinist dimension to this.

The compassionate, the weak, the different, the disabled, don’t need to be actively exterminated. They can simply be starved of resources and then blamed for their own demise.

In a way, America’s form of Capitalism IS a kind of extermination camp. Not physical, but equally as effective, if a tad slower.

Meanwhile, the very method of this ‘capitalist’ sorting ensures that only the ideologically pure - the absolutely self-interested - survive.

Personally, I don’t think it will work. I think they are missing an important aspect of humanity - that compassion is a very strong identificatory building block. And it isn’t a surprise that they’re missing it. Because you don’t miss what you don’t have. They cannot see their own lack.

However, while we are all directed to look at the physical atrocities - the detention, the sending people to prison hell-holes in country or abroad, these are misleading extremes.

The real re-engineering is taking place on a quieter plane. Fear and self-interest are having a much greater impact. And I have been surprised at the number of people who won’t protest out of fear or a sense of ‘I’m alright, Jack’. And the success of the 2025 project depends on this.

I am reminded of the biblical quip of Cain. “Am I my brother’s keeper?”

The world is being sorted into the way people answer that question.

Yes, I am my brother’s keeper. A huge part of the value of me, as a human being, is in my willingness to demand/provide things - not for myself, but for my brother. And demonising my brother as a parasite is never going to work. Because my sense of compassion isn’t altruistic. It’s entirely selfish. I AM … my brother’s keeper.

The statement says nothing about who my brother is, or what he needs, or deserves. The statement identifies ME as someone who cares for their brother.

Who am I if I would let my neighbour starve? Who am I if I would let my neighbour be persecuted for their race, or their gender, or their religion?

I think it is very important for us to keep our heads out of our own asses and understand that our identities are constituted by what we do for others.

@jwcph @Remittancegirl gods how I miss old Cracked.

Sorry, off topic.