Artemis8h ago
The truth is that you can't be "fiscally conservative & socially liberal" because if you're actually paying attention to the social issues, you will note that they are directly linked into structures of power—the same structures of power that create our "fiscal" situation.
Show threadArtemis8h ago

Capitalist, colonialist exploitation depends on traumatized children. It all depends on traumatized children, & it always has.

The Epstein class fights us on "social" issues because the logical result of respecting all people would be a world where people become hard to exploit & even harder to convince to do someone else's violence.

Without suffering, the power structure collapses. The suffering is necessary to the economic system.

Show threadArtemis8h ago

The statement "We are not free until we are ALL free" includes kids: the permanent oppressed underclass.

Look, I have done a lot of childcare in my life. I understand that children CANNOT be allowed to do whatever they please. I don't want feral, untended children, but I do want kids who feel a sense of ownership over their own bodies & lives.

So many cycles of violence start with neglect, abuse, manipulation, & control in childhood.

Show threadArtemis8h ago

This is why the duped henchmen of the Epstein class lose their fucking shit over basic "therapy" stuff like boundaries.

They say conversations about mental & emotional health are "woo-woo" & "wishy-washy" & silly, but they are fucking TERRIFIED of that shit.

Show threadArtemis8h ago
If children are not systematically abused & neglected, they will not grow into angry, reactive assholes looking for someone to hurt. They won't develop into fearful resource-hoarders. They won't be looking for someone else to project their self-hatred onto.
Show threadArtemis8h ago

The Epstein Class knows that an attack on social structures of abuse threatens to topple the whole exploitation system, & that's why they've enlisted so many soldiers in this fight.

The whole concept of capitalism requires humans to be uncooperative with each other. Meanwhile, human civilization developed because we are really, really fucking good at collaborating.

The math isn't mathing.

Show threadArtemis8h ago

If someone is "fiscally conservative", then ultimately they are saying we should all have to fight over resources, & in order to keep people fighting over resources, you have to keep prejudice, fear, & resentment alive, so... seems to me like being "fiscally conservative" means there is a need for people to abuse each other.

Healthy, happy people help each other, & that's what the Epstein Class can't tolerate. So they indoctrinate people to create the misery that their system demands.

Show threadDaniel Lakeland7h ago

@artemis

Although this is definitely part of it. I also think there are a lot of self described "fiscally conservative" people who basically see corruption in govt and want to stop it by basically cutting off the source of funds. Suppose for example your local city council keeps sending construction contracts to some particular firm that's run by a friend of the mayor and gets contracts to replace bus stops for $2M when it's clearly a $200k job or whatever.

Show threadDaniel Lakeland

@artemis

People watch this stuff happen... schools getting renovated for $1M two years before they close it for underenrollment, or whatever, and they're tired of that kind of stuff... I say this because this particular subset is potentially ripe for Anarchist conversion. If you showed them an alternative way to cooperate together instead of power dynamics with small elected leader groups deciding what everyone elses money should go towards... it could bring more people to alternatives.

4:07pmWeb
Show threadArtemis7h ago

@dlakelan
Yeah, these are complementary truths. The lack of trust starts in childhood, but we live in an overall culture of fraud & abuse. We don't trust each other because the world that has been built around us is exploitative to its core.

And as we anarchists know: the tricky part is getting people to imagine alternatives.

Show threadDaniel Lakeland7h ago

@artemis

It's so true. Typically I think the "fiscally conservative" group starts out from a place of patriarchy and religious oppression or similar, and then sees that this is damaging to the psyche and so opens their mind to the "socially liberal" ideas. Usually not wide open but they at least aren't gonna join the Proud Boys anymore. But they see these corrupt backroom govt money deals or whatever and they just don't want to empower those people.

Show threadDaniel Lakeland7h ago

@artemis

Also Economics upholds incorrect ideas about how the world works. For example, it's never necessary for the federal govt to first tax people in order spend money on buying war machines and soforth. They literally print money! But modern macroeconomic textbooks teach a different incorrect model of how that works! So if you've been bitten by the idea that Economics has scientific truth to it, you'd want austerity to somehow remove power... even though it doesn't.

Show threadDaniel Lakeland7h ago

@artemis

Austerity actually *increases* govt power, because it invariably is pointed at the least powerful people, workers, single moms, children, whatever, rather than say the Marine Corps or Air Force or whatever.