Trump's Tariffs Aren't Economics. They're a Cultural Purge | Washington Monthly
Trump's Tariffs Aren't Economics. They're a Cultural Purge | Washington Monthly
Stop asking, "but don't they know how much harm they're doing?!" Yes. They do.
That’s what’s behind the economic shock therapy now underway. It’s similar to the disaster economics that the U.S. used in Chile and post-Soviet Russia, and Javier Milei is inflicting on Argentina today. But it’s inflected with the fervor of a Cultural Revolution—ironically more reminiscent of Mao than Pinochet with its war on intellectuals and its bestowing glory on farms and factories. The goal is to destroy the professions that make resistance possible—this is why you start with law firms instead of HMOs—then tighten the screws once people are desperate enough to submit. When the unrest comes—and it always does—so do crackdowns.
This article fucking nails it. They don't care if they lose a lot of the talented people to Europe. The people who don't have the capacity to leave will be forced to fall in line anyway.
It's why the only way to fight it realistically is to build parallel systems outside of capitalism. Begin building a new community built on bartering labor to support one another. It will allow enough people to bail on US capitalism to send their plans into a tailspin. Of course, there will be violent pushback against this, so like the Black Panthers who first pioneered their own parallel systems because US capitalism punished the black community for existing, we must have people ready to protect the new systems that have been built. Fighting fascism is more complicated than just buying guns and taking them on. It's going to have to be a combination of building systems we can rely on other than capitalism as well as building groups who can and will do their best to protect those systems.
We will have more Fred Hamptons, and they must be willing to accept that they may be assassinated just like the original Fred Hampton.
Yeah, we really fucked up making individual wealth so powerful. A healthy society needs at least a balance of collective wealth and individual wealth, and we went way too far. And now they're trying to dismantle the last major structures of collective wealth we haven't already ruined.
Of course, there will be violent pushback against this, so like the Black Panthers who first pioneered their own parallel systems because US capitalism punished the black community for existing, we must have people ready to protect the new systems that have been built. Fighting fascism is more complicated than just buying guns and taking them on. It’s going to have to be a combination of building systems we can rely on other than capitalism as well as building groups who can and will do their best to protect those systems.
agreed, but this part feel unrealistic given my interactions with american liberals.
lemmy represents the left-most sampling of the american liberals and even they decry leftists platforms and shame their own people for not towing the pro-capitalist line; especially on this instance.
also from the article:
Democrats must not treat this as a misguided trade policy. It’s not a debate over economic theory. It’s an assault on the idea of an open, educated, pluralistic society. We must recognize it for what it is if we are to fight it with the urgency it demands.
this is also seems unrealistic as evidenced by booker's pointless filibuster; blocking aoc from the oversight committe; and obstructing bernie from the nomination twice.
The best alternatives to most corporations are worker cooperatives. Anarchist communes have implemented this in past during Spanish civil wars etc. Modern day equivalents are things like REI.
I really don't give a shit what his motives are. Greed? Ego? Coercion? Power trip? Russian puppetry? An actual earnest desire to promote American manufacturing and self-sufficiency? It doesn't fucking matter because Trump is destroying the American economy, turning all of our allies against us, revoking civil rights, and supporting and committing ethnic cleansing and genocide. By whatever means necessary, this shit needs to stop, and soon.
Sometimes it's easier to stop something if you understand why it's happening.
But it isn’t. There’s no ideology behind it. The only purpose is to motivate countries and companies to bribe Trump to remove the tariffs. It’s just a mafia-style shakedown.
That's the difference between tRump and the 2025 project.
This is deliberate and strategic. It’s a cultural counter-revolution disguised as industrial policy. And we know it’s not about economic leverage because Trump isn’t even pretending these tariffs are a negotiating tactic—he intends to make them permanent.
been happening in the United States since before slavery was changed to paid slave labor
Great article. These guys have no idea what's coming. Its one thing to be born poor and remain that way. Its quite another to have wealth and status and lose all of it. The counter-reaction is what I'm more afraid of- the kind of shit that produces a Stalin or a Mao.
You have a very good point. When left alone too long they reinvent Stalinist and Maoist failed policies like the OK politician with the "no man, no problem" approach to journalists and the "Every american should have to be a farmer for a year" from a bit ago.
Great article. The pundits that are "confused" about why all this is happening need to read this. Thanks for posting.
