Oh comrades, I have a close friend who takes this same ahistorical, atheoretical approach to understanding history and sociology. He thinks he’s that much smarter for his enlightened centrist position that any imposition by the state makes life that much worse. As if the thing that attracts him to poor, third world countries is his capacity to bribe officials and be left alone. He fucking hates China because they snubbed real estate investors and home ownership rates are propped up by lies. So it’s like you’d never make headway in the argument because China is dishonest, so figures don’t matter. Xijiang would meet a similar intellectual wall.

The point is that it’s heartbreaking. I like the friend and we have a tight relationship. But then I see them talk like this person posts and they think they’re really onto something in understanding how the world should work instead of just slurping down gallons of US state propaganda. It’s like they have an atrophied capacity to see that a different state of affairs is not only possible, but being created as we speak. Like imagine having to see this poster do this drivel and then realize that they’re the person with whom you confide your most intimate thoughts and feelings.

Honestly, it’s a bit generous to this poster because my friend even recognizes the Palestinian struggle as justified against a settler colonial state acting as an appendage of the US war machine. This person probably can’t conceptualize the idea that someone whose way of life is more similar to theirs might be the aggressor in a conflict.