I feel like modern communist theory (or at least, the theory of people I have seen) has a major bljnd spot that is causing a lot of issues.

When we think of settler colonialism we think of the yeoman farmers of olden days stealing land from natives. Our understanding of settler colonialism is entirely based on an agrarian settler colonialism which was a feature of early capitalism. This leads to many communists who think that places like North America no longer operate on a settler colonial basis.

However, as far as I can see, American settler colonialism has transformed into its urban and “peaceful” (from a legal/liberal standpoint) stage. The typical modern North American “settlement” is a suburban neighbourhood.

These suburbs qualify as settler colonialism because

  1. They consume the American country’s land, water and energy resources to an extreme degree.
  2. They expand uncontrollably by tearing apart dense development and destroying the environment (although the expansion has slowed down)
  3. The North American superstructure caters to the needs of the suburbs at the expense of the “pure” proletariat. The American governments, at the federal, state and local level subsidise suburban development to an unsustainable degree.
  4. The wealth of the suburbs is mostly from inheritance, but the prospect of one day becoming a suburbaner (the “American dream”) kept many American proles in line, until the modern times where the dream seems out of sight (because the settler mode is inherently unsustainable, even more so than non-settler capitalism)

What does this mean for our american comrade’s political tactics? I’m not sure to be honest.

  • stink
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    4 days ago

    They are moving back to the cities now. White flight in reverse!

    Don’t even get me started on all the Amerikkkans moving to places like Mexico City and pricing out the locals even harder than they are in New York.

    There are areas in Mexico City where coffee shops, pilates classes and grocery stores are all advertising in English.

    I don’t know how to construct my words, but we know how capitalism and colonialism are one and the same, there are now white settlers doing the same thing. Exploiting other countries to stretch the value of their own dollar, it’s sickening.

    • Beat_da_Rich
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      4 days ago

      Moving back to the cities lol. Raising the rents and pricing poor, black, and brown people out of their homes. Replacing community structures with mixed-use developments full of corporate chains.

      In a way, settlerism recycled.