• drewaustin ( drewaustin@piefed.ca ) English
    5·
    6 months ago

    I’m trying to work out the logic in the meme. It seems like it argues against itself somewhat.

    A requires B to function

    Divided C lowers difficulty of exploitation C. The two lines seems to imply the that exploiting C is required for the functioning of B.

    Having something easier does not normally indicate it is a requirement. Typically tha is especially so if there are multiple ways to make something easier.

    This meme seems lazy in its argument. But then I’m very very far from a logician.

    • JillyB ( JillyB@beehaw.org ) 
      9·
      6 months ago

      It is a bit lazy. But it’s also a meme and not a thesis. If the purpose is mass communication, resonance is more important than rigor.

      More to your point, I don’t think capitalism requires racism but it does require some sort of superiority dynamic within the working class. The more, the better. This takes form in misogyny, racism, ageism, ableism, and pretty much any other discrimination you can think of. All will be propped up by the inherent incentives of capitalism in order to keep the attention of the working class off of the business owners actually causing the problems.

    • Dippy ( Dippy@beehaw.org ) 
      1·
      6 months ago

      Capital as a singular structure is trivial to spot and the overthrow is achievable. Add in secondary power structures like race and sex and now people will point fingers in a circle before even realizing capitalism is a problem. Now you want to unite people against capitalism? Even harder, they have other problems they view as bigger, more personal.

    • lugal ( lugal@lemmy.dbzer0.com ) 
      10·
      6 months ago

      I don’t see any problem here. Racism existed before capitalism to justify slavery and has a new function after the abolition. In fact, before the abolition, it functioned to divide different oppressed groups, as it does today.

      If anything, the meme says that racism was a precondition for capitalism. If capitalism needs racism, of cause racism must be older, otherwise capitalism could not have developed.

    • PiraHxCx ( PiraHxCx@lemmy.dbzer0.com ) English
      2·
      6 months ago

      What about capitalism doesn’t need racism?
      Non-Europeans played no role in the European workforce of the industrial revolution and it wasn’t less of capitalism because of that. Capitalism works pretty well exploiting just its own ethnic group.