• UpperBroccoli
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    11 days ago

    […] that few people have even noticed that their government appears to already be initiating a system of off-shore, industrialized slavery.

    … as opposed to the system of on-shore, industrialized slavery already in place for decades? AKA the prison-industrial complex? That legally and officially still is slavery, after all.

  • peoplebeproblems@midwest.social
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    11 days ago

    In a way, 97% of the workforce have been in slave like conditions for a long time.

    If you quit, you lose health insurance. If you get fired you lose health insurance. Everything is outside of possible ownership. Home ownership is impossible. You can forget about buying land.

    Consumerism is baked into our lives so we have less freedom to choose what we consume thanks to deeply studied psychology practices in marketing. The only way I have been able to reduce it is to eliminate my exposure to advertising on TV and Internet. But that’s not enough.

    Fuck, even physicians, averaging $250k/yr arent immune to this, it pales in comparison to hospital executives, bankers, financial institutions, etc. And they intend to make it harder still.

    Prison labor is straight slavery. So many working people are probably a paycheck away from ending up on a path to prison.

    And we have no time. It’s work, chores, eat, clean, sleep. I guess outside of prison we can maybe arrange for a couple of hours of entertainment, while the rich can fuck off all day and collect more money in a week than we do in a year.

    We’ve got to put our bodies upon the gears, upon the wheels. Pile upon the apparatus until it stops. Then we demand that until we are free, the machine will be prevented from working at all.

    • tree_frog@lemm.ee
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      10 days ago

      It is the commodification of human lives via confinement. Which is horrible and fucked up, but it’s not slavery. We are headed for that though.

      That’s what the work camps are code for.

      • otter@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        10 days ago

        Not slavery? Don’t be obtuse. That same commodification via containment is only a part of the greater system of human labor as livestock — which also includes slavery, TBF. Splitting those hairs is either naive or apologetic, and the stark reality of it all DGAF if you understand that. Hell, they’re counting on it.

        • tree_frog@lemm.ee
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          10 days ago

          I did 3 years in prison.

          It was fucking rough but it’s nothing compared to what has been and what is coming.

          And I’m not defending the prison system, the commodification of human lives in any form is fucking exploitive and horrible and prison is definitely one of the worst forms of it. But slavery is much much worse and that is what is coming.

          Like if you want to accuse someone of being obtuse, you are comparing people getting beat if they don’t pick cotton, with folks who are watching TV laying around in their bunk all day. It’s depressing, and it’s lonely and dehumanizing. But I would take it any day of the week over what folks have lived through under slavery.

          Slavery is a huge fucking escalation of violence on the working class. And I absolutely believe it is on the way. So I’m not minimizing.

          Okay?

          • otter@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            10 days ago

            First off, I apologize for my brusk tone. I’m sorry you had to experience that first-hand, and we have that in common. It’s not something I often talk about (I can count on one hand, in the last 20+ years since), but I want you to know that I hear you.

            If anyone was obtuse, it was me for failing to clarify that the prison system==slavery I was referring to is the forced labor of our incarcerated that was literally written into the 13th Amendment and infallible proof that slavery as we’re taught never ended.

            • tree_frog@lemm.ee
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              10 days ago

              I hear you about the 13th, it’s definitely slavery light and a continuation of white supremacy.

              Most of the commodification and extraction from inmates comes through the commissary and phone monopoly system. So they extract from families mostly. And of course through taxes on the working class . Prison labor is a thing and the wages are absolutely shit. But I did not see any forced labor in my time that I was incarcerated.

              Of course this will vary by state. And county jails are a whole other fucking issue because the stay is shorter, so the protections are often worse .

                • tree_frog@lemm.ee
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                  10 days ago

                  That makes sense.

                  Parole was removed in my State. My sentence was 2.5 in and 4 out. Meaning, I did two and a half years in and then 4 years on parole.

                  And there’s no such thing as good behavior.

                  But, if I wanted basic necessities, like soap and deodorant that wasn’t shit so I wasn’t getting harassed for poor hygiene, I either needed to work or get outside help from my family.

                  Anyway, I definitely see how they incentivize labor heavily. And the wages are essentially slave wages.

                  So it’s on the spectrum, I’m not disagreeing there.

                  I’m just a trans woman that is very scared right now of the rhetoric around labor camps. And if I had to choose prison or labor camps, I would take prison.

                  But since they’ll take my meds anyway, which will lead to my suicide likely, instead I just plan to fight.

                  Nothing to lose at this point sadly.

    • DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social
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      10 days ago

      Real, no fucking around, no extra steps, no ACLU suing the state for legal violations slavery.

      It’s a primary goal of right wing “libertarian” “thinkers” and the Heritage Foundation as a result. They won’t even need to change the Constitution, they’ll just say crimes against the state are punished by slavery now.

      They’re going to push it somewhere, the Supreme Court will expedite it, and the “originalists” will nod their fascist little heads and say “yep, says it’s fine right there.”

      And the problem will be that it does.

  • null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    11 days ago

    Well they’re definitely trying to reduce the rights and quality of life of the working class, no doubt about that.

  • EndlessNightmare@reddthat.com
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    10 days ago

    And they want you to breed more slaves for them. That’s why they get so unhinged about LGBTQ, childless cat ladies, growing popularity of childfree, and explains the recent surge in “we are actually underpopulated” bullshit propaganda.

    • Luminocta @lemm.ee
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      9 days ago

      Anti abortion and anti-anti conception are a big one too…

      These people are so hungry for power and money they gladly throw away their humanity for it.

      There is no reason to believe they deserve anything at all. Not even rights as they don’t think anyone else should have them either.

  • humanspiral@lemmy.ca
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    10 days ago

    I enthusiastically convinced my 5 years old that a strawberry picking carreer will be awesome. “You get to eat all you want, as you pick, I promised her”. I did not mention beatings from prison guards for such infractions, but if I deliver her to prison system, I am told MAGA will give me a $1000 cheque, that I can endorse to my favorite Trump charity. My fear though, is that her enthusiasm from strawberries will wane after puberty, and so deliquency and truancy must be her path into prison pipeline. I hope I can deduct any fines from her behaviour from my reward cheque.

  • ᕙ(⇀‸↼‶)ᕗ@lemm.ee
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    10 days ago

    but this time it will be diverse and ppl of any color or religion can be slaves. kids will work night shifts before school and everything will be florida.

  • katy ✨
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    10 days ago

    return implies there was a time in america when slavery stopped existing

  • muusemuuse@lemm.ee
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    9 days ago

    Honestly if someone tried flying a 747 into a US government building today, I think we would have a very different reaction than the last time they tried it.

    • kent_eh@lemmy.ca
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      9 days ago

      The conversation would be less “why did this happen” and more “which, of the thousands of possilities, did this.”

    • peteyestee@feddit.org
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      9 days ago

      And it’s only because it’s happening to Americans and 1st world nations. Otherwise we would still have the out of site out of mind mentality while people die.