this post was submitted on 15 May 2025
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In the imperial core, social democracy is a way to bribe and placate citizens, to create a labor aristocracy that benefits from colonial extraction and will thus support it. This is made possible exactly by that extraction, the surplus from the periphery makes up for the lost surplus from the core. It is just a way to redraw the line between the oppressed and the beneficiaries of that oppression.
Historically, like in Greece or Rome, that uplifted citizenry also constituted a much more effective military force to power the imperial expansion that keeps the system going, but I'm not sure if that still applies.
Adding to this, colonialism is imperialism as the highest stage of capitalism and fascism is imperialism turned inwards. When capitalism runs out of markets at home, it will seek new commodities and labor from colonies. When the colonies run out of resources, capitalism looks back home to continue strip mining.
Social democracy placates the working class within the empire while relying on colonies to subsidize these benefits. The imperialism is done to foreigners and the socdems will support it. They haven't addressed the underlying issue of colinialism, only changed where it's being done.
We saw this with the Axis Powers. High living standards in Germany, for example, was reliant on colonies. When Germany lost WWI, they lost their colonies to the Entente. Social democrats made concessions to the nazis, who began looking at their neighbors and minority groups within Germany to exploit. A major motivation for the Holocaust was stealing Jewish wealth, land, and industry. Operation Barbarossa was so they could steal farmland then offer their citizens homesteads.
None of this was anything new. It was just being done to Europeans instead of Africans, Native Americans, and Asians.