The Digger

Posted on June 29th, 2019 Guest: Michael Hudson Michael Hudson discusses his seminal work of 1972, Super Imperialism: The Economic Strategy of American Empire, a critique of how the US exploits foreign economies through IMF and World bank debt; difference between the IMF and World Bank; World Bank dysfunctional from the outset; loans made in foreign currency only; policy to provide loans for countries to devote their land to export plantation crops; US food and monetary imperialism; U.S. agricultural protectionism built into the postwar global system; promotion of dependency on the US as food supplier; food blackmail; perpetration of world poverty preferred; no encouragement of land reform; privatization of the public domain; America aided, not foreign economies; exploitation of mineral deposits; bribery; foreign nations politically controlled at the top; veto power for US only. Transcript: This is Guns and Butter. The purpose of a military conquest is to take co...

Posted on   July 5, 2019   by  Yves Smith Yves here. I had wanted to treat the insanity of the San Francisco decision to destroy a mural that was clearly critical of early American history as a local pathology. Sadly, it appears to be widespread. But it is hard to fathom how any collective decisions can be made if subjective beliefs are treated as tantamount to fact. Why should the views of people in San Francisco be any more valid than those of, say, Youngstown, Ohio? Why do they know better? Just because being a denizen of a coastal city or an elite organization is the contemporary version of might makes right? Peter Dorman discusses this “dogmatic subjectivism” below. It sounds a lot like the logic of cults. Even though I didn’t watch Game of Thrones, I have looked at some of the key clips. I’m reminded of this one (starting  here  at 5:14): Danerys : It’s not easy to see something that’s never been before. A good world. Jon Snow : How do you know...

If you have spent literally any time arguing against western imperialism in any public forum, you have had the experience of being accused of “supporting” one of said imperialism’s targets. If you argue against regime change interventionism in Syria, you’ll get accused of being an “Assadist” or “Assad apologist”. If you argue against regime change interventionism in Iran, you’ll you’ll get people saying that you “support the Mullahs”. Enter into any debate of sufficient liveliness and it’s only a matter of minutes before it happens. There was  a meme  going around at the height of the most recent failed coup attempt in Venezuela depicting a white, pink-haired socialist placing their hand over the mouth of a dark-skinned Venezuelan and saying “ACKSHUALLY, MADURO IS THE GOOD GUY”. Proponents of the Trump administration’s attempts to topple the Venezuelan government would share this meme in online debates with anti-imperialists as a way of accusing them of whitesplaining...