this post was submitted on 14 Jan 2024
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And again, ONE country set up banana republics, which were then overthrown. Anyone who isn't them and can also buy cheap bananas separately. There are also places that were not ever banana republics who export bananas.
This post takes a very complicated issue and distills it down to a neat little thing by misusing words and then everyone else can be like "oh I feel smart too cause that seems clever". It's bullshit and makes everything worse.
Sure, ONE country did it, while about 100 cheered., And queued up for deliveries.
Everyone loves to shit on America, without acknowledging their home country's very happy entanglement with them
Got any proof for them claims?
Yeah, all the shit on your shelves, defense contracts, trade regulation, financial markets, so fucking much...even gps (which came to be via cold war weapons research into ballistic missiles and location and targeting needs of the US military
I live in Canada and we absolutely benefit from American hegemony. Same goes for anyone in the global North who benefit from the same
Your source seems dubious to me, I don't think you have anything to add here
Ok sorry "literal reality, everything you can see in the global north" isn't good enough for you.
Here's one for your book report:
https://ustr.gov/countries-regions/europe-middle-east/europe/european-union#:~:text=Exports%20were%20%24592.0%20billion%3B%20imports,up%2066%20percent%20from%202012.
The point isn't just the literal trade though, it's the global system that the United States has developed (through often imperial means) that many smaller countries benefit from, happily.
I also responded to you before you did a few edits.
Your first response was something like "all the shit on your shelves"
And my main point here is that the original meme obviously doesn't know what "imperialism" means.
Just look up United Fruit Company and start reading:
It's not just land grabs by people wearing crowns
It's a modifier on the word imperialism on purpose. You don't hear military imperialism or diplomatic imperialism because that's that the work means. The actual word for all of this and what happened is corporatocracy.
Sure, modifier, or a type of imperialism, or one of several meanings. It's how the word is used, including by people in this thread and elsewhere. Therefore the phenomenon is both corporatocracy and imperialism and more.
...so then an inaccurate but emotionally charged phrase misusing big words to sound smart.
This is all super good for general discourse, and it's great that you endorse this behavior.
Or maybe it is a reminder that these complicated legacies are still with us? Would you prefer only essays written on imperialism?
And I have no idea how just one county setting up banana Republics has anything to do with it. Would other countries still not benefit from being able to buy artificially low cost products. At the expense of the county being exploited?
See, I'm on board with your point there, and I would love to see how much truth there is to it. Those countries have renegotiated many agreements and some now have socialist governments which are doing quite well, despite the fuckery the US put them through.
The post doesn't leave room for ambiguity or nuance. It says "x is true". That's why it's dumb and arguably a net bad. Quick little feel good statements for such a complicated issue just help people on the Internet feel better by liking or up voting while harming any actual progress. So fuck the person who wrote the original thing and fuck OP for spreading it.