MZT says that first we must analyze the primary contradiction in a society, from which all other contradictions build from.
My thought is that American working class do not revolt because our lifestyle is subsidized by the global poor. Of course there are impoverished workers (and lumpen) within America, but they are dissuaded by revolutionary organization because of this neocolonial dependence.
And I don't just mean "treats" although that's a big part of it. Many basic essentials are produced through the global supply chain and most people rely on income from companies who plunder the global south.
The financialization and deindustrialization of the American economy from neoliberal politics is the culmination of this. Why when workers made gains against industrial capitalists, production was moved to the global south.
I'm sure this has been discussed before by proper scholars, but I'd love to hear your thoughts. I'm just reading through On Contradiction now.
There's an argument to be made that colonialism is the primary contradiction within the US, but otherwise imperialism is the hegemonic global force holding down the working classes.
Yes but global forces holding down the working class is not an internal contradiction. Mao's emphasis was that that the internal contradiction of a society will determine the nature of it's external ones. Imperialist countries profiting off the global south is not a contradiction in and of itself. What is a contradiction is that the wealthiest nation in the history of the world still has unhoused people, lack of proper medical care for most people, unemployment, food insecurity, etc. Our bourg masters can't even properly bribe the proletarians.
I think our reliance on treats can account for the lack of class consciousness, as InfuziSporg pointed out in the comments below, it leads to people thinking of themselves as consumers rather than workers. I think deindustrialization and the service economy go hand in hand with this. Most people realize their job is some level of bullshit, or at the least has a large amount of bullshit attached to it. We lack productive work in this country, so most of us have no value in our identity as workers.