CW: 
https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-3-031-25399-7_82-2
Brainbroken by October 7th, Zak Cope has done a 180 on his prior work, which focused on the unequal development of nations under the global capitalist economy, to writing propaganda pieces on how the liberal global US-led economic order must be maintained to ensure "free trade".
Having been committed to the toxic Marxist perspective for more than half my life, it ultimately proved impossible for me not to perceive the consistent and century-old pattern of far-left apologetics for every conceivable atrocity committed by avowed enemies of the West (including war crimes and genocide), these typically starting with denial, moving to excuse, and ending in justification. This was starkly highlighted in the leftist response to the bestial violence unleashed by Hamas terrorists in Israel on October 7, 2023. Laboring under Marxian fantasies for so long, following the shock of recognition in witnessing such moral and intellectual decrepitude its dissolution in my mind was precipitate.
He proceeds to argue that, "following free trade principles of comparative advantage can benefit all countries" and that US military supremacy is necessary due to Russia threatening, "the liberal international order upon which free trade is grounded."
The link he offers to explain October 7 and why it desensitized him from the left is this one:
https://k-larevue.com/en/the-october-7th-pogrom-as-a-non-event-on-the-western-left/
This is what he cited as a good explanation of October 7 and the reason he left the left(tm)
The structurally equivalent totalitarian ideology with communism on the left today – the contemporary opium of the intellectuals – is antizionism.
A number of times, the Palestinian leadership notoriously refused any peace agreement that would have resulted in a free Palestinian state living alongside Israel, insisting on conditions that could only be conceded at the cost of Israel itself. This was particularly true of their insistence on the absolute right of “return” for Palestinian “refugees” who left, or who were expelled, in 1948. This seems to be good evidence that their political leadership actually focuses on extinguishing the existence of a Jewish state more than on the founding of their own country. This is the most unfortunate for Israel, which has to maintain the partial occupation of the West Bank, with devastating consequences also for its own society.
Religious fundamentalism is only the most recent and extreme outgrowth of this basic moral fundamentalist appeal for “justice”. In fact, “Justice for Palestine!” is the slogan that anchors its derivative ones we are seeing today: “From the river to the sea”, “(Globalize the) Intifada!”, “Apartheid Israel”, etc. This deeply immoral moral fundamentalism has been widely accepted in the West as a “liberation movement” by wide parts of public opinion, while its religious fundamentalism and Nazi-like messianic antisemitism is still not being acknowledged.
In contrast, this thinking automatically absolves even its most inhumane and barbarian enemies who in any other context would be considered as the enemy of humanity as a whole. This is worse than Holocaust denial: this is the outright justification of all potential Holocausts.
the liberal international order upon which free trade is grounded
If you talk about this in a positive way, you weren't that committed to the ”toxic Marxist perspective”.
Nazi-like messianic antisemitism
Cope
Free Trade?? What THE HELL is going on with this man? This is literally all he argued against.
Show
The person basing their worldview on moralism goes lib, what a surprise.
have you read his works? His worldview previous to whatever the fuck this is was maybe moralizing (they without sin cast the first stone) but he was using a pretty materialist framework, here from the intro to divided world, divided class:
Show
The book explains superstructure (racism, chauvinism, imperialism) via base, you have to concede, whether you agree on the arguments presented or not, that this is not a moralist base for his arguments.
Granted, I am myself puzzled how he could turn out like that. But a deep-seated moralist strain in his thinking imo is not the reason.
A man with good understanding of his class interests aligns with his class interests, what's surprising here?
Nothing is "surprising" here. There is no sacred law that prevents marxists - especially western ones - from turning traitor. Still, as there have been a bunch of facile assumptions in the thread before somebody actually gave a decent answer, I really think it can't hurt to ask what exactly happened with him instead of going
"I always knew it"
Granted, I am myself puzzled how he could turn out like that. But a deep-seated moralist strain in his thinking imo is not the reason.
He's a settler in Belfast occupying Irish land.
he saw the form decolonisation will actually take, the righteous anger of the global south, realised what the implications of his work were, and started, true to his name, coping
Another 1914 moment, Ukraine and Palestine really separated wheat from the chaff.
People align with their class interests. Class traitors are exceptional.
It's not surprising that someone with a keen understanding of the global north/south divide would do a complete full fascist 180 when they are shocked into realigning with their class (global north) interests. They understand that their entire body of work is still legit, it's just that their class interest is to now denounce it because they are horrified by the implications.
The truth is, the global south has no reason to be kind to the global north once the tables have turned. The global south has no guarantee of becoming socialist, only the potential opportunity. The only certainty of multipolarity and global south development is that living standards in the global north will sharply decrease as the disparity balances out, and that can only really happen via counter-imperialist forces that are opposing imperial market penetration.
Competent imperialists have to understand marxist analysis too, because it's the only lens of analysis that actually makes makes sense at different scales. That's why, when the mask slips, the liberal platitudes morph into zero-sum conflict theory materialist assessments on how to maintain the empire. The real evil of how to dominate markets is done via materialist analysis and disguised with liberal fluff.
How does a global north third worldist stay sane in the face of what might happen, what we've done to others, and what might happen to us when the tables turn? I don't know yet, it's scary, but I'm not going to become an imperialist cheerleader.
How does a global north third worldist stay sane in the face of what might happen, what we've done to others, and what might happen to us when the tables turn?
It will be funny. But hopefully their reactions to me will be similar to the African militants during decolonization. “Let that man go! He is not white! He’s Italian.”
You stay sane by grilling
Seriously. There's a very good chance that the global north fights to the bitter end, and no amount of internal class struggle will turn northerners against their imperial interests at the scale necessary to avoid the fascist turn. If you can't leave, sometimes the only thing left to do is chill out, grill out, and contribute as little to the machine as possible. Simply resisting the urge to Cope, resisting the peer pressure to embrace fascism, lying flat and waiting for the inevitable victory of the international proletariat. Keep your mind sharp, organize with comrades when you can find them, and never stop posting. Other than that, just find innocent things you enjoy doing in life outside of politics and just try to keep your mind busy. An idle mind is Hitler's plaything.
Thank you for coming to my Ted talk
How does a global north third worldist stay sane in the face of what might happen, what we've done to others
1st worlders often go into this premature panic where they think the day of reckoning is coming for them, and that some prole living in a trailer in Appalachia is going to be executed by firing squad alongside the stockbroker in Manhattan, or the silicon valley exec, or the 4 star general, or the EU official with a nazi grandpa, and they imagine that some kind of mass Revolutionary Tribunal is going to happen against the entire 1st world and everyone living in it, regardless of class, regardless of inner colonization, when what's far more likely to happen is a slow realignment, a slow decline of the core, a slow rise of the periphery. England still exists. Germany still exists. When the British Empire declined, when the 3rd reich collapsed, there was no "day of reckoning" against the common people there. Hell, even a lot of the explicitly guilty got away with everything they did. So I think it's overly optimistic/pessimistic (depending on your class interests) to imagine some kind of gigachad revolutionary tribunal where every last NATO citizen is executed for their complicity or whatever. This isn't to say that "nothing ever happens" or that everyone in the 1st world is innocent, mind you. I don't think the average American is going to suffer 1/10th of what the average person in Gaza has suffered, even in the most optimistic third worldist outcome.
My concern is more what the impact of uncontrolled degrowth or sudden realignments of wealth and resources. The rich rarely suffer, but workers and the underclass in the global north might suffer badly if the pace of change is too fast to adapt to.
the working class in the imperial core is definitely going to suffer, but that was a given. revolts and revolutions historically have happened when the underclasses become so miserable that violence is undeniably the only remaining option. Until then, a lot of people are just tired, and have to go to work tomorrow, and are afraid to go die fighting cops and troops, and are still holding out false hope for reformism. Revolution is a bus that departs when full. Independent of imperialism, the rich in the imperial core are getting richer, and poor in the imperial core are getting poorer. Inflation in all its forms is eating away at what little purchasing power our wages give us. Things are going to get worse whether or not there is a "clash of civilizations" between the core and periphery. In a way, I think the fantasy of some kind of JDPON occupation of the imperial core is a reproduction of the ideology of the ruling class: As in "we" can't imagine ourselves having our own revolution any more than "we" can imagine the manufacturing jobs coming back. If the jobs got outsourced to the periphery, then the revolution got outsourced too, the logic goes. The revolution "used to be our job" but then it got outsourced to the people who are more oppressed. So now they have to "do our job for us".
Rn im trying to think of a way to say "i wqnna get executed by a revolutionary from the global south" in a way that doesnt sound racist and fetish-like
Ive been suicidal since i was 10 years old this is nothing new
pretty disappointing. "Shock of recognition" is a title of Sakai on fascism - pretty sure that is intentional
Defending and denying the Nakba atrocities and war crimes cuz the brown people cheered at whitish civilians getting some violence this time against them
Yep it's Western LeftTM time
Also to the people talking about moralism, whatever that is, I'm an anti-yank rule-of-thumber "contrarian" cuz the yank empire is the most evil shit you can distile, look at the world dog
Yep it's Western LeftTM time
This time just seems weird cuz this dudes whole thing was pointing out why the west has no left.
This is like if J Sakai went neocon after 9/11.
people really don't understand that this was not some random idiot (apparently he is tho, lmao) teaching "the marxist subjectivities of the Bee movie" but a guy who talked about economic imperialism while dutch users of r/chapotraphouse (iirc) tried to phonebank for Bernie
He's Anglo-Irish apparently. Presumably he had a vision of the Catholic hordes paragliding into Belfast
Presumably he had a vision of the Catholic hordes paragliding into Belfast
waow
The point is not whether moralism is "good" or "bad", but whether Zack Cope used some kind of Moralist Reasoning (thinking in "good/bad" terms) when developing his theory (he didnt, he was a Marxist).
You don't have to be a Marxist to understand what's happening in Palestine to Palestinians is wrong. You just need an honest accounting of the facts to make that judgement.
I heard he's Belfast Anglo-Irish, so it may be the decolonial aspect of Oct 7th that broke his tiny mind
Who and why would fear Irish reunification? Other than UK feds I guess.
Because the potential of it being achieved through violence is a real possibility. A lot of people who lived through the Troubles or descended from it are still alive today.
Huh I guess, do you think it would? I kind of assumed Sinn Féin would be doing it all democratic like, given recent moves iirc. (DUP L) Maybe it's naive of me to think the loyalists and
would let it slip so easily though.
Yeah but its not like October 7th would happen in 2024 NI, Loyalist support of Israel is simply a reactionary stance brought on by Nationalist support of Palestine. I think the reason is more that he is, like many people here, incredibly adverse to paramilitary violence. It's easy to see how a person with a Loyalist background with a "civility" mindset could be shocked into returning to their traditional Right Wing Loyalist roots when seeing the Left wing Nationalists support what they see to be a unforgivable act of violence similar to the Troubles.
Then again who the fuck knows maybe he got converted by Facebook or is just being opportunistic, maybe he recently got married or divorced or a million other personal things that lead to these kinds of changes.
capitalism is empirically inseparable from imperialism is an imperalist colonial project.
Oh I don't want to sound antisemetic because I can't not conflate and Zionism with all of the Jews and Judaism. People are citing my works as an example of capitalsm and imperalism. I don't want to be called antisemetic and I was given these straight up Zionazi talking points to cover my ass and remain published. /sYou get ONE good shot at the establishment - ONE. Then they either turn you to stay in good graces .
I do like that even though he finds himself on the side of Zionism he's too "intellectual" to actually be duplicitous like most hasbara Zionists. He's the completely serious antisemite.
He openly admits to the illegal occupation of the West Bank and the Nakba. Two big no nos for Hasbara experts since you can't out explain that.
This guys just a rat and I hope the leopards find his old writings and eat his face soon.
How did he turn into such a racist piece of shit like some fucking sleeper cell activation. Academic left moment. Using terms like barbarian...
He's a settler in occupied Ireland. Not hard to imagine the Anglo settler chip in his brain activating when he sees the Indigenous take up arms against settlers.
yeah, it's bonkers. part of me understands why conspiracy heads go full "they were killed and replaced with clone"
the above user is suicidal
