I mean he's saying the opposite. He's saying you want to make it as easy as possible for managerial workers to not be class traitors because they hold a lot of power, not because their fee-fees are extra valuable
I mean that doesn't seem to far off honestly. Every time I hear people talk about "PMC" it's mostly just describing a list of cultural affectations they find annoying rather than anything material.
You mean the lexicon of leftists is mostly used by ex-liberals trying to find a new hierarchy to slot themselves into, which inevitably requires "people who are more successful versions of myself who I resent" and leads to no organization or solidarity occurring even though those hated PMC types are ONE MILLION ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE more relatable to you than the class of slavedrivers and warmongers that punish you both?
100% of the time you hear something being described as "neoliberal" or "bourgeois" on RedScare or StupidPol (and, surprise surprise... 99.99% on Chapo as well) is an expression of identity formation, not meaningful analysis. These people continually cast themselves as being the 'real working class' with obfuscated definitions yet anyone else who tries to come into the clubhouse is just an academic social-climbing parasite unless they fit the parameter of "middle aged overweight white male with bad joints wearing oil-spattered overalls who likes racist and sexist jokes and is afraid of gay people," AKA a fucking cartoon stereotype. Instead of the usual pseudoprogressive demonization of rural white people it's tokenization, with no interest in how they actually live or how to improve their conditions.
And of course it makes sense. Modern 'left underground' space in the United States is completely defanged, but has the aesthetics of counterculture. To be young and beautiful and an addict and misunderstood, for your only crime to be you love too fiercely! All performative. You think those StupidPol and RedScare types would be anywhere near a protest in the 1960s? You think they'd march shoulder to shoulder with black people knowing they were in harm's way? Or would they be sitting at home, thinking "Why can't Martin Luther King just be patient?"
And guess what, only more of that is coming. Ironically enough by conservatives using terms like socialism/Marxism/Communism/leftism so frequently they've entered the public consciousness as being "Democrats but, like, italicized."
It's fucked, but you're at disadvantage in the imperial fucking core. And by disadvantage I mean your every move is mostly a symbolic one for your own self-affirmation.
On one hand, I get it, attacking the PMC libs with some access to the levers of power seems like a worse plan than bringing them over to our side.
On the other hand, anyone with some degree of power should be open to criticism in proportion to their power because the results of our political system are so fucking horrible.
The solution here is pushing universal policies that help everyone.
This is actually not that bad of a take. With regards to the PMC, as far as it really exists as a class, I think it would function similarly to the petite bourgeoisie. That is, it has neither the numbers that the proletariat has, nor the capital that the big bourgeoisie has, and as such, is incapable of enacting its own independent class agenda. It’s going to break towards whichever of the two major classes is winning.
The liberal brain is this cartoon, except they think it's objective fact and not propaganda
Got this leaked excerpt from Ezra's new book: Pedagogy of the Oppressor
In the presence of a liberatory education, the oppressor seeks only to alienate their fellows.
I'm assuming Klein's commentary is not the bolded text, which correctly articulates the zero-sum nature of class antagonism between workers and capitalists, such that increasing the workers' freedom necessitates limiting capitalists' freedom to exploit.
I mean what is wrong with this. The PMC, if they exist as a strata, are part of the working class. They may be paid into submission, but they are still overworked, have no power, and no capital.
They shouldn't be alienated if possible - they can be part of organization building.
