She was on to something. I've had more love and kindness shown to me from complete strangers than my entire family combined, who live to spite me. I keep telling my mom that people are generally good, it's what's got us living in the modern age, it's just that capitalism keeps the good people from sticking together.
The family unit isn't itself reactionary, the structure the family unit naturally takes in a capitalist society is.
The bourgeoisie has torn away from the family its sentimental veil, and has reduced the family relation to a mere money relation.
On what foundation is the present family, the bourgeois family, based? On capital, on private gain. In its completely developed form, this family exists only among the bourgeoisie. But this state of things finds its complement in the practical absence of the family among the proletarians, and in public prostitution.
The bourgeois clap-trap about the family and education, about the hallowed co-relation of parents and child, becomes all the more disgusting, the more, by the action of Modern Industry, all the family ties among the proletarians are torn asunder, and their children transformed into simple articles of commerce and instruments of labour.
You should know where this is from.
My first guess was gonna be "The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State" by Engels.
But the manifesto is basically a summary of a bunch of other communist lit, so I'm probably half right.
I don't think all family units are reactionary. I just think Americans are more reactionary & selfish in general so if you pick out random families they'll seem to be reactionary & selfish.
I mean the individual family unit is not inherently reactionary but the forced narrative of two parents two kids in a capitalist economy which promotes the greed of this family unit is reactionary.
There’s a whole lot of really interesting psychology behind the nuclear family being promoted by American propaganda. The idea has always been to stop people from organizing through the promotion of consumption, and to tie up as much time as possible from the parents so there isn’t time to organize or be active in the community. The suburban housing layout physically separates people within communities. Cars separate you from others on your commute to work and errands, you are also physically separated from those doing labor.
It’s really fucked when you start realizing just how much suburbs are designed to crush you so you can fill that void with consumption.
Americans and English are pretty shitty to their families, tbh. It's like really selfish people aren't going to be able to hide it to the people they spend 20 years with.
I can't get over how much people can love their families outside of the West.
*obviously exceptions apply on both sides
you claim to be against the family, yet you are friends with families
It's not because they are a family, it's because Liz Bruenig is a social conservative and everyone just ignores it cuz she's pro Bernie
Could you elaborate? I honestly have ignored the bruenigs for the most part and listened to the recent pod and enjoyed listening to them talk. I know people talk bad about them but I don't understand why.
Just gonna copy and paste what I wrote below:
She’s written about how Republicans have a “reasonably sound position on sexual ethics,” that homosexuality/abortion/“a libertine attitude towards sexuality” are morally unsound, and (while I can’t find it anymore) blamed a man getting away with murdering his gf on the woman being into BDSM.
LOL the Tweets you linked didn't spell this out, but if this is accurate then yeah that's fucked up. BDSM-fearmongering is clueless and homophobia is a non-starter, that's more conservative than the Pope.
She literally calls the Democrats' approach to sex ethics "unconscionable" and the sex ethics of the Republican party "reasonably sound" in the screenshot there, so I'm not quite sure what I need to spell out for you.
Read the whole blog link because I couldn't tell who was talking what from the screenshots alone... It's a little more vague than her calling the Democrats' approach to sex "unconscionable" - she says that's the perspective that Christians face, which is not the same as stating that view outright. But yeah, she's a social conservative, though she actually cares about poverty and the environment as much as about sex.
She has the good sense to rarely mention it and keep a sense of plausible deniability, but I'm tired of people acting like it's overreacting to call her a reactionary. She's written about how Republicans have a "reasonably sound position on sexual ethics," that homosexuality/abortion/"a libertine attitude towards sexuality" are morally unsound, and (while I can't find it anymore) blamed a man getting away with murdering his gf on the woman being into BDSM. She's a fucking ghoul.
Do people really dislike them or is it a bit? I don't follow both of them but have seen their posts quite a bit and they usually seem very tame. Idk how trad socialism "works" but i know a couple people who are Christian socialists and they seem fine, is that any different?
https://twitter.com/bent_n_/status/1362627424819830785?s=19
This was written 7 years ago, so maybe she's completely disowned these views since but I certainly haven't seen shit and people seem to think it's not a big deal because she doesn't talk like this in public as much anymore and supports M4A.
oh damn that is pretty fuckin reactionary.
I'm glad she disowned it but uhhh,not a good look either way. Thanks for thatNo idea what that's saying without context. She says we need "sexual ethics" - couldn't that mean anything (including things like respecting consent)? "Libertine" sexuality is cool, but people (especially religious ones) can have a more conservative personal approach to sexuality if they want - that's not the same as slut-shaming or fighting against biology. I.e. you can be a literal volcel if you want.
Or am I missing something?
no you're wrong nobody should ever talk to her or her husband about completely unrelated topics again
You should all go get tested , and get an answer in 3 days.. You can go to CVS< you drive up to window .. Get your car cleaned off, and driveway cleared , it will make you feel better :)))))))
My aunt's latest email after telling her I feel sick and weak. Same wonderful advice of "oh yeah your husband doesn't have corona, it's fine to go near him, you don't need to get tested either :)"
Then people wonder why I have mental illness.
How about you go get a job? Maybe feel what it's like to live in the real world where people die from a deadly pandemic your absolute dipshit president caused. An no, it's not a god damned bio weapon, stop reading stupid conspiracy shit online. I am so done living with this family who treats me like a black man in the south, mom feels the same way. Nobody is ever around to help but boy oh boy are you there to point fingers when there's a problem. You people literally drive me crazy, I'm on a billion different meds because of Karen's like you. Leave me alone, leave my mom alone, you reactionary weirdo, don't call either because I don't care.
My response to her, so I think I burned the bridge. And this was me actually being nice about it.
It still sounds a little strange to me but I know that's because I haven't really read into it yet. I totally understand someone less informed bristling at the suggestion, even non-chuds
Idk about that, but they seem to treat it as a boutique issue. Amber certainly didnt seem to give a shit about Anna cracking trans jokes during their Spiked interview.
"Whether you're trans or not is totally irrelevant, all that matters is CLASS!"
-Amb*r, probably
So there is this comic where a boss yells at his employee who then yells at his wife and so on. I think capitalism is basically that. You get some sand kicked in your face and then you want to do the same to others. That when education is not liberating the dream of the oppressed is to become the oppressor.
I think families haven't always been like this but have been structured in a way to support capitalism. Instead of taking those angers or resentments and uniting with others it allows this kind of abuse to take place to dispel the angry at what it deems as acceptable targets.
I might be overreaching but if domestic abuse and traumas like this were truly important to the powers that be then we would have solved them by now. I'm reminded of ubi experiments where money was given and shit got better for everyone. Of course this was scrapped because of the pigs in charge we can't have anything nice.
I might be overreaching but if domestic abuse and traumas like this were truly important to the powers that be then we would have solved them by now.
Domestic abuse and trauma are like baked into capitalism and is what keeps us basically perpetuating this cycle.
Yeah that's my thinking. I think with this part meant more how this system prioritizes different things from what we do. It's a mistake to say capitalism does anything unintentionally, everything that happens helps it. I might be speaking out of my ass since I've no idea how domestic abuse operated under USSR or Cuba but I imagine in countries with a better safety net and resources for people there might be less of it. It would also be dealt with differently I think.
This is a good article on it. https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/transformation/neoliberal-economics-of-family-life/
Kropotkin had a section about this in mutual aid. Units of people have been broken down into smaller and smaller chunks over time by the more powerful. Sometimes intentional, sometimes not. Your call if you want to read into that.
The nuclear family is reactionary. Atomizing the family unit alienates people from the large social networks that has historically been the basis for both community and the accrual of familial wealth.
But the idea of people staying together passed the ephemeral consumerist joy of a quick fuck? No. That's as leftist as it comes.
