this post was submitted on 09 Jul 2023
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There's no need for anyone in the western world to frown upon that. Literally all of us started out with the wealth that our ancestors violently extracted from colonies.
Just because you didn't personally inherit millions doesn't change the structural fact. All our industries jump-started by getting stuff from colonies. It was a big rush among the colonizers, and those who didn't do successful colonize are not among "first world" countries today.
Musk is guilty of much, but his sin in benefiting from his parents sins is different from yours only in scale.
Except I don't deny my privilege, which is on such another scale as to be in a completely different world.
Besides, he doesn't just pretends to be self-made, he downright believes that his success comes from him being a genetically superior genius. He is consciously siring as much offspring as he possibly can (10 so far, 9 surviving, one of which publicly disowned him) to provide the world with future heroes. To call him a regular level narcissist would be akin to call a tiger a slightly oversized house cat.
Lastly, I refuse to buy Nestlé products because some of them were made using slavery. Musk made his first fortune on the backs of slaves, treats his current employees as similarly to slaves as he can get away with and subjects them to both racist and sexual abuse.
I may have the privilege of being born a cishet white male in a rich country, but that does NOT mean that I'm the equivalent of Apartheid Emerald Boy. Scale matters and immense differences in scale matter immensely.
I agree with you in as much as "don't hate the player hate the game" but at the same time, this is not basketball. This is people knowingly exploiting others. Who cares if "its the norm"?
This makes a lot of sense. But where did the colonizers get their money?
yea. not sure how true this is, but i do remember reading that the emerald mines business wasn't as profitable as people think it is or smthg.
Admittedly it is not 100% true for all first world countries, when we’re discussing outside Europe it’s a slightly more complex. For America it was not colonialism but imperialism, but that doesn’t change the moral argument. Those states in Asia that are first world I don’t know enough to talk confidently (and with that you know I’m not ChatGPT)