Comment on Disgusted

• UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Most people I know that want an end to borders also want the end of government.

  Idk about that. The line I’ve always seen is that most people want a system which protects-but-does-not-bind. And what they recoil at is a system that binds-but-does-not-protect.

  I want the border to be frictionless for me. But I don’t want the border to be frictionless for people I don’t like.

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  • rockSlayer@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    But I don’t want the border to be frictionless for people I don’t like

    And therein lies the rub: if their government doesn’t like you, the border then binds you but does not protect you. Borders exist because it projects power onto people within, and gives arbitrary rules for entry without. If you want truly free movement, you can’t have projections of power

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    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      if their government doesn’t like you, the border then binds you but does not protect you.

      Okay, but that’s just why this is the most important election of our lives and you need to turn out to vote or we’ll be under the boot of the vile fascist-communist government of the Other Party That Doesn’t Like Me.

      Borders exist because it projects power onto people within

      I mean, that’s a very narrow perspective. Borders exist as a compromise between neighboring governments, indicating where one set of legal codes ends and another begins.

      If you want truly free movement, you can’t have projections of power

      Free movement is power projection. It’s just projection by the people (and their attendant organizations and ideologies) doing the moving.

      The whole neoliberal One Big Global Market wet dream was about projecting the power of Western financial and regulatory authorities around the globe. Open Borders can be as much about projecting power as closed ones. And whether you believe that’s good or bad really hinges on whether you believe you’re aligned with the people doing the power projection.

      You absolutely could describe the Russian invasion of Ukraine (or the US invasion of Iraq/Afghanistan/Libya/Syria) as a kind-of Open Borders policy under the Bush Doctrine. The borders are simply open to those with a big enough battering ram to kick through the door.

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• hansolo@lemmy.today ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Most people I know that want an end to borders also want the end of government.

  So, not exactly an unbiased same, eh?

  If people are struggling to survive but there are no jobs to be found, it’s because the work that needs to be done isn’t profitable. The work needs to be done to benefit society, but the ruling class demands that all work must be profitable.

  Explain how the “ruling class” does this to a rural subsistence farming village in Burkina Faso or Mali or Ghana. I’d love to see you explain it.

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  • rockSlayer@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    not exactly an unbiased same

    There’s no such thing as “unbiased”. If you see something you think is unbiased, that thing just reflects your bias.

    Explain how the “ruling class” does this to a rural subsistence farming village

    So here’s the thing. I want an end to borders and government, but the reality is that these social constructs exist and are acted upon regardless of my political desires. Those subsistence farming villages are a part of geopolitical governments, so it impacts them based on how the ruling class interacts with their government. The IMF is a concoction from capitalists to project neo-colonial power on the Global South. To get a loan from the IMF, countries are literally required to privatize vast swaths of their public services and public property, they’re required to loosen labor laws, and they need to open themselves up to foreign companies that extract their resources to make a profit that is not reinvested into that country.

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  • ayyy@sh.itjust.works ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Generations of pillaging, murder, theft, slavery, pollution, and political meddling. Also the occasional genocide. Have you ever read a single history book about Africa that wasn’t written by a colonizer?

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    • hansolo@lemmy.today ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Funny, I’ve never actually read any history books about Africa written by a coloniser. I have done a translation of a local novel depicting the horrors of colonialism to get the perspective out there.

      I’m deeply aware of colonialism, and I personally would love if the AU would take the bold step of undoing the Berlin Conference borders. However, that’s part of why the existing borders are largely seen as immaterial with regard to human movement. When I try to drive a car across a border, I need letters and insurance and papers. When my friend drives his car across borders, he drives through a village and no one cares. It’s two separate worlds at some level.

      Still, you can’t be like Trump and blame everything on the same Boogey man. There’s plenty of African nations that did a descent job of shaking of colonialism. Yet the same problems remain. Shit, tell me why Ethiopia has these issues, having never been truly colonized.

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