All across the internet, a very commonly-held philosophy is that "corporations control US politics", and that the party line is irrelevant. It's a bold point but hardly an unpopular one, and there is a very good amount of evidence to suggest that this is true. Corporations clearly have a major influence on American policy, and a lot of our post-WW2 military intervention has been done with business interests in mind. Today, very many vigilante bloggers are excited to expose what they see as a conspiracy, primarily how Democratic candidates are often as beholden to big money as their Republican opponents. Reddit's large conspiracy community is concerned with corporate dominance more than anything else, and conspiracy theories about corporations often tie into international banking and the "new world order". Many people who hold these beliefs often also subscribe to broadly anti-GMO or sometimes even anti-vaccination theories, based around the idea that there is a greater power hiding a secret. The main belief is that "regular people" ought to expose their overlords and cast them out, and that the United States was not always like this. Although it's pretty inarguable that US politics were always driven by the wealthy, many would insist that the dominance of money is a recent development, and that Americans instead ought to be governed by somebody else. Somebody like them.
It troubles me how much this rhetoric resembles the Anti-Semitic conspiracy theories of the 20th century. Both are a cynical, vaguely anti-Democratic belief that holds that a group of money-holders who are distinctly different from the common citizen are the true leaders of a nation, and that elections are irrelevant. The actions of unethical people who happen to be Jewish is often used by internet far-righters as proof of "Jewish evil", and sometimes is considered reason for all Jews to be persecuted. The most prominent far-right online communities are probably Stormfront and 4chan's /pol/ board. I have never personally experienced the former, but have spent a little bit of time observing anti-Semites on /pol/ and other parts of the site that they spill over to. While beliefs hugely differ (many bigots support non-Jewish corporations and want to create a fascist state, while others hate all corporations and would prefer a Jewish-exclusionary libertarian nation), these bigots tend to be quite alike mainstream liberal activists in that all of them agree that there is a silent upper class which must be removed from power, and that this silent upper class controls politics for their own benefit alone, without any regard for the common citizen.
Is this a manifestation of the horseshoe theory? Progressives (including radical leftists and everyday liberals) tend to be fierce opponents of any kind of bigotry. Many leftist groups like radical feminists or social justice bloggers on Tumblr are more concerned with social inequalities (such as women's rights or institutional oppression) rather than anything else. But many or most of these bloggers are also interested in changing politics to be less friendly to big money. This is an incredibly noble goal, but it often verges on baseless conspiracy, with sweeping accusations about how "your vote doesn't matter", "America is no longer a democracy", or "we need to rise up". This is identical to the rhetoric of white supremacists on places like /pol/, but instead of Zionists or all Jews, the monster that must be killed is corporatism. Far-right extremists believe that there is an innate Jewish character, of trickery and deceit, and that this means no Jewish people can be trusted. Most /pol/ users will tell you with a straight-face that Jews as a group are trying to destroy the West through "cultural Marxism" and financial dominance. As proof, they will present America's close ties to the state of Israel, or that the majority of current Federal Reserve chairs are Jewish. Meanwhile, many liberals (including huge amounts of my own friends and peers) are just as convicted to anti-corporate ideals, using evidence similar to what I linked above as proof that corporations control America. And because deceit and ill-intent are intrinsic to the corporate character, a corporate America is one in which everyone else will suffer. Clearly, anti-Semitism is far more harmful than anti-corporatism on the basis that anti-Semitism leads to the persecution of individuals, rather than of imaginary entities. However, the similarity of the beliefs and their overlap makes me worry that leftist conspiracy may lead to Zionist conspiracy. There seems to have been an increase in anti-Semitic nationalism in the past year (especially on Reddit and 4chan), and I wonder how much of this comes from liberals who saw anti-corporatist material on Social Media and then took a wrong turn down the rabbit hole.
Personally, I don't believe that corporations are necessarily immoral. While corporations have caused a great amount of despair, especially to the developing world, I can think of no other reason than corporate politics for the increasing standard of living outside of the West, and the success of formerly impoverished countries like Japan, Norway, Singapore, or Saudi Arabia. I agree that a global Marxist revolution would do much more to eradicate poverty than corporate Capitalism ever could, but I believe that would requite a global government, which I cannot perceive in the foreseeable future. I also have very guarded feelings toward Communism and hard socialism, given how poorly it has been employed in the past. I would not want to live in a world ran by corporations, but I don't believe that we currently live in one. Essentially all power that corporations have in American politics was given to them by voters, through their support of pro-Corporate politicians. As awful as this current influence is, I believe it would hardly be impossible to change. The election of a moderate leftist president (such as the kind of heads of state who regularly become elected in Europe) would do wonders to erode corporate influence, as would campaign finance reform to prevent those with means being allowed undue influence on the electoral process. Wide-sweeping generalizations like "America is no longer a democracy" are ridiculous to me, but seem increasingly common on the internet. It bothers me to see how popular conspiratorial thinking has become, especially given how dangerous this kind of baseless logic has proven to be.
Am I rambling or am I onto something? It's 1 AM and I doubt many posters will see this, but I really wanted to jot some thoughts down before I turned in for the night.
It troubles me how much this rhetoric resembles the Anti-Semitic conspiracy theories of the 20th century. Both are a cynical, vaguely anti-Democratic belief that holds that a group of money-holders who are distinctly different from the common citizen are the true leaders of a nation, and that elections are irrelevant. The actions of unethical people who happen to be Jewish is often used by internet far-righters as proof of "Jewish evil", and sometimes is considered reason for all Jews to be persecuted. The most prominent far-right online communities are probably Stormfront and 4chan's /pol/ board. I have never personally experienced the former, but have spent a little bit of time observing anti-Semites on /pol/ and other parts of the site that they spill over to. While beliefs hugely differ (many bigots support non-Jewish corporations and want to create a fascist state, while others hate all corporations and would prefer a Jewish-exclusionary libertarian nation), these bigots tend to be quite alike mainstream liberal activists in that all of them agree that there is a silent upper class which must be removed from power, and that this silent upper class controls politics for their own benefit alone, without any regard for the common citizen.
Is this a manifestation of the horseshoe theory? Progressives (including radical leftists and everyday liberals) tend to be fierce opponents of any kind of bigotry. Many leftist groups like radical feminists or social justice bloggers on Tumblr are more concerned with social inequalities (such as women's rights or institutional oppression) rather than anything else. But many or most of these bloggers are also interested in changing politics to be less friendly to big money. This is an incredibly noble goal, but it often verges on baseless conspiracy, with sweeping accusations about how "your vote doesn't matter", "America is no longer a democracy", or "we need to rise up". This is identical to the rhetoric of white supremacists on places like /pol/, but instead of Zionists or all Jews, the monster that must be killed is corporatism. Far-right extremists believe that there is an innate Jewish character, of trickery and deceit, and that this means no Jewish people can be trusted. Most /pol/ users will tell you with a straight-face that Jews as a group are trying to destroy the West through "cultural Marxism" and financial dominance. As proof, they will present America's close ties to the state of Israel, or that the majority of current Federal Reserve chairs are Jewish. Meanwhile, many liberals (including huge amounts of my own friends and peers) are just as convicted to anti-corporate ideals, using evidence similar to what I linked above as proof that corporations control America. And because deceit and ill-intent are intrinsic to the corporate character, a corporate America is one in which everyone else will suffer. Clearly, anti-Semitism is far more harmful than anti-corporatism on the basis that anti-Semitism leads to the persecution of individuals, rather than of imaginary entities. However, the similarity of the beliefs and their overlap makes me worry that leftist conspiracy may lead to Zionist conspiracy. There seems to have been an increase in anti-Semitic nationalism in the past year (especially on Reddit and 4chan), and I wonder how much of this comes from liberals who saw anti-corporatist material on Social Media and then took a wrong turn down the rabbit hole.
Personally, I don't believe that corporations are necessarily immoral. While corporations have caused a great amount of despair, especially to the developing world, I can think of no other reason than corporate politics for the increasing standard of living outside of the West, and the success of formerly impoverished countries like Japan, Norway, Singapore, or Saudi Arabia. I agree that a global Marxist revolution would do much more to eradicate poverty than corporate Capitalism ever could, but I believe that would requite a global government, which I cannot perceive in the foreseeable future. I also have very guarded feelings toward Communism and hard socialism, given how poorly it has been employed in the past. I would not want to live in a world ran by corporations, but I don't believe that we currently live in one. Essentially all power that corporations have in American politics was given to them by voters, through their support of pro-Corporate politicians. As awful as this current influence is, I believe it would hardly be impossible to change. The election of a moderate leftist president (such as the kind of heads of state who regularly become elected in Europe) would do wonders to erode corporate influence, as would campaign finance reform to prevent those with means being allowed undue influence on the electoral process. Wide-sweeping generalizations like "America is no longer a democracy" are ridiculous to me, but seem increasingly common on the internet. It bothers me to see how popular conspiratorial thinking has become, especially given how dangerous this kind of baseless logic has proven to be.
Am I rambling or am I onto something? It's 1 AM and I doubt many posters will see this, but I really wanted to jot some thoughts down before I turned in for the night.
