We can – and should – applaud the attempted reach here. For we’ve the coining of a new concept, terror capitalism, and the definition is the horrible things that states do to unfree citizenry. We can agree that this could, with a little stretch, be called terror but the alliance with capitalism is somewhat unclear:
Gulzira was one of the millions of targets of a global phenomenon we call “terror capitalism”. Terror capitalism justifies the exploitation of subjugated populations by defining them as potential terrorists or security threats. It primarily generates profits in three interconnected ways. First, lucrative state contracts are given to private corporations to build and deploy policing technologies that surveil and manage target groups. Then, using the vast amounts of biometric and social media data extracted from those groups, the private companies improve their technologies and sell retail versions of them to other states and institutions, such as schools. Finally, all this turns the target groups into a ready source of cheap labor – either through direct coercion or indirectly through stigma.
It’s worth pondering, certainly.
So, if these technologies were available to Joseph Stalin would he have used them? I think the answer there is yes. In fact, Stalin did use his then current day versions of all of those things. He also locked up everyone he didn’t like into camps and made them labour for the good of the state.
That is, we’ve got the Gulag being described as capitalism.
So, we’ve now pondered and it’s nonsense, isn’t it?
Why bother with hypotheticals about Stalin? Isn’t this exactly what the Chinese Communists do under Xi?
And which thay have just introduced into Hong Kong with the National Insecurity Law.
PS: Merely writing this comment qualifies me for a minimum of 3 yrs in jail.
Arise, those who refuse to be slaves!
Let us build a new Great Wall along the Sham Chun River!
Hong Kong faces its greatest peril
From the Tyrants to the North.
Arise! Arise! Arise!
Millions of but one heart
Braving the repressor’s fire! March on!
Braving the repressor’s fire! March on!
March on! March, march on!
What is being described here is not capitalism, but a variant of corporatism, the type of which is very common in the EU. Corporate interests develop regulations in partnership with the European Commission in secret and un-minuted meetings, which were previously called ludicrously Comitology. Some civil society groups, who are mostly directly or indirectly EU funded, are also involved. These regulations promote the Commission’s policy goals, guarantee corporate profits (often by ensuring there is minimal competition) and the civil society groups are made to feel important, as well as being kept quiet they grow fat. The regulatory impact almost never… Read more »
Many “technologies that surveil and manage target groups,” are provided by a corporation whose motto is “Don’t Be Evil.” However, the fact that an imperialist dictatorship can purchase in a free market does not make the dictatorship, or the consequential harms, an attribute of the free market or of capitalism.
I naturally want the state to prevent terrorists or whatever from murdering me. In the good old days, we used racial, religious and cultural profiling to make sure we only took in immigrants who were willing to appropriate our social and cultural mores. We called it the White Australia Policy. Unfortunately we abandoned this system, so now we have to pick out the ratbags after they’ve come to Oz. I’ve no objection to the use of high tech to do so. However I don’t believe this means that the immigrants are enslaved, though I’m sure that the woke just can’t… Read more »
This has *nothing* to do with capitalism. A woman jailed and subjugated by the Chinese Communists for watching a film about Muslim women. As a pensioner, hence ipso facto a capitalist I regard this as grossly libellous. “Terror capitalism is an American invention” – rubbish! As already pointed out this is just an updated version of Stalinism. The USA uses electronic surveillance as an alternative to keeping people locked up and not as an instrument of torture. It is not true that China only started subjugation of the Uighurs in 2014 – that goes back to the rule of Mao… Read more »