Thread by @JoshuaCypess

1/ Whether the desire for slavery created white supremacy or vice-versa or - most likely - an inevitable chicken/egg pairing, I think we can see them as interchangeable concepts

And when you look at US society, you see rigid structures that hurt everybody in order to maintain WS

2/ What we learn about a slave society is that a bulk of communal resources must be spent to basically uphold a police state, a prison state, that contains human beings in bondage.

That's why the US has a huge prison population (the 13th Amendment loophole

3/ The 13th eliminates slavery EXCEPT for prisoners: "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime..." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirteent…

So three structures are explained: why (1) the US has so many Black people in jail & (2) why felons can't vote [cont.]

4/ (3) how much the antebellum South was a large prison & thus, by extension, we can see the parallels in current US.

Many of the same strictures & deprivations of a prison state are to keep the white supremacy ideological system intact

5/ There's some overlap with unfettered capitalism, of course, b/c slavery comes about through depraved greed, & any system run by greed is a unethical (obv) & inefficient (oligarchy & monopoly are inevitable)

6/ One way to see the deprivation from bigotry based selfishnessness is in the social safety net. The New Deal needed to deny benefits to Black Americans in order to get the support of the white supremacist South

But it's why we don't have decent health care, or living wages

7/ The Trumpist base - as seen by their suicide cult behavior with COVID - is determined to hurt themselves if they think it will hurt others as well. They identify their enemies by color or creed & strap on the suicide vest du-jour, whether it's COVID or climate or poverty

8/ This type of blanket bigotry - a supremacy that claims everyone not like you is inferior & thus deserving of every bad fate - is inherently evil in thought before it results in active deed.

It denies the first theological claim in the Bible: Tzelem Elokim, the image of God.

9/ Class based bigotry is rampant in America, where some people are presumed to deserve a fate of comfort-less toil. It's obvious in the rhetoric of ppl who demand essential workers sacrifice for the economy, but also from those who cry foul if a poor family has a TV or phone

10/ That the richest nation on Earth can abide - and encourage! - poverty, hunger, uninsured health etc is a stunning statement of evil. But many conservative religious people - I know them personally - think this is Just and Good.

No. It's avoda zara. It's a false god.

11/ We have terrible health care & a disastrous social safety net - despite enormous capability in wealth to solve these ills - b/c of (white) supremacy. B/c of a lust for a return to slavery.

Magats are people who suffer alongside, but are happy b/c they see enemies suffer too

12/ When you recognize and see how systems & structure cause these problems, and that ideology keeps them in place despite the self-inflicted pain, then you'll see why the Magats are happy to die for the RedHatted god, & what we need to repair as a country to find redemption

13/ @threadreaderapp unroll, please

@threader_app compile please