Thread by @RodericDay

A good example of racism is how Chinaphobes invoke the 2010 Foxconn suicide nets story.

"China" is forever held responsible (not Taiwan, Apple, or consumers), their handling of it ignored.

Meanwhile, inexcusable warmongering by AOC or Sanders today is excused as "tactical."

I think it's one of the most important ones to study because it captures broader dynamics.

The beneficiaries of Apple products were *Western consumers*, but the story was crafted in such a way that they could expunge their *own* guilt and pin it on the Chinese.

Marx discusses a lot how the relationship between capitalists and workers is vampiric.

The capitalist *knows* he owes everything to workers. This clashes with the überman superiority they wish to project. The exploiter sees his dependency on proles as an embarrassing secret.

This leads to great contempt, in the opposite direction you'd expect!

The worker showing up on-scene at an inopportune moment, when the capitalist is showing off, exposes the whole edifice of his pride as a sham.

The capitalist exploits the worker, then hates him for it.

A similar thing occurs with imperial core "socialists" and their relationship with their victims in the periphery.

You'd expect them to be apologetic about having benefited from exploitation, having achieved nothing in terms of stopping imperialism, having done less with more.

Instead they act like capitalists. Their shame turns into hatred.

China *made them* complicit! China tricked them! China's peaceful self-advancement via self-sacrifice is illegitimate! They in fact stole from the western worker who had it so good! They're stealing socialism too!