Notes on the settler relation

 The settler relation plays a prominant role in the lives of US citizens. It has expanded well beyond a white supremacist ideology and now includes a multicultural protection for the settler colony against imperial targets around the world and internally. The settler relation manifests most commonly as allegience to US nationalism. US nationalism often overrides all other relations an individual or group can hold and prioritizes the interests of the capitalist class. We can think of how the 9/11 attack on the world trade center in NYC and the pentagon in Washington DC was immediately an attack on the American population instead of an attack on US finance and military institution.

The average american does not have an understanding of class structure or of how class is produced. An attack on the bourgeoisie is an attack on all Americans. This points to a wide class collaborationist ideology that US nationalism envelopes and produces. The american first thinks of themselves as a capitalist citizen before they are even human. Private property is prioritized over all life. The only class relations Americans can talk about are between the rich and the poor. Throw in the middle class and we have the mixture for a deadly mythology where people truly believe the US state works in the interests of the American people. The political superstructure throws concessions to the middle class and has done what it can within capitalist policy to maintain a higher standard of living for middle class settlers. The middle class functions to erase any understanding of the working class and seeks to eliminate solidarity between the working class and the lumpenproletariat (a super exploited class who have come to take on the role of "native" and includes native nations in the currret organization of US imperialist class structure.) It devolves our conception of class to simply mean tax bracket. How much is your net worth and yearly salary. This takes the capitalist economy out of the equation when people think about inequality. The question of inequality becomes about access to private property and ability to capitalize off this property. Labor as commodity becomes a poor person thing and social capital, how the neoliberal sees themselves, is how civilized people produce income. Monetize your hobbies, make your personhood into a brand, cultivate your brand and develop a parasocial relationship with your "fanbase" who will give their money. This is a movement to make working class people into petit bourgeois socialites. It ties a large portion of the working class and lumpenproletariat to the interests of the capitalist class as the entire online infustructure and means of distrubution for online content is owned by corporations. This then produces a capitalist ideology that often veers into fascist propaganda. I'm thinking of the myriad of right-wing streamers who are spreading fascist ideas to the youth of America.

The imperial capitalist economy is actively producing the settler relation (hence settlers) today. The hustle culture that so many young people take up, because they must to materially survive, aligns people's ideology with capitalist ideology. Exploitation is the baseline. The capitalist exploits the worker. The petit bourgeois influencer exploits their viewership while they themselves are being exploited by the corporations providing the infustructure to be an influencer. Under an individualistic ideology, people believe they must exploit others in order to survive their own exploitation. The liberal settler ideology of the US helps all of these exploiters justify their actions. And finally, the entirety of America is united as exploiters under US nationalism.

So how can we begin to break down the settler relation? Seems to me the first step is to refuse to participate in the exploitation of others in so far as you can avoid such an organization. We all must participate as workers within the capitalist economy (to be expolited) but we do not have to participate in the "climb the ladder" mentality of US citizens. Rather, we should work to proletarianize the petit bourgeoisie, especially those that are not small business owners and are trying to cultivate some individualistic brand. We can work toward combating the ideology which justifies Americans benefiting from the imperialist actions of the US govt. We can work to eliminate the racist feelings which are produced from fear and hatred. The settler must reject settler colonialism and all imperialism. The settler position is not a permanant position and we can work toward disrupting this relation whenever possible.