In previous blog posts I wrote about the seemingly self-contradictory and self-destructive phenomenon of giant private megacorporations loudly and actively supporting the social justice ideology, socialism and anti-capitalism, even though on the surface that would seem to go against their own interests, as these corporations have got their riches very much thanks to capitalism, and socialism would take it all away.
In Part 1 I explained how, at least in the case of some corporations like Amazon, this appears to actually be a form of so-called "4D chess" in that they have noticed that the more "diverse" their labor force is, the less likely their workers are to unionize (especially Amazon is infamous for opposing labor unions, but they are by far not the only American corporation doing so, they are just the biggest and most famous example.) Stopping their workers from unionizing stops them from becoming too strong and starting making demands (such as higher salaries and bigger benefits). Thus, supporting diversity and hiring quotas is actually beneficial to the corporation in this regard.
In Part 2 I explained how many commentators have noticed that this also may be some kind of "4D chess" move to get the social justice ideologues off the back of the megacorporations. It's a diversionary tactic. After all, ten years ago the far left was loudly protesting these giant megacorporations and their "under the table" deals with the government, and these protests were so massive and widespread that they were actually making some kind of impact. Yet, when was the last time you have seen the far-left protest against these megacorporations for those same reasons? Indeed, the focus of the far left has completely shifted from the megacorporations to individual citizens (the "far right", the "racists", the "white supremacists", the "nazis", the "fascists", the "Trump supporters", the police). In fact, in many cases the far left is now supporting and protecting the giant megacorporations. The megacorporations have nothing to fear anymore from the far left.
In this Part 3 I'll present yet another reason why it's beneficial for the megacorporations to superficially support the social justice ideology, socialism, anti-capitalism and all the buzzwords.
And it's partially tied to the second phenomenon above. In other words, the idea of it being a diversionary tactic.
A diversion from what, exactly? From the fact that the overwhelming majority of the products developed by these American megacorporations are manufactured in China. The fact that the working conditions in these Chinese factories are less than stellar for the workers. Far, far less than stellar.
Over the past decade or two there has sporadically been a newspaper article (in the rare cases nowadays when they actually manage to do actual journalism) about how in most of these Chinese factories which are subsidiaries of these giant American megacorporations, manufacturing products for them, the working conditions are pretty much in essence slavery.
In many cases not only are the employees working in absolutely horrendous conditions (that would cause an immediate shutdown of the factory by government officials if it were to happen in almost any other country), with them working 12-hour shifts and even longer, non-stop, without breaks, and in horribly hazardous conditions for absolutely pityable salaries, but they are essentially treated as if they were slaves (such as doors being locked to stop them from leaving, and physical punishment being done on them if they don't do their work well enough). Rather obviously in many places they also engage in child labor.
While the articles and reports written on this subject have raised a bit of concern in the west, in the grand scheme of things they are largely ignored and shoved aside, largely with an attitude of "yeah, it's really bad, and perhaps something should be done about it, but..." And nothing ends up being done. Western society, especially American society, largely just sweeps the problem under the rug and forgets about it five minutes after reading the articles and seeing the television documentaries.
And, rather obviously, the far leftist bigots do not care an iota. Have you ever seen them protest the working conditions in China, and the megacorporations that are abusing that labor for their own benefit?
Ironically, this is a case where the far-left should be protesting the megacorporations, because one of the key points of their ideology is that western corporations are exploiting the resources and people of poorer countries. Well, here we have an actual current example of exactly this. It's not something that happened like 300 years ago during the colonialist era. It's something happening right now, in plain sight, by the largest megacorporations in the west.
Yet, the far-left just ignores it.
Well played, I would say. 4D chess indeed.
Comments
Post a Comment