transnational elite washing money out of our nation¶

The model of a "transnational elite washing money out of our nation" is a fascist formulation, plain and simple. It is an inversion of the relationship between capital and the nation, positioning the latter as a pure, natural body, being polluted by a rootless, alien entity. https://t.co/VvRxwpHB5s It identifies the enemy, not as capital itself, or any of the self-reinforcing structures it upholds, but as the wrong kind of capital. Capital that takes from and weakens The Nation -- as opposed to good, strong, natural AMERICAN capital (or European, Canadian, white, etc). In doing so, this formulation naturalizes both nation and capital, with the latter being an offshoot of the former. To a fascist, the nation is supreme -- a natural state of affairs -- and capital is just a thing the nation does, as a matter of course. To provide any sort of explanation for the very clear role of capital in the perpetuation of war, imperialism, etc. -- without naming capital itself as the culprit -- fascists propose a mythical "alien" capital. The problem, then, is that this capital is not "our" capital. They explain that, to solve the problem, we must drive out alien elements from "our" pure society (final determination of alienness to be established at a later date). They rail against "transnational" institutions -- all of which were directly established BY homegrown capital. All of this to offer a vision of "utopian capitalism," in which domestic capital is a manifestation of the collective efforts of a unified, uncorrupted nation, and in which direct imperialism plays no role.

This, of course, couldn't be further divorced from reality. The vast wealth commanded by these "great nations" is in fact the manifestation of global exploitation. A world imperial order that makes use of an unrelenting tide of violence to cement "the first world" as the unchallenged economic hegemon. "Transnational elites" are merely one example of the infinite horizon of capitalist ambitions, but it's one that presents an opportunity for fascists to obfuscate political economy through an aesthetic filter. And it's a rhetorical trap that many "socialists" fall right into.