• OccamsTeapot@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    2 hours ago

    Ok thanks.

    Your definition seems a little cherry picky. Ignoring the obvious role of hard power and over-focusing on capital seems like a mistake. But I don’t know enough anyway. Wiki’s definition makes more sense to me

    • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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      2 hours ago

      Hard power is used to maintain imperialism. The reason the export of capital is important is that this is what allows imperialist countries to siphon all of the wealth from the global south, vs. just selling them things. Wiki’s definition is vague enough to apply to Burkina Faso kicking France out, ie it turns anti-imperialism into imperialism.

      • OccamsTeapot@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 hour ago

        Kicking someone out is not “extending power over foreign nations.” That is “resisting foreign nations trying to extend power over you.”

        You’re being ridiculous and clearly not taking the definition as intended. Your definition is the problem here

        • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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          50 minutes ago

          It’s absolutely extending your power over a foreign nation. Resistance to domination is the enforcement of your own will over that of others. Wiki’s definition is intentionally vague to the point of being worthless, while the historical analysis of imperialism as originated with theorists like Hobson and extended by Lenin, Nkrumah, and Cheng Enfu describes an actual system, its material causes and mechanisms, and describes why it exists and how to end it. The wiki definition is like defining capitalism as “trade” and saying Marx was being ridiculous by analyzing it further.

          Here’s a good summary of imperialism. Treating imperialism like a vibe, and not like a material process, means we are incapable of learning how to stop it.