Very insightful as always, but I might disagree with you a little about Covid. Across society it was fragmenting as you say, but within some societies it gave us a crucial opportunity to build community and see what real community could & should be. We had a very successful Mutual Aid program in my little city and I've read about Mutual Aid initiatives in NYC that operated block by block. David Graeber wrote about this aspect shortly before his death: https://mirror.anarhija.net/usa.anarchistlibraries.net/mirror/d/dg/david-graeber-after-the-pandemic-we-can-t-go-back-to-sleep.a4.pdf
I agree with this. I think Covid lockdown and 9/11 are analogues in that certain connections were made and certain communities and identities were strengthened, while simultaneously other communities were ignored, excluded, and harmed. It’s extremely disquieting to read the idea that some kind of “national identity” or belonging or shared project of humanity came out of 9/11. As far as I can see if any national / societal connections and identities/shared purpose were built or felt in the U.S. they were explicitly at the expense of Muslims/anyone perceived as Muslim or Arab adjacent - which of course predated 9/11, as has been explicitly documented from the 19th century on (ie orientalism, like anti Blackness is a foundational paradigm of the U.S./West/colonial and neocolonial project). Muslims are not just a footnote so to say (except Muslims of course) seems to be a bit antithetical to the spirit of the rest of the article. Dehumanization is dehumanization is dehumanization, and plenty of people in the wake of 9/11 were celebrated for berating and harming Muslims as this white woman calling a Black child a slur now. It’s just slightly more visible thanks to the internet and racism’s general slide BACK into acceptability after a very very very brief period where it was slightly frowned upon that is, I think, the very point of this article.
My feel is if you want to find even a small example of an American moment even remotely built on an ethics of care / ie the idea of a society that is shared and should serve the masses rather than the oligarchs you’d have to look at FDR/new deal era, but given segregation I’d find that unpalatable too.
I think you’re misreading my point in mentioning 9/11. I’m not saying the response was good and Muslims are a footnote at all. I’m saying that’s the last time I can remember most of the country even pretending like we had anything in common. If that same event happened now people would respond differently. I reiterate over and over that what we are seeing now is who we always were, just more explicit.
I see the response to both 9/11 and covid as mixed, both with an initial aid response, but each devolving over time into historical divisions and causing greater polarization than before they occurred. I think the common factor being poorly managed trauma, particularly among those who are normally privileged in society. Or to put it shortly, white men need therapy.
I actually don’t think misread - as I already wrote in my original comment I understood the general point you reiterate here. Hence why I found the 9/11 line a weird departure from the rest of the article. I am just pointing out that if there was any shared project then it was EXPLICITLY racist so it seems a bad example here - it detracts rather than helps an otherwise good argument. (Also if we got into the weeds I’d argue that the shared project was a nostalgia for something that never existed and there were SO MANY, not just Muslims, who literally responded with a “Not In My Name” campaign, ykwim?)
So much of this could be resolved by giving everyone the opportunity get a good, fulfilling job with good pay. Then everyone would be too busy getting a life rather than spending all their time incelling. I think unions would do the trick.
This country was founded upon genocide, ethnic cleansing and apartheid, built by slavery, and has been sustained by warfare and crimes against humanity for generations. It honestly may have been foolish of us to ever believe that any sort of genuine society could emerge from such a truly horrifying and depraved foundation. You make an incredibly strong and compelling case in this piece for why "the only option we have left is to burn it down and salt the earth and bring something else into existence." How does on construct a positive society with openly and viscerally hateful and racist individuals? How does anyone feel safe walking amongst those who don't have problems with genocide, ethnic cleansing, or apartheid? How do people bring themselves to no longer see others as human beings - deserving of nothing but violence and ostracizing? It's a difficult truth to contend and grapple with, but it's one that folks must start engaging. As you perfectly put it:
"We do not live in a society, if we ever did. There is simply no collective vision or mutual cooperation."
I believe in small pockets is where we find a collective vision for mutual cooperation, but those small pockets will only ever be capable of so much when the societal and economic structure pushes back at every step of the way. The history of working people's movements is littered with unions taking one step forward while being pushed several steps back - often times violently. That's not a bug, but a feature of the very repressive system we're desperately seeking to rid ourselves of. Humans are social creatures - we were never meant to trap ourselves in "that rugged individualism" being defined as "the American way." There's so much more that we the people can be and do, but it's only possible if we do it together. To hell with the idea of only working to better myself - I want to work towards building a world that allows us all to be the best versions of ourselves, together.
Thank you for another thought-provoking and incredibly well-articulated piece, as always Scarlet!
We need to teach those who think themselves (consciously or unconsciously) as privileged, that are actually part of the marginalized class. Those who think of themselves as rugged individuals, who don't appreciate the society we do have. Convincing someone to build a better society seems impossible without the perspective that they too are a product of society. It won't be easy to reframe those people's perspective, as Mark Twain said, "It's easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled."
Well put, i especially appreciate that many of these people aren't part of any society i want to join, and your focus on systems instead of people. I think you correctly identify the billionaire corporations and media empires, some individuals running government.
I would urge you to go a step further down the rabbit hole of banks, central banks, and how money is created. Bezos and Elon bought Washington Post and Twitter; their bankers might have gone bankrupt after the '08 crisis if they weren't saved and bad bets forgiven.
I don't know a better way to help solve the problem than making war more expensive; i cannot come up with a way to do that better than saving in BTC and, to the best of my ability, be a minimalist, waste less, buy less, and avoid supporting businesses involved in genocide.
I shared this gaurdian article yesterday, where @bigblackjacobin argues that we were a barbaric apartheid for most of our history and have only managed a pluralistic democracy a few decades now, it won’t be hard to just go back https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/02/curtis-yarvin-harvard
I’m in general agreement that it’s difficult to create anything resembling a society when everyone is out for themselves. Margaret Thatchers there’s no such thing as society but instead individual men and women and their families perfectly encapsulates this sentiment.
We’ve been living under a rational where greed is good and competition is the holy grail of progress. Grace Blakeley puts it well when she says that we’ve been taught to become mini-capitalists.
Job markets are hyper competitive arenas where everyone is trying to one up each other to justify getting a slice of the crumb. Your worth as a human being is based upon your credentials and every aspect of your life is used to pad the resume. Human connection has been transformed into networking where you ask yourself if this relationship will be useful. Hobbies become a way to build skills to make yourself more marketable in the job market. Education has become a factory that spits out good little wage slaves.
Your life has become a business where you are the commodity and society the marketplace. If you can’t compete, then you are destroyed.
There is no concept of mutual aid because everyone is individually responsible for themselves. If your industry can no longer pay you a living wage, then your suffering is your fault. You should have known there are no guarantees in life, and dedicated time to diversifying your skillset. Nobody owes you anything.
We also worship at the altar of free markets and efficiency. Every single decision has to be made in the realm of the economic. Doing something because it is right or just is utopian. We can’t raise the minimum wage because introducing floors for wages is economically inefficient. The market can absorb that information and allocate those resources properly. If it just so happens to calculate that your wage is below being able to survive, well that sounds like a you problem. Go get some more marketable skills.
This extends to every single political decision. Politics is transformed into something that can only be seen through an economic lens. Justice is a matter of efficiency and it turns out that doing the right thing is terribly inefficient. People no longer have any say in what their society should look like because the logic of the market limits us to only the options it gives us. We need experts and technocrats to guide us along the golden path that the market has ordained. Your job is to consume and be exploited, not make decisions.
This further undermines any form of collective cohesion or social fabric. If we cannot make any meaningful decisions that shape our world, then what is the point of politics? What is the point of any political movement or struggle? What is the point of banding together and fighting for a better future? The answer is that there isn’t one. If people don’t believe they can make a change then solidarity is pointless.
All of these factors are what has destroyed society. The neoliberal revolution can be thought of less as an economic mission but instead as a crusade to reshape humanity. Thatcher once again lays it out perfectly with her economics is the method but the objective is to change the soul.
I agree with you that we don’t have a society today, but I don’t agree with your focus as to why. Racism, hatred, imperialism, and tribalism are certainly not new. Israel is made up of people who all share a collective goal, the dominance of a Jewish ethnostate over the Middle East. Virtually none of them have any issue committing genocide against the Palestinians. If it wasn’t for the neoliberal poison running through their veins, I would call them a society. Just not one worthy of existing.
To me everyone in the west is equally a part of the problem. We all don’t give a shit about each other. It isn’t just the racists and the bigots. I don’t blame people individually. It isn’t their fault that they were either duped or born into this ideology. I feel bad for them. Hell I’ve been trying to unlearn the indoctrination for years myself, and it still has some hold on me. It has a hold on us all.
I think it’s important to not apply our empathy selectively. I think you would agree people in the west have been indoctrinated to embody neoliberal ideals. I think you have sympathy for them and want to help them. However, you seem to have far less empathy for people who have had the same thing done to them for racism and other forms of hatred.
I would say that anyone who has internalized neoliberal ideology is a danger to everyone around them. Greed and selfishness is just as dangerous as hate. Yet you seem to hold these people to a different standard. Someone who is indoctrinated into neoliberal ideology is just as responsible as someone who has had the same thing done to them for racism. I would argue they aren’t very responsible at all, but that’s a different tangent, and this shits already an essay.
It’s true that you focus on how we have become far more atomized but there is clear bias in this piece. The primary message to me was that we cannot live beside people who are filled with such hatred for others. Your conclusion seems to be that the main reason we don’t have any social cohesion is because of our hatred and bigotry.
I would argue the only people today who have any social cohesion are the ones filled with hatred for someone else. Whether that hate is directed towards brown people or racists, we can certainly unite behind a rallying cry of they are the enemy. Just because we don’t like what they stand for doesn’t mean they aren’t standing in solidarity with each other.
I agree we shouldn’t tolerate intolerance, and I have a strong contempt for racism, but I don’t hate the people. I may hate what they believe but my heart bleeds with sorrow for them. For how they have been corrupted by hate. I also don’t think 60 million people can just be labeled anti human. They aren’t a monolith.
I also agree that our current world has to be destroyed and replaced with another. One where compassion, mutual aid, cooperation, and love are valued above all else. However, I don’t think we can get there by vilifying 20% of the people in a country as monsters. I know you said they need to be reeducated, but the level of blame and contempt that comes from everything preceding that paints a different image in my eyes. It comes across as incoherent to me.
I wanted to end this by saying that my criticism isn’t meant to be offensive. I may come across as an insufferable, moral grandstanding jerk, but I’m being genuine. My goal isn’t to win an argument but express my point of view, and how I perceive your arguments. I wouldn’t waste my time thinking about, and typing this absurdly long comment, if I didn’t respect you. I just want to engage in a discussion where everyone can benefit. I am open to being wrong. As always thanks for writing this piece and bothering to read all this.
Great article! I love the idea of building a society rather than trying to reform one, but wonder if the prescriptions might be even more straightforward.
Grassroots direct action offers one pathway to overcome institutional restraints. Organized labor could be another, if union leaders beholden to Democrats are replaced with other voices more dedicated to the material conditions of the rank & file. https://shahidbuttar.substack.com/p/we-the-people-can-unplug-the-war
I absolutely agree with what you're saying here especially about a corrupt system with the 2 guardians of capitalism racing us to the bottom while forcing a narative about how this is democracy. I've been watching this for decades, wondering about how bad will it get, and what will actually spark a revolution or civil war or whatever it ends up being that burns it all to the ground? The thing I have a problem visualizing is how does a group of like minded people who really do want a worthwhile society that takes care of itself find like minded people to build when everything is burnt to the ground?
Very insightful as always, but I might disagree with you a little about Covid. Across society it was fragmenting as you say, but within some societies it gave us a crucial opportunity to build community and see what real community could & should be. We had a very successful Mutual Aid program in my little city and I've read about Mutual Aid initiatives in NYC that operated block by block. David Graeber wrote about this aspect shortly before his death: https://mirror.anarhija.net/usa.anarchistlibraries.net/mirror/d/dg/david-graeber-after-the-pandemic-we-can-t-go-back-to-sleep.a4.pdf
I agree with this. I think Covid lockdown and 9/11 are analogues in that certain connections were made and certain communities and identities were strengthened, while simultaneously other communities were ignored, excluded, and harmed. It’s extremely disquieting to read the idea that some kind of “national identity” or belonging or shared project of humanity came out of 9/11. As far as I can see if any national / societal connections and identities/shared purpose were built or felt in the U.S. they were explicitly at the expense of Muslims/anyone perceived as Muslim or Arab adjacent - which of course predated 9/11, as has been explicitly documented from the 19th century on (ie orientalism, like anti Blackness is a foundational paradigm of the U.S./West/colonial and neocolonial project). Muslims are not just a footnote so to say (except Muslims of course) seems to be a bit antithetical to the spirit of the rest of the article. Dehumanization is dehumanization is dehumanization, and plenty of people in the wake of 9/11 were celebrated for berating and harming Muslims as this white woman calling a Black child a slur now. It’s just slightly more visible thanks to the internet and racism’s general slide BACK into acceptability after a very very very brief period where it was slightly frowned upon that is, I think, the very point of this article.
My feel is if you want to find even a small example of an American moment even remotely built on an ethics of care / ie the idea of a society that is shared and should serve the masses rather than the oligarchs you’d have to look at FDR/new deal era, but given segregation I’d find that unpalatable too.
I think you’re misreading my point in mentioning 9/11. I’m not saying the response was good and Muslims are a footnote at all. I’m saying that’s the last time I can remember most of the country even pretending like we had anything in common. If that same event happened now people would respond differently. I reiterate over and over that what we are seeing now is who we always were, just more explicit.
I see the response to both 9/11 and covid as mixed, both with an initial aid response, but each devolving over time into historical divisions and causing greater polarization than before they occurred. I think the common factor being poorly managed trauma, particularly among those who are normally privileged in society. Or to put it shortly, white men need therapy.
I actually don’t think misread - as I already wrote in my original comment I understood the general point you reiterate here. Hence why I found the 9/11 line a weird departure from the rest of the article. I am just pointing out that if there was any shared project then it was EXPLICITLY racist so it seems a bad example here - it detracts rather than helps an otherwise good argument. (Also if we got into the weeds I’d argue that the shared project was a nostalgia for something that never existed and there were SO MANY, not just Muslims, who literally responded with a “Not In My Name” campaign, ykwim?)
So much of this could be resolved by giving everyone the opportunity get a good, fulfilling job with good pay. Then everyone would be too busy getting a life rather than spending all their time incelling. I think unions would do the trick.
This country was founded upon genocide, ethnic cleansing and apartheid, built by slavery, and has been sustained by warfare and crimes against humanity for generations. It honestly may have been foolish of us to ever believe that any sort of genuine society could emerge from such a truly horrifying and depraved foundation. You make an incredibly strong and compelling case in this piece for why "the only option we have left is to burn it down and salt the earth and bring something else into existence." How does on construct a positive society with openly and viscerally hateful and racist individuals? How does anyone feel safe walking amongst those who don't have problems with genocide, ethnic cleansing, or apartheid? How do people bring themselves to no longer see others as human beings - deserving of nothing but violence and ostracizing? It's a difficult truth to contend and grapple with, but it's one that folks must start engaging. As you perfectly put it:
"We do not live in a society, if we ever did. There is simply no collective vision or mutual cooperation."
I believe in small pockets is where we find a collective vision for mutual cooperation, but those small pockets will only ever be capable of so much when the societal and economic structure pushes back at every step of the way. The history of working people's movements is littered with unions taking one step forward while being pushed several steps back - often times violently. That's not a bug, but a feature of the very repressive system we're desperately seeking to rid ourselves of. Humans are social creatures - we were never meant to trap ourselves in "that rugged individualism" being defined as "the American way." There's so much more that we the people can be and do, but it's only possible if we do it together. To hell with the idea of only working to better myself - I want to work towards building a world that allows us all to be the best versions of ourselves, together.
Thank you for another thought-provoking and incredibly well-articulated piece, as always Scarlet!
Eloquent and persuasive.
This article is a poignant reminder of how fragmented American society truly is. I too think American society is largely exploitative and murderous.
We need to teach those who think themselves (consciously or unconsciously) as privileged, that are actually part of the marginalized class. Those who think of themselves as rugged individuals, who don't appreciate the society we do have. Convincing someone to build a better society seems impossible without the perspective that they too are a product of society. It won't be easy to reframe those people's perspective, as Mark Twain said, "It's easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled."
We’ve reached the logical endpoint of allowing the south to win reconstruction
Well put, i especially appreciate that many of these people aren't part of any society i want to join, and your focus on systems instead of people. I think you correctly identify the billionaire corporations and media empires, some individuals running government.
I would urge you to go a step further down the rabbit hole of banks, central banks, and how money is created. Bezos and Elon bought Washington Post and Twitter; their bankers might have gone bankrupt after the '08 crisis if they weren't saved and bad bets forgiven.
I don't know a better way to help solve the problem than making war more expensive; i cannot come up with a way to do that better than saving in BTC and, to the best of my ability, be a minimalist, waste less, buy less, and avoid supporting businesses involved in genocide.
thanks for the great read, as always.
I shared this gaurdian article yesterday, where @bigblackjacobin argues that we were a barbaric apartheid for most of our history and have only managed a pluralistic democracy a few decades now, it won’t be hard to just go back https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/02/curtis-yarvin-harvard
I’m in general agreement that it’s difficult to create anything resembling a society when everyone is out for themselves. Margaret Thatchers there’s no such thing as society but instead individual men and women and their families perfectly encapsulates this sentiment.
We’ve been living under a rational where greed is good and competition is the holy grail of progress. Grace Blakeley puts it well when she says that we’ve been taught to become mini-capitalists.
Job markets are hyper competitive arenas where everyone is trying to one up each other to justify getting a slice of the crumb. Your worth as a human being is based upon your credentials and every aspect of your life is used to pad the resume. Human connection has been transformed into networking where you ask yourself if this relationship will be useful. Hobbies become a way to build skills to make yourself more marketable in the job market. Education has become a factory that spits out good little wage slaves.
Your life has become a business where you are the commodity and society the marketplace. If you can’t compete, then you are destroyed.
There is no concept of mutual aid because everyone is individually responsible for themselves. If your industry can no longer pay you a living wage, then your suffering is your fault. You should have known there are no guarantees in life, and dedicated time to diversifying your skillset. Nobody owes you anything.
We also worship at the altar of free markets and efficiency. Every single decision has to be made in the realm of the economic. Doing something because it is right or just is utopian. We can’t raise the minimum wage because introducing floors for wages is economically inefficient. The market can absorb that information and allocate those resources properly. If it just so happens to calculate that your wage is below being able to survive, well that sounds like a you problem. Go get some more marketable skills.
This extends to every single political decision. Politics is transformed into something that can only be seen through an economic lens. Justice is a matter of efficiency and it turns out that doing the right thing is terribly inefficient. People no longer have any say in what their society should look like because the logic of the market limits us to only the options it gives us. We need experts and technocrats to guide us along the golden path that the market has ordained. Your job is to consume and be exploited, not make decisions.
This further undermines any form of collective cohesion or social fabric. If we cannot make any meaningful decisions that shape our world, then what is the point of politics? What is the point of any political movement or struggle? What is the point of banding together and fighting for a better future? The answer is that there isn’t one. If people don’t believe they can make a change then solidarity is pointless.
All of these factors are what has destroyed society. The neoliberal revolution can be thought of less as an economic mission but instead as a crusade to reshape humanity. Thatcher once again lays it out perfectly with her economics is the method but the objective is to change the soul.
I agree with you that we don’t have a society today, but I don’t agree with your focus as to why. Racism, hatred, imperialism, and tribalism are certainly not new. Israel is made up of people who all share a collective goal, the dominance of a Jewish ethnostate over the Middle East. Virtually none of them have any issue committing genocide against the Palestinians. If it wasn’t for the neoliberal poison running through their veins, I would call them a society. Just not one worthy of existing.
To me everyone in the west is equally a part of the problem. We all don’t give a shit about each other. It isn’t just the racists and the bigots. I don’t blame people individually. It isn’t their fault that they were either duped or born into this ideology. I feel bad for them. Hell I’ve been trying to unlearn the indoctrination for years myself, and it still has some hold on me. It has a hold on us all.
I think it’s important to not apply our empathy selectively. I think you would agree people in the west have been indoctrinated to embody neoliberal ideals. I think you have sympathy for them and want to help them. However, you seem to have far less empathy for people who have had the same thing done to them for racism and other forms of hatred.
I would say that anyone who has internalized neoliberal ideology is a danger to everyone around them. Greed and selfishness is just as dangerous as hate. Yet you seem to hold these people to a different standard. Someone who is indoctrinated into neoliberal ideology is just as responsible as someone who has had the same thing done to them for racism. I would argue they aren’t very responsible at all, but that’s a different tangent, and this shits already an essay.
It’s true that you focus on how we have become far more atomized but there is clear bias in this piece. The primary message to me was that we cannot live beside people who are filled with such hatred for others. Your conclusion seems to be that the main reason we don’t have any social cohesion is because of our hatred and bigotry.
I would argue the only people today who have any social cohesion are the ones filled with hatred for someone else. Whether that hate is directed towards brown people or racists, we can certainly unite behind a rallying cry of they are the enemy. Just because we don’t like what they stand for doesn’t mean they aren’t standing in solidarity with each other.
I agree we shouldn’t tolerate intolerance, and I have a strong contempt for racism, but I don’t hate the people. I may hate what they believe but my heart bleeds with sorrow for them. For how they have been corrupted by hate. I also don’t think 60 million people can just be labeled anti human. They aren’t a monolith.
I also agree that our current world has to be destroyed and replaced with another. One where compassion, mutual aid, cooperation, and love are valued above all else. However, I don’t think we can get there by vilifying 20% of the people in a country as monsters. I know you said they need to be reeducated, but the level of blame and contempt that comes from everything preceding that paints a different image in my eyes. It comes across as incoherent to me.
I wanted to end this by saying that my criticism isn’t meant to be offensive. I may come across as an insufferable, moral grandstanding jerk, but I’m being genuine. My goal isn’t to win an argument but express my point of view, and how I perceive your arguments. I wouldn’t waste my time thinking about, and typing this absurdly long comment, if I didn’t respect you. I just want to engage in a discussion where everyone can benefit. I am open to being wrong. As always thanks for writing this piece and bothering to read all this.
Our Capitalocracy is driving this individualism which is taking us that much closer to pure fascism.
If you want to do something to help stop this progression join or start a Mutual Aid Network or see what we're doing at:
Generalstrikeus.com
Peace to you and yours.
Great article! I love the idea of building a society rather than trying to reform one, but wonder if the prescriptions might be even more straightforward.
You correctly call out the actively complicity of the corporate Democratic Party in our contemporary social crises. Eg https://shahidbuttar.substack.com/p/fears-of-a-fascist-future-overlook and https://shahidbuttar.substack.com/p/7-ways-democrats-made-donald-trump. But overcoming its co-optation of our national politics need not require throwing out the proverbial baby with the bath water.
Grassroots direct action offers one pathway to overcome institutional restraints. Organized labor could be another, if union leaders beholden to Democrats are replaced with other voices more dedicated to the material conditions of the rank & file. https://shahidbuttar.substack.com/p/we-the-people-can-unplug-the-war
DEI will come back with a vengeance baby 😎
I absolutely agree with what you're saying here especially about a corrupt system with the 2 guardians of capitalism racing us to the bottom while forcing a narative about how this is democracy. I've been watching this for decades, wondering about how bad will it get, and what will actually spark a revolution or civil war or whatever it ends up being that burns it all to the ground? The thing I have a problem visualizing is how does a group of like minded people who really do want a worthwhile society that takes care of itself find like minded people to build when everything is burnt to the ground?