this post was submitted on 01 Dec 2023
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As a blessedly-untarnished-by-twitter commie, I always figured "treats" was a play into pillorying the settler beneficiaries-of-empire as dogs. "Good dog gets its treats" and that.
I always thought it was more referring to bread and circuses, something to keep the population placated. I really like your interpretation too though.
Well, there are those whose social democracies benefit from neo-colonial exploitation et those who liver on settler land and probably genocided the rest of the other indigenous nations...
Then there are those expats who help command a field army of Global South people, especially those of privilege, to advocate for their own "freedoms" in rival Global South countries, while cracking down on dissent when in power, as approved and even aided by the local landholders, industrialist capitalists, and Euro-American financiers...
Same, I've always assumed (and still do) that this is essentially what it means. The labor aristocracy and vassal states of the US are rewarded for their loyalty.
I always just interpreted it as an anti-materlialistic phrase to mock how western libs can only really understand the world through how many things they can purchase for cheap. "Oh you want to fix climate change but I'd have to have a car I like slightly less? That's taking my treats away and we don't do that" I think these all fit in one theme though and like them all