the nascent bourgeoisie¶

Even as capitalism began to crystalize in Europe, the nascent bourgeoisie were already gazing around the world and plotting their violent theft of every square inch. They set the new proletariat to work forging the chains they would use to enslave the planet. https://t.co/SYRWZAlt2a Like a cancer metastasizing, capital landed on every shore, and found there new peoples to exploit and new land to ravage. Some of these peoples were feudal, some were in other modes of production. All were seen as living flesh on which empire could feast. And feast it did. Those shiny, new chains were slapped onto the ankles of Africa, Asia, and the Americas. The whole planet found itself sectioned into plantations fertilized with blood, as resources were ripped from the earth on an unprecedented scale. A hundred million beating hearts were carved out of chests, dragged across oceans, and messily chewed by the ravenous beast of colonialism. Capitalism would force the urban proletariat into smog-choked slums, but not before consigning the rest of the world to an even worse fate. There is simply no comparison between the feudal system and the plantations on which capitalism has been built. The sheer scale of capitalist brutality can only be called "less than" by those who refuse to acknowledge the billions still subject to the worst of that brutality. Feudalism was indeed brutal and miserable, but the world was not saved from it by the rise of capitalism. Instead, Europe alone -- as well as its settler colonial heirs -- was uplifted.

Capitalism enriched millions.

It enslaved billions.