The article is actually decently well written good-faith satire meant to address how poverty and hunger are inherent to capitalism as a system. The title was just too bold lol

  • whyNotSquirrel@sh.itjust.works
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    3 months ago

    So he’s not defending/promoting “world Hunger”, just arguing that it’s not a bug but a feature developed to have cheap labor, and that the people in power don’t want to end it

    • ShareMySims@sh.itjust.works
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      3 months ago

      Sounds good at a glance, but when you look at the way he reaches that conclusion (that the threat of hunger is the only reason people are willing to work), and his solution (for a class of “intellectuals” like him to take charge) however, are just neoliberal swill…

      • Dasnap@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Maybe they should build a city in the ocean where these intellectuals have full control. Maybe experiment with some cool drugs.

        • ShareMySims@sh.itjust.works
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          3 months ago

          Lmfao, I’d pay to watch them descend in to chaos as they insist on ranking each other by importance or whatever arbitrary measure of superiority they choose, because they simply can’t function otherwise, until they all end up dead from refusing to “lower” themselves to cooperate with “inferiors”.

            • ShareMySims@sh.itjust.works
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              3 months ago

              If only… But I suspect whatever happens in November, it isn’t going to be pleasing at all (to me as an anarchist, anyway), especially because it isn’t themselves they consume, like the hypothetical “intellectuals” on the desert island would, but the rest of us, and those most vulnerable first.

      • Schmoo@slrpnk.net
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        3 months ago

        his solution (for a class of “intellectuals” like him to take charge) however, are just neoliberal swill

        This is such a common pitfall that even self-described communists fall into it as well. When you hear people talk about a “dictatorship of the proletariat,” what they’re describing tends to devolve into “a class of intellectuals needs to guide the working class to the correct decisions” when questioned about what a “dictatorship of the proletariat” actually entails. Often they’ll try to justify it by saying it’s only temporary, but we all know how that pans out (see the USSR). This is why I consider myself an anarchist rather than a communist and regularly critique marxism-leninism.

      • abbiistabbii@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        3 months ago

        Usually most sane people go “Hunger is used to extract labour from people so rich people can make money, so we should change this state of affairs” not “this is good and how we should continue, in an evil usually the preserve of 19th century British Imperial officials.”

        • ShareMySims@sh.itjust.works
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          3 months ago

          How does the saying go? When your only tool is a hammer, every problem is a nail?

          The only tool he has is what capitalism gave him - the idea that people will only work if threatened with starvation, homelessness, or other punishment.

          The idea that the benefit of a community and society at large, and by direct extension - our own, could motivate people, or to be more precise, the idea that society would benefit everyone not just a “select” few, doesn’t even come in to consideration.

    • abbiistabbii@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      3 months ago

      Isn’t this what Anarchists and other Anti-capitalists have been saying for well over 100 years? That despite having the ability for abundance, we use scarcity to extract labour from people to make rich fuckers money?

      • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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        3 months ago

        Lenin made the clearest case for it in Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism. Financial and Industrial Capital is exported directly to the sources of raw materials and lower cost of living, which is then hyper-exploited for super-profits domestically.

        Even within Capitalist countries, starvation is kept dangerous because Capitalism requires a “reserve army of labor,” as Marx put it. It’s the idea of “if you weren’t doing this job, someone would kill for it” that suppresses wages.

  • Allero@lemmy.today
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    3 months ago

    This is such a clickbait, and it backfired.

    The actual point conveyed in the article is that world hunger is beneficial for the rich as it allows to operate sweatshops and employ people under tyrannical conditions over low pay, which is not far from modern slavery. Which is super bad for everyone else, hence world hunger must be stopped and rich should get the taste of their own medicine.

    But people did react to the headline, and possibly rightfully so.

    • Match!!@pawb.social
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      3 months ago

      things that were obvious satire in 2008 are ambiguous now i love 2020s capitalism

    • ComradeSharkfucker@lemmy.mlOP
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      3 months ago

      Yeah I posted this and went to bed without ever looking for the article. Made an edit that should federate soon enough acknowledging this

  • Infynis@midwest.social
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    3 months ago

    hunger is “fundamental to the working of the world’s economy”

    I mean, he’s probably right, but that means we should work to change the system, not throw more orphans into the crushing machine

    • jsomae@lemmy.ml
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      3 months ago

      there’s no “but” – this is exactly the point the author is making.

    • Bread@sh.itjust.works
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      3 months ago

      But the machine needs those orphans to keep going! Why would we want to deprive the system of what it needs? Won’t anybody think of the shareholders!?!

  • Generous1146@beehaw.org
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    3 months ago

    Read that fee article as well and it seems like the author just stated, that certain institutions benefit from world hunger.

    In the interview, Kent explains he was not advocating global hunger but was intending to be “provocative” by saying certain individuals and institutions benefit from global hunger.

    “No, it is not satire,” Kent told Marc Morano, founder and editor of Climate Depot. “I don’t see anything funny about it. It is not about advocacy of hunger.”

    It doesn’t look like he’s advocating for global hunger, but criticizing those who do benefit from it

  • Didros@beehaw.org
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    3 months ago

    Capitalism is not litterally effecting us, but socialism could figuratively effect us any second.

  • TheLastHero [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    3 months ago

    Nah they are doing like A Modest Proposal satire thing, that’s funny. Guilty liberals just don’t want to hear it and assuage that guilt by making the UN not joke about it at brunch. That’s basically as good as actually feeding people.

  • MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml
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    3 months ago

    argued that hunger is “funamental for the working of the world’s economy”

    Maybe he’s right and we need to change that.