Well, they’re not going to CALL it slavery.
It’s just that all those people in the camps should be doing something useful, right? I mean, we’re paying for them to just lay around in those luxury camps, doing nothing.
It’s only right that they should be put to work, maybe in agriculture or something, picking crops. And we can tell them “work shall make you free”
Well of course. These are profit centers, with ROI much higher than most actual medical interventions.
It’s all about the dollars.
So you drive up to these camps and buy people? And they’re your property? And their children will be your property too?
Not all forms of slavery are chattel slavery.
No, I expect that large corporate farms will have access to the labor pool from these camps. There will likely be a government agency (under ICE) who will facilitate getting these unpaid workers to the corporate farms.
The former is a stated goal of RFKJr and it’s just a matter of how far he can get before he’s stopped (currently not seeing who or what will stop him).
As far as the latter… restoring slavery? Returning to an 1860-era slavery regime is something I don’t find possible, but there are many alternate forms that are plausible. Currently we’re quite free about how we use the labor of prisoners. This could be built-upon, both by increasing what we ask of prisoners, and by increasing the prison population.
I could also see some sort of “lifetime contract” system where a company offers to pay someone’s basic needs for a lifetime, but that person also owes the company their labor for their lifetime, with no recourse as to their conditions or location. The contracts could be bought, sold, or traded at the company’s pleasure, without the contractor’s permission. There could be “legacies” where children of contractors get contracts upon turning 18 that look really lucrative for 5 years or so, and then become exploitive (like we hook college kids on credit cards). Basically it would build on the concept of payday loans, except instead of taking on high-interest loans to get cash, you’re taking on draconian restrictions on who you work for, what work you do, and what your working conditions are.
I know that’s not a fully formed concept, so don’t waste time poking holes in it, these are just broad conceptual strokes of how existing legal concepts could be twisted into something very similar to chattel slavery.
So you will continue to pull stuff out of your ass to create strawmen, in hopes that others will follow your lead and ignore the much bigger picture?
I’m with you on both. Eliminating vaccines seems like something that shouldn’t be too hard, but reinstituting chattel slavery? Slave ownership would appear to have a lot more barriers to entry than existed the first time around. ISTM that making it “normal” would need LOT of practitioners.
Another thing that I think I said on a similar thread:
In math and physics, the definition of a vector is:
a quantity having direction as well as magnitude, especially as determining the position of one point in space relative to another.
There seems to be overwhelming consensus about direction. What’s left to argue about is magnitude.
Which means that another issue I have with the fundamental premise of the OP is …
No, just enough people to get out the way and do nothing, or look the other way and say to themselves “It isn’t real slavery because it doesn’t affect me.”
This is sensible. Shaming people because they don’t share your opinions is not helpful. In my opinion Nemo is pretty much talking in circles, imagining these amorphous people who agree with them. This appears to enable them to preen and tell us how right he is.
I’d say a bigger problem are people who are doing nothing while other people are losing their right to vote or due process or a decent wage and who say to themselves “Don’t look at me for help. I’m busy fighting slavery.”
Fighting slavery is easy. Fighting genocide is easy. Fighting nuclear war is easy. If you want a challenge, you should try fighting something real.
Fighting Trump and his cronies is the goal. Nitpicking that people aren’t doing for just the right reasons is asinine or despicable.
If I wanted to preen and have people tell me how right I am, would I be posting in this thread?
No, I’m the guy who showed up at a flat earth society meeting and told everyone in the room the world is round. And everyone in the room has been yelling at me that the earth really is flat, for certain definitions of flat.
But outside of the room…
Its worth noting that the newest covid vaccine designed for the newest variant came out, and the FDA put restrictions on it. It used to be that anyone over 6 months old could get a covid vaccine. Now its only people aged 65+, or people under 65 with another health issue.
https://www.npr.org/2025/08/29/nx-s1-5522273/health-cdc-covid-vaccine-hhs-fda
This week, the Food and Drug Administration approved the next round of COVID-19 vaccines, with new restrictions.
COVID vaccines had been available to anyone 6 months and older regardless of their health. That’s no longer the case.
Now, the FDA is limiting the updated shots to those who are at risk for serious complications because they are 65 or older, or have other health problems.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration this week narrowed approval of the new, updated COVID-19 vaccines only to people who are over 65, or younger people with underlying conditions that put them at higher risk for severe disease.
That decision has raised questions about access for the millions of Americans who don’t fall in those categories — and potentially even for some who do.
According to pharmacists, insurance groups and trade organizations, it will be more difficult for younger, otherwise healthy people to get a COVID-19 vaccine ahead of the winter respiratory virus season, as it will involve a trip to the doctor instead of walking into a pharmacy, and insurance coverage is, for now, unclear.
For at least the next few weeks, as the policy shifts are absorbed, the confusion may also impact access for older, higher-risk people.
As long as you keep repeating yourself, I’m willing to do the same.
I have no doubt you are here to throw as much sand into the machinery as possible. That is what you are here to do, and you will do it no matter what I post.
Not chattel slavery, but rather exploitative “prison” labor, where the prisoners are primarily those immigrants who did not (or could not) follow impossible rules.
This (IMO) is the actual purpose of these concentration camps that are being set up. Corporations would love to have ready access to an essentially free labor pool that has no rights whatsoever.
And the children of these immigrant “criminals”? Well they were born in the country illegally, so that makes them automatically criminals. Or so the reasoning will go.
Re: Slavery—have a look at being poor in America. It’s not slavery in that you’re notionally free, but the ratio of labor : quality of life is so different from the middle and upper classes that you might as well not be,.
At present, the two main ways out of poverty seem to be higher education and a career in the military. The Republicans seem dead set on reducing access to education at all levels, and throwing up barriers that will genuinely force the poor to choose “labor force” over “education.” The military seems to be unaffected, but I suspect that part of that is because people who come through the military are trained for loyalty and obedience, while education has the opposite effect.
All that is to say, I don’t think we need slavery if we can manage a permanent underclass (caste?) to fullfil the same function.
Perhaps you didn’t understand me?
You Imagine that many? most? people who have not commented in this thread agree with you. Then you preen about how we’re all delusional? stupid? Whatever. No one here (in this discussion) agrees with you, and there have been several people pointing that out to you. However, you insist you must be right and so very convincing that Other mysterious people out there, somewhere agree with you.
Do you maybe think your hypothesis in this thread could be wrong? Does your confidence rest only with these amorphous people who haven’t posted in your defense? Or do you give any credence to all the dopers who have taken the time to read all of this, and reply with their thoughts?