Cause it ain’t slavery he wasn’t another person’s property, was he exploited under capitalism sure but there’s a big difference between being a paid laborer and a literal slave
Is there really though? Can you honestly call wage labor a choice when the only alternative is starving to death on the streets?
In severity, yes. Slavery is absolutely terrible and I don’t mean to diminish the horrors of it. I’m just saying if we look at them through the lens of class analysis, chattel slaves and wage slaves are on the same scale. If a chattel slave refuses to participate in the system, the consequences are usually swift and brutal. But if someone relying on wage work to survive today decides to stop participating in the system, what are their consequences? Starvation, utilities cut off, homelessness. Not as immediate, but still awful, and very often fatal. We’re all participating in a system designed to prop up some bourgeoisie overlords who don’t give a fuck about us, and refusing to go along with their system means death. Only now you get killed by the system instead of by an angry white man so the news can pretend it’s not real violence.
Sorry for the rambling, I’m just really high right now and putting way too much thought into this.
