Content warning: Pretty much the entire article has triggering and graphic information. It's too much to list out the individual things. The last three paragraphs offer a solution if you want to skip to that however it may not make complete sense without reading the article. In the early history of the US, slavery looked like forced labor. Chattel slavery. Humans were treated worse than farm animals and extreme violence ensued.
There were slaves that worked in houses, and there were slaves that worked in fields. One of the main purposes of slavery was for economic profit- it's said the United States would not have existed to it's size today without slave labor.
Slavery became mostly illegal after the Civil War. But in many ways, it did not end. People who were freed from slavery were still trapped in dire situations, only slightly less dire than before.
Years passed. There was legal segregation. I can't transition my thoughts here because my understanding of history during that time was shaky. Flash forward to modern times.
On a mass scale, slavery is no longer economically profitable. We live in a world of automation- most non-illegal jobs that could have been held by slaves and provided economic benefit are now held by robots. Slavery is not economically profitable because we don’t live in a system where it can be. In the beginning of US history, abuse was profitable. Now it is not. Abuse leads to hefty medical expenses. If people do not pay for housing themselves, especially those who are unable to work because of abuse, the cost of housing is much greater in jail, prison, or the revolving emergency room door that many homeless people go through. People who are abused can't contribute to the economy- domestic violence and the mental and physical illnesses that result from abuse cost the economy billions of dollars.
Slavery is not profitable; yet slavery persists. Similarly to how there were different levels of slavery in the beginning- house slaves and slaves that worked in fields- we have different types of slaves now. This is how it works.
Slave owners are often oligarchs, people in executive and management positions in places of work, and landlords. It is exceptionally rare for a person in a position as such to not be a slave owner, as abuse is an integral part of work and rental culture. It is easier to move to another country than it is to find sincerely positive reviews on glassdoor, and employers often leave faked reviews, as confirmed by former employees.
House slaves live in houses and apartments. To be in this position, many work 7 days a week. Many work more than 40 hours a week. Children and college students who wish to maintain their status as house slaves, or have the often unlikely goal to become slave owners, often work 12 hours a day.
Street slaves are those who could not work 40 hours a week; or those that could but are not allowed housing due to their financial status as a street slave. Their housing is precarious; they are homeless, incarcerated, living in a domestic violence situation, or actively being trafficked. Incarceration is often punishment for disability, homelessness, being the victim of abuse, being an undocumented immigrant, or a person who is entirely healthy but can not withstand labor and trauma that was designed to break their bodies. Women, transgender people, and intersex people who are street slaves often are forced to choose between who it is that r@pes them, with no options for safety. In certain circumstances, male street slaves face the same fate.
Some can escape the system of slavery through a nomadic lifestyle, or living with slave owners. Nomadic living, like homelessness, has increasingly become criminalized. Slave owners often do not spare their children from abuse- less than 50% are not abusive due to the normalization of abuse and absence of accountability. Some of this may be caused by bio-situational factors such as lead poisoning and use of tylenol, which reduces empathy. Most children are only supported if it serves the convenience of the slave owner- having a disability or resisting abuse makes them subject to being disowned. Some are able to find partners that are slave owners, however it is again rare that they are spared from abuse.
Areas with the least abuse are the most wealthy; areas with the most abuse are the least wealthy. This wealth only prevents house slaves from falling into street slavery; those who are street slaves often can never become house slaves or slave owners.
The expense of abuse is not limited to the expenses of slaves; slave owners create the economic loss for both slaves and themselves. The abusive employer who lost thousands, even millions, because they could not treat their employees as a human is a common story, as well as the employer who preferred to go into bankruptcy, shut down and accept financial ruin when they could have had a thriving business had they raised wages or working conditions. With modern automation, there are many employees that do not work- their tasks take only a small portion of time, yet they are forced to sit in the office without work, or do busy work- tasks with no purpose. Years of low wages are spent on tasks without meaning.
If slavery is not profitable, and does not exist for economic reasons, then why does it exist?
Slavery in the beginning of US history was not simply for forced physical labor. It was also for forced emotional labor- yet only forced physical labor was legally criminalized. (enforcement of that law is a different story) This is because forced emotional labor is a core feature of intergenerational trauma and white colonialism; it is not clearly labeled but rather a spectrum of force that anyone can participate in as long as they have someone underneath them to harm.
In the Reality Model, this spectrum is seen left-to-right, on the left side is denial and the right side is reality.
Graph:
Positive
Untrue Conspiracies Denial Neutral Reality Classified
(True Conspiracies)
Negative
Power in slave ownership of forced emotional labor is achieved by being as far on the side of denial as possible- those with the most power have done the least amount of emotional labor and received the least forced emotional labor of others. These are people with dark triad personality disorders or at times socially acceptable process addictions such as workaholism. These people have only been harmed by those who forced the development of the disorder -usually the parents or primary caregivers- and have never been forced to face reality or complete emotional labor outside of the trauma of their parents. Many pass the emotional labor from their parents to whoever they can find below them.
Many people attempt to scale this hierarchy through gaslighting and promotion of propoganda. We see this in working class people who vote against their interests, and women and minorities who become conservative political commentators. Their efforts allow them to rise above others, and they are often able to force their emotional labor on their children and street slaves- but in this mad chase to the top of the denial hierarchy, people are trampled and beaten into place. The working class stays poor. Female and minority commentators gain money and fame, but never gain legal protection and are subject to the same discrimination, misogny, and racism they attempted to avoid through traitorship.
Forced emotional labor is often the result of the abuser's avoidance of emotions- insecurity and guilt are common however any emotion can be avoided, such as self love, joy, and relaxation. Ultimately, most abusers do not love themselves. Forcing emotional labor on others is commonly achieved through gas-lighting, however any abuse tactic or act of violence may be used. It has been said that psychological abuse has increased since other forms of abuse, such as physical violence, are now illegal. This forced emotional labor from dark triad personalities and addiction is about supply- abusing others is their drug. Psychological abuse and forced emotional labor are not currently illegal; but if it were abusers would develop new methods of abuse. The more acts that become illegal, the more creative they get to reach their supply, which results in abuse becoming stranger, more complex, and requiring greater emotional and intellectual labor to understand.
Fascism is a political representation of narissistic abuse. Part of this abuse incorporates propoganda of Protestantism and the value of work. Based on personal observations, it seems like this value of physical work "for the sake of work" arose out of a culture of neglect, where the lack of work caused suffering, however at this moment I am running out of time to complete further research. If this is true, a possible solution to our problem of forced emotional labor could be a new movement that values emotional work for the sake of work; this would place abusive people at either the bottom of society or remove societal hierarchy entirely. The idea of abusers not leading society is almost blasphemous; they are adored by the ones they have brainwashed and those who have suffered at their hands can not fathom a world in which they are not in power.
It would take multiple approaches. The act of seeking supply must be stopped legally, culturally, and it must be socially unacceptable rather than making acts of supply illegal. Imagine seeking supply being equally as unacceptable as committing torture in a public space. Legally barring a person with a dark triad traits, or abusive traits in the context of addiction or other disorders, from holding positions of power would be important. It would not feel impossible if everyone was educated on abuse; it would be something easy to recognize and therefore hold accountable. They would be barred from jobs in public office, religious positions, media, military, police departments, management, and executive positions.
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