They are not free men; they are the wardens of their own servitude, racing toward a future where their so-called security vanishes the moment their usefulness expires. The Gilded Lie: Why We Defend Our Chains House slaves are not merely victims; some are knowing enforcers: defending the system with fervor, ridiculing those who challenge it, and scoffing at the field slaves’ plight with condescending pity. Others, unknowingly, evangelize the narratives fed to them by their masters: inflation is necessary, debt fuels growth, and the poor simply do not work hard enough.

— Neal Flesher, Modern Chains (Chapter 9)

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