David Sirota, editor of Jacobin, said on Hill.TV’s “Rising” on Friday that the term “looting” comes with a double standard.
The term has been used to describe people breaking into and taking items from a Target in Minneapolis this week, but Sirota said it should be used to describe provisions in stimulus bills pass by Congress that help corporations.
“It’s a loaded term. It’s got all sorts of racial and urban connotations,” Sirota said.
Sirota said that provisions in the multi-trillion dollar stimulus bills divert much more money to corporations than what has been lost when protestors broke into stores in Minneapolis. He said the term “looting” should be used for both.
“The language shapes how we see economic crime and punishment,” Sirota said. “I think what we have seen over the past month is a historic form of looting. When you look at the coronavirus bailout bills there are all sorts of provisions that were put on these bills that really are dictionary-definitions of looting.”
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