Hell ya, thanks for putting this together!

Thank you!

Company towns, say in West Virginia, may not be colonial projects themselves (though one may argue they are) but they are surely in service of the broader colonial project of the US (and racial capitalism writ large). So long as the broader project exists any space expansion inherently serves it.

Any expansion into space at present can only be done in service of the existing projects of state/capital, both are colonial projects or part of colonial projects. Whether specific iterations of expansion requires enslavement or oppression of indigenous peoples doesn't change the overall project.

I feel colonialism still holds relevance here as framework, but don't think it's mutually exclusive with the "company town" metaphor/analogy. I feel colonialism is the underlying framework justifying expansion into "resourced land" to be used in the name of the colonial project (at home or afar).

The world of violence and genocide we live under is borne from the social relations we exist in and reproduce. Colonialism is a social relations that necessitates genocide and ecocide regardless of where its focus is pointed. Aiming at space without unmaking that relation cannot lead to liberation.

I don't hate humanity, but you and I (and everyone else alive) is almost surely going to "die on this rock" whether I think we should or shouldn't. Any venture beyond this rock in anything resembling the near future will be done in the name of capitalist expansion and colonization. I'm against that.

Always!

I promise you it means something to the person being kidnapped to see others actively fighting against their brutalization. That is with whom my solidarity lies, not some abstracted other.

The world cannot be reduced to data and experimental design. We have agency to affect the relations we exist within and do not need to wait while horrific violence befalls the most heavily targeted. The value of an act cannot be measured purely by it's material outcome.