Since a small contingent of (cismale, heterosexual, white) people in the SRA are arguing colonialism can only happen through economic means, I'd like to point something out.

As an economist.

Economics does not "happen" through purely financial means.

Behavioral economics is, fundamentally, as old as economics itself.

It is not some new branch of the field.

It is why economics is a social science.

It is intertwined with sociology and social psychology.

It is a centuries-old discipline.

If there is any bourgeois notion, it is the idea economics is a matter of purely financial forces and that anything not to do with financial capital is external to it and can be estranged from economics.

That is bourgeois.

It is also the absolute foundation of the argument made by the "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" racists on the right, which is why it's pretty wise to avoid it. It is how that entire constellation of ideas works.

So maybe don't make that argument.

If your argument is rooted in the idea that your power is based only in identity and social influence and not financial capital, that's still an economic force. That's how economics works.

That isn't a new idea and it's not unique to leftism.

That's regular economics.