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Late Stage Capitalism
A place for for news, discussion, memes, and links criticizing capitalism and advancing viewpoints that challenge liberal capitalist ideology. That means any support for any liberal capitalist political party (like the Democrats) is strictly prohibited.
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Introduction to Socialism (external links)
You write as if the billionaires are the only crooks, there's a long line of millionaires eager to commit crimes for their billionaire overlords and an even longer line of middle class folks desperate to do anything illegal or not to please their millionaire bosses. It wasn't only millionaires that voted for brexit or voted for trump in the US.
Most of whom you speak of haven't done anything "illegal" at least not based on our current laws. Immoral? Some of them yes, some have been complicit in some ways. But they are largely ignorant.
There's also a difference between doing something immoral to try and survive a system you cannot change and make a good and moderate life for yourself and your family, and seeking power and wealth beyond any conceivable need. You don't seem to be able to distinguish between the two. You see the middle class as in the same culpability as the Kings and Queens at the top with real power to make change. That's very worrying.
Theres also a difference between being fooled by those more evil and more intelligent and cunning than they can conceive of; and being the one doing the manipulation and evil. I look at these people with pity for they know not what they do. You seem incapable of differentiating them from the masters that manipulate them.
You also seem in a great hurry to cast your anger and vengeance at a great number of people. In fact, perhaps even a large majority of people from what you've said.
With that in mind, in your new world, would we put all middle class families and above to the wall? Or in prison? Where is your line?
My approach would be to remove the Oligarchs only. The ones who have done demonstrable harm to the people and planet. To take their vast resources and assets and do good with it; to concentrate on righting the wrongs. Then legislate to prevent any similar situation ever happening again.
I would not want to live in a world where you paint your anger and project your trauma so broadly. It will cause generational trauma and pain for so many. It will tar many undeserving with the same brush. And it will fundamentally set us back as a species.
And fundamentally at its core, isnt logic or reason, its anger and pain writ large. I would want nothing to do with that awful and horrific future you speak of.
You're just naive, the average person does not give a single fuck about their countrymen and will do literally anything for a million bucks. Trump is a symptom, but the disease is the banal greed of the average American, led by the boomer generation.
Yeah i want nothing to do with this future either, but it's already here and it's going to get a lot worse before it gets better. You wouldn't have liked me if we spoke a hundred years ago either, but the rise of fascism and the second world war were coming either way.
Yes that's exactly it, they're ignorant to what could be. They've grown up in a world that nurtures greed; and settled for it because of manipulation by the system and circumstance.
But where you see them as irredeemable due to that ignorance, I see them as needing leading and showing a different path. Where you see them as in need of punishment for their ignorance and mistakes, I see them in need of educating through compassion.
Just because the system encourages psychopaths to the top of the pile doesn't change the fact that they only make up 3% of the population. Most people, given the right chance, the right conditions, the right nurturing are fundamentally capable of good.
You've given up and welcome blood and death; I have hope. Hope isn't naive, it's all we have. The alternative is to give in to fear or anger like you have and welcome a century of pain for everyone you know and love.
And when I say your future, I mean your future. There's this future we live in now and your proposed future. Both involve pain, suffering and inhumanity. Just of differing conditions. Whether its a Marxist-Leninist continual revolution, or a capitalists fascist state, the pain, the death, suffering and trauma it causes are the exact same.
So if that's what you truly want. More of the same; just with different systems, you're no better than our capitalist masters. Congrats. You're the new problem. Not the solution.
But I suppose at least you'll be the one wielding the stick this time eh? Fucking honestly.
To quote Luke Skywalker: "Let go of your hate".
It blinds you.
This future is the complete opposite of what I want, but that's what boomers are voting for. They ruined this country so they can have shinier gold clubs in retirement. Im not proposing any future at all, my proposition is that when you get hit by the fourth once in a lifetime crisis your boomer landlord will evict you the minute it's legal. (Oh btw they're actively pushing year-round to make it easier to evict people.)
Yes we all need hope, the hope is to get out before it gets ugly on the streets.
All you can see is what's in front of you. All you're doing is reacting to it with anger over reason. You're attributing deliberate malicious action where none exist (at least most of the time). Boomers are largely stupid and ignorant to all of this; and that's by design by those running the system.
Let go of your hate. It blinds you.
You're no use to the people around you, the ones you care about and love, if you're blinded by hatred. Choose to be part of the solution rather than the violence multiplier.
Well the good news is they'll be dead sooner than later and you can eulogize their "ignorance" all you want
You'll regret that decision.
Oh and btw, you blame the "boomers" for lobbying congress for more favourable rental law. But did you know that corporations are the ones buying up all the property and inflating house prices?
You attributed that with such confidence to the boomers. But it's patently false by every measure. "Boomers" have no lobbying as a collective group in congress.
If you're so confident on something so patently absurd, how much else have you gotten wrong in your analysis?
Btw corporate America owns your democracy. They are (apart from Israel) basically the only lobbying group.
^ that's how blind your anger has made you. Congrats.
Yes, uh, I agree with you, corporations, which are owned by boomers . . .
It's called the AARP . . . This is what i mean you really think everybody out there is a sweet grandparent that works an honest living and never committed any crimes and never cheated on their spouse and never lied in a civil trial for money. Our country is fucked up, be careful out there.
No. They're owned by generational wealth of varying ages. Some of which goes back 100's of years. Boomers are an entire generation that span, working, middle and wealth classes. It's a useless means of division.
Might want to have some humility when you're proven wrong. When you can admit you're wrong, that's when you learn something new, and grow as a human being. It's very anticapitalist to be wrong and show vulnerability btw.
Exaggerating my position to make your point is a logical fallacy. Nice.
The AARP at the most wields around 10% of the entire lobbying ability of all lobbyists in congress.
Comparitively, direct corporate lobbyists wield ~85%.
I accept they exist, but they're small potatoes in the grand scheme of lobbying.
The AARP is also a weird group to mention as its isnt what it seems.
In some aspects they protect working class interests by advocating capping Medicare drug costs and fighting age discrimination. Also at least a third of their membership are older people who rent their homes and are cost burdened by that rent.
But then on the flipside, they mostly seem to act as a corporation themselves, by utilising their name recognition to partner with corporations to sell products and scam OAPs out of their capital.
What I'm trying to get you to see is that if you scratch beneath the surface enough and you always have more centralised corporate profit and greed. This time targeting vulnerable old people.
The ultra wealthy people and corporations, regardless of age or affiliation, are the ones that need to go.
To clarify: Gertrude 72, rents her home, and is a member of the AARP. She is a boomer. She has spent much of her modest pension on financial and health products targeted at her by companies using the AARP brand. She lives a very simple life with few luxuries. Would you put Gertrude in prison or shoot her bluecluestoothpaste?
What im trying to get through to you is that corporations are made up of real human beings, they're not alien invisible beings that can exculpate humanity, they're created and organized by humans for humans. Every sin that a corporation is guilty of, there are many humans equally guilty, the corporate charter is just a piece of paper humans created to organize for profit.
The fuck are you talking who said anything about violence???
Ah so finally you've climbed down and we agree. You've just literally argued against your first point there. Not just boomers, lots of different kinds of humans. Good. Exactly. We agree.
Most don't have any say in how that corporate greed occurs btw. That's down to c-suite and shareholders. Most employed or involved with those corporations are being used and abused by one degree or another.
A small number are middle men who implement awful things on behalf of shareholders, on a smallish scale. They implement the shit sliding downhill from senior management and shareholders. How culpable are these guys? Do they deserve prison? Or to be executed?
There's a tiny section of the population that has any power to do meaningful change, and they're the owners of said corporations and the political elites. They are the only ones actively abusing their power on a large scale for their immediate and long-term benefit. They are the ones that apply the pressure downwards, they're the ones making most people's lives miserable.
Again not boomers. Just people, and most of the blame is on rich and wealthy people at that.
Or prison? You missed that part of my comment. I gave you options to choose from.
But I also gave you the option of violence because that's where the hate you express leads us. To violent revolution, widespread death, and executions of anyone deemed to have in any way benefitted from the previous regime, even slightly. If you can't display compassion and allow your anger to blind you to nuanced thinking where people can be both victims and complicit, where division along most lines are useless, we are doomed to repeat history's most awful sagas.
History shows us this in great detail. Using the measures you have mentioned, Trump, Brexit, etc over half the population of western countries like the USA or the UK would be up for retribution. That invariably leads to violence if you can't see the nuance or show where the buck stops. If you instead divide people by meaningless categories and throw your anger at people undeserving, when the time for change comes, when does the pain stop?
Would you put those who voted for Brexit or Trump or who are just middle class, in prison? Please answer the question.
Would you put Gertrude in prison for virtue of being a boomer? Please answer the question.
Dividing us by age category is a pointless endeavour. It's based on generational jealousy and an assumption that ignorant boomers know what they're doing - most really don't. They're stupid as fuck.
Boomers were born in a time before the wealth class had gamed the system to their benefit, before they had rigged it to squeeze every last penny out of the rest of us. They're also largely brain damaged by lead poisoning and age related cognitive decline.
How many more times do I need to argue you into a logical corner before you admit division based on age is relatively useless?
But mostly boomers, sure some older millenials in the mix too.
And then the very next sentence you ask me to admit division based on age is useless . . .