Synopsis

5y

No, its not

SolidSnaku

5y

you literally just perpetuated it in your reply after this one

beyond that, you don't need to be nostradamus. i can name some specific measures for serious reform in the U.S., from topics of health care to environmental policy, none of which necessitates the abolition of capitalism or the institution of socialism.

but this is a huge issue i have with the far-left in general. there's not much substance, it's just populist rhetoric that maintains anti-intellectualism. all ethos, little to no pathos or logos.

Synopsis

5y

I can name some socialist/revolutionary reforms and say we implement them through prolonged revolution against the state

Happy now?

Huawei5G

5y

Yet I’m sure you ignore countries like South Korea and Japan that have benefited immeasurably from capitalism in the past 60 years and have a more modern infrastructure and higher quality of life then both the countries you mentioned

Moody mann

5y

Ah yes Japan, where people dont get married and workers kill themseleves from overwork

Brilliant

Huawei5G

5y

The audacity of mentioning Russia as a good societal standard and then bashing Japan for moderately higher suicide rates by the way Russia’s suicide rate is significantly higher than Japan and #2 overall in the world

Comparing these countries really is not going to help your argument at all

Moody mann

5y

Im talking about Russias industrialization in the 30’s now theyre just state capitalist

CactusJackSentYa

5y

Imagine

SolidSnaku

5y

you literally just perpetuated it in your reply after this one

beyond that, you don't need to be nostradamus. i can name some specific measures for serious reform in the U.S., from topics of health care to environmental policy, none of which necessitates the abolition of capitalism or the institution of socialism.

but this is a huge issue i have with the far-left in general. there's not much substance, it's just populist rhetoric that maintains anti-intellectualism. all ethos, little to no pathos or logos.

Huawei5G

5y

The audacity of mentioning Russia as a good societal standard and then bashing Japan for moderately higher suicide rates by the way Russia’s suicide rate is significantly higher than Japan and #2 overall in the world

Comparing these countries really is not going to help your argument at all

user

5y

Capitalism wouldn't be bad if there was a real global effort to give people basic necessities and maybe basic income to live off of.

You should be able to become a billionaire and purchase pointless material s*** and huge mansions and s*** but at the same time everyone should have basic shelter, food, and hygiene products.

Synopsis

5y

I feel like y'all write s*** like this and just don't understand what capitalism really is. These things can't and won't happen under capitalism, not the giving people basic necessities part, nor the becoming a billionaire part.

user

5y

why not?

they throw away the amount of stuff it would take to keep everyone straight

as far as becoming a billionaire, i feel like it's possible if you invent a product/service/IP that gets consumed that much, but I'm moreso saying the idea and aspiration of it shouldn't go away...obviously its only a few few billionaires but if you aim for a billion for an extended period of time you're probably not finna be broke or anywhere near it. The concept of getting rich as a whole doesn't have to go away, just give people their basic needs so we can all have a more equal chance.

Synopsis

5y

They throw it away because they have to, because for capitalism to thrive you cannot give people all of their basic necessities. it has to exploit people in order to survive as a system. you can't just say "capitalism wouldn't be bad if..." and then describe features that cannot work within capitalism.

user

5y

I think it's easier to figure out how we can give stuff away to people without hurting profit margins than it is to expect capitalism to just vanish without violence and anarchy

It's as simple as taking those same factories and equipment and building something solely set up to giving people basic s***. Even if it's Great Value basic basic type stuff to keep the name brand s*** with some value a la "Government Cheese" which would still be relatively f***ed but would be the best solution we had bc you're right all these problems exist because of profit margins

user

5y

Capitalism wouldn't be bad if there was a real global effort to give people basic necessities and maybe basic income to live off of.

You should be able to become a billionaire and purchase pointless material s*** and huge mansions and s*** but at the same time everyone should have basic shelter, food, and hygiene products.

fun guy

5y

bro..

NO ONE needs a billionaire dollars.

"everyone should have everything they need but there should also be billionaires" is an oxymoron. the reason poverty exists is because the richest 1% hoards almost 50% of the worlds wealth. certain individuals have more money than entire countries. No one man should have all that power

if wealth was redistributed and billionaires didn't exist we would literally be living in a utopia. the total net worth of all billionaires is 8 TRILLION.. even just 50% of that could lift billions of people out of poverty.

Synopsis

5y

One of the most striking things to me is that so many people seem to lack the ability or the want to imagine that there is another way of organizing society than what we already have. I truly have no idea why this is, but I suspect it might be due to the strength of capitalist propaganda. Not only does it breed selfishness, meaningless material pursuits, but it allows people to think that they are somehow living outside of a system, and that the individual is the greatest unit in society. Capitalism's (and really liberalism's) focus on the individual has brainwashed society to a point where people will believe, despite all evidence to the contrary, that through hard work, a good idea or two, and simply staying on the grind that they will get rich and reach the upper strata of society, that they alone have the formula for beating the odds and overcoming all the barriers put in their way, because capitalists have allowed them to believe they have a great degree of freedom.

Any attempts to come up with an alternative to this system (namely a socialist society) are met with extreme vitriol most of the time. Not only can people not imagine that alternative, but they think so lowly of their fellow humans that they believe such a system would never work because of some b******ized idea they have of human nature. To them, the only viable system is one that pits us in direct competition with members of the same social class, working away for starvation wages for wealthy elites who allow us to maintain an illusion of freedom. Even the most shallow of research would allow one to get a good grasp of all the man made atrocities going on as a direct result of capitalism, yet most people still refuse to believe there is an alternative or any systemic injustices at work.

So my question is; Why are the people who at least seem to be aware of these injustices so willing to defend them in the name of capitalism, and why are people so incapable of imagining a better alternative?