this post was submitted on 23 Dec 2023
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To be fair, it happens in socialism too. And monarchies, and everything else - corruption is universal.:-(
Capitalism and the state exacerbate such things to the point that it's fair to assign blame here.
But yes, we could remove another mask and see "the state," which is the real problem. Certainly, no one argues that monarchy is desirable, and even ostensibly just systems such as state socialism will eventually devolve into social inequities that allow for this type of thing to occur.
Capitalism is just one of the most widespread current offenders, since it is fundamentally hierarchical and unjust.
It is masks all the way down...
When I was a little kid I grew up Catholic, then began to hate that religion after learning that practically every single thing I had ever been told was a lie. But now... I appreciate how they do things, like feed the homeless, because even Jesus hated religious hypocrisy, and we all agree that:
I had to go through that period of hating it, to see its' faults, in order to see it more clearly and appreciate it for what it actually is, not what corrupt people say, or worse yet make it out to be. (ahem pedos)
Now I'm starting to think that way about capitalism - not that I understand it much, mind you, but just a general idea that if it were balanced out by a strong state, then it could be implemented better than it is now?
A REALLY tricky point is that... what we have now is not capitalism!!! For example, the people who showed up at January 6th in America weren't actually defending the constitution, but the opposite! The Nazis (including modern varieties) weren't actually "patriots", and getting back to capitalism, this system the Western world uses now that gives handouts to the rich while taking more from the poor - it's socialism ("shared distribution of means of production of goods") for the wealthy, combined with taxation (along with extremely contentious representation) for the masses.
Now, mind you, I am not saying that if we would switch to a more pure form of capitalism that we'd all be fine - pure capitalism is just slavery, outright, and always has been. It is unfortunate that words no longer have meaning then, bc what do we (people in general) even mean when we say that we are "patriots" who "love our democracy" (while wanting to remove democracy), that we want to "defend the constitution" (like, really, or like claim that while doing the exact opposite?), that some people want to be "Pro-Life" (a far more precise term would be "Anti-abortion", especially when you are literally ready to put people to death as a result of certain things, e.g. ectopic pregnancies that aren't even remotely "abortions"), that you are against "cancel culture" (while actively engaging in cancelling all kinds of culture, by literally and physically, actually burning books, as in putting them through the combustion process of converting the paper product into ash, the ultimate cancellation of the item in question, in a vain attempt to somehow stop the idea that it contained and therefore represents), and yes, wtf even is "capitalism" then - pure, or mixed?
But in Soviet Russia, before it became capitalist they would assign people to jobs, where they would work until they died, just like here except here you can quit and go to a different, equally shitty employer.
Hence why I wanted to add the point that capitalism is not the root of all evil, just one particular instantiation of it. And most especially the balance point it is tuned at right now is particularly egregious, but it could be tuned differently, as too can all the other systems as well.
Capitalism is fundamentally exploitative and hierarchical. There is no such thing as good capitalism, and holy christ, it is not in the constitution, what?
It's easy to tolerate systems like capitalism if you're not suffering as much as the 3/4 it literally enslaves and exploits, similar to how it's easy to tolerate oppressive religious entities if you are not being directly harmed by the bigotry and systemic violence they uphold.
I really don't get the point of your comment, nor how it is a proper response to mine.
What people "call" capitalism, vs. what capitalism actually is are two different things. According to wikipedia:
So if you went to a public school in the USA, that's socialism, even though it's a primarily "capitalist" society in which private schools also can exist. Similarly the post office is heavily subsidized, so sending via Fed-Ex would be capitalism, vs. using the USPS is socialism, but both exist side-by-side in the USA, which is called "capitalist", even though much of what was considered "great" about it derived from the socialism components within it. The line between the two is a bit blurry.
Plus when you bail out a large corporation, it's one-way socialism where society accepts the burdens to pay the company when times are bad, yet also one-way capitalism where society does not directly reap any of the profits when times are good. That's a bastardization of all systems, and the only way I can think of to describe it is not capitalism, nor socialism, but "corruption". And it blurs the line still further, b/c it too exists in supposedly "capitalist" countries, but is not a defining feature of capitalism. Though it does create a lot of the hardships within capitalist nations.
A small mom-&-pop shop like a family restaurant is an example of capitalism, but I don't think that's evil to allow such a thing?
Suffering is produced by corruption, greed, large corporations that are indifferent to its workers, etc. A lot of that tracks along with capitalism - e.g. when you allow money to substitute for votes - but those things are not the defining features of capitalism, nor are all instances of capitalism evil, like those small mom-&-pop shops that just want to make food and through that, a life for themselves.
Anarcho-communism be like “I’m right here!” :guy looking at other woman meme: