- cross-posted to:
- leftymemes@lemmy.dbzer0.com
- cross-posted to:
- leftymemes@lemmy.dbzer0.com
ID: WookieeMark @EvilGenXer posted:
"OK so look, Capitalism is right wing.
Period.
If you are pro-capitalism, you are Right Wing.
There is no pro-capitalist Left. That’s a polite fiction in the US that no one can afford any longer as the ecosystem is actually collapsing around us."
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jesus christ these comments are terrible
I get accused of being a capitalist in this community/instance for some of the most benign and unrelated shit.
I’m not.
What is Finland though? Social democracy seems pretty good but still fits in with capitalism as far as I can tell
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Finland still pollutes the world at unsustainable levels, exploits the global south for raw materials and cheap labour, and is on a downwards trend to fascism like all of Europe. Liberal democracy only has one conclusion, and it’s fascism.
Neoliberal, just like the rest of the “socialist” nordics (E: having socialised aspects to the state and or economy, or even being a “social democracy” does not socialism make), which are all on the exact same trajectory as the rest of us, only a few years behind.
Whatever social safety nets and programs they have will be dismantled as Western capitalism devours itself. As is happening all around Europe
Can you point to any sources or are you just making it up?
We already see a lot of talk of Cutting back on social spending in favor of military spending.. There’s also the pension and retirement changes most of Europe has already implemented to some degree. It’s likely we’ll see changes as drastic as what the UK are doing right now in the coming years, specially if the war in Ukraine doesn’t go the way of NATO.
The changes in pension spending all over Europe are caused by demographic changes, not capitalism. There are more and more retirees becoming older and older, while the working population stays the same or shrinks. A socialist state would have the exact same problems to pay for that.
So there is nothing saying that it will happen and that all welfare will be gone.
Will we be worse off for a while? Yeah, Europe isn’t in a great situation now with the fairly recent COVID outbreak, economic problems, the attempted invasion and ongoing war in Ukraine, energy problems, and climate change. While the future isn’t all rainbows and unicorns, it isn’t as bleak as you made it in your earlier comment. There isn’t anything pointing to the total collapse of welfare and/or the entire economy.
No lies detected.
I think it’s important to clarify that markets and the use of money are not exclusive to capitalism. Under capitalism, the point of markets is to accumulate money absent of any actual project or goal, and money is the way the capital holding class keeps score. In other systems, the point of markets is to connect people who have some item with people who need or want that item and money is the means of exchange. Markets are fine for distributing excess materials and labor, once people’s basic needs are met.
Markets can efficiently allocate resources and they also foster competition. That enables decentralized innovation and optimization.
A major error of many leftists is to see markets as undesirable. There are always markets. Rightwingers often confuse an unregulated market with a free market, which is very misleading. Markets need regulation in order to be free.
Markets are fine for distributing excess materials and labor, once people’s basic needs are met
You can achieve that for example by having the market for housing and food be dominated by publicly owned enterprises.
Definitely something people forget when talking about money in general. Capitalism warps the meaning of “value”, money is just the closest we have to display a certain value in a tangible form. In itself, money is merely a tool for universal exchange of goods. A tool that’s unfathomably useful no matter the system it exists in.
Imagine we treat money like US citizens treat measurements. “Yeah, I’d like to buy these produce for about the value of 1 middle-sized football field”. What.
This is very stupid.
Not all capitalism is completely unrestrained.
Stop. Get help. Defining things to make sure your position is the right one and the only correct position is the one that does no harm to anyone and is in no way evil or exploitive. STOP.
It is not useful, it is not constructive. While you’re lecturing about who has the correct beliefs to have a place at your little left wing table, a billionaire has gotten more wealth and power. Find common ground with people who work, and who believe in working to make the world better for society. It is more important to do something beneficial than to make sure you can’t be logically judged poorly.
Go help someone. Go work to improve your community. Go find common ground with the people who are doing the same.
This is exactly the right thing to say here. Bravo.
Man where was this even handiness this last election?
DiD yOu ThInK aBoUt ThE gEnOcIdE?
Hear hear.
Lmao. “Capitalism is right wing. Period.”
Braindead.
Lmao. “Braindead.”
Braindead.
Your eloquent way with words convinced me op is wrong goddamnit. /s in case your braindead ass can’t understand sarcasm
It’s not perfect, but it’s they best we’ve been able to make work with so far. What he have right now is unbridled capitalism which isn’t good even for those at the top because it will lead to total economic collapse. Capitalism works best under tight regulation. Which we don’t have right now.
To people using this as a reason to not vote: It’s going to be capitalism. You have a choice between free for all capitalism with fuck the environment and fuck the workers (GOP), or regulated capitalism with environmental protections and workers rights (Dems). If you don’t vote or vote third party, you just voted for the free for all one.
What fucking dem party are you talking about?
“Perfect being the enemy of good [enough]” is also rhe argument republicans use against any liberal/social policy. If there are any flaws, we should do nothing at all.
Liberals also love saying that to justify “vote blue no matter who.” But what have the Democrats been doing differently other than giving breadcrumb policies?
Sorry liberals, but the truth is that you guys also benefit from the status quo at the expense of the working class but don’t want to admit. Senior Democrat leader, Nancy Pelosi is, after all, the biggest player in the stock market earning millions. If America has a multiplural party system and could articulate their positions better, the Democrats are centre right and would be very much described as close to centrist French president’s Macron neoliberal ideology. Socially liberal but economically conservative, and he’s one of the most unpopular president in French politics. He dislikes the far right, and yet does nothing policy-wise to alleviate the working and middle class concerns which only slowly nudges them to the far right. Doing nothing economically and telling people to support the status quo is tacit support for the far right despite hating them on the outset.
I don’t think you’ll find anyone here defending Nancy Pelosi, she can go against the wall with the rest of them.
I’m not even sure the liberals you’re talking to are on lemmy honestly.
There are many on Lemmy, but they tend to be down voting instead responding when you criticise the thirty years of neoliberal policies of outsourcing and de-investment of public services is what made the working class, especially those in rust belt and others, embrace the far right. Instead, liberals blame people as being plainly stupid. Even if some respond, they shy away when you mention that jobs outsourcing without offering alternatives, and lack of affordable healthcare and houses are what made the poor vote for Trump. American liberals are remarkably similar in behaviour with those in Europe. They wonder why the far right is gaining ground, but are tone deaf even from experts who say the lack of jobs and affordable housing is what makes populist on the rise. The most obvious reason is that liberals don’t want affordable housing because it brings down the value of their property. In California, it’s the same NIMBYism and so is here in Europe. It’s the socially progressive and yet economically conservative (this is what liberalism in the classical sense means) property owners do this as much as the right does. The former express sympathy for the homeless, but when there is proposal to build affordable housing they would object. Liberals just don’t want to admit it.
Look at you. Just throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks? Why don’t you just go ahead and mention the Clinton’s while you’re at it. Someone who has retired from politics and someone who isn’t even a US politician is your argument? “Butwhatabout! Look! Over there! Someone else did something!” If you’re going to span the globe for comparisons I’m sure I could find plenty of right wing theo- or other fascists who have destroyed countries.
Well the retired Democratic leaders still benefit from it. “You scratch my back I scratch yours.” Hillary Clinton got the DNC nomination in 2016 primaries because she paid off DNC’s debt; even though Bernie Sanders is the more popular candidate. The Clintons are out of politics but they are comfortable retired from the money they made while the country burns.
Speaking of Clintons, it is under Bill Clinton who started the outsourcing. Hence, why Trump ran on the platform of re-shoring jobs and is one of the main reasons he won out of many (but his approach to it is very brash by imposing tariffs in order to coerce American companies to re-shore). Neoliberal policies did not offer any alternatives and cast aside their concerns, which made the working class welcome the embrace of a demagogue. Ancient philosophers have made the same observations before about what makes demagogues popular but people never learn.
Anyhow since you are asking if there are any current liberals in politics who can be blamed, why not ask the current DNC on why they haven’t picked Alexandria Ocasio Cortez for the Oversight committee? That’s right, they don’t want a progressive so as not to ruffle the feathers of the same oligarchs who support Republicans.
You’re right capitalism is healthy and good for us
Capitalism is the fundamental belief in private ownership. That I can own a factory, a store, a restaurant, and therefore be entitled to the profits produced from them. Modern capitalism is inextricable from consumerism, from business, and from stock exchanges.
Capitalism is any resource or good harvested or produced that is not shared by all who produced it. Capitalism is the idea that some labor is more deserving of the fruits of production than other kinds of labor. Capitalism is violence against the working class. Capitalism is the means by which a new ruling class was created over the past 200 years that presently controls the entire world while utterly ravaging our environment and wasting more resources than we literally every could have thought possible.
You are NOT a leftist if you support capitalism. You are ANTI-WORKER if you support capitalism. If you want to support workers and if you want to support progressive leftist causes, ORGANIZE. Join your local anarchist community. Agitate, push leftist politics. Start mutual aid networks for vulnerable workers in your community. Support unionization efforts. Support striking workers. Participate in civil disobedience. Show up at protests. Organize demonstrations.
The world has never been changed by accepting the crumbs they threw at our feet. It was changed by those who refused to bow their heads. By the communities who resisted oppression and fought for their fellow workers. By people who fought for us all to live better lives. Count yourself among them.
Meh, I don’t necessarily disagree with the sentiment, but don’t like black/white dichotomies (though I’m personally anti-capitalist). Unions most definitely care the businesses they work for make money. The more money the better, since union members can bargain for more. They have incentive to be pro-consumerist and to protect their business/industry. Even at the expense of others.
Unions are workers coming together to advocate for their rights. I don’t know what you mean by the unions having an incentive for companies to make more money. Companies making more money does not translate to increased wages for workers. It translates to increased profits for shareholders. And unions do not own companies. Unions are a form of collective action against the capitalist ruling class. Workers who are a part of unions are making commitments to each other to fight for their rights as a group. They have nothing to do with what capitalist ceos or shareholders do. Not unless a union has been corrupted and is being manipulated by ruling class forces.
I am not a syndicalist, but I do think that the widespread unionization of workers is objectively a good thing. Tenants unionizing against their landlords, workers unionizing against their bosses, the working class as a whole unionizing against the ruling class.
I also push back against this notion of capitalism not being a hard and fast specific ideology that takes specific actions at the expense of workers. It is the truth. In countries that are more socialized but still maintain capitalist systems, less capitalism is still an improvement for the material conditions of workers. Private ownership of the means of production is still problematic even if there are more regulations from local government. Those things could still be collectivized and made worker owned so that everyone can have the fruits of production. And so that everyone has the same political power as everyone else.
Companies making more money does not translate to increased wages for workers.
In a unionized company with periodic collective bargaining, it definitely gives workers the potential to earn more money, if the union is doing its job right.
But, overall I agree with you. The potential drawbacks to unions are small potatoes compared to their real benefits. I think they’re one of the most powerful ways for the working class to take power back from the parasitic owning class.
Capital means money. Capitalism is an economy that is centered on money. Socialism OTOH centers the economy on the people.
You may want to read up a bit, and stop using socialism as an umbrella term. Socialism as in European social democrats, traditional socialists, Communists? Any of the other variations? Because both Social Democrats and Communists use the Socialist term.
Left and right are completely arbitrary semantic categories so you can define them however you like, as long as it has a clear and internally consistent definition.
I’ve even seen ancaps who have almost the same definition as I do but completely reversed which is pretty funny but also gives me a headache.
left = not capitalism
right = capitalism
this definition has formed since more or less (…) since the french revolution and has consolidated along with capitalism itself.
Woll, not that far back, after all the terms came later, but it was fairly set by the turn of the century.
Liberté, égalité, fraternité
“Pro capitalism” and harm reduction are not the same thing. Some form of capitalist-like economics will exist until we achieve post scarcity economics. The best we can do until then is work towards that end, while also working to minimize the harms imposed by material and labor scarcity.
This is just another stupid purity test by people who care more about their own righteousness than actual action. You can call my praxis whatever you want. I don’t care.
We’ve been post-scarcity on a global scale for decades if you count the essentials. We’ve been producing all the food that’s needed to feed the world, and that’s with only 2% of people working on agriculture in the developed world.
The reason for housing shortages is also due to policy, not because we somehow don’t have the resources and labour to build enough.
This is why Biden was centrist at best
Biden is a right-winger. Liberalism is right-wing, and has never been anything else.
Centrism can be argued to exist, but the right wingers insist it’s the “radical leftism” of social democracy.
Does anyone call Biden a social democrat?
but the right wingers insist it’s the “radical leftism” of social democracy.
That shouldn’t surprise us. The capitalist order only allows for the existence of two (supposedly) opposing ideologies - liberalism and fascism - that in reality is complementary to each other when it comes to maintaining their precious status quo.
So it stands to reason that fascists should cast liberals as the “Radical Left!” - that’s the ideology they are taking over from as liberalism is failing to maintain the status quo. It’s failing in it’s role as “good cop.”
