Capitalism is fundamentally incompatible with liberal values. If the rights of the individual and equality are important to you, then you should oppose capitalism, because it is responsible for creating the greatest inequality humanity has ever seen, and for creating the most oppressive regimes the world has ever seen. Fascism is capitalism taken to it’s logical conclusion.
Fascism is capitalism taken to it’s logical conclusion.
I think you’re probably right about this, as evidenced by…well, everything. But can you flesh this thought out, if it’s something you’ve thought about in detail? It’s just interesting to me to read more on that connection.
Thanks for the question, I’d be happy to expand a little bit - the basics of it go something like this: the more money you have, the easier it is to accumulate more money. Money can be used to purchase goods and services, including all sorts of propaganda. Over time, wealth will concentrate in fewer and fewer hands. This leads to progressively worse and worse inequality. This inequality is most harshly felt by the most vulnerable to begin with, but eventually it begins to impact more and more of the working class. As the working class begins to push back against the growing inequality, those in power are incentivized to shift the blame onto others, because they don’t want to give up their wealth and power. The wealthy will use their institutional power, their control over media apparatus, etc. to push a narrative that the problems felt by the working classes are caused by [whoever]. They also push all sorts of propaganda to divide the working class into smaller and smaller sub-groups - if you’ve seen stories in the news about how Millenials/Boomers/GenZ are ruining X/Y/Z, that’s an easy example of the ruling class sowing division among the working class. Eventually, as the inequality grows worse and worse, the poor suckers who bought into the ruling class’s propaganda begin to demand more and more extreme solutions to their problems - which obviously aren’t improving, because [whoever] isn’t actually responsible for their problems, it’s the ruling class.
Laws can’t solve this problem, because lawmakers can be bought. Elections can’t solve this problem either, because the problems are so deeply entrenched that even if we managed to elect leaders that truly do represent us, the ruling class have so much institutional power in other instruments of the state - the military, the police, the judiciary, the media, the education system, the civil service, the intelligence services (CIA, FBI, NSA, et al.) and so on - are controlled, directly or indirectly, by the ruling class. This is why we need a social revolution, we need to throw off the ruling class and never re-establish it. If there are rulers, then there will always be oppression.
I’d recommend taking a look at an anarchist FAQ for more information about the problems in society and how anarchism can solve them.
Again, I’m a clasical liberal. capitalism is a strawman so you can make arguements like the above. In some ways what I support looks like capitalism but only because and where it is a concequense of clasical liberalism.
note that I need to specify clasical liberal above. Modern liberals are different form us in many complev ways
The inevitable outcome of classical liberalism is fascism. A free market means the accumulation of wealth into fewer and fewer hands becomes inevitable. Then liberalism dies and is replaced by corporatiam. Classical liberalism is propaganda for capitalism. They made you a slave and called it freedom. And you love it.
You have the relation backward. Liberalism underlies capitalism.
Capitalism is fundamentally incompatible with liberal values. If the rights of the individual and equality are important to you, then you should oppose capitalism, because it is responsible for creating the greatest inequality humanity has ever seen, and for creating the most oppressive regimes the world has ever seen. Fascism is capitalism taken to it’s logical conclusion.
I think you’re probably right about this, as evidenced by…well, everything. But can you flesh this thought out, if it’s something you’ve thought about in detail? It’s just interesting to me to read more on that connection.
Thanks for the question, I’d be happy to expand a little bit - the basics of it go something like this: the more money you have, the easier it is to accumulate more money. Money can be used to purchase goods and services, including all sorts of propaganda. Over time, wealth will concentrate in fewer and fewer hands. This leads to progressively worse and worse inequality. This inequality is most harshly felt by the most vulnerable to begin with, but eventually it begins to impact more and more of the working class. As the working class begins to push back against the growing inequality, those in power are incentivized to shift the blame onto others, because they don’t want to give up their wealth and power. The wealthy will use their institutional power, their control over media apparatus, etc. to push a narrative that the problems felt by the working classes are caused by [whoever]. They also push all sorts of propaganda to divide the working class into smaller and smaller sub-groups - if you’ve seen stories in the news about how Millenials/Boomers/GenZ are ruining X/Y/Z, that’s an easy example of the ruling class sowing division among the working class. Eventually, as the inequality grows worse and worse, the poor suckers who bought into the ruling class’s propaganda begin to demand more and more extreme solutions to their problems - which obviously aren’t improving, because [whoever] isn’t actually responsible for their problems, it’s the ruling class.
Laws can’t solve this problem, because lawmakers can be bought. Elections can’t solve this problem either, because the problems are so deeply entrenched that even if we managed to elect leaders that truly do represent us, the ruling class have so much institutional power in other instruments of the state - the military, the police, the judiciary, the media, the education system, the civil service, the intelligence services (CIA, FBI, NSA, et al.) and so on - are controlled, directly or indirectly, by the ruling class. This is why we need a social revolution, we need to throw off the ruling class and never re-establish it. If there are rulers, then there will always be oppression.
I’d recommend taking a look at an anarchist FAQ for more information about the problems in society and how anarchism can solve them.
Again, I’m a clasical liberal. capitalism is a strawman so you can make arguements like the above. In some ways what I support looks like capitalism but only because and where it is a concequense of clasical liberalism.
note that I need to specify clasical liberal above. Modern liberals are different form us in many complev ways
The inevitable outcome of classical liberalism is fascism. A free market means the accumulation of wealth into fewer and fewer hands becomes inevitable. Then liberalism dies and is replaced by corporatiam. Classical liberalism is propaganda for capitalism. They made you a slave and called it freedom. And you love it.