"Anti-Capitalism" is Capitalist
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 29 เม.ย. 2024
- *click-baity headline*, but read Capitalist Realism! We need to encourage ourselves to go further than we have gone before and push beyond vague, passive anti-capitalism towards the values and praxis that build towards liberation.
The list of artists used is in the outro.
Introduction - 0:00
Anti-Capitalism is Capitalism - 0:55
Anti-Capitalism in Media - 2:36
Anti-Capitalism in Activism - 6:33
Beyond Anti-Capitalism - 9:17
Outro - 10:59
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Sources & Resources:
Capitalist Realism by Mark Fisher
The aim of this channel is to educate, explore, and encourage. I hope this video managed to accomplish that. Time to get anti-colonial, abolitionist, intersectionally feminist, and ecologically-grounded folks. Liberation in our lifetimes. ✊🏽
Also, check out this video on Social Capitalism by Post-Comprehension: th-cam.com/video/Rc7nNR2isLI/w-d-xo.html
Also also, for those asking about actionable alternatives, while I do have a couple praxis recommendations in past videos and I do plan on producing more videos related to praxis in the future, check out this video on constructing the revolution for more: th-cam.com/video/W9K6ISx8QEQ/w-d-xo.html
Do you have books you would suggest to people who wish to dive deeper into this subject of anti-capital study?
Shock Doctrine, Our Enemies In Blue, The Origin of Family, Private Property and the State, Are Prisons Obsolete?, and Capital (by Marx, available free online)
rasul muhamend David North
Ah the irony of the almighty algorithm pointing me to @BEAUofthefifthcoloumn and channels like this 😆. Is there a green pill?🤣
I definitely learned a lot from this video
"media consumption is not activism" - ouch
(that was actually my plan all along)
the truthhhh! i'm off all social medias and it has been liberating. talk to your neighbors, spend time with those close to you, and give time, energy, resources etc every chance you are able to
We all gotta feel ourselves called out in that one. Seems like an epidemic this kind of situation. Of course I am a textbook example... Impotence, self fulfilling prophecy. Truly good video. Still just media though.
@@metametodo educational media tho
Take what you’ve learned by consuming leftist media and talk to your friends and family about communism and human liberation.
"If there's a market for Anti-capitalism, capitalists will sell it to you" .... truest thing that's currently happening to our culture
Based capitalists.
@@inzyniertv9305 Nothing based about them
@@stevonwhite8933 At lesst they wont starve you to death.
exactly
@@stevonwhite8933 The original "based" term came from a specific group my friend..........
Strongly agree with this. Too much of lefttube is just focused on debunking right wingers but not promoting any alternative socialist ideas.
@LOVE Millions are killed by capitalism globally every year
@LOVE this is the find of stuff cops say
@LOVE Nobody "wants" A Bloody Revolution. Bloody revolution happens when the ruling elite oppose a peaceful transition and people are left without an alternative way to change the status quo.
@LOVE as the fascist say this is clear bait
@LOVE I am. What of it?
I feel like the vague anti-capitalism of a lot of young people is a good start, it just needs to be focused into something concrete.
Agreed, I’ve been openly anti capitalist for awhile now but I just don’t know how to move any farther and actually do stuff that matters. It’s like this whole time I thought I was liberation myself when in reality I was still under the neo lib thumb
@@mayhem9052
You ever wonder how you got there? How you came to accept that capitalism is bad without any kind of solid foundation for an alternative?
Ever think if it's within someone's interest to give you an enemy to fight before a reason or a goal to strive toward?
Have you noticed how the totality of leftist activism and politics in the last 40 years has done nothing but make the rich richer, the political class more powerful and the working class poorer and weaker?
It might serve toward answering why McDonalds is Communist now and why the entire leftist ideasphere is polluted by garbage that only serves to divide and weaken the working citizenry against an entrenched, incorporated political elite whose powers grow in the name of "progress". Surely the fact that mutli-national megacorporations are subsidizing ideological socialism aught to sound some alarm bells.
@@Criomorph what
@@Criomorph Do... Do you know what communism is?
@@unknown6390
Exactly what I said.
"The Boys" is another good example of how it's appears very anti-corporate and therefore anti capitalist in its messaging with Vought profiting off its superheroes but at the same time the show is produced by one of the biggest corporations in the world.
yeah, the irony of that...
YES THANK YOU. Plus it sort of puts the CIA in a good light cause oh they’re helping the good guys and recognize the experimentation and exploitation of people cause they sure as hell don’t seem to do that themselves
@@jolenewilliams7838 Yes but also your comment doesn’t make the original comment any less wrong. It’s not a silly mindset at all. The Boys didn’t have to exist, that’s the point. But it does for propaganda, a distraction, a way for collecting money, a settlement, that oh we hear you, we call our corporate selves out because we hear you. But they really don’t because nothing concrete has been done about it or changes for the better. And thus the capitalist cycle. And that’s thing you’re not wrong at all, it’s just that this analysis doesn’t (have to) end there. It’s like saying that that’s it, capitalism is our ultimatum, that a world without is completely impossible when it is very possible. It was before (before colonialism and imperialism) and it can happen again. The guy who made this video is the least bit hypocritical. Like really the vibe of your comment is just “how are you communist using an iphone?” Yes there is really no ethical consumption under capitalism and jeez oh would you look at that, we’re all just trying to fucking survive out here. But these two guys over here are literally not the head and active complicitors to the corporation like Bezos and celebrities and hollywood is. Also nobody (in present and in past) “has to” to live in capitalism. It’s not permanant. It’s a system that was brought on by white supremacy.
@@jolenewilliams7838 I wasn't making the point that the TV show creators or comic book creator were hypocrites for being complicit for publicising their show via a massive corporation, as you're absolutely correct that we're all somewhat complicit in a capitalist system, TH-cam being a good example.
I was making the point that like Wall E, a massive corporation took interest in creating this show because like most things, they look at the current trends. And "anti-corporate/anti-capitalism" has been trendy for sometime now ever since the first Alien movie in 1979.
With Weyland Yutani being the main ominous antagonist of the entire film series. Amazon in this sense essentially utilises the Boys to do our anti-capitalism for us so we don't have to
@@johnwright7916 Though also it’s important to point out that two ppl making/viewing content in youtube is literally not the same thing at all as corporates or rich producers making (seemingly) anti-capitalist media
Vague anti-capitalism is like performative activism at this point. Someone can signify that they're part of the good fight by expressing disdain for capitalism, without actually ever challenging it 👽 it's even more annoying when it comes from people in my personal life, particularly those who know that capitalism is the problem but also don't have the drive to go against it because they know they're better off than others
Revolution and confrontational activism are more popular among the student-aged demographic because they have, comparatively, the least to lose. When you have no significant wealth and no dependents it's easy to advocate for violent systemic upheaval.
The older people get, the more trapped by the system they become. They have wealth to risk. They have dependents to support. Few parents would rationally gamble their children's food/shelter/education/future on a violent social and political revolution, until the status quo fails to provide food and shelter.
Vague anti-capitalists aren't the enemy, they are allies waiting to be activated by a plan that doesn't ask them to put their families second, behind ideology.
A great example is the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. It's not a gamble where people who sign on could end up worse off while never achieving their goal, because it does nothing until there is sufficient consensus to override the opposition. Anti-Capitalism needs a similar strategy.
@@dragonwisard SO MUCH YES
@@dragonwisard Very well said mate
@@dragonwisard I mean I'm talking about my middle/upper middle class (by our government's standards) student friends, but yeah you have a good point. Although I think even a lot of students have a crippling fear of sacrificing their futures for a revolution which may never even happen, especially in countries that put so much pressure on kids for 20 straight years.
I definitely don't think vague anti-capitalists are the enemy, the same way performative activists aren't. It's just incredibly frustrating when people see the cause of the problems but are never willing to look for/engage with solutions
It's called worker aristocracy.
The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.
-Socrates
I will build what hitler couldn't
Might as well sign that quote as by Nick Nolte.
It's from a book by Dan Millman, Way of the Peaceful Warrior, later made into a movie where Nick Nolte plays the fictional wise-man/shaman/jedi master/gas-station attendant/wizard whom he dubs Socrates on account of being "wise" and having a beard.
It's vague new age Human Potential Movement pablum. Fetishising of mindfulness and other pseudoscience to the point of self-delusion that you can change the universe by belief.
Well, yea. But the new doesn't stay knew for long. So if nobody is interested in the more boring work of maintaining WHAT ALREADY, then the new stuff that is built will not last for very long.
Also the Greeks are probably where the issues started. Like Aristotle advocated for aristocracy (different classes). Like Greek philosophy became the patriarchal ideas that rich old white men discussed in their clubs. And those ideas and networks are what led to the current state of society/ economics. Like exploit the foreigners, extract their resources, keep the filthy industrial processes somewhere far away, and then treat the people who you have abused like trash because you have to protect your empire.
Like the Greeks and the Spartans were all about that conquest life and Greek philosophy just tries to wrap it up in a pretty bow that justifies abhorrent actions
@@yay-catabsolutely brain dead uninformed take
I think though the fact that so many people my age are now identifying as anti-capitalists gives us an opportunity for mass radicalization the likes of which was never possible before. In my eyes this is a great opportunity
woah, chill down you are going to go on a watchlist
Mass radicalization towards what tho? That’s purely destructive unless you’re all on the same page and have thought it through
@@cuteasxtreme minacrchist syndicatism please
I would be okay if everyone become an Anarcho-Commuist tho
Heck even slightly less authoritanist Tankies will be cool with me
@@cuteasxtreme ya exactly it would take a lot of co-operation by various leftist groups and a cohesive goal
ha you fool this was the CIA all along now you are on watch list. *evil laughing intensifies*
I find the praise that gets thrown at Banksy's work kinda grinds my gears for these exact reasons. It's kinda bare minimum "Capitalism bad" but only ever in the most surface level and vaguest of senses. I don't think it's *bad*, it's just rarely more than 20% radical as people frame it to be.
Yea I believe he's an entry point it's not the end goal he's just there so when people who still believe in capitalism see they can see an alternative way of thinking
Suppose we don't know who they are they might be an activist in some capacity but yeah does feel a bit surface level
Banksy was charging £15 a ticket for his show in Glasgow in a gallery that is usually free/donation only, and had plenty of expensive cheaply made merch to shift too. Neolibs love Banksy cos if he grafs their house it's value will increase tenfold lol
@@kersh5197 I wouldn't Banksee on it.
@@ajaxtelamonian5134 tenfold may be an exaggeration but he is still laughing all the way to the Banksy
As I've been (slowly) learning about economic systems like capitalism, socialism, democratic socialism etc. it's felt daunting seeing it all in your face and not knowing how to "fix it". At times I think, "Okay, create your own things then, make the money you can to support those things, collaborate with others and with the community to build something better." And I to me that thinking works to an extent but working in the non-profit sector has showed me that until more people truly believe they're capable of enacting radical change...it's gonna be a long uphill climb. I'm still foolishly optimistic at times though lol
I believe no systems of oppression ever go away, they just morph and evolve so it was great to watch this and see that thought process reflected in capitalism too.
Anyway this comment was my mind unfolding but thank you for this, you've given me a lot to think about.
Foolish optimism is what is required 💜 Something that has always stuck with me is “Be willing to plant a tree under whose shade you do not expect to sit”. Really helps with those periods of existential crisis 😝
Caught your live today, and I was embarrassingly excited excited to hear my favorite play auntie speak the word anarchism. I had to resist the urge to spam your chat lol On the slim chance you see this, the TH-cam’er Zoe Baker, also goes by AnarchoPak (sp?), is amazing also (ty for intro to this channel as well!). She brought Malatesta to the forefront for me. If you’re into theory. Most people hate theory in my world- I don’t have a lot of opportunity to discuss 😂😘
I loved most of this. But I do think oppression can be eliminated if rehabilitation is done. Most humans aren't born inherently bad and most ppl just been socialised to think that way.
I don't care how foolish I sound. I think all forms of oppression can and should be dismantled.
The thing is there is no "fix". I dont see how u can fix a subjective system. Its just a general system by which we trade goods and services.
People can choose which system they like most as time progresses. Capitalisms success was a product of the enlightenment era. So it stands to reason the next system humanity uses. Will probably be the product of another enlightenment era.
We can refine a system to better represent the general publics desires. Which is done literally every single year. Just like every other social system. Capitalism evolves over time.
@@magnuserror9305 _"Its just a general system by which we trade goods and services...Capitalism evolves over time"_ it sounds like you're talking about the Free Market. When Leftists talk about Capitalism, they mean "A system where people own the things you use to make goods and services via government force".
When farmers grow food and sell it, that's the free market. When the tractor company stops farmers repairing their own tractors that they bought, even using digital auto-locks and pay-walls until farmers pay the company's fee - that's Capitalism. It's about corporations that don't make money from producing things, but extracting rent from real producers. And it's all thanks to the government that protects the tractor corporations rights over the farmers[1].
The solution is worker co-operatives[2] where the companies are owned by the people who produce and work in them - still the Free Market, but without the rent-extraction.
[1] www.vice.com/en/article/xykkkd/why-american-farmers-are-hacking-their-tractors-with-ukrainian-firmware
[2] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worker_cooperative
@@LowestofheDead A system by which trade is held is not separate from governance. U might b under the impression systems of trade r outside of the law. Thats literally impossible, all trade systems r governed by a set of rules. The point being, they r subjective. U cannot "fix" a subjective system, for all subjective positions there exists the opposite. Meaning wut one defines as "fixed" is someones "ruined".
Farmers or anyone having the right to repair is apart of trade. Its subjective and is a valid solution to some issues. So yet again its entirely subjective. The people will decide as time progresses what is and isn't acceptable. Its happened since the dawn of trade and will end with the end of trade.
I started by watching all of these leftist youtubers and while I gained understanding of how capitalism is harmful and unnecessary, nobody ever seemed to touch upon the alternatives in a concrete way. Nobody really said how you can do anything. I still don't know what I'm actually supposed to be *doing* .
th-cam.com/video/W9K6ISx8QEQ/w-d-xo.html
Just some ideas but join your union/syndicate, read up and talk to other people (preferably irl) who also want to act and learn. We need to build collective power structures and these are ways to do that.
@@BalkanSpectre why do people keep bringing shitty communism to any anti capitalist debait as if their aren't alternatives to communism lol
Read Karl Marx
Watch an unbiased report of capitalism leftist are just biased against it Capitalism is why the us has 14% venazuala poverty rate is 90% cos socialism capitalism is economic freedom you start you’re own business or work for someone socialism all the money and only with all the money you make is taken from you given to other people it’s theft plus socialism is communism socialism abolishes private owners/investors resources are need for production which cost money and government has all the money 😊
you need to stop watch leftist TH-camrs and listen to me and unbiased people with the facts
Hearing a Caribbean voice talking about these issues is so refreshing and makes me feel less alone in the fight thank you so much , love from Barbados
Thank you for your kind words. I've been actively trying to connect with fellow Caribbean radicals lately, so if that's something you'd be interested in, hmu on Twitter🙏🏽
@@Andrewism for real I thought you were Welsh until I read the above comment 🤦♀️
"Media consumption is not activism" -- you are right, it is just another form of consumerism. Being creative and doing things well with real people in your local family and community because you are interested and excited is anti-capitalism.
Broadly anti-capitalist thought becoming more common is a great opportunity, but we have to make sure that the people take it, and not established power morphing it to appease just enough people to keep the cycle going.
YES. I feel like it's kinda similar to pop feminism and women's rights in rich circles. Like, yeah, the vast majority believes women and men (mostly cis at that lol, being trans and non-binary is still a foreign concept) deserve equal rights, but all the problems that feminism fights to minimize are still here. The mindset changed for the better, sure, but very little action is being taken.
@@sorcellerie yes people critique pop feminism as being annoying and end up throwing out the baby with the bathwater. We can change the narratives in pop feminism for example and more easily prime people to change their minds further. Pop feminism has its place in representing bit also shifting the zeitgeist.
Definitely spreading this around, I’ve been thinking about this a lot. I feel like vague anti-capitalism focuses itself on what the individual can do to “not participate” in capitalist settler colonialism and when they say “the fight is never over “ they talk about the fight against capitalism bc a lot of ppl believe capitalism itself will never really end and have not been introduced to any alternatives. But that makes the “fight” so utterly pointless.
Thanks for making this Andrew 💖
“Capitalist settler colonialism” is the most capitalist phrase ever. Never met anyone who wasn’t a brainwashed capitalist thinking they’re not one when using this phrase either.
@@grandmastersreaction1267 ???
@@grandmastersreaction1267 just sounds stupid to me, just call it plain capitalism don't need to make it a whole sentence
It's always good to see people trying to gesture towards something more than the most vague and broadly appealing leftist positions. I've honestly noticed within myself that, despite realizing that capitalism is fundamentally flawed years ago, I've still had trouble deconstructing the narratives of power that are fed to us every day. Neoliberal Capitalism actively makes room for "dissent" as long as that dissent is always willing to equivocate and shy away from its most radical actors. It's a frustrating thing to try and change.
"Neoliberal" just means reducing tarifs, regulations and favouring privatization. That has nothing to do with free speech. Also "neoliberalism" doesn't care whether you are a tanky. It's not a policy on what you can say.
@@josephhernandez9531
In order to not even be able question your schizophrenic construct you blend words into each other to eliminate distinctions that could show you where you are wrong.
True. Currently we have “freedom” to argue and rebel, but only within boundaries, so there’s no real threat to the system. We only get to have the feeling of doing something, without any real structural changes. Like a sandbox. Capitalism is infantilizing.
You beautifully articulated what I’ve been trying to put into words for a very long time: the idea that power structures looooooove making vague appeals to the natural and fundamental sentiments of solidarity that echo across the population. It’s non-threatening to corporations and governments to put out a flimsy critique of consumerism or queerphobia; all it serves to do is to appease/pacify the masses and turn a profit while they’re at it. Rather than letting these harmful institutions tap into the deep psychological discomfort our current system engenders in the people, we need to build mass movements that channel this discomfort into a concrete opposition to all of today’s hierarchies of oppression. Awesome video as always!!!
"Capitalist will also sell you the revolution"
Imainging the end of the world is easy and I think a low bar.
Agreed lol
Most find it easier to imagine the end of the world rather then to imagine the end of capitalism
@@HowHighImHalfBaked yeah but the point they're making is that imagining the end of the world is easy, to the point the comparison isn't really great. Like... end of the world, a buncha people die and everything goes to ruins. Simple. To imagine a world beyond capitalism you have to think up a whole way society could work and function without its systems, which is notably harder to do. So the analogy is kinda absurd and not great if you think about it too hard.
(Granted, most people won't think about it too hard)
@@Mlpzeldafan011100 most don't want to imagine the end of capitalism they relate it to freedom and will fight to protect it. They don't have the ability to critically think beyond their limits. I wouldn't say the analogy is absurd i would say these freedom fighters who can't think are.
The thing is that nowadays we can imagine the end of the world and pin down in details the ways that it would go down, I think that that's what this is about. In contrast to that, we cannot imagine a way that's as realistic as the way we imagine the end of the world when it comes to imagine an end to capitalism. There's some playbooks to that, but it's been really hard to put 'em into practice
thank you for this, i've been organizing for 7+ years now and started with doing anti-imperialist work abroad with youth and have moved from eco-socialism to abolition / restorative justice work. i'm burnt tf out and have had a lot more hardships with the new youngins coming in thinking we aren't radical enough and not wanting to learn from our own lived mistakes. and i'm 26 so i'm not even old. i've been on a hiatus since being let go from my non-profit job and am just trying to figure out what i can do for myself to sustain myself. it's so fucking hard to figure out how to have balance in this society and i wish that the movement i've given my neck to would give back. all these wins and yet so many times in my life where i didn't have secure housing or enough money to buy food. it's hard navigating this world in an era where people think practicing their values is only done virtually. i want to see people really be willing to be in community with others, i want to see the willingness to part bread to ensure we all have what we need.
Why would I risk my lifesavings to to start a business under your economic ideology?
"We can even blame stubbing our toe on hostile architecture on capitalism"
That's pretty much my mood coming out of the covid crisis as an American
No, the covid crisis was very obviously exacerbated by capitalism. You’ve got any entire class of people who profit, not from the virus going away, but instead simply ignoring it or having you not worry about it. We didn’t have a proper covid response like many other Asian countries because we put the interest of capital before the interest of the people.
@@EggEnjoyer In no way did I imply anything that would in any way disagree with this ... ?
@@ThrottleKitty My bad. I thought the quote was sarcastic.
@@EggEnjoyer Nope, 100% honest, I've litterally made a game out of how to blame litterally any problem on capitalism. It's a lot more depressing then games should be...
@@ThrottleKitty that reminds me of a game I play wherein I ask myself, "could this problem be fixed by an abolition of money and an anarchistic society?" Almost always the answer is yes. Also a very depressing game.
your analysis of wall-e reminded me of my thoughts on ray bradbury's fahrenheit 451. F451 critiques consumerism but i felt that it failed to point to capitalism as the source of consumerism
I summarized that you can have consumerism without capitalism.
@@Wendydarling420 what fraction of your food comes from substance farming
@@Wendydarling420When you say that are you homesteading.
How hard are you willing to work for food
@@Wendydarling420 growing food is 40 hours of work week that's what our work weeks are based off of, and there is no private property if most of the corporations own most of the land. And since they are corporations and not government they are under no jurisdiction or regulations.
Plays Disco Elysium once
But fr, "Capital has the ability to subsume all critiques into itself. Even those who would critique capital end up reinforcing it instead” is a banger quote
came looking for this quote.
A big part of my attraction towards the more heterodox, anti-organisational end of anarchist thought in particular kind of came from this realisation, or really something even more fundamental: That a lot of self-proclaimed socialists, whether democratic or revolutionary, are essentially uninterested in dismantling the ideas which underpin capital and the state, being more interested in either getting even with or violently eliminating "the rich" as human beings rather than as a status and position within society or putting different, "better" people in charge rather than actually doing the work of building a world without such a thing as specific people in charge in the first place. And, like, I don't think these people are categorically bad or ill-intentioned, but it's more often than not a false challenge, either ideation without action from a place of relative privilege or a whole lot of frenzied tail-chasing over strategy and theory and optics.
Which brings me to what might be a contentious assertion: For all that Max Stirner's work has sadly become the province of smuglords and memery-and I would by no means consider myself a pure egoist by any stretch of the imagination-the actual observation behind the infamous "spooks" passage remains potent. We let the fictions which make up society, fictions invented and propagated (both consciously and unconsciously) to consolidate power and to reinforce a status quo, haunt our minds like ghosts within an attic. While many leftists appeal to the *idea* of material analysis, there is often a failure to exorcise illusions which flatter their sense of self. It's particularly obvious with blatantly reactionary sorts, TERFs and whinging "dirtbags," but even a fair number of anarchists buy into ideas about labour and social organisation which are fundamentally products of Western European cultural hegemony without really seeing them for what they are. And I dunno, realising that kind of made me even more radical than I already was.
…and yes, I recognise the irony of using Gramscian terminology in critiquing how most revolutionary communists think about revolutionary communism. :P
Could you elaborate a little bit on what you mean about how leftists buy into ideas of Labor and social organization? I'm not terribly familiar with the author you were referring to, so I lack the context on how to properly interpret your comment, but it does sound like an interesting subject.
@@Nanook128 Stirner himself predates a lot of this stuff-he was a contemporary and frenemy of Marx and Engels-so his criticisms were aimed more at the Young Hegelians and the precursors to modern social democracy and revolutionary socialism. But I will try to clarify where I'm coming from a little.
In terms of the criticisms I'm making here regarding how many anarchists seem to perceive labour, the infamous anarchist theorist (and personal problematic fave) Bob Black's 1985 polemic "The Abolition of Work" sums up the problem pretty well. To oversimplify Black's arguments massively, he posits that the institution of work (here defined as compulsory divided labour) as a necessity for survival is one of the greatest tools of structural violence in human history, and that in order to bring about true liberation from authority, we must reimagine labour as a form of "productive play," with unnecessary labour phased out where possible, and essential, difficult labour transformed by those who do it and thus best understand it to be as engaging and ultimately pleasant as it can be, while also breaking down the strict division of labour in favour of everyone within a community doing at least a little of everything within their skills or interests. The problem, for both Black and myself, lies in the emphasis placed by the left on the role of organised labour and industrial labour in particular as a revolutionary subject, to the point that any fundamental liberatory critique of work itself is rejected out of hand in favour of arguments about how work ought to be organised; and while this is a particularly pernicious aspect of Marxist approaches to the matter, social anarchism and anarcho-syndicalism in particular is certainly not immune to this, with immediate aims for an improvement in material conditions-which are genuinely good goals!-too often confused with the real endgame. (This also ties into a lot of post-civ ideas, but that would put me way out of my depth.)
As for social organisation, there's a lot to tackle. Whether it's (again with anarcho-syndicalism) the way that large enough unions inevitably tend to devolve into the same unaccountable representative systems seen in bourgeois liberal republics, or the way that smaller and more equitable institutions meant to operate along lines of democratic consensus can be commandeered by whosoever shouts loudly enough and shows up to enough meetings (hello, Bookchin), or even just a weird sympathy with what is essentially vanguardism-lite in terms of revolutionary activity (looking at you, platformists), I think there's a lot that needs to be addressed as to how certain anarchists see free participation and what having an equal say actually means.
And even with all that out of the way, neither of those even touch on the unique problems of the different branches of old-school and new-school market anarchism, which are even more complex and occasionally baffling. That said, it is worth noting that I am far more sympathetic to the aims of even those forms of anarchism or libertarian socialism which I find deeply problematic on a theoretical level than I am to *any* form of capitalism or state socialism, and I do believe that a diversity of approaches can and should be experimented with and may suit different autonomous communities better than others.
Shout out to home boy bill wurtz for the sick intro
It's almost like we have to organize at work and not over the internet and through TH-cam videos...
Anti-capitalism without focus is just pointless bickering. I'm far, far, more interested in what the world can be like post-capitalism, we just need to get there first.
There is something I find particularly interesting about your section of anti-capitalism in the media (felt a lil' called out at the start, being a media criticism youtuber :P) in that there's some slight shift towards creating specifically anti-and-post capitalist settings in stories and media in the indie scene - if I remember correctly AK Press is starting to release more fiction works. I find that heartening, half because stories specifically that critique capitalism are something I think we desperately need in the cultural space, even if niche, and half because it means more people are interested in imagining worlds beyond capitalism. It's far from enough, and has to be accompanied by people who are willing to do the real, hard work in person, but y'know, it's nice.
First off, let me just say I love media criticism TH-cam😂 And what you've said here echoes something I tweeted about recently. We desperately need more liberatory art and especially fiction. We need to expand people's imaginations.
@@Andrewism Yeah, I'm both a writer an an anarchist of *vague waves towards green/ecosocialist ideas* tendencies, and I've been exploring the whole 'writing socialist/post-capitalist stories' thing. It's legitimately difficult for a lot of reasons, least of which is that traditional story structures often lend themselves to "Great man" mythologizing, and all writing guides are sort of designed to encourage that. It's been a real struggle to find and create art rooted in the principal of everyone being pieces (even if they are important pieces) in a shared struggle as opposed to some great hero. Egalitarianism, socialism, and liberation are hard things to discuss in a cultural medium so thoroughly dominated by capitalist principals, but there are people trying, and that gives me hope!
@@SJKlapecki I think there's a place for people to be able see themselves as the heroes in their own story. I understand the hesitation re: Great Man mythologizing though.
@@SJKlapecki In the end the Hero's Journey is one of self-discovery, which can be applied to tangible actions/ settings or increasingly abstract ones just as well. And applying that in a postmodern context to stories which make use of a multiplicity of voices can lessen the need for a narrative to have a "great man:, even hindering the story if one were to appear.
@@SJKlapecki A year late but I know what you feel chief. I've tried to look for alternative story structures like Ki-Sho-Ten-Ketsu to try not to center a group of individuas as great men.
Anti-capitalism as mere aesthetic essentially is something that Naomi Klein talks about -- we are all "ironic" shoppers at this point....There is hope, though!
Yeah...people will find out that work sucks...and the smart ones will put two and two together and won't buy so much worthless crap.
In which book did she write this?
@@pw3848 No Logo.
4:45 really good point, big shoutout to capitalism for convincing society that the most meaningful thing you can do is spend money
And get more of it.
@@jghifiversveiws8729 to spend more
Absolute nonsense. No one thinks that and "capitalism" doesn't "convince" people of it.
Yeah this is really hitting home. I think of myself as an anti-capitalist but I find myself supporting harm-reduction social democratic reforms much more often than taking steps toward abolishing capitalism. I think it would be fucking awesome to have a Bernie Sanders-like leader but obviously that won't come close to being enough of a change to save the world from climate catastrophe- it's obvious at this point that capitalism cannot be fixed, it must be replaced. Great video.
I mean doing that “hark reduction” stuff only takes 5 seconds, go join organizations and get involved on the ground, these 2 things aren’t mutually exclusive since one of them only takes about a few minutes.
The first step to moving forward is to unravel political corruption and voter supersession-- without doing third parties and leftist candidates won't stand a chance. Voting for candidates who will do so-- or even prevent it backsliding even more-- it critical. Voter expansion is a big part of the current main stream democratic party platform, because it the short term it will keep them in office. But in the long term it will allow them to be pushed out and replaced with candidates who represent the majority of this country. Abandoning democratic channels is a dumb move. It's just that voting is only a tiny part of the activism required.
Me crying because of walle at age 9➡️me being an eco socialist at age 19 xd
See - this is something I've been struggling with the more my interest in anarchism, anarcho-communism, mutualism - theory etc has deepened and the more "Lefttube" or "Breadtube" I've consumed. I'm disabled both physically and mentally, unable to tell when I'll have a vaguely good day for energy let alone an actual good day (yay unpredictability of chronic illness), I have no money (fixed income, on benefits in UK) to donate, can't really attend protests, marches, meetings etc (mobility/accessibility issues), don't know of any local direct action groups I can actually join in and contribute to that will allow me to put theory into practice. So I don't know what to do - I'm genuinely at a loss. I have looked online but the only information I can seem to dig up for my town is 6 years out of date or what they need of me I literally can't give.
A lot of orgs have not been doing enough to accomodate disabled comrades. What sort of things are you able to? What hobbies are you passionate about? I might start there, though I'm certainly no expert and need to do more reading on disability justice myself.
@@Andrewism I think my biggest misgiving is that - all I'm really objectively good at or have a talent for is writing. And if there is anything the movement has in droves... it's writers. Doesn't feel like an area in which my help would be actually helpful - somewhat like your video addressed concerning videos.
@@kitmakin289 There's never enough writers in the world! Pursue what makes you happy.
This will vary by org, but I know a lot of groups in my area (US) have switched to zoom meetings over the course of the pandemic. I would hope this would stick! Additionally, in the US at least, because our prisons allow for a sort of email service for inmates the abolitionist group I work with carries out most of its communications work online. Many antifascist researchers will track and monitor fash social media from home, and within many orgs there is important (but boring) planning work that happens in spreadsheets/docs/channels etc. idk if any of that is helpful, but if u can reach people u are interested in working with online, ask if there is work u could hop in on! Gl!
@@bees-ru4dn Thank you - that's great and buoying information to receive.
I went from liking channels like HBomberGuy and ContraPoints before, to Thought Slime and T1J, and now I've found your channel. You honestly deserve way more views than you get! I love the bigger personalities, but a lot of their videos tend to disappoint. Underwhelming, easy targets. Thought Slime and Philosophy Tube are the main ones that still make videos that I feel actually go after the real problems and suggest solutions, but even they toss out the occasional "I'm going to tear apart this one persons paper thin ideology for 45 minutes" video.
Part of maintaining a platform on YT is going after the crowd-pleasers at least intermittently. "Take down" videos are crowd-pleasing junk food. I think Contra has had more substantive vids lately than PT, though I think Abby's still playing it safe. They've always been about equivalent in my eyes, with Contra focusing more on introducing empathy and PT focusing more introducing, y'know, philosophy, and neither of them getting too concrete (generally), lest they scare away the libs and the less-radical. They're important gateways, both of them.
(Edited: abbreviations)
you do realize that YT vids aren't the driver of actual revolution, right?
all the "left" content we watch on here, is just entertainment.
@@phangkuanhoong7967 ... What? I never said it was. Also, I watch TH-cam videos for education, not "entertainment", though there's nothing wrong with doing it for that.
ive went from liking socdems to liking socdems and thought slime
Look up Paul Cockshott. He does videos on various subjects but has some on cybercommunism as a successor to Capitalism
Turns out being "on the streets pushing mutual aid groups beyond charity work and donations" is hard af lol
I think that's a big part of why any real change feels paralyzing. It's fuckin hard
A lot of mutual aid groups actually were just regular charities wearing a marketable "anti-capitalist" hat. I don't necessarily think that's the worst thing ever- some charities are effective and necessary-- but it's just an observation.
Really great analysis!! There's this one quote I like from Ursula K Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness that I feel like encapsulates this very well
"“To oppose something is to maintain it.
They say here "all roads lead to Mishnory." To be sure, if you turn your back on Mishnory and walk away from it, you are still on the Mishnory road. To oppose vulgarity is inevitably to be vulgar. You must go somewhere else; you must have another goal; then you walk in a different road.”
I'll be honest, I really want to help dismantle capitalism, but I'm not in a position to start fighting it from where I am at the moment.
same, i try to educate myself and the people around me through meaningful convos and resources on my stories (for example)
@@GC-kj1nx yea thats basically what im doin :)
We are losing time
All I can really do is protest atm. My life rn is in a delicate balance and people rely on me and stuff.
Well first of all stop starting businesses.
"Media consumption is not activism" worded perfectly.
First off thanks for your videos! Agh I joined up with a local prison abolitionist group last year because I was tired of reading abt the world but having no part in working to change anything, and I am realizing more and more that the kind of things u can learn from experience and from other people is intricate and necessary. Not everything can be worked out through theory. It is a big struggle to try to work towards meaningful change rather than falling into reformism, to target the root rather than the branches, and to center actual solidarity (not charity). Everyday I realize how much me and those I work with need to step up our game, but we wouldn't have even come this far to begin with if it hadn't been for the slow frustrating work of relationship building and learning as we go. Best to u and anyone reading this! If u are completely new, don't be scared to reach out to those around you and get started on something, everything and everyone starts somewhere, take your time! People will be glad to have u!
I think mass consciousness is rising and we have a huge opportunity, but if we’re not super intentional with our movement building then, as you said, all this energy will get coopted and people will get duped into thinking reforms are a win. Great video, you consistently put out such high quality and necessary videos so thank you!
Thank you for another wonderful video; I feel silly saying something so technical and unrelated but I guess any comment helps you reach more people: if there was any way you could have slightly louder audio (assuming others also want that) that would be great :)
Thank you for the feedback! Yeah I'll boost the audio in future. I really appreciate constructive technical comments like this, cuz I'm not an audiophile myself. Recently, someone commented about white noise, which I was then able to fix, but I had no idea how to fix it before they pointed it out. All that to say, once again, thanks.
@@Andrewism of course! Thanks 😊 to specify- idk if technically the audio in general is too low, it’s also possible it’s a slight imbalance between your voice and background music or something that makes it harder to hear you. Awesome work can’t wait to see more in the future 😊
great title. it made me say "no it's not" and then learn how it is.
I have been trying to implement small socialist practices into my daily life at the smallest level possible, it has actually been pretty great.
Basically focusing on connecting with the people around me on a deeper level than the surface level acquaintance that our world encourages to stay at. Giving items that I don't need or want to those who I think may want it, and taking other's to-be-thrown-out items when I want them or can think of use for them. I have gotten things that I would have bought otherwise, and would have been thrown out otherwise. I have also managed to get rid of things I didn't want without throwing it in the garbage. I've carpooled with friends several times, using less total gas. I've been trying to learn more about growing plants, gardening, and foraging. Our town has a very small community garden and I've got a few friends who want to help me plant stuff and keep it really pretty when spring rolls around. So yeah! Remember that there are small everyday things you can do to reduce waste, increase community, and move towards a better system! After all if we can't implement these things officially then the next best option is to implement them unofficially.
Down the road we're going to get into guerilla gardening, and maybe see if we can open a tool library at some point. (Though the second one requires a place to do so. So it might be a while before we can lol.)
These things are more anti-consumerism than anti-capitalism as he mentioned in the video and that's certainly fine and still worth continuing to do :)
Something I've been trying to get started is a housing co-op (cooperative). They're very common upnorth, but unfortunately I live in the south so not a lot of resources and help getting things up and running.
@@dc2guy2 join the communist party of ur area
Im a Marxist studying behavioral economics and this was beautiful. You touched on so many things that I’ve encountered when talking with other people. Especially those that think they can’t do anything about it. Arm yourself with education and live your truth. Whether your reach is 1 or 1 billion, true change starts from the ground up. THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE TELEVISED ✊🏼
great video, i've seen these same vaguely anti-capitalist feelings within environmental spheres - people blaming over-consumption and large corporations without offering anything actionable to combat the state of the world. i've also seen myself slipping into being guilty of this, need to step up and get out of bed
I just found this channel thanks to an FD Signifier shoutout. The compassion and intellect displayed here truly moved me- a new loyal sub here! I can't wait to learn more from SaintAndrewism!
Been waiting for something like this to appear in my feed. No matter what, I always felt the close people in my life who mention their “anti-capitalist”, only do it in a more meme format. There’s no real push for change, always dunks on some opposing figure’s viewpoint, and every one of them are far more different in ideologies and an end goal to actually unite cause the slightest different creates cohesion, when it should be like “Fuck the small little differences, get together and do something than going at each other’s necks for not being fully on the same page for once.” It’s just so frustrating to watch it keep happening and nothing real ever getting done to change the crony capitalist corporate power that keeps the ball in its court.
The focus ends up always being on issues that barely have anything to do with capitalism, just stop fucking around already, that same Steven Crowder guy hates how the government is just as buddy buddy with corporate powers just to get a paycheck, your ideology spat over rights can come later after we’ve flipped the wealth hoarding assholes out of their chairs!
absolutely agree, a movement can't only be "anti" something, we have to be moving towards something as well
5:58 this is something that I loved when I found your channel, you devote a lot of time to exploring possible futures and solutions to problems. It’s something we need more of!
Another great video, as always! I'll be sure to spread it around
thanks, this was good. there's nothing that makes me angrier than people who say "hey, i agree with you! if everyone went along, i would too". if people would understand the power that they have and the change they can personally affect....that in itself is a revolution
Great video! Good call out.
Think it would be fantastic, especially for newbies, to see a part 2 with more concrete suggestions that people perform in practice.
One of the fundamental issues I see with radical leftist thought, coming from the radical left myself, is that reactionary mindsets still rule the conversation. We oppose capitalism because capitalism is bad, we oppose right-wingers, because right-wing ideology bad. While I don't disagree with both sentiments, I feel like the biggest problem is that the fundamental seems not to be due to a genuine desire to dismantle and render obsolete various mechanisms of authoritarian control - and in fact, a worrying bunch, even some fairly high-profile influencers who speak on these issues seem to ignore the issue of authoritarian-sympathetic anticapitalists who call themselves leftists.
We need to make it crystal clear that the reason leftists are anticapitalist and anti-right-wing is because first and foremost, we are anti-authoritarians, and those sympathetic to such ideas have no place at the table. Hell, we can start using a term coined BY a socialist for a similar purpose, and discuss the differences between a socialist society and Oligarchical Collectivist societies like the former USSR and China.
I'm not sure how we're meant to "reject capitalist influences wholly" when doing almost anything requires using the existing infra.
found this channel yesterday- been (mostly) listening to vids while gardening and cleaning. i'm hooked, i'm excited that i have a bunch more to watch! keep up the great work 😊
Oh my god, just learned about your channel and I gotta say, the content you do is great! I can't thank you enought for these videos
I love it! Direct Action calls us to organize against the State through alternative structural organization. Building the new society within the shell of the old.
Living in a hyper conservatives rural area is a living hell, i am hoping to start building, but sometiems i fear the people here are a little too brainwashed.
Edit: thanks for these links!
As someone who is struggling with hyper conservative family members (albeit not rural, just got sucked in by alt-right propaganda and QAnon), my advice so far is: focus on material conditions, avoid any "ism"s, don't be confrontational, ask questions about very basic things, like why productivity going up hasn't shortened our workdays/workweeks, about the myth of "the harder you work, the more money you make" using basic employer/employee hypotheticals, deconstruct words like "earn" or "merit" with counter-examples. Above all, remember that the goal isn't to convince them then and there, but to get them to (in time) see cracks in these things they've held as sacred for so long -- this means it has to come from them, your job is to get them something to think about, not convince them on the spot or even get them to agree with you. The reason I think the key to changing minds is instilling doubt is because we've seen it succeeding on these very people, with cigarettes, climate change, vaccines. (Tobacco companies were literally named "merchants of doubt" for trying to muddy the waters around cigarettes causing cancer and they once stated that "doubt is our product".) The point isn't to prove it wrong, the point is to get them to doubt it enough that they downgrade it from "fact" to "theory" in their minds. This phrasing is straight out of Exxon's anti-climate change PR campaign memo in the '90s. I know it was despicable that they did all of that, but they're not wrong that this is the kind of engagement that changes minds. Especially when the goal is to get them to invest in a parallel reality (and actual reality is like that to them now). So maybe we could use the same tactic to get them out of it as well, since they're so far gone that actual facts are dismissed as fake right off the bat.
@@GabiGhita This reminds me of an idea that's something like "People don't change their minds in public, in the moment. They change their minds in private later, when no one is looking."
@@AlbeyAmakiir Right, exactly. You need to be in a sort of mental safe space where you're brutally honest with yourself and you know there's nobody around to hear you asking potentially dumb (in your opinion) questions.
@@GabiGhita You need to develop the self awareness to understand that you are allowing politics to he the center point of your life and it is probably driving a wedge in your home life and mental health. Country's fall, political parties change, religions fall out of fashion. All you will ever have is your family, and you're putting a political party above them. Chose peace and tranquility, dont live your short life fighting somebody else's battles.
What's wrong with conservatism?
This is a really good analysis! I hadn’t really thought about large parts of this - or been able to put it into words - so I hope this gets more attention
just watched the barbie movie and this video has never been more accurate
This was all outlined in the book, "Rebel Sell: Why the Culture Can't Be Jammed"
by Andrew Potter and Joseph Heath.
Bro… you took the words out of my mouth, great video, you’ve earned a sub.
I am so happy I found this video and your channel
I guess I missed this video when I came out, but I’ve been watching you since… a few years now.
When I started watching I was angry at what was happening around me in the world, and felt powerless to do anything.
Now I’ve gotten involved with local groups pushing for safer streets, better zoning, and all around making the environment more equitable.
Thanks for doing this stuff, don’t believe anyone who tells you MAKING TH-cam videos isn’t activism, because you are changing hearts and minds.
I won’t be able to build the world I want overnight, but WE can all take the next step towards a just society that lets us all reach our potential.
Thanks from the northeast US!
This video is kinda clickbait
You don't have an issue with anti capitalism or explain how it is capitalism
You just have issues with certain people proclaim themselves as anti capitalist and say "lmao just vote till we get socialism My dudes lol" and anti capitalist shows, games, movies, ect.
You right. I admit as much in the description😉
@@Andrewism ah! i was on mobile and descriptions aren't shown unless you click on them
Thank you for this. I have really felt like im spinning my wheels. I think my issue is when so many of us talk revolution the only conceptualisation many of is us see is war in the streets (which yes will happen) but not all of us are equipped for that and our value isn't diminished because not all of us are capable physically of that but what I can do is build community. Work in mutual aid and im studying to teach and what if really like to do is build a community of educators who can push back on the education system.
Thank you for succinctly summing up what I have been trying to articulate, in several conversations I’ve had over the last little while. Will be sharing.
This was the first video I've seen by this channel, and I gotta say I'm impressed. Really mind opening and great. Keep doing what you're doing
As an outsider looking in, how much should I invest in an ideology that has very little chance of getting off the ground, not only because of our current system, but because of the current culture of socialism?
By that I mean, there doesn't seem to be much keeping ya'll together as a collective. You can point to Marx sure but many young anti-capitalists see him as also a colonizer of ideas. And it seems like every socialist has taken on the role of purity accountant.
No one seems interested in forgiving or building understanding, something that is absolutely necessary for a system of ideas to grow and be implemented.
Without some type of social glue, I don't see the point in investing time in a unorganized revolution vs. making small more achievable adjustments to the current system.
And "owning the means of production" really isn't enough. It doesn't ring true for young people who aren't interested in having a piece of a businesses pie, as no matter how much input, they will still feel alienated from their work as no amount of labor into someone else's dream will be worth that time and energy.
And then there is the whole "inevitability" problem. If socialism and ultimately communism are inevitable, then why should we fight those who don't understand it, when their understanding matters little to the supposed coming revolution?
But then again, I am an outsider. It is possible I have missed something and there is an answer to my hesitance about going further left. If anyone could enlighten me as to why socialism is worth the fight and to which branch of socialism I should invest in over all the others, I would appreciate it. Thanks.
Thank you. I let hope and determination guide me. Working with others for a society where everything is freely available to everyone, with wealth and labor shared within and across communities.
Your words helped me understand why I'm so insistant on dreaming of a world that so many people think impossible.
The video is great, instructive and has many great points, thank you ! But I just wanted to ask if the tierlist of ideologies at the beginning is something unironically endorsed/to take as a 100% serious tierlist or is it just a meme to jebait MLs?
Great job! I had all these thoughts swirling through my head and this is just perfect!
real chills from this video. this is the good stuff.
I'm wondering if you know the work of Mariame Kaba in the realm of the prison abolition movement? I only just found your channel so, if you already know of her or have even referenced her in past videos, big apologies. the concept of the need to come up with innumerable possibilities beyond what the given structures pretends is possible is something that I have also gotten from listening to her, but she's from a different generation
I haven't read We Do This 'Til We Free Us yet but I intend to!
I've always advocated for abolishing prisons and eating criminals instead.
those closing lines had me tearing up a bit. solidarity.
my issues with the big "breadtubers" summed up in one video . . . gotta stay marketable for the sponsors and algorithm I guess
Thank you so much for all your hard work on your videos ! I enjoy them so much and you’ve inspired me to start my own channel as well :) peace and love !
Yet another banger, thanks 4 uploading
You have totally radicalised me in the space of less than a week of discovering your channel. I see challenges ahead for this movement and in particular with relation to myself. I am a software engineering student and it's become clear that there needs to be a viable framework for the production of computing devices without supply lines that lead to the exploitative and murderous mining of rare earth metals. We also need a way of producing solar panels without relying on processes with links to slave labour as well as an alternative to lithium ion batteries.
Do you have any literature you can recommend for more ethically and ecologically sourced computing and power production?
Thank you! Glad to hear it. I'm by no means an expert, and this is certainly a topic I need to explore more, but from what friends and I have discussed, both landfill mining and biomining may be positive developments on that front.
@@Andrewism I'll look into both, thank you. You bringing up biomining rekindled a memory of a very interesting video I had watched a while ago on the idea of using trees for mining through a novel process: th-cam.com/video/KoF4rcRRUWM/w-d-xo.html
You had me in tears at the end. We must do this with the upmost understanding that the struggle doesn’t end. It won’t end. We must endure and must HARD against a system that has us all (to a variety of extents) in chains.
This was my first one of your videos. Good stuff. And good on ya for highlighting Capitalist Realism by Mark Fisher. Zero Books is great.
its very strange to me that radical breadtubers are making lots of anti-video essays recently, reflecting on the inability of viewers to change anything while watching TH-cam.
meanwhile, John and Hank Green and the Nerdfighter community, who are all probably anti-capitalist but certainly might not be hard Marxists are actively fighting against the so-called "vaccine apartheid "
maybe my analysis is wrong, but sadly videos like this only further reinforce reflexive impotence: you spent ten minutes telling us to stop watching anti-capitalist youtube videos, and two minutes making vague platitudes about what to do next.
John Green tells me, "click the link in the doobley-doo to sign a petition to tell this company to make TB tests cheaper."
That's fucking spot on.
the what
This really spoke to my frustrations at some of my friends who don the veneer of anti-capitalism but then pull out "there's no ethical consumption under capitalism" as if it were an excuse for uncritical consumption.
I sometimes feel like I'm the only one actually trying to do anything.
I loved the line in the video "I’ve low-key been calling myself out throughout this video, so you’re not alone." because everyone needs to do more. so it was great to hear you are trying to do something about capitalism. I have been struggling with living a life actively against capitalism.
it would be great to hear how you actualize your fight against capitalism.
all the best in your endeavors
Also how can you be against all illegitimate heirachies but draw the line at non human animals, & breed 2 trillion+ of them a year into existence merely to exploit their labour & to exist as a commodity? Principles vanish.
Love the comprehensiveness of your content. Really wish I had a resource like you 15 years ago as a young anarchist with no attention span trying to read theory.
subscribed! this video just popped up on my feed and im so glad it did. rly great, helped push me in a direction i was already headed which is away from online politics which are mostly meaningless irl. ive already done some local political activism and organizing which has been really rewarding for myself and the community, and im rly excited to get more into it!
From a Marxist point of view, it's not that Capitalism is "bad", it's clearly better than feudalism. It's just that it still has obvious flaws on its own, creating contradictions which is unable to solve, and will lead to its eventual overthrow by a socialist revolution.
Whether you agree with this or not, Marx didn't care if Capitalism was "bad", that wasn't his point. His main goal was a scientific prediction of the evolution of society, not moral judgement.
What video do you suggest us to watch in order to learn effective actions that will contribute to the dismantlement of capitalism that almost anyone can do (especially, if we live in the Global north)?
I'd recommend not looking to any particular video as a one stop "solution" but this video does provide a good introduction for prefigurative praxis: th-cam.com/video/W9K6ISx8QEQ/w-d-xo.html
It draws from both the failures of the past as well as the contemporary struggles of today. Def recommend.
your videos never fail to make me think about things from a new angle, thank you. Will be reflecting on this more this morning.
this video was exactly what i needed to hear during a time of learning more about activism in light of finding out about various genocides occurring around the world. i’m beginning to experience burnout and feeling overwhelmed with a sense of powerlessness, but your video helps reinforce my motives that i just have to stay focused on things i do have power to do-one at a time-instead of getting caught up in trying to do everything all at once. it’d make more impact this way as opposed to getting frozen in complacency
So, I am neurodiverse and trans, and I really struggle to understand the concept of economics because of the way my brain works and processes abstract information, while also feeling aware of the complete lack of any real group with actual political power that genuinely has trans people's back in the UK. Like not even like Democrats, nothing. I do understand linguistics though, so I understand the social functions and associations of words such as capitalism, neoliberalism, socialism and centrism. However I I can't really say that I would be able to articulate anything about what those words mean, in the same way that I could articulate what it means to be anarchist, monarchist, eurocentric, theocratic nationalist or Post-colonial. Broadly speaking this is a part of why I think figures like Natalie Wynn don't talk economics, because the language in which they are expressed in the "respected academic' is itself part of a broad system of exclusionary elitist oppression.
Having said that, you have actually said something that has made me grow while still making me feel as or more sad as regular left tube celebrity stuff. But I do think I needed to hear it. Also I have lived in the UK for ages and this is the first time I feel like I can more confidently understand what a Trinidadian accent sounds like. Which just speaks to the amount of marginalization Afro-Caribbean voices have in UK media in a very literal sense.
My postcolonial and radical anti-ablist persuasion (and my more recent religious deconstruction leading to my acceptance of my transness) have sadly not found any logical connections in my mind to any economic views, outside of traditionalist form of anarchism. To be honest I expect that is the fault of a system of information in being communicated in "The West" that tends to prioritise the more literate and less dyslexic.
As a fellow Neurodivergent Queer™ I get a lot of these feelings. I can't fucking stand the "just read theory" crowd of leftists because I can't do that. I can read, but taking in dense texts is really hard for me. I feel like our culture places books on a pedestal as the Most Academic Medium, when I find it so much easier to learn from video essays.
btw, if you're interested in hearing some leftist economics, the Unlearning Economics channel is really good at explaining economic concepts in ways that made sense to me at least.
@@sleepinbelle9627 thank you 😊
@@sleepinbelle9627 when people tell you to read theory, which is still very valuable for a base understanding and pretty much necessary, they don’t (usually) mean it literally. you can consume the theory itself in any way youd like
@@bijtmntongaf I appreciate what you're saying, but nah, there's still a decent chunk of leftists that put reading marx above all else as things you must do in order to be a real socialist. (I know you can get a lot of these texts as audio books or whatever, but that's still not easy for me to engage with. dense, dry academic texts are just hard for my brain to internalise).
Honestly I feel like disabled people are a real afterthought for a lot of leftists. Like, they understand on some level that you shouldn't discriminate against disabled people, but they don't like to think about how to cater to us. A lot of people will thoughtlessly call you lazy or stupid for not doing the things they think you should to be a "real leftist", without considering the myriad of conditions that make it incredibly difficult to do anything of value.
@@sleepinbelle9627 thx imma check that channel out too
That political ideology tier list is fucking accursed
Yeah that was the most triggering part of the video tbh lol
Glad you made this.
Read Fisher 5 years ago and his book has never left my thoughts.
May he rest in peace and let us carry on his mission.
His will.
Dude, I'm glad to see your channel grow so fast, really your touching the point and is truly subversive as nedded, thank you for the content hope to se more! 👌
I'm in the animation industry (or about to join in hopefully) - and yes!! haha balkanise the industry!!! There's a lot of stuff coming so hopefully we will see more studios coming up with their own productions. Pretty much no one want's to work at Disney cuz they finish their movies in like 4 months and while they do pay overtime....and their workers are unionised. it still is intense. Pixar is a lot better as far as I know and seems to me like their movies are not so much the giant merchandise commercials that Disney films are.
Ack-knowledge mints for my indigestible addiction to edutainment.
i really like the paintings you show to illustrate the point. the aesthetic is of the video itself is really appealing imo
You are so necessary! Thanks for your words, you warmed my "soul". And your voice is sooo relaxing.
It's important to understand that "capitalism" has always had a 100% failure rate, which is why the world has a state-propped form of it, aka state-capitalism, where the state necessarily intervenes to prevent capitalism from imploding on its own contradictions and quickly rendering the planet uninhabitable by human life. So we've never actually had "pure" capitalism, because it doesn't work, instantly mutating into state-capitalism within 5 minutes on every try. That out of the way, even the form of existing capitalism we _do_ have has some interesting superpowers: 1. It has the ability to parasitize the very state structures that were put into place to contain its destructive force, taking them over and using them as a proxy for its needs. 2. The ability to coopt virtually every attempt to attack it, integrating it into its poisonous self.
That's why it's so difficult to exterminate it. Capitalism is like a highly-evolved cockroach, gaining immunity to every new spray used on it that doesn't kill it. It truly is a monster that can only be defeated by nature itself, when it can no longer sustain itself due to its own nature of devouring/commodifying everything around it. Like the 80's film "The Blob", it will eventually collapse under its own weight. That's all we can hope for, aside from mildly helping to accelerate this inevitability through various behaviors that attack capital-flow & private ownership of the means (capitalism's life blood & crown jewel).
yes yes, more dramatic writing please.
I think this is the first time I subscribe just after one video. Can't wait to watch the rest 🙂
Im glad i came across this channel after falling hard out of breadtube - this is real inspiration juice. Thanks for pushing me beyond cowed sadness. Solidarity forever.
As someone who is gen z and strongly considered myself anti capitalist, it took me a long time to realize that that is not the same thing as a socialist. Social democracy is not socialism, and my ideal is a capitalistic free market with universal healthcare, affording housing for all, and a big focus on food instability. It scares me to see how many of us don’t totally know what we want or what we’re fighting for