Over the past 50 years, powerful states and corporations have imposed neoliberal policies around the world, delivering a potent cocktail of privatization, deregulation and cuts to public services. Millions have died from inadequate access to basic nutrition. There is another way, write Dylan Sullivan and Jason Hickel.
It takes such utter lack of imagination to think that nothing fundamentally better than the neoliberal hellscape is possible. I also love how people just keep fishing for bad things that happened in socialist countries and going see communism bad!
The reality is that bad things happen in every human society, the question is whether things are moving in the right direction overall. With socialism quality of life inevitably improves for the majority while with neoliberalism the opposite happens.
Well, people are just brainwashed, I think. It sort of changes, though. Especially among younger populace, people seem to be more aware of the major flaws of capitalism. Not that it doesn’t eat it’s own tail, of course. We all know and love late-stage capitalism, amirite?
Yeah, I definitely agree that people who grew up in late stages of capitalism recognize how broken the system is much more easily than the older generations. The contradictions are becoming sharper by the day and it’s getting harder and harder to pretend that this is a normal and sensible way for humans to live.
I’m Gen-Z, born in 2002 in Poland out of all places. Repeatedly getting into arguments with my Gen-X dad about matters of capitalism, imperialism etc. He’s not conservative or anything, to be honest, he’s the standard liberal. You know, believing in total liberty in social life, but prefers right-wing neo-liberal/capitalist economy over any kind of leftist approach. And oh boy, it shows the divide between our generations. He’s got a lot of arguments to support his claims and I get that - he’s not necessarily wrong, too. Just short-sighted and selfish. I’m just glad he doesn’t turn me down in arguments with “you’re too inexperienced to eveb talk about it”.
Anyways, better world is possible.
I have similar experience with my parents who tend to be critical of USSR, but when you get down to it they’re forced to admit that the kinds of horrors we see under western capitalism simply didn’t exist there. I think it’s really important to figure out how to talk to people in the liberal mainstream and get them to see past liberalism, or at least consider the possibility that things can be done differently.
Unfortunately, the right is having a much easier time of it because they advocate capitalist friendly cliches like having less government, free markets, and all the other nonsense people have been indoctrinated to believe in. They manage to identify real problems that people are experiencing and then sell them bullshit solutions.
That’s why we all should combat it. You, as a socialist/communist and myself as an anarchist. We are both the enemies of the status quo, and even though we might disagree at some point, the reality is oppressive to us both.
So yeah, that being said, keep up a good fight, comrade.
Completely agree, the left keeps bickering over hypothetical problems while the right grows and unites. Debating whether it’s going to be ML style communism or Anarchism should the dominant ideology is a problem we’d be lucky to have one day. Right now we have focus on the real and immediate threats to us all. I think the most important thing for the left to do right now is to figure out how to reach people in the mainstream at least as effectively as the right does. That’s where most people are and as they lose faith in the current system they will increasingly turn to what will sound most sensible to them. The left has to make a convincing argument for itself. Keep up the good fight as well comrade!
It takes such utter lack of imagination to think that nothing fundamentally better than the neoliberal hellscape is possible. I also love how people just keep fishing for bad things that happened in socialist countries and going see communism bad!
The reality is that bad things happen in every human society, the question is whether things are moving in the right direction overall. With socialism quality of life inevitably improves for the majority while with neoliberalism the opposite happens.
Well, people are just brainwashed, I think. It sort of changes, though. Especially among younger populace, people seem to be more aware of the major flaws of capitalism. Not that it doesn’t eat it’s own tail, of course. We all know and love late-stage capitalism, amirite?
Yeah, I definitely agree that people who grew up in late stages of capitalism recognize how broken the system is much more easily than the older generations. The contradictions are becoming sharper by the day and it’s getting harder and harder to pretend that this is a normal and sensible way for humans to live.
@yogthos eh. I’m 55😆
:)
I’m Gen-Z, born in 2002 in Poland out of all places. Repeatedly getting into arguments with my Gen-X dad about matters of capitalism, imperialism etc. He’s not conservative or anything, to be honest, he’s the standard liberal. You know, believing in total liberty in social life, but prefers right-wing neo-liberal/capitalist economy over any kind of leftist approach. And oh boy, it shows the divide between our generations. He’s got a lot of arguments to support his claims and I get that - he’s not necessarily wrong, too. Just short-sighted and selfish. I’m just glad he doesn’t turn me down in arguments with “you’re too inexperienced to eveb talk about it”. Anyways, better world is possible.
I have similar experience with my parents who tend to be critical of USSR, but when you get down to it they’re forced to admit that the kinds of horrors we see under western capitalism simply didn’t exist there. I think it’s really important to figure out how to talk to people in the liberal mainstream and get them to see past liberalism, or at least consider the possibility that things can be done differently.
Unfortunately, the right is having a much easier time of it because they advocate capitalist friendly cliches like having less government, free markets, and all the other nonsense people have been indoctrinated to believe in. They manage to identify real problems that people are experiencing and then sell them bullshit solutions.
That’s why we all should combat it. You, as a socialist/communist and myself as an anarchist. We are both the enemies of the status quo, and even though we might disagree at some point, the reality is oppressive to us both. So yeah, that being said, keep up a good fight, comrade.
Completely agree, the left keeps bickering over hypothetical problems while the right grows and unites. Debating whether it’s going to be ML style communism or Anarchism should the dominant ideology is a problem we’d be lucky to have one day. Right now we have focus on the real and immediate threats to us all. I think the most important thing for the left to do right now is to figure out how to reach people in the mainstream at least as effectively as the right does. That’s where most people are and as they lose faith in the current system they will increasingly turn to what will sound most sensible to them. The left has to make a convincing argument for itself. Keep up the good fight as well comrade!