• very smart Idiot@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    None of the good things you mentioned are the result of capitalism and are in fact strangled by capitalism.

    Capitalism has been a main driver of innovation and applied sciences. Under Capitalism it was possible to enhance our lives in an unbelievable short timespan. Capitalism is just less restrictive. Socialism is always in need to control the economy and does not allow for quick adaptations. It’s one of the main reasons why soviets were so good at building rockets, but medical care or material sciences were simply less successful.

    The internet started as a military project, which is not inherently capitalist, and if anything the internet as we know it is an example of the potential of anarchism.

    I don’t understand your point. Just because the internet started as a military project and the military is not inherently capitalistic, doesn’t mean that any other social form would have been any more successful. Furthermore the internet was and is undergoing enormous change. Mainly driven by capitalism. Capitalism has sped up the development. Something no government founding could have archived to a similar extend.

    Same with much of our infrastructure, such as international railways/highways, public libraries, state and national parks…

    Railways and highways are build by private companies though. And indeed. With the internet we saw the downfall of public libraries, now only government founded institutions of that kind can still survive. A government is indeed needed as a correction tool, anarchistic capitalism doesn’t work. But that’s not what we got.

    You also grossly overestimate how much your choices and hard work contribute to success while underestimating sheer luck and privilege.

    No I do not underestimate it. I know that I am privileged to be born in a successful capitalistic country with many options in my life. And yes. Sheer luck doesn’t hurt. Why would you punish anyone for their luck or for their intellect. This is this equality vs equity argument.

    I … can’t really respond to everything you wrote, partially because it’s a borderline gish gallop, but most of your statements have been addressed by leftist and post-leftist literature.

    And most of leftist and post leftist literature has been addressed by capitalistic economists literature. And those have again by addressed by leftists and then they have been addressed by libertarians again and so on and so forth. It’s a debate that he not yet been settled. So making out Someone to be right and someone to be wrong is not yet and will probably not be possible at all.

    I’d recommend reading up on anarcho-communism and anarcho-primitivism. They’re quite different theories that work to solve the unjust and destructive system of capitalism.

    And they allow a gap in power to be filled by some dictator. Humans need power structures. Hasn’t history told us yet?

    Also read up on the history of leftist movements in Latin America and how US intervention was used to derail them (US is responsible for the rise of authoritarianism/Soviet alignment in Cuba and the derailment of Sandinistas in Nicaragua, just as two examples.)

    Well maybe communism in Latin America was simply not a solid system of it couldn’t handle foreign attempts of manipulation with bribes?

    While not specifically leftist, I’d also recommend reading something like Caste by Isabel Wilkerson to understand racial hierarchies and Everyday Sexism by Lara Bates about gender hierarchies.

    No thanks. After reading about gender theories I got extrem so annoyed by such irrational theories. I’d rather read something about anarcho-communism.

    Frankly, capitalism is killing our people and destroying the planet, and it urgently needs to be stopped. It’s an inherently destructive system, and it can’t be fixed. It must be replaced.

    But so is every other system. Monarchies, Capitalism, Dictatorships, Communism, Feudalism,… It’s not the system that is inherently destructive. It’s people. It is easy to blame a system. That’s for sure. But the truth lies in our nature itself.