Capitalism - Blog Posts

Love it, go fuxk yourself white people lol 🥰🤌

Somebody needs to draw Hobie Brown in this shirt has anyone drawn him in this shirt Hobie needs this shirt cause this is a shirt he would absolutely wear

I love that Adam ruins everything has just slowly evolved into Adam explains how capitalism is a human meat grinder into which we are all slowly falling

Several documentaries publically treating Luigi Mangione as guilty before his trial even started got released over the past 2 months.

Here's the billion dollar companies behind them.

Truth.

Source: Occupy Democrats

It’s not doxxing if they’re public figures. This information is readily available to the public. You’re doing a public service, and arguably helping these CEOs by informing the public of their names and faces.

Encourage people to seek them out, so we can show our appreciation towards these brave leaders of innovation. They’re bettering the free market, and we should remind them of our thanks.

legal disclaimer that I'm not saying we should execute CEOs in the street, but what if we doxxed them. what if we plastered their names and faces all over social media. what if we made them nervous to go out in public for fear of actually experiencing a single consequence for their actions. what if we built a culture where CEOs get regularly bitch-slapped in the street is what I'm saying

I love having the resources to print a 30 page full color packet at home without worrying about the financial repercussions but then not having a FUCKING STAPLER

There’s a metaphor here somewhere I’m sure of it

Nothing aggravates me more than the ‘Ask app not to track’ notification, because WHAT DO YOU MEAN I HAVE TO ASK??? I’m not knocking gently on the door, pushing it open, and saying ‘ummmm… can you maybe not take all of my data and analytics and make me feel like less of a person and more of an opportunity for capitalism?…. no…? Okay, sorry for bothering you.’ NO! I want them to NOT TRACK ME.

Mostly I’m anti-capitalist, but going from 6 hours of schoolwork to 6 hours of an actual job feels good because I’m paid for it and I don’t have to worry about time (even with the fact that I actually got burned twice, and I only realised one of those times!)

If I put a gun to someone’s head and demanded they suck my cock or get shot … that is coercive

Yet under capitalism you have a gun to your head and told to suck corp cock or die and no one seems to think it’s bad

This is so wild because I literally had situations like this with my own therapist!

I mean she really tried to shift the focus on what I personally can do for my own personal future and what I want from and for my own future. Which is probably the only way you can really tackle this problem because there is just no way I can change the current political reality of our world in a therapy session.

However I am still left with the knowledge that in the grand scheme of things my future will probably be very difficult to fulfill or even exists in.

What I find very interesting about looking at how other generation have looked at the future is that climate change isn't a new problem. This shit has been going on for a while now and people have been worrying and trying to do their best to raise awareness for decades already. The only difference to young people in the 90s being concerned about this and people in the new 20s (2020) being concerned about this is that now there is enough awareness and knowledge about what will happen and that shit will go down soon. If we assume someone lives 80 years then someone who was 20 in 1990 will die in 2050 and therefore care mainly about what happens till then. People who are 20 in 2020 however will live till 2080 and care for what happens until then. And 30 years should probably not make such a difference yet here we are knowing that if experts say the sea levels will rise and things will get even more shit by 2050 that this affects nearly half of our live span. Our future of when we are 50 will just be dealing with a society that looked away so long that now they have to do damage control of situation that are too big to be able to just keep brushing off.

This is just a small piece of why I hate capitalism so much, because it has become a world view and not just an economic system. We live in capitalism that promotes that the economy is more important than human lives. And not just human lives of the future or human lives of places that are "far far" away but human lives right now, in this place! Ever since the pandemic has been going on the focus has shifted towards the economy and away from people. It is more important that we keep the economy on good course than that we make sure as little lives as possible are ended by this virus.

This shows that people in charge are not only more interested that the economy runs well for the cost of human lives that might seem more abstract (because it's easier to not care about things that happened into the future or far away (which is very shitty)) but that it has come to a point where it doesn't care what human might die as long as the economy is doing well.

On a very morbid level of mine I would like to see how it comes to a point where capitalism as it is established right now takes so many lives that the system doesn't work anymore. Because all the rich people suddenly don't have any work force to keep their factories running. To keep their wealth coming. Because suddenly people can't buy the expensive shit anymore because the gap got so big that there is only stinking rich or dying poor and no in between. Because I want to see their faces when they realize that they can not maintain power if there is noone left to have power over.

This kinda got off rails of what I was talking about but welp. Still bad at ending Tumblr posts XD

I recently saw a post from an asexual talking about how sex obsessed our society is and I am allo myself so I obviously don't know how it is from a perspective of someone who feels no sexual attraction. I have sexual trauma however so I tend to be a bit more sensitive towards sexual adds or nudes in media.

So I saw this advertisement in my city that was displayed on electronic screens that kinda scroll through two or three different ads, which meant the ad wasn't always showing but would rather kinda pop up. And this ad was just seriously a grown man completely naked with only a surgical mask covering up his penis.

I have no clue what this advertisement tried to sell/promote but when ever I encountered it, it would give me a fucking shock to my system because I was traumatized from being flashed by men without my consent for years.

It's a mystery to me how people can be opposed to queer media that might show them interact romantically or with kissing and cry out about how this promotion of same sex attraction is damaging kids with these over sexual things like gay marriage! Behaving like our media doesn't show half naked men and women constantly in advertisement and similar things to kids amd everyone else.

Sex is a huge part of our culture but it is handled in the most confusing way I can imagine. It's being used to sell products to us, however talking about it is not okay? There is so much double standard and paradox rules that create this hostile environment against anything or anyone who doesn't exactly do what the rules tell you to (ergo shut about your own sex live but endure any and all sexual media we promote to you because we know what you like better than you)

Asexual people, queer people, traumatized people and even anyone who likes things considered not "normal" or "the norm" is harmed by this systematically!!!!!

Sex isn't something bad, not wanting sex isn't something bad either!!!!!

Let people live their lives, identities and preferences however they want!!!!

Let's work towards a society in which people aren't constantly bombarded with a specific idea of what sex and anything surrounding it has to look like but rather are presented with a variety of diverse representation that they can consume.

“If you have time to watch Netflix you have time for a side hustle” my side hustle is relaxing so that my body and brain can heal from by this nose-to-the-grindstone bullshit. I refuse to feel guilty for being a human with the need to relax sometimes. my side hustle is no.

Source

Waking up everyday to learn that, yes, things did get worse

War on humanity in an ice cream franchise shop

Cloudy day, windy

Your boss' makin a loss

But I told you I'd never eaten this kind of ice cream before

And now I'm back for a second helping

First day it was sunny and I was in a good mood

Today I got no such excuse

The word "smile" is overused by corporate and music that's gentrification misspelled

So I'll commit the greatest rebellion of the industry:

You just looked at me.

Desperate claws in a sunny smile I've trained to be a good customer to the service

I ask you if I should take a cup or cone, your opinion

Well, it's my choice

But you can give me a little more in a cup.

I laugh too loud. Answer too loud. You're making money, I'm spending money.

'i hope to see you again, miss.'

That's not part of the script.

They don't say miss here.

I made a list. It's incomplete. Working title:

The pre-apocalyptic "omg moooom" phase:

- ww3 memes

- organising climate crisis protests at 14

- Not knowing the "before". Before the housing crisis. Before 9/11. Before Reagan laws. Before debt.

- no going out. No dates in cute restaurants. Do I look freaking rich.

- Amazon or Nestle owning everything you have ever had

- America just.... I'll just say America.

- Being 5th grade when Trump came into office

- No being able to turn off the ads. The manipulation. Ever. The deep psychology approach to making me despise myself since I learnt to decode information

- constant exposure to violence and suffering numbing us until we're called ignorant and heartless for not reacting

- social media algorithms specifically designed to crush and turn me into an addict. Since before I got my period.

- no more girlhood. You know how to pull an eyeliner and perfectly curl your hair in 7th grade or you die.

- no public spaces. There's Sephora, there are some chain restaurant. And if you feel like feeling a drop of relief you buy a Starbucks.

- Cyber. Bullying. Being on your own. Your parents have no goddamm clue.

Where's My Fucking Teenage Dream but it's real. Where's my fluffy 90s hair, my glitter hair combs, my shopping-as-a-hobby, my milkshakes, my prom? Where's my "my favourite colour is yellow?" Yellow like Butter Flowers, not like toxic waste. Can we talk about growing up in the years before a global system snaps? I was 7 when I read a picture book about Anne Frank. Who knew the early knowledge of how to spell 'death' would be so handy.

Consent has always been for purchase and that's not a bad thing.

I did not scrub toilets out of the goodness of my heart. My consent to do so was for sale, we agreed on a price and then I did it.

I did not deliver newspapers out of the goodness of my heart. My consent to do so was for sale, we agreed on a price and then he fucked me around so I quit.

This applies to all work. You have skills, consent to use those skills for someone else depends on them paying you.

I agree with this. Man, now I want to write my own thoughts because Season 2 is so interesting to me. Especially since I was immediately reminded of American politics, with the two parties that are pushed to fight each other when really our true enemy is those trying to control us, when they were told to vote. I knew instantly that the game makers were trying to pit the two sides against each other. Especially with the red and blue colors. The other analogy being made is the two sides representing the red and blue pills from the Matrix.

Squid Game Season Two Analysis: Capitalist Ideology, The Illusion of Democracy, and The Necessity for Revolution

Why the second season of Squid Game is a great follow-up to the first season and offers us an even more radical critique of capitalism and its supposedly "free" and "democratic" institutions.

(Spoiler warning for both seasons. I won't go into too much detail, but some spoilers for the bigger plot points will be present)

I really enjoyed the second season of Squid Game, so I was surprised when I learned that a good amount of fans of the first season did not feel the same.

Because of that, I wanna give my thoughts on the themes and messages that this season in particular offers us and why I believe season 2 is, in many ways, even more radical than season 1 in its narrative choices.

Season One: The Dehumanizing Nature of Capitalism

Season 1 did a great job as a more general critique of capitalism (with some elements that are more specific to South Korea). It showed us a story of impoverished people that are so desparate that they find themselves trapped in a literal game of life and death that forces them to not only compete with other participants who are in similar financial situations, but to sometimes even betray and kill them just to survive and possibly win the big money at the end of all rounds.

To make it all even more cruel: It is soon revealed that the whole game just exists for the entertainment of rich elites who change the conditions of the game as they please when they are bored.

Needless to say: The game in Squid Game is a pretty heavy-handed allegory for the predatory nature of capitalism and how it literally kills us. The creator himself has stated this multiple times, since there are still people who (willingly or unwillingly) deny this.

There are already plenty of great analyses of these aspects in season 1 (I really recommend the video on YouTube called "Squid Game: Ideology and The New Soviet Man" by Kay and Skittles), so let's move on to season 2.

Season Two: The Setup

Our protagonist is once again Gi-hun, the only survivor of all games from season 1. He is practically a billionaire since he won all the money in season 1, and could therefore live a pretty comfortable life.

And yet he is fixated on one singular goal: To track down the location where the games take place to put a stop to them once and for all. Gi-hun feels guilty to spend his fortune on anything else than this one goal, since it's a fortune that came from the deaths of his friends and countless other people.

Gi-hun eventually finds himself back in the game after every other approach failed. Unfortunately for him, the tracker that he surgically implanted in his tooth got removed while he was knocked out and transported into the game. He is once again forced to participate in the game, since his rescue team that was supposed to save him and attack the island on which the games take place cannot locate him as of now.

The Greatness of Gi-hun: Resisting Hyperindividualism, Cynicism and Capitalist Ideas of Worth

I really like Gi-hun as a character. He started out as a deadbeat dad who got into severe debt because of his gambling addiction. Gi-hun is someone who many people that are entrenched in neoliberal capitalist ideology wouldn't feel much sympathy for at first, as he's shown to be pretty reckless and just overall far from a noble hero when we first get introduced to his character in season 1.

If you're from the west (or a country like South Korea which has a similar hyperindividualist capitalist culture), then you are taught to see Gi-hun's situation as something self-caused, as something he freely chose to be in with his own bad decisions. Furthermore, you're taught to see his socio-economic situation as a direct reflection of his value as a person.

In the series itself, the Front Man, the VIPs and even some other players in the game reinforce this way of thinking. They constantly express the sentiment that the players in the game are "worthless", "scum" and "trash" that deserves to be "filtered out" (killed) because they are responsible for the situation that they are in and have no worth anyway, as their socio-economic status shows according to this logic.

Gi-hun is someone who rejects all of this.

In season 2, we see him more determined than ever to save as many people as possible in the game, and to ultimately put an end to the game itself. He does not believe in the narrative that people's worth is determined by their socio-economic status, nor that they are completely self-responsible for their situation and therefore deserve to be killed in the game.

Gi-hun calls the game out for what it is: A predatory and cruel tool of rich capitalists that preys on people's fears and vulnerabilities to encourage the worst aspects of people's personalities to flourish, all just for the entertainment of rich investors who see the players as expendable and enjoy watching them die and betray each other.

Gi-hun isn't particularly gifted or talented, he's not the exceptional, flawless individual that neoliberalism fetishizes. He can be cowardly, insecure, frightened and even selfish, as we saw in season 1 when he lied to the old man to save his own life.

But at the end of the day, he is someone with an unwavering belief in the worth and potential of people despite what his hypercapitalist neoliberal culture (and people deeply embedded into it) constantly tells him. He's someone who, despite all his flaws, risks his life and happiness for that simple belief.

Gi-hun is the antidote to a deeply cynical, hyperindividualistic and neoliberal capitalist society that conditions us to not believe in the worth and potential of other people beyond their wealth and social status.

The Illusion of Democracy: A deceptive Facade of Free Choice and Equality

Let's look at the game itself this season, since there have been a few changes to its rules.

In this season, the surviving players are given the opportunity to vote after each round to either continue into the next round or to stop playing and divide the money that has accumulated so far among each player that survived. The more players die, the more money gets added to the final prize and the fewer people need to share the total sum with each other, meaning each player gets more money in the end if the majority votes to stop playing.

The staff of the game keeps emphasizing how the players chose to be part of the game, how they always have the option to leave, how the game respects free choice and values democracy, how everyone is equal in the game, and how the rules are fair and universal.

Unsurprisingly, this is all nonsense.

The players are not even aware that they are playing with their lives at risk until after the first game, a game called "Red Light, Green Light", which has a high fatality rate because once the first player dies, the shock and sudden rush of fear causes people to panic, leading to more deaths.

The first season also showed us that the VIPs can change the rules and conditions of the game whenever they feel like it, even during a round.

Age, health, knowledge and experience with the particular games that are being played in each round can also make the difference between life and death. Sometimes the games also straight up involve a factor of luck that the players have no real control over.

Then there's also the fact that not every player is in the same situation. Some players, such as Hyun-ju or Yong-sik, are shown to have severely more debt than others and lost significantly more in their life, which means some have the privilege to be all set again after just one or two rounds (if the majority votes to stop playing) while others will have barely earned enough money to fix their life, and would therefore need to play more rounds to achieve that outcome.

Some also have family and friends that need them, while others lost everything and have no one to come home to. All these factors make them unequal and shape the way they vote.

So basically: The players are stuck in a game that they didn't even know puts their life in danger until after they played the first round. The only reason they entered in the first place was because of their precarious situation that varies in severity from person to person (which means some have the privilege to vote to end the game early with their financial issues fixed, while others do not). Some players have more advantages than others in each round because of age, health, knowledge, experience or even just sheer luck. And the VIPs can just change the rules of the game whenever they feel like it.

Squid Game tells us very clearly that it thinks very little of the rhetoric of "free choice" "free democracy" and "equality" in a structurally coercive, brutal and predatory system with fundamentally unequal conditions such as our capitalist society.

The Front Man: Cynicism, Vote Manipulation and Counter-Revolution

A key aspect of the second season of Squid Game is that the Front Man himself pretends to be a regular player; he participates in the games among Gi-hun and the rest as player 001. The Front Man deliberately gets close to Gi-hun and even manages to win his trust pretty easily with his down-to-earth and kind facade, making him involved in Gi-hun's every move.

The Front Man is, in many ways, the opposite of Gi-hun.

He is shown in both seasons to think very little of the players and humanity as a whole. He sees the participants of the game as worthless trash that deserves to get sorted out. The Front Man believes humanity is selfish, greedy and cannot be better than what it is right now, which makes the game a necessary part of the world to him.

The Front Man is thoroughly entrenched in the cynical, neoliberal capitalist worldview that sees humans as fundamentally selfish and greedy beings that only have themselves to blame for their situations.

It is noteworthy that the Front Man is very fixated on Gi-hun, and even seems to grow a liking to him because of his unwavering belief in the value and potential of people that he upholds despite all the horrors and betrayal that he witnessed. This suggests that a small part of the Front Man might still have hope that Gi-hun is right and wants him to succeed in his goal.

But at the end of the day, we see that his cynical and neoliberal view on humanity rules over what little hope in a better world he might have.

As such, the Front Man ultimately sabotages Gi-hun's efforts whenever he can. When the vote was tied after the first round, he votes to continue into the next round so that more people die, something Gi-hun fought to prevent by making it clear to the other players that more people will die if they continue.

But this is not the only time he manipulates Gi-hun's efforts: When Gi-hun organizes an armed resistance to finally put an end to the game itself for good, the Front Man betrays him in the last minute by kiling members of the resistance group and then shooting Gi-hun's best friend in front of him in order to emotionally break Gi-hun and make him lose hope.

The Front Man is not just a despicable antagonist, he also serves as a pretty blunt example of a member of the ruling class that rigs elections and destroys revolutionary movements from within, a strategy that imperialist powers such as the US have utilized many times in history already.

When Voting isn't enough: The Necessity of Revolution and Class War

Despite Gi-hun's attempt to end the game for good having failed (at least for now), I don't believe the message of Squid Game's second season is one of resignation. Not only is the game shown to be fundamentally unjust and rigged, but voting alone is also portrayed to not be enough.

Throughout the whole season, those who vote to end the game never succeed. This is not a coincidence. The game is designed to make it the less likely outcome not just because of the involvement of Front Man, but because the game preys on people's despair and precarity, all while also encouraging selfish, greedy and reckless behavior in its very design.

But even if enough people voted to end the game: The next batch of players would just be thrown into the same situation Gi-hun and the others just escaped from. A successful majority vote to leave the game would save many lives, but Gi-hun's fight would be far from over. His goal to put a permanent end to the game would not be achieved yet.

The staff of the game also makes a deliberate choice to put a big X or O onto the jumpsuit of each player depending on how they voted. This encourages players to define themselves as either Xs or Os, which leads to hostility towards the players of the other fraction.

This reaches a point where players of both fractions plan to murder the other fraction in order to secure the next vote for themselves.

But Gi-hun puts a stop to that.

He realizes it's a deliberate distraction so that people fight each other rather than the game itself. He proposes that the players should instead organize together to fight the real oppressors that forced them into the whole situation in the first place.

They are not Xs or Os. They are impoverished and desparate people who were manipulated to participate into a literal game of death that requires suffering, betrayal and murder for victory.

The message of Squid Game Season Two is one of collective resistance and revolution:

The institutions of a fundamentally rigged and predatory class system are not enough to abolish the system itself. Voting can be used as a form of damage control, but it cannot replace collective action and organizing.

Instead of fighting each other, we need to organize together to fight the system itself. It is the only way we can truly all be liberated from the death game of capitalism.

And while there may be no justice for these men on land, the sea is unforgiving.

rant!!

the american economy is single handily killing everyone middle/lower class. i turned 18 literally a month ago but im considering opening a credit card because i simply can’t afford to pay for things. i still live at home too, imagine if i didn’t. i wouldn’t be able to provide housing for myself or basic medical care (all the things my mom currently pays for.) that’s the sad reality of living here and homelessness is extremely normalized to where most people don’t even pay attention anymore. prices for anything even in low cost of living states are outrageous. i live in a small southern town and a pack of tictacs is $5!! mcdonald’s is $10 for one meal and that’s the CHEAPEST fast food here. ever since this country was built companies have just been taking more and more from their employees and continue to add on to the CEO’s salary. the media tells us it’s inflation but the reality is it’s just price gouging and greed. people here can’t afford necessities while our “leader” sends money overseas to fund genocide. we also can’t forget the TRILLIONS of dollars our government just “can’t find.” our government keeps us reliant on them and keeps it impossible for every citizen to be cared for. the united states COULD have free healthcare/university, lower prices, have a higher minimum wage, fix the teacher shortage, but they won’t. they keep us afraid and want us to feel trapped by our lives in this country. people are noticing now and their support will eventually run out to where we all go french revolution style and i DO NOT want to be here when that happens. thanks for reading, this whole situation scares me and i’d love to hear what y’all think because it’s all just so frustrating:(

TW: politics/non agere content

actually fucking scared for my rights in america, I hate it here, Its basically illegal to be queer, I'm never going to be happy... i'll never get to change my name to ivan or get top surgery or change my sex on my ID or get o HRT, I wont get to know pure transgender joy...

What's going on in the congo rn is one of many many reasons that the right to repair is a VITAL tenant in leftism imo

Well, yes, it’s obvious why Rednote is a bigger threat now.