/r/LateStageCapitalism - Yet more godless, freedom-hating Communists on Reddit

[Tealeaf]

Everything isn't fine for the common man, and fuck CNN. The tragedy is, the posters are halfway there, but too dumb to realize any solutions.

Unwilling is another way to frame it. It’s much more fun to skip directly to commie endgame than propose practical changes.

I also wouldn’t blame people for picking the fun option. I love fun.

 

[Honka Honka Burning Love]

Everything isn't fine for the common man, and fuck CNN. The tragedy is, the posters are halfway there, but too dumb to realize any solutions.

Everything isn't fine for the common man, and it is the fault of people like those that visit this reddit.

 

[Zarael]

A lot of things suck at the moment and rampant consumer capitalism is part of it. The problem is that the LSC squad look only to the economic issues and not the cultural issues. Better distribution of wealth would be nice, ideally, but it's not going to fix everything. The common man has problems right now, but the woke progressives fail to understand why the common folk look to men like Trump to fix these issues, and not people like Sanders.

 

[Honka Honka Burning Love]

A lot of things suck at the moment and rampant consumer capitalism is part of it. The problem is that the LSC squad look only to the economic issues and not the cultural issues. Better distribution of wealth would be nice, ideally, but it's not going to fix everything.

One of the major problems is the fact that people legitimately don't know how good things are. The Media has become far more about making money than distributing facts about how even in the worst parts of the recession people were still better off than they have ever really been.

 

[Cool kitties club]

One of the major problems is the fact that people legitimately don't know how good things are. The Media has become far more about making money than distributing facts about how even in the worst parts of the recession people were still better off than they have ever really been.

This reminds me of a page from a Flash comic where the Flash travels to a slum in the 853rd century:

Spoiler

People will always look at those who have more and say "I want that"

 

[Jarolleon]

The authors understand that only rich women could "outsource" laundry and ironing right? Right?

Maybe it's somehow "empowered" if women work for strangers, even though it's doing the same shit they would have done for their husbands in 1950s stereotype-land. If she isn't out there regularly interacting with strangers in a work environment she's probably imprisoned in her gilded cage by a husband who beats her in the paranoid feminist imagination.

"What good is a STEM degree if you can't effectively communicate..."
Well, arguably, we do need English professors, but we don't need that many. There's no reason to subsidize some tard's "Gender and Class in Harry Potter". That has nothing to do with teaching people to communicate effectively and is just mental masturbation where everyone claps. There's not a mechanical engineer on the planet that needs to know about postmodern theory in order to tell the technicians how to build that railgun.

And to top that off- most humanities majors can't effectively communicate anyways. I've seen (and attempted to proofread) English major papers that wouldn't have flown when I was in High School that got A grades because they agreed with the professor's politics or pet theories.

If we had enough soft-science majors to ease communications between cultures, there would be no need to build that railgun /s.

 

[SregginKcuf]

Capitalism and Communism are both shit.

 

[Shaka Brah]

Capitalism and Communism are both shit.

tips fedora M'enlightened centrist.

 

[Syaoran Li]

Capitalism and Communism are both shit.

Capitalism is actually pretty good.

Corporatism and capitalism are not the same thing.

tips fedora M'enlightened centrist.

I'm an actual centrist* (no fedora though) and even I have to agree with you on that one.

The problem with my generation is that so many of us don't know the difference between actual capitalism and the crony corporatism displayed by Wall Street and Silicon Valley.

Oligopoly and monopoly tend to run antithetical to the ideas of competitive enterprise that capitalism was built on.

The media often conflated the two during the Great Recession and it's continued since then.

We see a similar thing where so many Millennials think that socialism just means Euro-style social programs (AKA Social Democracy) with some free market luxuries, and not an entirely state-controlled economy.

Combine those two misconceptions and no wonder those BreadTube douchebags became a thing.

*-Even then, I mainly refer to myself as a centrist in a semi-joking manner.

Ten years ago, I considered myself a liberal and I still am, but the Overton Window has shifted drastically and now the Left has gone batshit crazy. What was liberal just five or ten years ago is centrist today.

 

[MayoRat]

Capitalism is actually pretty good.

Corporatism and capitalism are not the same thing.



I'm an actual centrist* (no fedora though) and even I have to agree with you on that one.

The problem with my generation is that so many of us don't know the difference between actual capitalism and the crony corporatism displayed by Wall Street and Silicon Valley.

Oligopoly and monopoly tend to run antithetical to the ideas of competitive enterprise that capitalism was built on.

The media often conflated the two during the Great Recession and it's continued since then.

We see a similar thing where so many Millennials think that socialism just means Euro-style social programs (AKA Social Democracy) with some free market luxuries, and not an entirely state-controlled economy.

Combine those two misconceptions and no wonder those BreadTube douchebags became a thing.

*-Even then, I mainly refer to myself as a centrist in a semi-joking manner.

Ten years ago, I considered myself a liberal and I still am, but the Overton Window has shifted drastically and now the Left has gone batshit crazy. What was liberal just five or ten years ago is centrist today.

This is just as idealistic as commieshit. Monopoly is the natural outcome of capitalism. I'm really curious about what you think causes Capitalism to become "crony corporatism".

 

[Honka Honka Burning Love]

This is just as idealistic as commieshit. Monopoly is the natural outcome of capitalism. I'm really curious about what you think causes Capitalism to become "crony corporatism".

The government getting their shitty little hands in on things.

 

[Get_your_kicks_with_30-06]

This is just as idealistic as commieshit. Monopoly is the natural outcome of capitalism. I'm really curious about what you think causes Capitalism to become "crony corporatism".

When the Federal Gov switched from crushing monopolies to bailing them out.

 

[Syaoran Li]

This is just as idealistic as commieshit. Monopoly is the natural outcome of capitalism. I'm really curious about what you think causes Capitalism to become "crony corporatism".

Monopoly being the natural outcome of capitalism only really applies if you go full Randroid or lolbertarian and don't have proper anti-trust regulations.

The big problem of unchecked crony corporate monopolies and oligopolies emerged in the United States due to a variety of factors, starting with extensive de-regulations and the over-application of the "trickle down" economic model starting in the 70's and 80's.

Most of the anti-trust laws we have on the books are largely unenforced or under-enforced, and that's the root of the problem with Wall Street and Silicon Valley.

At the risk of being branded as an "enlightened centrist" strawman, I do think people forget that there is a middle ground between full-fledged state socialism and completely unchecked Ayn Rand-style corporatism. Everybody seems to think in absolutes these days, and it's a problem on all sides.

Capitalism is not perfect, and it has its flaws, but nothing is perfect. But the best system for the modern era is capitalism tempered with the proper regulations to prevent going full Randroid.

It's not ideal and it's not perfect, but I can't think of anything that could work better and doesn't hinge on a post-scarcity utopia or humans being absolute perfect angels.

I'm not some deep thinker and I don't see myself as such. I'm just some random nobody on the internet with his own opinions like everyone else. So, take my words with a grain of salt.

Maybe there is an ideal system that works and we just haven't thought of it yet? Who knows?

 

[SregginKcuf]

Monopoly being the natural outcome of capitalism only really applies if you go full Randroid or lolbertarian and don't have proper anti-trust regulations.

The big problem of unchecked crony corporate monopolies and oligopolies emerged in the United States due to a variety of factors, starting with extensive de-regulations and the over-application of the "trickle down" economic model starting in the 70's and 80's.

Most of the anti-trust laws we have on the books are largely unenforced or under-enforced, and that's the root of the problem with Wall Street and Silicon Valley.

At the risk of being branded as an "enlightened centrist" strawman, I do think people forget that there is a middle ground between full-fledged state socialism and completely unchecked Ayn Rand-style corporatism. Everybody seems to think in absolutes these days, and it's a problem on all sides.

Capitalism is not perfect, and it has its flaws, but nothing is perfect. But the best system for the modern era is capitalism tempered with the proper regulations to prevent going full Randroid.

It's not ideal and it's not perfect, but I can't think of anything that could work better and doesn't hinge on a post-scarcity utopia or humans being absolute perfect angels.

I'm not some deep thinker and I don't see myself as such. I'm just some random nobody on the internet with his own opinions like everyone else. So, take my words with a grain of salt.

Maybe there is an ideal system that works and we just haven't thought of it yet? Who knows?

Libertarianism and Capitalism are the same thing. I respect your thoughts, but there are other alternatives

 

[Syaoran Li]

Libertarianism and Capitalism are the same thing. I respect your thoughts, but there are other alternatives

None of the alternatives that have been tried have worked any better.

Most of these "socialist" countries in Europe are actually social democracies based on a free market economy, so they're still very much capitalist. They just have a stronger welfare state. You can have a strong welfare state and still be capitalist overall.

Communism has failed in every nation it's been tried in, and even China technically is a free market economy with a communist veneer. It's also practically incompatible with liberal democracy.

There's a reason why every communist government has been either a totalitarian dictatorship or an authoritarian oligarchy of some kind and why the Anarcho-Communists tended to fail the hardest and the quickest, as seen during the Spanish Civil War

Feudalism and mercantilism were the direct predecessors to capitalism, and both are unattainable in a modern society. The issues of monopoly and oligarchy would be worse under those systems too. Capitalism was created as a better alternative to mercantilism and the remnants of feudalism.

 

[SregginKcuf]

None of the alternatives that have been tried have worked any better.

Most of these "socialist" countries in Europe are actually social democracies based on a free market economy, so they're still very much capitalist. They just have a stronger welfare state. You can have a strong welfare state and still be capitalist overall.

Communism has failed in every nation it's been tried in, and even China technically is a free market economy with a communist veneer. It's also practically incompatible with liberal democracy.

There's a reason why every communist government has been either a totalitarian dictatorship or an authoritarian oligarchy of some kind and why the Anarcho-Communists tended to fail the hardest and the quickest, as seen during the Spanish Civil War

Feudalism and mercantilism were the direct predecessors to capitalism, and both are unattainable in a modern society. The issues of monopoly and oligarchy would be worse under those systems too. Capitalism was created as a better alternative to mercantilism and the remnants of feudalism.

So everyone who is not a Capitalist is a Communist and vice versa. Fantastic logic.

 

[SregginKcuf]

I'm for a monarchy. I live in Germany, we are a (Democratic) Republic now, but believe things used to go better for our nation before WWI.

 

[Syaoran Li]

So everyone who is not a Capitalist is a Communist and vice versa. Fantastic logic.

No, what I'm saying is that capitalism isn't just Randroids and trickle-down Reaganomics.

Most of these "socialist" European countries are social democracies with a basic economy that's capitalist as opposed to the command economies of communism and state socialism.

If you have a free-market basic economy, you are capitalist to at least a partial extent.

Social democracy is mostly seen as a compromise between full-on state socialism and unrestricted trickle-down capitalism, and it has its own merits and flaws.

Personally, I'd be fine with a few social democrat policies in the United States, namely stronger anti-trust laws and a two-tier healthcare system that has both a public option and private options for those who can afford it.

I'm for a monarchy. I live in Germany, we are a (Democratic) Republic now, but believe things used to go better for our nation before WWII.

I can support a constitutional monarchy to a certain extent, but that only makes sense for countries that have it as part of their historical tradition.

 

[SregginKcuf]

I can support a constitutional monarchy to a certain extent, but that only makes sense for countries that have it as part of their historical tradition.

Germany is one of them luckily.

 

[Syaoran Li]

Germany is one of them luckily.

To be honest, I wouldn't mind if the modern descendants of the Hohenzollerns and Habsburgs were given a ceremonial position in a constitutional monarchy for Germany and Austria respectively.

Especially since the monarchies in Germany and Austria-Hungary were mainly abolished as part of negotiation with the Allied Powers in World War I, and the military had de facto control of both countries by then already. IIRC, the founder of the Weimar Republic wanted to keep the Kaiser in a ceremonial role, but abolished the monarchy to calm down possible leftist revolts.