how is society conforming under capitalism?

[nembutal]

learning about politics, especially capitalism. living under it depresses me insanely, and reading about its constant injustices throughout history even more so.

i'm wondering how the masses are able to close their eyes so tightly to the severe unfairness of their environment, without enacting some movement or at the least participating in anti capitalist activities or gatherings.

with the numbers we have here we could create some serious noise before we inevitably do our deed.

please no cynical answers. do not bring your antinatalism into my thread. i'd like some serious responses on how you believe the population is coping.

 

[pain6batch9]

They close their eyes tight. Or they are distracted. By the circus of modern media and consumer culture, which makes us all docile customers of the market.

Don't look at that, look at this shiny shiny thing to buy. Buy the thing, be happy.

Be we are not. And we don't know why.

Edit: But there are those who protest. Community groups, charities, think tanks, political groups. They do exist. Even soup kitchens. The news does highlight some of those who spend their lives trying to equalise the system.

 

[Fiat]

There ist no better System. People are like kapilism. Thats why it works. Selflish and so on..

 

[EvisceratedJester]

i'm wondering how the masses are able to close their eyes so tightly to the severe unfairness of their environment, without enacting some movement or at the least participating in anti capitalist activities or gatherings.

Yeah, how exactly is anyone supposed to do that when they are too busy working just to stay afloat? The issue here is that you don't take into consideration the fact that not everybody is like you. Most people don't have the luxury to not participate in capitalism. A lot of people have to work for much longer periods to earn enough money to survive. Hell, you have paramedics who do OF on the side because they aren't earning enough money. Most people do not have the time or energy for that.

There are plenty of anti-capitalism movements that are still around that you can join though.

 

[Blurry_Buildings]

i'm wondering how the masses are able to close their eyes so tightly to the severe unfairness of their environment, without enacting some movement or at the least participating in anti capitalist activities or gatherings.

Capitalism works better than communism, and over half the people who volunteer at the soup kitchens are conservatives because they believe that communism will cause more corruption and mismanagement than the free market. Widespread corruption and authoritarianism has been the case with every communist society from 100 years ago to today.

Non-immigrant populations in the western world are generally more privileged than their counterparts in almost any other part of the rest of the world, even if their personal experiences have been terrible. The general masses are fine with the way things are because they feel they don't have a right to complain - they have it marginally better. People also don't have a lot of spare time to worry about it, and those who do focus on things that are politically achievable and feasible, like Medicare for all and affordable housing.

People universally don't have a lot of sympathy for the bottom of society either. There will always be backlash when someone who works more hours ends up feeling as if they are paying for someone who only works part time to receive medical care.

There was a feminist philosopher named virginia held who talked about how the greatest problem in our understanding of society was a lack of compassion, and that a perfect society is not a free one but one where each person feels morally obligated to every other person the same way a mother would ideally unconditionally love and support a child. (She mentions fathers as well but it was written in the 60s and I think the social expectation put less burden on fathers to be present, so she used the ideal mother as how she viewed people should be) I thought it was completely infeasible but it was interesting to read…

 

[Deleted member 8119]

It's not about how bad capitalism is, it's about how much worse we'd be without it.

i'm wondering how the masses are able to close their eyes so tightly

I'm wondering how so many go full-black against it instead of doing the balance of the bad things that options can bring.

 

[derpyderpins]

I assume when you say "Capitalism" you are thinking mainly about the US. The US is not really anything but a giant bureaucracy/corporatocracy mess of uselessness. Talking about why the US is struggling is a very different conversation than talking about capitalism generally.

You can argue that even with reasonable "socialist" social safety nets places like Denmark are more free-market, "capitalist," than the US. I would absolutely say my experience in South Korea has been that it resembles capitalism more than the US despite the national insurance.

 

[Dr Iron Arc]

I just really like the Pumpkin Spice Latte, okay?

 

[Forever Sleep]

Everyone is just concentrating on keeping afloat themselves I suspect. I agree though. I watched a documentary on the UK a while ago. It explained that we went from an empire that shamelessly just seemed to physically conqueer parts of the world to being a financial empire that seems to do a lot of corrupt money laundering. It was so depressing. I used to feel such national pride but I came out of that feeling grubby.

What do you think people should be doing though? Protesting? Boycotting certain companies? Refusing to work? To do that- you either need other people bank rolling you- who presumably work and are therefore part of the system. Or, you have to be willing to accept homelessness and destitution. Personally, I'm not willing to accept that. In what ways have you changed your life to combat capitalism/ consumerism?

 

[uniqueusername4]

I struggle with this too. It bothers me that other people can ignore it so easily. I feel like they are the crazy ones.

 

[Deleted member 8119]

I assume when you say "Capitalism" you are thinking mainly about the US. The US is not really anything but a giant bureaucracy/corporatocracy mess of uselessness. Talking about why the US is struggling is a very different conversation than talking about capitalism generally.

EXACTLY.

US =/= center of the universe. Many people love to reference the US for things they dislike, but, surprise surprise, the US aren't a good example of anything. Other capitalist countries are aware of this and regulate themselves. It's not comparable to everywhere else.