this post was submitted on 27 Sep 2025
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Hey friends, just trying to get an idea of how people think of capitalism in different communities. What first comes to mind when you think of that word? Is it your national or international retail giants, resource extraction, or logistics companies? Or perhaps your local diner, hardware or convenience store? The black market? Or something else?

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[–] fossilesque@mander.xyz 10 points 23 hours ago (2 children)
[–] webghost0101@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

We should update it. The wealthy are above soldiers and police with bail out money or just taking a private jet to a private island without laws.

Heck, some fucks are so rich they might actually stand above the ruling class. Which is logical considering the only thing that does matter in capitalism isn’t who you are but how much wealth you hoard.

[–] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago) (2 children)

Rape.

It is rape, in every possible sense, in many different contexts or layers of complexity.

Coercive, forceful and subtle, manipulative and brash, extraction and destruction, that gaslights and lies and normalizes itself.

It never asks for consent, it either assumes it or demands it, and escaping it is often quite difficult and very risky to attempt.

But it rapes everything.

The land, the environment, people's bodies and minds and their time and their thoughts, language itself, etc.

The more technical details of how and why this metaphor is apt... the various aspects of complexities of different systems or aspects of subsystems... at the end of the day, the nature or character common to any specific instance of capitalism is that of a rapist.

[–] dirigibles@lemmy.world 2 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

Wow, this is easily the most extreme response I've received on the topic. What led you to feel this way?

[–] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago) (1 children)

I have degrees in both econ and poli sci and have worked at multiple Fortune 500 companies as a high level data analyst / software dev / db admin.

I got those degrees during the GWOT and GFC, and argued against bailouts without jailing those responsible...

...and got called a conspiracy theorist by a Poli Sci professor when I wrote a paper on 'conflict goods' about the US military guarding opium fields in Afghanistan.

Despite me citing my sources and even linking to an on the ground Fox News interview with a soldier who just straight up said that is what his unit was doing.

I also have studied the history of the industries I worked in, as well as just human history in general, in my spare time.

... I have also been homeless for a year or two.

I have lived a life of the extremes most people only ever come close to one of, stuffy and cocky corpo wealth and entitlement and social status jockeying mind games, and immense deprivation, near constant direct physical and mental trauma.

But if you would like maybe a more formal argument that capitalism objectively is raping the planet to death:

Here's London's Society of Actuaries, they've run the numbers and determined that our capitalism-driven, collective inability to stop climate change...

... is going to destroy the world, and thus future GDP projections.

https://actuaries.org.uk/media-release/current-climate-policies-risk-catastrophic-societal-and-economic-impacts/

My own guesstimate models point at something like 1 to 3 billion people dying in the next 25 years from the chaos that will result from increasingly extreme climate and climate disasters.

But those are roughly in line with more updated versions of MIT's old World 3 / Limits to Growth model.

tl:dr;

Why do I feel this extreme way?

Because I know what I am talking about, theoretically, practically and personally.

[–] dirigibles@lemmy.world 2 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

Thanks for the write up my friend. Was that Fox news report with Geraldo Rivera? I remember seeing something like that back in the early or mid 2000s. I couldn't believe my eyes.

[–] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

I... don't remember if it was Geraldo.

I want to say it was a less well known reporter, who actually made the trek all the way out to... I think Helmand Province (sp?)?

But... yeah.

That was almost 20 years ago now lol.

[–] dirigibles@lemmy.world 2 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

Found it, fucking wild - https://youtu.be/AUATfLDiwVA

I still can't believe it. I'm watching it and it feels like I'm currently experiencing a fever dream.

[–] SpookyLights@lemmy.ca 1 points 11 hours ago

The Marines weren't ordered to protect the poppy fields, they were ordered to not destroy them. Big difference

[–] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 12 hours ago

Same here bud... its all gone so utterly, thoroughly wrong.

But hey, nice work finding that!

[–] Olgratin_Magmatoe@slrpnk.net 2 points 19 hours ago

Thank you for putting to words what I've been feeling for a while.

[–] RBWells@lemmy.world 1 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

In practice? Inequality. Increasing inequality until something cracks and there are riots, then laws change. Then increasing inequality, rinse and repeat.

In theory? Small entrepreneurial businesses generating value, the grassroots little shops everywhere. If it was working correctly, those would be very profitable and the money spread around better. Growth from the bottom not the discredited "trickle down" bullshit.

[–] dirigibles@lemmy.world 1 points 15 hours ago

Hey congrats! I think you are the first person to give something close to the textbook definition of what capitalism says it is supposed to be! 🤸

[–] Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 1 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

Death cult. You can't infinitely extract value from a finite system.

[–] dirigibles@lemmy.world 1 points 15 hours ago

Mmm, the shrinking markets problem. Thanks!

[–] Rozauhtuno@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 23 hours ago

Hierarchy and exploitation.

[–] Smookey4444@anarchist.nexus 6 points 1 day ago

Exploitation. Everything is built around exploitation. Of course capitalism is not the only exploitive system that exists, it's just the one most visible to us.

[–] poVoq@slrpnk.net 15 points 1 day ago

Exploitation of workers (and others) through means of private property rights that are enforced through state violence to the benefit of only a few.

[–] technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

For me capitalism is the rudimentary ideology that values capital/power above life.

[–] Codpiece@feddit.uk 6 points 1 day ago

Greed without personal responsibility.

[–] oftheair@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

A big ball that consumes all it touches, that will destroy the world if it can because that is part of its purpose.

It is disabling, and has conditioned people to accept it through its unlimited use of propaganda and wars in order to control the populace.

It takes and takes and gives little back.

It is against how things should be, and could be said to be unnatural.

It is about power and control over the populace, sadly few realise this because of said propaganda and because they believe nothing better could exist due to it limiting their imagination, time, energy and organising.

[–] dirigibles@lemmy.world 1 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

The 'big ball that consumes all' might be my favorite imagery used as a response to this question. Thank you 😊

[–] oftheair@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 18 hours ago

You're welcome. It is genuinely how we imagine it.

[–] invertedspear@lemmy.zip 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

There’s a looney toons episode t remember watching in the 80’s about a guy who makes a pair of boots and sells them for the material to make two, selling those to get more material, and keeps growing. Eventually he’s got a factory, a bunch of workers but he can never rest, never enjoy the fruits of his labor because capitalism demands perpetual growth. He dies wealthy but his soul died years before. I’m pretty sure my memory of this is somewhat twisted being that it was 40+ years ago, but that little guy repeatedly asking “now I get to relax?” And being told by the narrator “no” has always seemed so sad to me. Capitalism was painted as soul crushing even during the Cold War, and yet we still blindly go that route.

[–] dirigibles@lemmy.world 1 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

Thanks for to the response. I think I found it - https://youtu.be/89buUHeuT44

[–] invertedspear@lemmy.zip 2 points 16 hours ago

That looks more like a bunch of different episodes smashed together. The one I’m thinking of is in there, it was the parts where Elmer Fudd is an elf wearing a crown talking to the random old man.

[–] alzymologist@sopuli.xyz 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Thugs explaining that you owe them for protection and a interest on that too.

Also ayn rand slutty face with a whip and a cocktail

[–] dirigibles@lemmy.world 1 points 19 hours ago

Haha, you've placed an image of Ayn Rand in my mind that I wish I could erase. 😂

[–] lurch@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 day ago (2 children)

i think of it as the most basic and rudimentary economic system.

whenever a more advanced system fails or can't apply, people fall back to capitalism and start trading/hoarding tokens etc.

it's dangerous to let it run completely unchecked. usually societies will implement rules and taxes to make sure basic needs are met and there isn't too much exploitation going on.

[–] dirigibles@lemmy.world 1 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

Basic and rudimentary is a unique take. What led you to this conclusion?

[–] lurch@sh.itjust.works 1 points 5 hours ago

no, it's not a unique take.

capitalism is the next step after an exchange economy, which is the most basic economy possible. just add some sort of token to the exchange economy and it becomes capitalism.

[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Agreed! Capitalism works great until the wealthy buy the politicians and the voters lose their moral compass. Then you have what we see today, late stage capitalism. No reason we can't break the monopolies and tax the snot out of the rich, but your average Joe Blow either doesn't realize what's happening or care, doesn't demand good governance.

A positive feedback loop of wealth disparity.

[–] Tiger666@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 day ago

Dumpster fire.

[–] Proprietary_Blend@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Easy target for life's problems.

[–] dirigibles@lemmy.world 1 points 19 hours ago

A very rare response to this question. Why do you feel that way?

[–] Tiger666@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 day ago

Not target but root cause.

[–] magnetosphere@fedia.io 2 points 1 day ago

I think capitalism is an easy target because it’s often the root cause of life’s problems, or a contributing factor.