this post was submitted on 03 Jul 2026
1338 points (96.9% liked)

Lemmy Shitpost

40663 readers
4512 users here now

Welcome to Lemmy Shitpost. Here you can shitpost to your hearts content.

Anything and everything goes. Memes, Jokes, Vents and Banter. Though we still have to comply with lemmy.world instance rules. So behave!


Rules:

1. Be Respectful


Refrain from using harmful language pertaining to a protected characteristic: e.g. race, gender, sexuality, disability or religion.

Refrain from being argumentative when responding or commenting to posts/replies. Personal attacks are not welcome here.

...


2. No Illegal Content


Content that violates the law. Any post/comment found to be in breach of common law will be removed and given to the authorities if required.

That means:

-No promoting violence/threats against any individuals

-No CSA content or Revenge Porn

-No sharing private/personal information (Doxxing)

...


3. No Spam


Posting the same post, no matter the intent is against the rules.

-If you have posted content, please refrain from re-posting said content within this community.

-Do not spam posts with intent to harass, annoy, bully, advertise, scam or harm this community.

-No posting Scams/Advertisements/Phishing Links/IP Grabbers

-No Bots, Bots will be banned from the community.

...


4. No Porn/ExplicitContent


-Do not post explicit content. Lemmy.World is not the instance for NSFW content.

-Do not post Gore or Shock Content.

...


5. No Enciting Harassment,Brigading, Doxxing or Witch Hunts


-Do not Brigade other Communities

-No calls to action against other communities/users within Lemmy or outside of Lemmy.

-No Witch Hunts against users/communities.

-No content that harasses members within or outside of the community.

...


6. NSFW should be behind NSFW tags.


-Content that is NSFW should be behind NSFW tags.

-Content that might be distressing should be kept behind NSFW tags.

...

If you see content that is a breach of the rules, please flag and report the comment and a moderator will take action where they can.


Also check out:

Partnered Communities:

1.Memes

2.Lemmy Review

3.Mildly Infuriating

4.Lemmy Be Wholesome

5.No Stupid Questions

6.You Should Know

7.Comedy Heaven

8.Credible Defense

9.Ten Forward

10.LinuxMemes (Linux themed memes)


Reach out to

All communities included on the sidebar are to be made in compliance with the instance rules. Striker

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
 
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] mechoman444@lemmy.world 9 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

I think this meme fundamentally misidentifies the problem. People keep attributing every societal issue to "capitalism," when many of the things they're describing have very little to do with capitalism itself.

To be clear, I have plenty of criticisms of capitalism as an economic philosophy. Left unchecked, it incentivizes wealth concentration, externalizes costs, and often places profit ahead of broader societal well-being. There are legitimate reasons to criticize capitalism, and I don't particularly admire many of its outcomes.

My issue is with the inconsistency in this meme. The behaviors it's describing, pathological greed, regulatory capture, monopolistic behavior, and the relentless pursuit of short-term shareholder profits, are better described as corporatocracy than capitalism itself. That's a system where large corporations wield enormous influence over government and markets, insulating themselves from competition and shaping policy to serve their own interests.

If you want to criticize corporatocracy, I'm right there with you. But treating every economic or social problem as though it's simply "capitalism" is an oversimplification. Distinctions matter, especially when you're trying to identify the actual root cause of a problem. If we're going to criticize a system, we should at least be criticizing the correct one.

[–] Katana314@lemmy.world 7 points 16 hours ago

Said it better than I could.

People are greedy; greedy for any resource they can control. Today it’s money. It could easily be something else.

“But they wouldn’t be allowed to!” They’re not allowed to do what they do now, but they force courts and opinions to work otherwise.

[–] Bristlecone@lemmy.world 29 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I'm in the medical field, and the number of people who absolutely despise private insurance, but despise public Health systems even more, for no reason, is too damn high.

[–] myrrh@ttrpg.network 6 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago) (1 children)

...i always ask providers up-front what is my cost without using any insurance versus my out-of-pocket cost after insurance, and most of the time it's substantially cheaper not to use insurance at all even though it won't count toward my deductible...

...those private-industry middlemen are a huge burden on the healthcare system, and they persist only because their costs are hidden from patients...

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

It's awful. And until you hit maximum out of pocket, the insurance company may not be paying anyway.

[–] zikzak025@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

They sound like my family. God forbid there be "socialized" healthcare that the "leeches" can benefit from, but also insurance sucks and doesn't pay for anything and whoops now we have medical debt.

They don't want their tax dollars to subsidize the care of anyone they think is less deserving than them, while they begrudgingly accept having to pay hundreds of dollars each month on an insurance plan that won't even cover the care they need.

And they want to see every change introduced by Obamacare undone, so, have fun going back to insurance plans that can deny you coverage just because you have a preexisting condition that they don't want to pay for.

[–] Alaknar@sopuli.xyz 9 points 1 day ago* (last edited 19 hours ago) (1 children)

Fun fact! The US is spending more on healthcare than it does on its military. By A LOT. The military gets around 4% of the federal budget, healthcare gets around 12%.

The US taxpayer pays MORE on healthcare in taxes than the the taxpayers in Switzerland or Norway!

Where does that money go, you ask? Why, to the pockets of the corpos owning private healthcare, of course!

[–] zikzak025@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Yep. Republicans like my family are still so focused on the idea of "welfare queens" and illegal immigrants who are sucking up their hard-earned taxpayer dollars, while completely blind to the fact that they are spending thousands in taxes and insurance premiums enriching corporate middlemen who provide little to nothing in return. So who are the real leeches?

[–] rmuk@feddit.uk 2 points 16 hours ago

"They have us fighting a culture war so we don't fight a class war."

[–] Nukola@feddit.it 1 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

For anyone asking themselves how socialism might work with current technology:

https://alexeyminin.medium.com/building-socialism-2-0-c698b2db66c

[–] KernelTale@programming.dev 1 points 15 hours ago

I should have read the title and saved myself one paragraph

[–] Formfiller@lemmy.world 19 points 1 day ago
[–] gigastasio@sh.itjust.works 178 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Capitalist: No no, what you really hate is socialism.

Citizen: Why do I hate socialism?

Capitalist: Because socialism causes [lists problems created by capitalism].

Citizen: Wow, I sure do hate socialism.

[–] crunchy@lemmy.dbzer0.com 104 points 1 day ago (9 children)

But also,

Citizen 2: [lists actual socialist policies while avoiding certain key words]

Capitalists: I can get behind that.

[–] MrKoyun@lemmy.world 1 points 13 hours ago

[explains certain LGBT talking points while avoiding certain key words]

Homophobe: I can get behind that.

[–] pivot_root@lemmy.world 57 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Let me fix that for you,

Citizen 1: I can get behind that.

Capitalists: You shouldn't, that's communism! Think of all the money you have to waste when you get rich!

[–] blargh513@sh.itjust.works 25 points 1 day ago (4 children)

And that's the core of it.

Every poor moron thinks that one day they will get rich and they don't want to ruin things for their future rich self. The don't actually DO anything to get rich, they don't have a plan, resources, much intelligence, they're not doing anything to improve their life, go to school, seek a better job, learn about finances. But one day, they'll be rich. They believe this until they get to about 50-60, their health issues start creeping up, then it starts to dawn on them that they're over the hill and have no real future beyond the current state of affairs--same life, but just older, sicker and weaker. THEN they sometimes wake up and see the bullshit, but it's too late.

Some of these people pick up a modest inheritance from their dead parents, but they usually piss it away in a few years, certainly aren't going to invest it, use it to build anything or have any expectation of creating generational wealth. They buy a big pickup truck and some assorted stupid shit, and it's wasted in a flash.

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] wieson@feddit.org 19 points 1 day ago

Socialists are fans of socialism. Capitalists are persons who own capital, not fans of capitalism.

load more comments (6 replies)

It's even worse than that, they think the root cause is immigrants, minorities, and trans people.

[–] Grandwolf319@sh.itjust.works 30 points 1 day ago (7 children)

Something most people miss is that the speed of change is a barrier.

You can do socialism fast or slow, the fast way is like a revolution, which most people don’t want since it sucks for the individual.

The slow way, which imo is the better way, is just doing policies that get you closer and closer to socialism within the capitalist framework.

The second way often means helping people who are less fortunate than the average person first, before getting to your average voter. That’s what individualistic societies can’t get past, they want their lives improved now. They fear they will vote for things that benefits poorer people and then the next government would come in before it’s their turn.

IMO the solution to this is obvious, focus on policies that literally benefit everyone. Don’t do select benefit programs, do problems that help everyone. UBI is a perfect example.

[–] r1veRRR@feddit.org 1 points 18 hours ago

That sounds very much like must online leftists. Every single thing that improves the world slightly is pushed against, simply because it doesn't solve every problem.

Of course, none of these people do anything for the Revolution they love so much. They're evangelical at this point. Where the Revolution is the second coming, requiring no actual work, just believing in it.

[–] porous_grey_matter@lemmy.ml 19 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The thing about the slow way is that it's too readily reversible, and since the existing order allows the wealthy who would lose under such policies to consolidate power quite easily, those changes can be undone much more easily than they can be made.

[–] Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works 1 points 18 hours ago (2 children)

Well the thing about the fast way is that it's easily co-optable and you can end up with things really sucking for everyone just to end up in a worse position if you're not careful.

[–] porous_grey_matter@lemmy.ml 1 points 8 hours ago

Yeah, so it can possibly go wrong, instead of being guaranteed to go wrong.

[–] MrKoyun@lemmy.world 1 points 13 hours ago

You're right, but being careful about stuff hasn't and isn't really working out for us.

[–] nialv7@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

policies cannot always benefit everyone. e.g. wealth tax won't benefit the wealthy, consumer protection won't benefit the corporates

[–] Johanno@feddit.org 11 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Everyone except the wealthy.

Well public transport even helps the wealthy. It clears the roads for their cars

[–] LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world 2 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago)

And moving to renewable energy sources will inevitably bring down costs and make it so if a tornado/hurricane/earthquake takes some power lines down a giant chunk of houses won't all lose power, many of those houses will be able to keep refrigerators and necessities up until backup power from the grid gets restored.

Half the oceans ships are moving fossil fuels from place to place, so you can cut that tenfold... Making cleaner healthier ecosystems in both cities/towns and for the earth in general.

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] Seimhe@lemmy.world 62 points 2 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (8 children)

I would also argue that few people have made a very good case connecting peoples concerns to capitalism. So to many it has a Southpark-ish ring to it: capitalism is bad. Don’t do capitalism. It’s an abstract thing, and abstract opponents make people feel despair and impotence.

The most persuasive people I’ve seen don’t use that word often. They directly link peoples concerns to inequality (unfair taxation and employment laws), climate ( fossil fuel companies) and unregulated abusive businesses such as big tech.

Those are not faceless, abstract entities, so people can organise their (justified) anger better.

Has anybody else heard good approaches for helping people understand ?

[–] sbv@sh.itjust.works 32 points 1 day ago (3 children)

The most persuasive people I’ve seen don’t use that word often. They directly link peoples concerns to inequality (unfair taxation and employment laws), climate ( fossil fuel companies) and unregulated abusive businesses such as big tech.

This is the way. Lefty movements have rightly been criticized for being too academic. Expressing people's concerns in a more relatable and practical way gets more people on board.

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (7 replies)
[–] DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world 38 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Everyone likes socialism, as long as it isn't called socialism. Two sides of the same coin. We've been duped.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] yucandu@lemmy.world 22 points 1 day ago (3 children)

The thing is most countries don't go around declaring themselves "we are a capitalist nation, we follow the capitalist ideology", so this seems pointlessly vague.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] PetoniousRex@lemmy.zip -1 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

We need to start teaching that you can't just throw capitalism under the buss. Unchecked capitalism, among other oppressors has lead to where we are. A fairly taxed and regulated capitalism combined with a solid and kind welfare system could be paradise. But eventually money and power will manipulate people. If not the ones who changed the system then the ones after. I would almost vote for a A.I. model of a senator who's only motovation is the actual bylaws of the constitution.

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

I think as long as ppl can as individals buy massive superyachts we are fked and wont progress, only regress, the amount of toys, widespread power, and long term health you can buy with wealth only increases over time

load more comments
view more: next ›