Capitalism

So this is obviously a silly comic, but I wanted to put out another viewpoint. Just because you want cool new thing doesn’t mean you approve or want capitalism. You can still want everyone to have the opportunity to be able to experience the cool new thing. Consumption isn’t necessarily bad, overconsumption I’d say is. Idk maybe I’m a bit wrong, but I don’t see any reason to beat yourself up for having wants or desires.

consumerism != capitalism

Capitalism is the allowing of control over companies to be bought and sold without the consent of their workers.

Consumerism is using cheap marketing tactics to sell cheap garbage to people who don't know any better, and is mostly the result of not requiring companies to pay for the waste they create.

Either of these could easily exist without the other.

Stop defining everything you don't like about the economy as capitalism.

Ugh, Cool New Thing? Lame. Who remembers Weird Old Thing?

What I like about this comic is that it depicts the lure of 'cool new thing' as a party, with someone notifying about it. Why even care about 'cool new thing'? Largely it's because of the 'fear of missing out'; a product as a shared experience with your peers, where not having that same experience may distance you from them and make you more of an outsider. For me, I've found that what seems like wanting something for its own sake often masks this underlying dynamic, like I will only start wanting it after people I like mention it positively, and things no one mentions positively I will just be less interested in regardless of whether they should be up my alley. That doesn't make you a sheep, it's just how humans work.

This dynamic is intentionally manufactured, and some of it is fake (it's not actually popular or relevant you just got tricked by an ad), but some of it is real. So then the mistake is in seeing consumerism as an individual struggle of self-deprivation, when it's really a shared cultural battle; what it comes down to is supporting the people around you in non-consumerism.

Here are some tangible ways I think we can do that:

• If your friends don't have adblock, get them on adblock

• Support pirate culture

• Support and practice DIY

• Support open source, reject closed ecosystems

• Potlucks instead of takeout

Any other ideas?

Right, because capitalism is only about consumption and also only capitalism provides cool new things.

I don't understand how people find it so difficult to just stop spending their money on shit they don't need. You have to treat yourself occasionally, but I'll never understand those who anyways have to buy the newest thing.

My car is over ten years old. I still use a Pixel 4. I don't own any fancy clothes, new consoles, TV's, etc. and I'm perfectly happy. I run my own business and put money aside, ensuring I'm not going to go hungry if shit hits the fan, which is always a very real possibility. The last nice thing I bought myself was a gaming laptop, and that was just to replace my old one which got me through a good 5 years of use.

People need to start being happy with less. It's really, really easy to do, and you'll likely find yourself feeling happier not giving a fuck about the New Thing... or maybe I'm just getting older and my priorities have changed.

Hold on, I have to buy the latest iphone to post my latest screed.

Average hexbear and lemmygrad user.

"Yo, Apple released the next iPhone"

The problem with blanket attacks on capitalism is that it ignores the fact that the US became an economic superpower under capitalism, and we built the strongest middle class in history under capitalism WHEN WE MIXED IN SOCIALIST PROGRAMS.

BASIC economics shows that BY FAR capitalism is the most efficient way to generate wealth.

It sounds profoundly ignorant to be against that system.

Instead, we should be talking about what to do with the wealth it generates.

Bernie Sanders "Democratic socialism" is actually "capitalist socialism". It leaves in place all the profit incentives and machinery of innovation and production, but then it redistributes wealth away from the hoarders at the top, and gives it back to the workers who generated it.

This is a much more compelling system to fight for than just a blanket "capitalism bad!" argument.

I'm so bitter at this point (and broke), that I refuse to spend almost any money. Let these assholes choke on their own products.

Permanently Deleted

Open-source provides cool things all the time. For example, allowing that some prefer KDE (totally valid preference), I personally feel like Gnome is the greatest desktop environment humanity has ever created and every six months it keeps getting better still.

Guilty as changed unfortunately.

Self-validation is one hell of a drug. :')

Capitalism: When a thing I don’t like

DAMN YOU CAPITALISM FOR ME LIKING COOL SHIT!

This is the main problem I have with the people who call for socialism. If you boil it down to what they really want, it usually gets down to "i want free stuff". They dont want to socialize means of production.. most of the time they dont even know what that even means. People conflate social programs with socialism when thats just not the case.

If you truly hate capitalism so much, you will be willing to reduce your paycheck, willing to purchase less, willing to donate your social wealth for the common good.