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I really don't understand how anyone that is sound of mind can be anti-capitalist. Maybe critical of capitalism I can understand but being "anti-capitalist" aft

I really don't understand how anyone that is sound of mind can be anti-capitalist. Maybe critical of capitalism I can understand but being "anti-capitalist" after looking at history probably indicates that you have some developmental issues.

rexpop 10y ago
No one is wholly anything. To express an anti-capitalist sentiment does not make one _an_ anti-capitalist, merely critical of capitalism. To jump from parts to wholes exclusively in the case of capitalism/history — from "critical of capitalism" to "developmental issues" — probably indicates that you have some developmental issues. Nah, no it doesn't. It implies that you're circumspect of introspection into the very reasonable path from being "critical of capitalism" to more being concerned about the negative externalities in free markets than, for example, armchair rocket-science or whatever hobby you engage with in the ample free time afforded to you as a member of the coddled petit bourgeois while still managing to ride a high horse around the subject of anti-capitalism. You do not, of course, see why anyone would be critical of a system that has given YOU so much, but of course to dismiss the active cynic of capitalism is to exclude yourself from your own liberation. Had YOU been there, you would not have been redeemed.
- friedman23 10y ago
  I'm not going to lie to you, I didn't read your comment because it became apparent it was mostly rambling 4 sentences in. I'm also not interested in arguing semantics.
  - rexpop 10y ago
    If you do not grok my text, the fault lies with me. Thank you for trying.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
aidenn0 10y ago
After this comment, I'm wondering if your username is a reference to Milton Friedman. Firstly, I'm curious how expressing an anti-capitalist sentiment differs from being critical of capitalism. Secondly, I'd like to propose a few reasons why a person of sound mind might be anti-capitalist: * There are several well known cases where market forces, in isolation, cannot solve a problem. This already leads one away from several forms of "pure" capitalism. Once you move away from pure capitalism though, you create new problems that require more complexity to solve (regulatory capture perhaps being one of the bigger ones). * If you look at the post-industrial-revolution capitalistic societies, there is a massive underclass that was substantially made materially worse-off (yes, a generation or two later, society as a whole ends up in a generally better position, but it was accomplished by grinding up and spitting out cheap labor that typically did not directly benefit from it. * There are some very serious environmental problems currently facing us, most notably global warming. Companies that were profitable by externalizing the costs of these quire rationally found that the best way to maximize their profits was to muddy the scientific waters sufficiently to significantly delay any attempts at addressing these problems (which would certainly involve some way of preventing them from externalizing their costs). There's probably a lot more that I'm not thinking of right now. I would suggest finding friends who are anti-capitalist and listening to their reasons, not with an eye to shutdown their response, but just to get a sense of differing views. Even someone who agrees that the natural experiment of the 20th century proved capitalism is superior to communism (which is in itself debatable due to the low sample size and several confounding differences between the powers involved), might feel that some other non-capitalist form of economy could be superior.

rexpop 10y ago

No one is wholly anything. To express an anti-capitalist sentiment does not make one _an_ anti-capitalist, merely critical of capitalism. To jump from parts to wholes exclusively in the case of capitalism/history — from "critical of capitalism" to "developmental issues" — probably indicates that you have some developmental issues. Nah, no it doesn't. It implies that you're circumspect of introspection into the very reasonable path from being "critical of capitalism" to more being concerned about the negative externalities in free markets than, for example, armchair rocket-science or whatever hobby you engage with in the ample free time afforded to you as a member of the coddled petit bourgeois while still managing to ride a high horse around the subject of anti-capitalism. You do not, of course, see why anyone would be critical of a system that has given YOU so much, but of course to dismiss the active cynic of capitalism is to exclude yourself from your own liberation. Had YOU been there, you would not have been redeemed.

friedman23 10y ago
I'm not going to lie to you, I didn't read your comment because it became apparent it was mostly rambling 4 sentences in. I'm also not interested in arguing semantics.
- rexpop 10y ago
  If you do not grok my text, the fault lies with me. Thank you for trying.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]

aidenn0 10y ago

After this comment, I'm wondering if your username is a reference to Milton Friedman. Firstly, I'm curious how expressing an anti-capitalist sentiment differs from being critical of capitalism. Secondly, I'd like to propose a few reasons why a person of sound mind might be anti-capitalist: * There are several well known cases where market forces, in isolation, cannot solve a problem. This already leads one away from several forms of "pure" capitalism. Once you move away from pure capitalism though, you create new problems that require more complexity to solve (regulatory capture perhaps being one of the bigger ones). * If you look at the post-industrial-revolution capitalistic societies, there is a massive underclass that was substantially made materially worse-off (yes, a generation or two later, society as a whole ends up in a generally better position, but it was accomplished by grinding up and spitting out cheap labor that typically did not directly benefit from it. * There are some very serious environmental problems currently facing us, most notably global warming. Companies that were profitable by externalizing the costs of these quire rationally found that the best way to maximize their profits was to muddy the scientific waters sufficiently to significantly delay any attempts at addressing these problems (which would certainly involve some way of preventing them from externalizing their costs). There's probably a lot more that I'm not thinking of right now. I would suggest finding friends who are anti-capitalist and listening to their reasons, not with an eye to shutdown their response, but just to get a sense of differing views. Even someone who agrees that the natural experiment of the 20th century proved capitalism is superior to communism (which is in itself debatable due to the low sample size and several confounding differences between the powers involved), might feel that some other non-capitalist form of economy could be superior.