What's Wrong with Capitalism (Part 2) | ContraPoints

[@ContraPoints]

It's hard to think of original things to say when it comes to such worked over material as "why capitalism is bad," but with this video I decided to focus on happiness and luxury, and their relation to capitalism and socialism, which is not the typical Marxist angle and at any rate is more my style. Or maybe this is just counterrevolutionary, bourgeois revisionism. Let me know what you think!

[@makethislookawesome]

ContraPoints thing about luxury is that is doesn't work of need based economic rules. Fine art not selling? Raise the price it will sell by the weekend.

[@jizburg]

i realy liked it. the thought of that golden pizza realy made me sic to my stomac

[@WolfAndLamb3]

Loved it. I want to see more Tatiana Tankikova.

[@jizburg]

i want more Tankgirl as well!

[@cythera3240]

Honestly, I really like this approach. I think it hits a lot of the topics that the average person is concerned about, and that philosophers and leftists in general tend to miss out on over intense debate about extremely specific things. Most people don't want to hear about the dialectic, whatever that means, they want to know that they can eat their pizzas and drink their champagne after the revolution.

[@PhilosophyTube]

Baths ARE good. Glad to see them taking a central role in theory at last.

[@hamcommander7974]

Marx's beard was actually just a bubble beard.

[@thecelticcrone7927]

Philosophy Tube ... Absolutely nothing better than a Steaming Hot bubble bath with a good book, a bottle of Pinot and a DISTURB & YOU DIE Sign....LOL

[@milascave2]

few: I dunno. Hot springs do seem to be a big thing in some Buddhist societies, like Japan. But bathhouses, which were the only places most folks could bath, were important in Islam. Christians shut them down because they thought it represented a vain concern with the body, that "when a man has once been bathed in Christ he need not ever bathe again" and because sometimes sex happened in those places. The reult? The Christian dar ages with filthy people ridden with paresites and disease, offending the noses of all the non-european people they encountered in their voyages, who gently tried to teach them to submugre tehselves in water. The nativa Americasn thought that white saiors smelled like rotting flesh. Anyway, basis hygene at the minimum must be a part of any utipian socailist society. If I can't take a bath, I don't want to be part of your revolution.

[@matthewtrevino525]

MordredTheMightyMetalhead Can't agree more. Oathbreaker for life.

[@sgtwolf7391]

No fuck baths showers are more convitent and better. Fight me IRL!

[@noahsnurr8559]

I am offended at the notion that “Tetris was one of the best games of the 80s.” Tetris is one of the best games of all time

[@doesntmatter1461]

Nah, Tetris is good, not the best.

[@GibusWearingMann]

It said "one of". That leaves room for Minecraft

[@cottage-core_]

*Tetris is the best game of all time*

[@simplethings3730]

I know this is a 4 month old comment but I just had to say, War robots was a video game that was made by Russian company (Pixonic). It was ruined by the company's capitalist greed😁

[@Zretgul_timerunner]

Tetris had sold more units alone then nearly all games after it togrther in the top 100...

[@Rogue_Leader]

I'm a software developer and I've been doing it for a long time. I've done a lot of other things in my life - I've worked as a chef, done door-to-door cold sales, worked as a ghost tour guide, worked in a supermarket and a chocolate factory... - and I have to say that generally the harder the job has been, the lower the pay. The idea that very rich people have worked harder than very poor people is absolute bunkum. But I know I'm preaching to the choir here.

[@thelaughingman4791]

Theoretically, skilled labor is compensated in proportion to the effort it takes to develop a rare and valuable skill, not the difficulty of the work you do applying it; of course that's not to say it invalidates your conclusion.

[@crown9413]

It’s not about working hard it’s about working smart to give people what they want in the best way possible. That capitalism punishes hard work incentivizes us to create labour saving devices, which is how society progresses.

[@cecewhm78]

@@crown9413 Only thats not true. Creation of tools to save on labor is something humans have been doing since before capitalism, feudalism, and even before we were proper homo sapiens. Capitalism doesn't spur progress, but pushes for an increased rate of production regardless of consequences, needs, or meaning. Its a lot like the PS2 game library: There was a lot of great games that came out of the era, but only because there was bound to be quality somewhere in the immense crap pile of shovelware. Its more of a process of throwing shit at a wall and seeing what sticks when it comes to "innovation", and not caring that your wall is slowly getting covered in shit. Instead of benefitting mankind, innovations in a society focused on amassing wealth leads to further inequality, deteriorating quality of life conditions, and environmental destruction. Capitalism doesn't create innovation, it just figures out how to take advantage of it for personal gain.

[@crown9413]

Cece Whm deteriorating quality of life? Where? in capitalist countries the quality of life has only risen, i can buy things regularly that were once luxuries like avocado toast, even the poorest have iphones. Yes a lot of crap is created but capitalism gives us the freedom to find and support the gems we like. You need a lot of crap before you can work out what people want. Some of the countries with the best environmental record are capitalist. Having a nice environment is expensive, it’s poor countries that cut corners on their production. Inequality in capitalist countries is nothing to that in socialist ones, politicians control several order of magnitude more money than the 1% does. The worlds richest man is believed to be Putin by some measures. You could also lookup the ‘daughters of chavismo’.

[@cecewhm78]

@@crown9413 Your first mistake is thinking that capitalism extends to only developed countries such as the US or most of Europe. Is India not capitalist? China? Mexico? Are they not trade partners from which many of our cheap goods are manufactured and bought, jobs outsourced to? Our "luxury" comes at the cost of poorer countries whose resources and people are exploited in a global economy. And lets talk about luxury vs necessity. What a crazy, backwards world it is that we live in when quality of life is based on being able to own phones, rather than how many people have health insurance, food, roofs over their heads, transportation, and access to good education. Idk how many poor people you actually know, cuz I've never had an IPhone, and idk many other "poors" that did without doing something illegal for cash. There is no distinction between luxury and necessity in capitalism, both just being a good to profit off in a supply-and-demand economy. What ends up happening is people can afford "luxury" goods like a fucking Netflix sub, but not things like insulin. Depression is on the rise, life expectancy is declining, birth rates are declining, job stability is transitioning into a gig and contract economy (even for the STEM feild.), more and more people are falling into debt, climate change is threatening global stability, less people are able to afford housing and medical care, the average retirement age is rising... But we can all afford IPhones, so its all good. Oh and environmentalism? You're right that its helluva expensive to protect the environment because its a revenue loss to clean emissions, dispose of hazardous waste safely, and responsibly use natural resources, which is why we pass on the cost of environmental degradation to poorer countries who are more willing to cut those corners. Or poor communities here in "the West". Freedom of choice is an illusion when monopolies are allowed to exist, companies use whatever tactics they can to stiffle competition, and voting "with your wallet" takes a cut right out of an hourly wage worker's paycheck. I can't choose to not have Spectrum, formerly known as Comcast. I can't choose a different manufacturer for my medicines. I can't choose a different company for my glasses because all the brands belong to one company. Also, from your comments of avacado toast and Putin... The only person I know of that eats avacado toast is my conservative boomer mom. I'm also not a tankie, and have very heavy criticisms of the USSR and modern Russia. People aren't boiled down to memes.

[@kossnfx]

The argument about cooks and janitors is particularly salient now that they are considered "essential workers" and still making 7.50/hr.

[@ToryWilliamsKitKat_49]

Fax

[@noahbogue1934]

Minimum wage Founder’s edition

[@dashrirprock]

Supply and demand. Ultimately, low wage labor is not paid less because it's unimportant but because the skills it demands are not scarce. Dangerous labor, all other things being equal, will be compensated more, so wages in a pandemic will rise. Or there will be automation.

[@ArchiduquesaMA]

@@dashrirprock did their wages rise during the pandemic?

[@dashrirprock]

@@ArchiduquesaMA Probably. Google knows better than I do.

[@kierachippendale2856]

"Sometimes, things that are expensive, are worse."

[@lmnop29]

petition for a contra/freckle collab

[@DrawingZerberus]

A message from our goddes

[@killmepls7865]

@@DrawingZerberus u

[@Quarter_Turn]

This is one of my favorite quotes by anyone ever.

[@maaskeimorgen]

this is so iconic i couldnt help but hear her in my head when i read it

[@Kokorisu]

One of my uni professors once asked us who we thought was invaluable to keep our Faculty running. People of course instantly went like "the Head of the Faculty! The professors! The whatever administrative position!" Nope. It was the janitors. "If the janitors go on strike, in no time the entire Faculty can't open for health and safety reasons anymore". Respect your fellow people in the working class.

[@sightseeing7993]

Yes but you cant get rid of professors either. And while janitors are important, the job is not complex or takes years of study and work to get to. Professors know how to clean shit too.

[@Kokorisu]

@@sightseeing7993 Of course not, a University with no professors isn't a good University, but the point still stands: a University with no cleaners/janitors is a closed University. Nobody's arguing cleaning is a highly-specialized job.

[@sightseeing7993]

@@Kokorisu Okay. But I would say that lack of 'skill', meaning how complicated and difficult to understand, is the reason it is justifiable to pay less. Which is good, easy entry jobs with low pay lead to people with more ambition and a desire to succeed, while still giving them some way to make money if they are very young and doing that sort of job while in school.

[@Kokorisu]

@@sightseeing7993 You'd be surprised at how much garbage men make in some places. It's more worthwhile to pay them well and avoid strikes. Same with some places and toll booth workers. The net loss of these people not working for one day makes it worth paying for.

[@sightseeing7993]

@@Kokorisu Well that's good, let them strike and negotiate their wages. My issue comes in when someone suggests that an individual janitor who trained for a month is somehow entitled to the same payment as a physicist who trained for seven years.

[@danielal3710]

"Should the economy serves humanity, or should humanity serve the economy" hits kinda different now

[@thatname4451]

Yes

[@doraaaa0613]

saw some clip of news anchors and/or certain TV personalities begging to reopen the economy and "go back to work, even if it meant dying sacrificially in order to prevent the stock market from crashing!"

[@nicholasgiampetro782]

I mean this statement is kind of flawed, the economy can't serve people unless people work in the economy to generate wealth.

[@jeanf6295]

@@nicholasgiampetro782 the economy humanity serves is not The Economy, but it's representation as various statistical indicators like the GDP or the stock market valuations. It may be the best representation we have of what is going on, but it is mostly garbage nonetheless, and improving those indicators does very little for humanity.

[@faijro9260]

She touched on it on the last episode. The compulsive drive to increase GDP instead of fulfilling the real needs of people could change things for the better by a lot.

[@CheatingZubat]

Shoot, 63% (ish) of the US population doesn't even have 1,000 dollars SAVED. That pizza represents a value that more than half of American's don't even have saved up! No wonder they feel guilty.

[@spirithawk6580]

Yeah, my partner could've used that for his surgery or I could've used it for college. But nah, rich people gotta literally shit money down the pipes

[@ironxYT]

@@spirithawk6580 this shit is terrifying.

[@mcmasters1484]

James McCaffrey you’re average American is worth 44,900 they don’t let money sit around in a worthless account when they can invest it into things that will actually help them like a IRA retirement fund, index fund, or stocks.

[@trenvert123]

I feel like you're wrong, but I don't know where you got your information from to know how to prove that you're wrong. @@mcmasters1484

[@mcmasters1484]

trenvert123 www.marketwatch.com/amp/story/guid/D2220D80-E4D7-11E7-AE1F-33209F85F7C2- 33.6% of Americans invest in a 401K being that a 401K is a much safer bet then stock is unlikely but not impossible that these people don’t buy stocks but www.npr.org/2017/03/01/517975766/while-trump-touts-stock-market-many-americans-left-out-of-the-conversation 52% of Americans own stocks www.rothira.com/retirement-statistics And 21% of people who have an IRA account max it out every year! There’s a lot of saving going on at the very least most Americans are putting their money to work for them.

[@stephanie8560]

I can confirm that researchers don't make a lot of money. Does anyone here honestly think that the 1% are scientists, rather than making their money off of business and finance?

[@subrosian2323]

There's been a decades-long targeted campaign to sow distrust in academia, scientists, and/or anything government-funded (especially if it's multinational cooperation) by right wing pundits in various media. Which you'd think would be an obvious sign that, surprise! They're all funded by oil barons whose continued business relies on mass denial of science. Honestly the impressive part is radio or talk show hosts not immediately being recognized as billionaire-pawn shitweasels solely by their slimy, smug fucking voices and faces. I have a conservative family and grew up on this shit, meanwhile being in love with science my whole life. Can you tell I'm bitter? 😂

[@CircusoftheMoon]

They act like all of us STEM folks are rolling in cash which is just not the case.

[@isaiahphillip4112]

@@CircusoftheMoon I think they actually believe that if you graduate with an engineer/CS degree, you wake up the next morning with a 6-7 figure salary.

[@jv-lk7bc]

well, a few researchers strike it rich, just as a few athletes and performers do ...

[@Kyrielsh1]

@@jv-lk7bc Not solely from their academic achievements, they may become rich because they create a pattern so they make money out of... Well, capitalism, or because they write books which become successes (so obviously targeted to the "masses") thanks to... Well, capitalism again, I guess ??

[@hbomberguy]

give me the stuff

[@DahVoozel]

hbomberguy The Stuff is a taste sensation that kids crave and parents can't deny, you cannot deny The Stuff, to do so would be to deny rapture itself, enjoy The Stuff, become The Stuff.

[@Davesknd]

Wait, is gold part of your soy diet?

[@anagjini7111]

evywthingseemsdiff again i want to be Tatiana, but i want Tabby

[@6iaZkMagW7EFs]

evywthingseemsdiff again tankie or ancom? Soviet or antifa? Authoritarian or libertarian?⍰⍰⍰

[@SGRODmaster]

A better Skyrim?

[@fullmetal2455]

Pizza's in Africa could have eaten those children

[@carolyntalbot947]

M E T A

[@durnsidh6483]

hOw daRe yOU!!!11!!!!

[@Zeithri]

I died.

[@theboxygenie]

Africa could have eaten children in pizza.

[@segmentsAndCurves]

I love how this actually make some sense

[@Mari-bj2rt]

"Capitalism made your iPhone" No, LABOR made your iPhone. Labor makes things under any -ism. The -isms just determine who gets paid... (Arthur Chu)

[@aaronlandis7929]

Labor manufactured the iphone. Who provided the design? Who provided the tools which the laborers require? Who provides the laborers with space in which to labor? If I have to concede that labor made my phone, then you have to concede that capital enterprise allowed labor to exist in the first place.

[@go_nav96]

@@aaronlandis7929 So you're saying large scale projects require capital. I agree. Can you imagine now where large amounts of capital can possibly come from? Should it come from a small 'elite' group of people who want to enrich themselves by making a profit out of the project, thereby keeping them in their elite status? Or should it come from a democratically elected entity that can be checked by all the people using the power of voting? Which is the most fiscally conservative thing to do? And which is the moral thing to do? The answer seems very clear to me.

[@aaronlandis7929]

@@go_nav96 They don't just rely on capital, they rely on vision and ingenuity. Last time I checked, the government cannot collect vision and ingenuity the way it can collect tax. Last time I checked, the democratic process results in measured consensus, not in novel approaches to solving problems or offering service. The elites are not the only ones who benefit. The box packer might deserve a higher hourly, but his minimum wage job still beats $0/hour. $0/hour is what he would have if the capitalist had not come along to build the factory. The box packer is a lot easier to replace and a lot less important to the overall structure of the company. The CEO (generally, but not universally) deserves to make more money from his organization. He built and runs it! The box packer only packs boxes. He contributes no ingenuity, no problem solving capability and requires no real training. If you want the government deciding how much to spend on factories and what those factories produce, fine. The government is not great at anything it does (or maybe you think the police and schools are just awesome right now! And our dams are perfectly well maintained of course) and it is just as corruptible as any other organization so at best there is no reason to expect better results than a free market economy. At worst you get the Soviet Union, where the government's bad decisions led to terrible food shortages and citizens unable to find shoes in their size. "Which is the most fiscally conservative thing to do? And which is the moral thing to do? The answer seems very clear to me." Yes, thinking is much easier when you have a doctrinal lens structuring all of your input before you process it.

[@go_nav96]

​@@aaronlandis7929 "Vision and ingenuity" are characteristics of humans in general, not capitalists. There were ingenious inventions and discoveries long before there were capitalistic systems, so your point is moot and disingenuous. Even today, the many of the real inventions come in pursuit of great goals, such as putting humanity in space and generation defining inventions such as the internet was funded and invented by government researchers. Capitalists usually come in after the fact and try to piggyback on big inventions to trick the populace into buying nice to haves. I'm not saying that capitalism has no uses. Capitalism can be useful to handle small projects that the government is not interested in. But capitalists acted in bad faith in the name of profits and now the current state is that capitalists are so powerful that they control the government and the media. By design, capitalists cannot have the people's best interests at heart because 1. They are not beholden to the people and can be insulated from any form of societal consequence of their actions. 2. Their goal is to gain a foothold in larger and larger sections of the world so they have to pursue capital and wealth in order to do so, often at the detriment of the local populace. Example: See Climate change deniers and lobbyists and military industrial complexes. They will let the world go to shit, just so they can have a problem to solve and money to make when the time comes, even if the problem is their own doing. The government is not currently great because the well has been poisoned by bad faith actors namely capitalists and the people they back. We are not the USSR, we can structure the government in ways that actually benefit the populace as a whole and have local structures that are able to act faster than a central government. For the rest, we can have capitalism, sure, but heavily regulated so such a travesty never happens again.

[@daleparker6308]

Mostly true that-the government should never have gutted anti trust laws.

[@ItWasSaucerShaped]

I'll say this much about the wealth stratification & happiness threshold (and this is purely anecdotal, so take it with a grain of salt): I live next to a community of multi-millionaires, and they absolutely flip their shit when a property tax is issued or the marginal tax rate is bumped up, even if by a fraction of a percentage point. I straight-up asked a guy (after he had calmed down a bit from raging at the sky) why he was so mad - the tax wouldn't impact his well being, wouldn't impact his ability to leave inheritance for his family succession & wouldn't impact his ability to grow his business. It impacted his net worth, is what he told me, and this positioned him at a social disadvantage to those who didn't live with such a tax. People over in Vancouver with much more lax taxes would treat him like the weak little bitch with a weak net worth. There's this entirely new social dynamic at the upper echelons of wealth that we just don't even notice while we're hovering around or below the happiness threshold (which is why Donald Trump's 'real net worth', which most people couldn't give a fuck about, mattered so much to the wealthy commentators who kept bringing it up during the American election). I think you might be able to liken it to (and I realize this is silly, but it's the comparison that jumps to mind) someone's Xbox Achievement score, where people get surprisingly competitive & aggressive over a very arbitrary & easily inflated number.

[@ianpulsford2295]

It's not just the rich, people compete for all sorts of silly things like the title of best tv, best house renovations, best lounge suite, etc. It's human nature to an extent, but I agree that losing your shit over having slightly less extra play money than some other rich guy is taking it to an absurd level. Their poor little egos must crumble when they think of Buffett, Gates and Bezos. I'm pretty sure Trump's does (259th richest person in the US).

[@catcollector1257]

That reminded me, I live on this island and the further east you go, the lower the property taxes and the higher the concentration of rich neighborhoods. A few towns have houses averaging in the 2 millions at minimum with very low taxes but the neighborhoods that house the landscapers and housekeepers have taxes averaging in the 6,000-10,000. Not to mention if there is any affordable housing available in one of these wealthy neighborhoods, it is immediately bought, flipped, and marked with a million dollar price tag.

[@lukaradulovic7904]

I don't find the rich people's competitions on who has more money a justification for hoarding large amounts of wealth and being frustrated with the thought that higher taxes would better benefit the masses.

[@jeffmacdonald8742]

It's not really a new dynamic I think. It's always been a status game - at least since we gave up on official ranks of nobility as our measure of status. The obvious solution to his particular complaint though is to raise those same taxes everywhere - then he gets to stay at the same relative place in his status game and we get the tax revenue. :) I do think Trump's real net worth might actually have been important and mattered to plenty of people who don't think they give a fuck about it, because there's a very good chance it's drastically less than he's claimed. Possibly even non-existent if he owes enough. That would have cut into his rep as a dealmaker and businessman.

[@TobiBaronski]

Wow it’s like American Psycho

[@danfordsmith6720]

I like the part where she points out that philosophy has a bad habit of killing discussion by creating too many "-isms", and just too much jargon, period. It'd be easier to talk about philosophy if it weren't for all of the "isms" and other made up definitions that require a Ph.D. to sort out.

[@planetary-rendez-vous]

I don't know why philosophy has a need to overcomplexify our already complex world. And some philosophers use their own jargon and we need their dictionary...

[@SongOfChaos1]

@@planetary-rendez-vous One of my favorite, early memories of a philosophy class was when my teacher was trying to explain axioms, and was like, "2+2=4, where the axiom is 2=2..." and then paused for a second to explain that technically, '2=2' still needs to be 'proven' and it's significantly more difficult than you would expect and takes a term paper's work of axioming the axiom to prove it. 'Overcomplexify' to say the least.

[@SongOfChaos1]

@Vasilobilaros Bilarovasilos I'm just quoting the professor. But that '2=2' is definitely an axiom in this context. In order for us to discuss '2+2=4', we must establish that 2 is 2; we take for granted what 2 is.

[@cgtaurus]

@@SongOfChaos1 As in "The meanings of meanings". In tangible reality, outside of philosophical discourse, most classically liberal academic disciplines are wrapped up in unraveling such yarns. Pure anCapitalist have everything reduced to one axiom: everything has to produce profit no matter the casualties. If casualties happen, they'll just ignore it in favor of their own decadent pursuit or self preservation. For them 2+3=5 and they see variables as simply bothersome hurdles to mitigate or bulldoze over.

[@pianoaddict772]

17:20 "Capitalism has to fail and that would bring about the conditions that make a revolution inevitable" Throughout the entire duration of COVID-19, I kept coming back to what you said here. People are dying and most recently, people are trying to force others back to work. Meanwhile hospitals are overburdened with almost little to no supplies left because states are in a bidding war for them. Capitalism, under the stress of a pandemic, is failing.

[@sumsum3873]

pianoaddict772 the borgouise media pundits are refusing to cover the May strikes and instead directing outrage towards the small minority of people protesting against Stay At Home orders. As much as I want Covid to bring about revolution it’s going to take a little more pushing

[@lolitaras22]

The problem with Capitalism is that is not a system, mainly is non-systemic. I believe that Capitalism is more of a depiction of total regulations absence. An Italian leftist author was saying in the '70s that Capitalism is a speeding train with a deranged driver. In the late '90s he said that Capitalism is still a speeding train, but the deranged driver jumped off the train unnoticed an unknown instance in the past. I don't think that something has changed.

[@lolitaras22]

@Martien de Jong I didn't imply that Capitalism is social automaticity, even though it has many elements of automatism. It is heavily regulatory for common people, but "free" commerce, markets and high upper class are totally unleashed. And the only solid rule in Capitalism is, that rules exist since the day they don't. I don't disagree that there is a level of centralized think tanks, but with the accretive fragmentation of geopolitical power and failure of the international status quo, there are too many contradictory authority poles, to say that there is central planning. I mean, that the world is ready to fall as a tombstone on humanity's already opened grave, capitalists will be in that grave too (it's an all-inclusive mass grave after all), but I don't see any regulation to avoid it. Anyway, I'm an anarchist, autonomous, name it as you like, I'm sure that only violent revolution is the way, but I'm 50 and I don't believe there are positive possibilities for our kind. Slim to none, but that's my thing, not a proposal :)

[@xy-rv5yo]

We aren’t suffering from capitalism, but a lack of it. The government has been destroying our economy for decades, that’s why we are falling apart now. Read about Austrian economics and realize that capitalism is what we need and it’s the socialistic elements of the government that’s killing us.

[@lolitaras22]

@@xy-rv5yo It's your opinion friend. I'm sure it's impossible to convince you or the opposite.

[@09yulstube]

Thank you. It's very hard to discuss this without getting the "bourgeois argument" of how shiny stuff is capitalist. People've painted things before capitalism, we like shiny stuff. Otherwise, why would we find ancient jewelry or highly decorated vases? Since the beginning we've made stuff we didn't "need" just because. Wanting things itself is not capitalist and should be considered within any economic system.

[@Heidenspross]

my granddad was a devout socialist, he worked as dispatcher in a coal mine, and they gave him loads of medals for his dedication (he also was an informer for the stasi) see even in socialism you can get shiny stuff ;-)

[@tofu_golem]

12:18 “If wealth was the inevitable result of hard work and enterprise, every woman in Africa would be a millionaire.” - George Monbiot

@Supreme Snek what?

[@karakim9213]

No one who works 40 hours should go hungry or be out in the elements, sadly some are and that is why I agree with you.

[@ettinakitten5047]

Personally I'd go further and say no one should go hungry or be out in the elements regardless of how many hours they work.

[@briannaclark5479]

Kara Kim tell that to Venezuela

[@mtk77621]

that would be a bad reason to agree with her

[@forest12able]

@@leonor29292 Are you a looter?

[@theQuestion626]

@@briannaclark5479 i’d rather tell that to America. Which incidentally has the highest poverty rating in comparison to advanced nations

[@potmki6601]

My dilemma is more like: How do I earn money and where do I buy stuff without making things I don't like about the world worse?

[@blissohbliss]

Holy shit same

[@prs_81]

It's virtually impossible to do that, as everything in the system is globally interconnected. The only way is to live in a forest alone, completely detaching yourself from the economy and society altogether... or... tearing the system down through a revolution. Tough either way

[@lieQT]

@@prs_81 Even if you lived in a forest alone, the only way you have the privilege of doing that is probably because a bunch of colonialists kicked the natives off the forest and land in the first place. It's impossible to win morally here. We're all forced to climb a ladder. It's okay to climb it, just make your voice heard that you don't want to do this, and vote for the people who support us on the bottom rungs. The more anti-ladder people get to the top of the ladder, the easier it can be dismantled.

[@Kyrielsh1]

That's an individualistic take on the problem. It's fine, but it kind of means that you don't really care that awful things happen as long as you feel you don't have to take responsibility for it. Problem, it's not that simple... :-P

[@fabrizioschiappacasse5048]

Well, you can change some things in the way you earn money and buy stuff, it's a good practice to always support local/no-middleman products, by the same logic you can earn money by being supported by your community, obviously it's not instant magic but it does makes things more simple in the production chain of any product/service, and distributes wealth in a more balanced way.

[@michael55671]

as a wise woman once said; "Sometimes things that are expensive are worse"

[@cottontail5109]

FRECKLE!!!!!!!

[@oscarwilde9581]

Long live Freckle

[@the4green2man]

the fact that tetris is a soviet game makes a mindblowing amount of sense. because it’s all about proper distribution. it teaches you that if you properly distribute your blocks (wealth and population) you can build a much more stable game. poorly distributing all your blocks in one area leads to failure. but it isn’t easy. it’s such a simple and effective allegory for wealth distribution.

[@mariamelnitskaya4493]

It’s more that the soviet system had to give a job to everyone regardless of efficiency and actual quality of life which has been the level of poverty unimaginable to us. But as your job doesn’t really need you to work hard or efficiently, a lot of soviet software developers (like my mom in the 1980s for example) had a looot of free time at work, which they spent coding and playing video games. That was fun except afterwards you go to stand in a queue for 2 hours to buy milk or bread and forbidden to leave the country

[@CatHelicopter]

isnt it also like capitalism thought because you are repetitively doing something meaningless in order to rack up useless points endlessly

[@davidgoeller5843]

Except in this case it's actually fun@@CatHelicopter

[@Glitch_Man42]

I can say as a straight guy who likes video games a lot. They would probably be better off without capitalism much like movies, since most problems with the industry is a lot of abusive business practices.

[@noaheast7600]

Just look at what modding communities do for no profit in their free time. They make incredible things new, and often completely improve games. Example of innovation without the profit motive

[@DAEsaster]

Explain economics to gamers: EA is capitalism. Bethesda has also succumbed further. Look at what they did to the burlap sacks! Vive le revolution!

[@TheRightflip]

so what's the alternative, I mean communism was a lot less abusive wasn't it?

[@joelman1989]

I find it funny that so many gamers are so to the right and complain about the sjw feminists ruining gaming when last I checked it's not the feminists who are shutting down beloved studios, telling us we all love games as a service, and shoving microtransactions and day one DLC into every game imaginable. This is capitalism.

[@maknirak]

It's not a coincidence that so many indie developers are gaining so much popularity. There will always be an amount of people who will keep buying the newest Fifa and CoD, but the hardcore gaming community is getting tired of being shit upon by those large companies.

[@amcginnis1234]

Natalie in 2018: "Capitalism has to fail, and that will bring about the conditions that make revolution inevitable... So I guess we just try to relax and wait for that to happen. I'm sure it's bound to happen any day now" 2020: Alright. That's long enough.

[@jonathanellis6097]

Nope, look at the people protesting for things to open up again, despite all the death going on around them. The system now has so much inertia, and people are so addicted to consumerism it will take a real cataclysm for this horror show to end. I wish I was wrong, but I don't think I am.

[@amcginnis1234]

@@jonathanellis6097 yeah I mean... I posted that a month or so ago before there were really any serious protests going on. But people going back to work and exposing themselves to the virus will make the situation worse. We're still very much in the midst of the pandemic. I don't think we'll come out of this with "full blown socialism" but I think people are increasingly warming up to socialism. We'll just have to see how it plays out.

[@jonathanellis6097]

​@@amcginnis1234 I wish people would wake the fuck up, but even with all that's going on it just doesn't seem to be enough. People have been convinced they have more to loose than they really have. I guess people are scared of real substantive change. That's why (and it pains me to say) its just not going to happen. Its easy to get caught up in social media echo chambers, and excited to find that others have the same ideas as you. But the simple fact is most people in the western world want things to carry on as is, they are fully committed to the system that actively holds them and most other people (unless you are a chose one) down. They have bought into the lie and they are not about to change their minds. I will say again I would be ecstatic to be proven wrong, but I doubt I will be. The only way to change peoples opinion is to slap them in the face with reality. But with all the noise out there at the moment that is nearly impossible.

[@amcginnis1234]

@@jonathanellis6097 this is why people say socialism starts with small, grassroots efforts from individuals/workers, which helps gain momentum for larger movements. Maybe this isn't the moment for widespread change, but there is always more you can do in your community

[@stardolphin783]

Watching the gamestop stock meme like 👀

[@trekjudas]

We treat capitalism like an angry God. To even suggest to question it is blasphemy!

[@no_peace]

That's how you know it's not the best model If it were the best it would stand up to questioning

[@trekjudas]

Just like Daylight Saving's time and summer vacation for school kids, we don't do it because it's a good idea, we do it out of blind habit.

[@sulimanthemagnificent4893]

to question capitalisim is a good thing to consider that it is inheriantly a bad is also a good thing nobody is saying it is not, but some people are taking there own opinions to heart a bit to much i my self am a free market supporter with enough regulation to prevent trusts and the stifeling of competion you dont see me getting pissy about your views do you?

[@trekjudas]

Suliman The Magnificent I have zero loyalty to the status quo. None!

[@sulimanthemagnificent4893]

@@trekjudas wait so you support neither capitalisim nor communisim?

[@spacedonut8157]

I got an ad from PragerU with Jordan Peterson's voice telling me "dangerous people" are on youtube and could be turning my kids into... I don't know Marxists or something, I don't have kids and I skipped the ad in a fit of laughter. Kind of weird that it's on this video though, are they targeting their ads on "leftist" channels?

[@bella-tt9hk]

Space Donut honestly!!!!!

[@HermanWillems]

LOL, PragerU is rightwing extremist funded propaganda. Funny you got an ad for that. You should dig deeper in PragerU and learn more about the founders and such. It's funny.

[@gregtaillon4019]

There's probably some premium-tier advertiser level where they get to target their demographics in a more fine-grained way

[@JoelRiter]

Dangerous people on youtube are turning my daughter into a Marxist? Well shit, better have her watch more then. Thanks for the heads up Pedoson... Urrr... Peterson!

[@mikegribanov6105]

I got a McGinnes ad, i think they just blindly target "political" videos, w/o left/right lean bias taken into consideration.

[@pandysandy1151]

As someone who is from a former communist country (Czechoslovakia) I generally avoid discussion about communism with very rich students from Italy, France... who say stuff like: well, why don't you like Russia and Lenin? I think communism didn't work because you were just dumb! That said, i think uncontrolled capitalism is pure madness. Nowadays old people in Czech rep. vote communists, is it because they are crazy? No. It's because during communism there were no homeless people on the streets, everyone had to work and everyone had a secured job. I disagree with them, but i kinda get their point.

[@darkprince56]

You also had no choice or freedom

[@andreaslind6338]

@@darkprince56 true, and under capitalism you do have freedom...if you can afford it.

[@Parker-nm9cg]

@@darkprince56 i would rather be guaranteed to have my needs met than have the "freedom" to "choose" between food, rent, or my medical bills.

[@katrinam6795]

​@@darkprince56 Are you talking about the 10 brands of pizza which are all by the same corp, sourced from the same distributor?

[@mariamelnitskaya4493]

@@Parker-nm9cgyou sweet summer child, no freedom in that kind of dictatorship meant that you’re not allowed to ever leave the country, you’ll never earn more than the state decided for you, you’re going to jail for any type of business activity and you certainly go to jail for saying/reading/writing something that the state doesn’t like. Please never undermine the freedom you’ve got now. Also, I’m not against social state and more control of the elected officials over the capital. But dictatorships and totally planned economies never worked and never will - let’s stop praising them

[@elianasisman6353]

“The economy should serve humanity.” Preach, ContraPoints! 🙌💕

[@Daniel-rw9um]

Capitalists: 'actually...'

[@omikronQ]

That's a rather unfortunate statement. Who is the economy? Or what ? Is is wall street or is it the fed or even Google and Apple making up huge portions of our GDP or as she'd probably suggest is it the workers? Truth is that's it's neither and all of them and much more. You can't say which should serve which because, same as philosophy, sociology, biology etc., economy is merely a way of describing how human function. You can not separate that from humanity itself. Bottom line: yes, obviously everything should serve humanity. Question is what exactly would be the most efficient way, taking into considération the human nature itself.

[@Badruborg]

"I am a dumb, dumb and I like shiny things." I seriously wished I could say that with the suave confidence of Contra. I mean seriously she is super intelligent but she is awesome to have the security to say that =) for at least this video.

[@lilwage6910]

The most important part of this video, I think, was that Contra managed to bridge the gap between the boring academic definition of "use value and exchange value", and brought it to a real world example by usage of the golden pizza analogy. She also did this with the profit motive churning out hundreds of boring sequels, in essence stifling creativity, although this was already common knowledge. This sort of thing, I think, should be what every leftist should strive for, to bridge the gap between the boring academic jargon and the common day-to-day observations we make. I would love to see more of this sort of stuff, where people take critiques of capitalism that exist only in books, and find ways to make them relatable to everyday people. We need to build up our vocabulary in a more accessible direction.

[@lilwage6910]

Yes. Because we don't have big moneyed interests on our side, this means it will require a lot of organization as well. We need to talk to one another, share our ideas of what is working and what isn't, teach one another, and help out one another where we can. If you have the means to do it, start a KZbin channel, too. We can't just hope our big personalities will do all our work for us all the time.

[@thomassutton4861]

Absolutely correct

[@thomassutton4861]

Well wait a minute. KZbin channels aren't necessarily good praxis. One can't expect anyone to be as good as Contra.

[@vilukisu]

Thomas Sutton Obviously. But I don't claim the be a world champion in clapping, but my effort still adds to the crowd.

[@ATLevi-qw2su]

Lil Wage I love your name

[@bravetherainbow]

Capital isn't evil, it's amoral. And that's the problem. The system has no value for human life or happiness. Same with a corporation within the system, it's just like a wild animal that needs to keep eating to survive. It doesn't want to hurt people but it will if it has to. And people can make a quick buck by serving these wild animals and so they do, to the detriment of most other people.

[@devilskind92]

Which is why it needs AT LEAST a leesh. But even that is seen as communism these days so what the hell.

[@kllycolorado6500]

bravetherainbow well sure an economic system probably can’t have any morality at all, but the people acting within it sure can. And I would say there are plenty of evil capitalists.

[@devilskind92]

@@kllycolorado6500 Capitalism does encourage selfish behavior a lot. After all, without morals, that's what will usually happen.

[@m-4136]

i have to disagree with you. capitalism values things that conflict with human life and happiness - it values giving just enough for the proletariat to survive so they can maximise profit and diminish quality of life.

[@bravetherainbow]

@@m-4136 Yeah it conflicts with human life and happiness. Same with a hungry shark chasing me conflicts with my life and happiness. The shark doesn't delight in doing evil, it just has no regard for my happiness. But I guess that's more me saying that capitalism isn't *sadistic* which is sort of different I guess. You're probably right. And anyway I think we agree about the important thing, in that capital is shit.

[@bestpoubelle5332]

"Capitalism as we know it is a defective economic system because, although it is good at creating large amounts of wealth, it distributes that wealth in an incredibly inefficient way." This is what I have been trying to explain to my family for ages! Thank you!

[@maurycy4735]

Yes and socialism destroys that wealth so no one can have it.

[@xornxenophon3652]

So let us replace the economic system that generates lots of wealth for another economic system where everyone is dirt poor instead? Strange sort of logic, just saying...

[@Starluzii2774]

@@xornxenophon3652 That is a fallacy.

[@bananaman-mp3]

@@xornxenophon3652 false dichotomy. look past your binary thinking, your its either this or that vision

[@xornxenophon3652]

@@bananaman-mp3 It is not a false dichotomy but rather a question what viable alternative there is. You cannot certainly complain about life being injust. It will not change anything however if you do not have any idea about how to change it for the better. People in 1930s thought that facism or communism were great alternatives to capitalism. This did not work out as great as everyone had expected. So be careful with your wishes...

[@Andrew-ep4kw]

Since gold cannot be digested (neither the stomach acid, nor the enzymes in the small intestine can dissolve it), it will pass through the GI tract of our , um, heroes. That means their next poop will be almost worth it's weight in gold.

[@Goldarlives]

Maybe that’s why capitalists love eating gold. What they produce afterwards is more valuable.

[@Zernium]

Man, that's actually a lot of valuable material literally going straight down the toilet, which makes me wonder... has anyone ever stolen the poop of a rich person with intention of harvesting gold from it??

[@calebshelley4831]

Zernium Idk if you’re referencing a South Park episode... but South Park basically did an episode on that. 😂

[@janellephoenix4378]

Ahhh a golden nugget! LOL 💩

[@jwyang91]

This is satire gold

[@dalailarose1596]

The guys who assume all cat girls are automatically submissive have clearly never met a cat.

[@Phantom_of_Black]

Well, CC does call Vadim his slave, so yeah. Why aren't cat girl dominatrices a thing and how soon can they become where I live?

[@SilentMystAnon]

Paul Bishop no one wants those girls...

[@Silverwind87]

So would tsundere be more accurate?

[@Silverwind87]

Black Phantom The SJWeeb Catwoman.

[@Phantom_of_Black]

@@Silverwind87 Basically her, yeah.

[@susannunes6196]

From your 71 year old follower: If you need a replacement for the cat woman I'll lend you my Portuguese Water Dog....

[@madvlasters2836]

Build up autonomy in your community. Community gardens, hell a community rainy day fund. Treat your neighborhood like it's a scaled down society and start building it up to start growing independent from capitalist and government functions. Collect garbage, mow the city owned grass, fill in potholes. You start small and then work your way up because once more people realize they don't need capitalism and the government to thrive and see some of these anarchic actions actually benefit their lives the revolution will be an easier pill to swallow.

[@Kyle_Schaff]

“Let’s throw away philosophy” Proceeds to use the term “axiom” I love you

[@astromoonie]

she's incapable

[@michaelcrockis7679]

It's the 'axiom' from geometry.

[@Rahshu]

I loved that part! Philosophy frequently makes no sense to me because of the language it uses. I totally relate to the "I'm a dumb-dumb; I like shiny things!" line. I feel that way, and when the weird jargon, flower language and complex sentences come out, I just feel dumb because I can't understand it. Contrapoints gets it!

[@terraformthesun2896]

"Someone has to cook and clean, and I think people who do such necessary work deserve a decent living." Fucking thank you.

[@torturner369]

"EVERYONE IS PROBLEMATIC. I WIN THE DISCOURSE" I laughed out loud (and startled my wife).

[@desrepeerc206]

Where does she say this?

[@偉享林]

@@desrepeerc206 9:02

[@desrepeerc206]

@@偉享林 thanks

[@sk8rddy957]

“wIlL ThErE bE ViDEo GaMEs AFteR CaPItaLiSm OH GOD!!!!??!?!?” Genuine concern. Glad you see it that way.

[@obliviousotterI]

Hey it's a serious issue of mine, I would be sad

[@GamingWithChf]

@@obliviousotterI Wouldn’t we all?

[@alessandrocoppede3066]

I mean, i don't like videogames, but the same concern applies for all entertainment

[@lildrawhub1025]

​@@alessandrocoppede3066 I mean, videogames are objectively the medium of entertainment with the highest amount of potential but okay...

[@alessandrocoppede3066]

@@lildrawhub1025 what?

[@Hachi_Boards]

When she called Zizek "Zarathustra". oh my lord

[@5daboz]

You are actually just as wrong as she is. His name is Slavoj Žižek and to give you a taste how wrong you are, his surname once you say it in English instead of Slovenian (ž -> z) means "it means nothing, just a surname" -> "nipple". I bet he loves it xD, he is most famous nipple on the whole world xD xD xD

[@Hachi_Boards]

@@5daboz I was concerned with the joke made by Contra, not the particularities of Slavoj Zizek's name. Thanks for the tidbit though, got a chuckle out of me

[@Jinx-iw6zb]

Beyond the fiction of reality, there is the reality of the fiction, thus spoke Zarathustra.

[@floressequoia1]

Yep, I had to go look that shit up. Funny af.

[@robertoacj]

Thanks! I couldn't remember his name lol, I had a memory of his face bc of a video in which he talks about his "capitalist son" 😂

[@AdiDavid10]

came for the _morals_ stayed for the　a e s t h e t i c　美　的

[@citrinestone]

Godddddd "you're wrong and here's why" comments should be required to have at least one timestamp...like just to prove they have a problem with the video and not the title

[@HeyJudie]

What's that? I can't hear you over the sound of my typing only :05 into the video. But seriously... if you do that... idk man, you need to re-evaluate your life.

[@sulimanthemagnificent4893]

well i mean if you want i can go into detail about why a (near) free market economy triumphs any other economy but seeing as that would disagree with your point i can't right? as they say an assumtion makes an ass out of you and me

[@aarishowton8037]

Suliman The Magnificent Where’s the timestamp tho

[@kendomyers]

I made a $40 pizza in culinary school Serrano Ham, organic tomatoes and basil, home made mozzarella The best type of ingredient I could get for each one, and it was amazing

[@averyeml]

On those Worth It episodes, the cheap and mid-range places are usually picked as the most “worth it.” Because a cheap place they go to does the most they can with cheap ingredients, or cuts deals to get certain ingredients at a discount. The mid-range would be like your pizza- going out of their way to buy the best possible ingredients FOR THE TASTE. The high end ones usually are just flaunting how fancy the things they can get are, regardless of taste. The only ones I’ve seen where the high end ones win are the ones where there isn’t much limit to how nice the ingredients can get. The high end steaks and things tend to win, for instance.

[@kendomyers]

@@averyeml Right, the high end steaks would win because there is a reason why those steaks taste better, and that reason is more labor/resource intensive I agree that we shouldned be impressed with gold as a food ingredient, or the abuse of truly high end ingredients like caviar where the cook is using it for the sake of using it, so unsophisticated rich people can flaunt their gluttonous lack of sophistication

[@floatingsara]

@@averyeml I think it's pretty cultural, though. I guess a golden shitty pizza would be totally out of place in France for example.

[@FauxParagon]

"im just a dumdum who likes shiny things" never has there been a greater mood

[@jessemiller6318]

Same.

[@mikuenjoyerXD]

Aren't we all just crows with depression?

[@CricketStyleJ]

Even if we lived in a post-scarcity communist utopia, I would still be mad about the gilded pizza.

[@iron1349]

yes, Pizza need tomato sauce (or in a push, Alfredo is acceptable)

[@jakubmike5657]

Nah. In post scarcity utopia no one would eat that stuff. I mean think about it, it is nothing but status symbol. It is not like truffles, truffles are tasty. If you could get anything in any quantity stuff would no longer be considered status symboles anymore.

[@no_peace]

It isn't just a status symbol I just about lost my mind when I found out about metallic cake sprinkles

[@no_peace]

But I was like 10

[@concibar4267]

It's a waste of resources.

[@JadeDRail]

The 2$ pizza and 1$ ice cream looked much tastier.

[@noamemerson-fleming285]

They win the episodes. Almost like it's better at it's price. I wonder if anyone would try to make better pizza for less if they were getting paid the same amount for someone making shit. I wonder if there are any really good local pics did in Venezuela

[@Nopperabou]

The expensive pizza looked nasty.

[@JadeDRail]

@@Nopperabou I know right?

[@musicaccount3340]

Duh, who wants to eat gold?

[@poisonsumac2944]

Mfw (my face when) filthy peasants don’t have enough class to enjoy eating metal

[@MoriMementa]

I watch this two-parter every time I come home angry about my corporate run job. I'll probably have both videos memorized by Saturday.

[@amandareynolds-gregg5962]

Contra: *Speaks intelligently, makes great points* Me: "Goddamn, her eye liner looks amazing."

[@bonhll8070]

Amanda Reynolds-Gregg yEs my eXact feelingS

[@projectz975]

@MordredTheMightyMetalhead Kyle looks like he gives good head

[@johnnyscifi]

Yea, shes gorgeous

[@joebaker1]

I find that I usually watch for the humour and the style as much as the arguments (which I already agree with most of the time).

[@hondacivet]

I was just thinking this but about her nails.

[@rowan3209]

I can give an example of someone barely working and making a better wage than 95% of Americans - me. I work as a PI for a well-known social media website and I make a ridiculous amount of money for what essentially comes down to nothing but having access to investigative tools that would cost individuals a large sum of money to access. I simply gain access to these tools by working at my company, nothing more. As a former fast food employee, I can without a doubt tell you that those in customer service positions work harder than I do.

[@catsarekeytoawar]

Wendigo Heart You also take on a much larger amount of responsibility. You could theoretically go online and spam racial slurs which would end up with the company losing a lot of money.

[@rowan3209]

Big Moist First of all, that's... not exactly hard for me to avoid. What your saying is that the fast food worker could also go online and spam racial slurs, but it doesn't matter because society sees fast food workers as lesser. The office worker is considered more important and therefore has to watch what she says, because people will listen to her more closely. This just proves my point, which is that society sees me as harder-working and therefore "better" than a fast food worker, when this is absolutely NOT true. Both of us are valuable, both of us should be taken seriously, and both of us should be making a livable wage. Even if fast food workers did work less than me, does that mean they shouldn't be able to provide for their families? That we shouldn't listen to what they have to say? Value of labor should NOT equal value of life.

[@catsarekeytoawar]

Wendigo Heart That's not at all what I mean, what I mean is that higher paying jobs are higher paying jobs because of 2 reasons: supply and responsibility. A worker at a mcdonalds doesn't represent the business nearly as much as the one who is in charge of him, or especially the person who's entire job is to represent a company. It is an investment. Jobs are similar to investments. Mcdonalds could not have a social media presence, but they would lose out on advertisement. They can't pay someone too high because they can't afford it, and they can pay someone too low because they could either leave or potentially do damage to the business by doing a poor job or intentionally sabotaging the business.

[@snatcherofpeachs]

Really so food handling is not important? Someone becoming deathly ill from eating something contaminated at McDonald's is not going to affect their brand? A person handling hundreds of people's food everyday doesn't have it within their power to tamper with people's food out of frustration? Minimum wage workers are the main point of contact and face representing the majority of big companies like Wal-Mart and McDonalds.

[@catsarekeytoawar]

da nd Wrong. A minimum wage worker represents one McDonalds, while a person operating social media represents all. The amount of damage done to McDonalds by one person deciding to make shitty food is nowhere near the amount that could arise from a higher-up permanently damaging the reputation.

[@ItWasSaucerShaped]

Eating gold has to be one of the dumbest recent hobbies of the rich. "Oh yeah it's probably inert, we think," says the material scientist who knows gold is a heavy metal & there is all but zero studies on the long term effects of gold consumption, perhaps while chuckling to herself. "Go ahead and eat it up. It's definitely not neurotoxic at all, no sir." :)

[@noxactis8011]

President Jyrgunkarrd let them eat it and die.

[@mzaite]

Aqua Regia one of the easiest ways to get gold dissolved in an aqueous solution, Ingredients: Hydrochloric Acid and Nitric Acid 3:1 Molar. Our stomach naturally produces Hydrochloric Acid for Digestion. Nitric Acid can be formed by mixing Nitrogen Dioxide with Water. Nitrogen Dioxide is one of the key components of Smog. So you take that gold flake, stick in in your water and hydrochloric acid filled stomach with a gulp or two of smoggy air and BINGO Chloroauric Acid in solution, in your stomach. Hello heavy metal salt, would you like to get in my cells and fuck shit up?

[@ReasonableRadio]

Maybe the guillotines are already in place...

[@aliciakoh3920]

@@mzaite will it work inside the stomach though? 🤔🤔 there are other molecules in there besides those three. Won't they interfere?

[@mzaite]

Alicia Koh good question. They may reduce the reaction rate. But unless one of the reagents gets completely used up in a faster reaction some is going to happen. The big limiting factor is the Nitric Acid. But in general, if a reaction can happen at body temp, and the reagents are there. It’s most likely gonna happen some.

[@minccinoluna805]

"wait for capitalism to fail" who's watching after capitalism has failed

[@blandchicken5353]

If I recall correctly, the richest businesses in the US have already received two separate bailouts. Capitalism hasn't failed, it's working exactly as it was intended to.

[@Lauraphoid]

Has it really, though?

[@actuallymisterbean8321]

@Dillon Duncan do you have a better alternative?

[@actuallymisterbean8321]

Dillon Duncan tell me...

[@fluffygreysocks6703]

@Dillon Duncan i read your name as "dildo duncan" but apparently that was wrong and now i don't know whether to be disappointed or embarrassed

[@ShubhamBhushanCC]

I love you Contra. You just made my working Saturday into a weekend.

[@hieronymusbinch9526]

Shubham Bhushan Same.

[@electricewe6117]

Shubham Bhushan That may be one of the kindest comments I have ever seen on youtube.

[@warmlycalculated390]

It shouldn't be surprising that one of the kindest KZbin creators also has some of the nicest fans :).

[@Nick-ko1wt]

"WILL THERE BE VIDEOGAMES AFTER CAPITALISM OH GOD" cackled at this in real life enough to make others uncomfortable, never change natalie ily

[@Strawberry92fs]

@@miipmiipmiip Soviet Jump Game?

[@goose4919]

Better, maybe?

[@jliz3821]

o w o No more EA greediness!

[@EdmondDantes224]

Considering that a few of the best games ever made (Colossal Cave Adventure, Rogue, Nethack...) were originally given away completely for free... video games could be awesome under socialism.

[@goose4919]

@@EdmondDantes224 I have Red Faction at home. That game just screams socialism. The motto is "Better Red than dead". Unlike Watchdogs which just says " Oh maybe social democracy, socialism, anarchism, I won't tell."

[@Jalmerk]

Ironically video games are where I first started to see the negative impact of capitalism on art. Will there be video games after capitalism? Of course there will. And they will be a lot better than the trash they pour millions of dollars into making now.

[@impcirca1988]

no more goddamn microtransactions

[@vladimirrodionov5391]

Independent studio makes a cool creative game. Independent studio gets bought by EA. Independent studio is put to work creating shitty by-the-numbers sequels. Thanks, Capitalism.

[@Jalmerk]

RIP Visceral Games

[@K_Khitey]

Honestly, video games are a huge hobby of mine and I really hate how much profit is normally valued over the true quality of entertainment and art.

[@nekrataali]

Can you imagine if EA games wasn't concerned about profit? What kind of Battlefield and Sims games we'd get? Or imagine Blizzard going back to "the game is done when it's done." I think it's hilarious how you'll see a bunch of neckbeards get angry over microtransactions and pay-to-win, then go post on reddit or 4chan or whatever garbage website about how """libertarianism""" is the best form of government.

[@roundpigeon5215]

just finished watching this between calls at my shitty customer service job. love you natalie. you’re doing the world a huge service.

[@aboot2754]

Not to be that kind of person, but there actually is a section in Kropotkin's A Conquest of Bread where he outlines how much people value luxury and how it's important to keep that in mind when modeling an egalitarian society. Art, science, pleasure, all of it is important. Anarchists in particular, Goldman included, do take personal expression very seriously. I think some "socialists" on the internet fall into conforming to some weird Stalinist viewpoint when they really don't need to.

[@c.andrew3944]

I'd argue luxury is also in the eye of the beholder. What I consider valuable may be absolute garbage to someone else. Like... look at antique stores. Some of that is pure garbage to me but I'm 100% sure SOMEONE thinks its luxurious and quaint. I think you can still be a socialist and want individuality. Self expression. Hell, art, science, and pleasure can be means of said self expression. I think personal expression is super human. For as social as we are, we still crave individuality. My issue is, under capitalism, that individuality is now a commodity need to be filled with shiny things. Your desire for meaning and individuality is now a source of profit for someone else. I don't think we can all be a bunch of Thoreau's and sit in a tiny cabin in the woods writing books all day until we get that meaning, either.

[@joermundgand]

Congrats, you've realized humans are morons. Which is why Utopia will never be.

[@greatmightypanda]

I don't know why I found Žižek being called Zarathustra so funny. It's one of those intellectual jokes that I think probably has layers flying way over my head

[@Mrtrollfaceization]

What about Zarathrustra's Roundelay that Nietschze wrote?

[@greatmightypanda]

She doesn't seem to write without intention and the timing is right for a subtle punchline so I doubt it was laziness on her part, especially considering she was a philosophy post-grad and would have very likely encountered, if not read Zizek's work (I make the distinction because I don't know what branch of philosophy she was specialised in).

[@mitchelldoornenbal6560]

Additionally, Zizek has come to be regarded as an avenue for straight white guys to feel woke, and so associating him with Nietzsche underscores this subtext.

[@anophelesnow3957]

Also sniffed Zarathustra. Yes it's just a joke. Natalie is good at jokes.

[@anophelesnow3957]

ouch. that hurt. Upvoted

[@aligretto8887]

Bread mom is my favorite philosopher

[@suredoloveya]

hey lil buns

[@sydneyrica1802]

Aligretto I was so confused by the bread mom thing lol

[@eartianwerewolf]

It's an odd inside joke ; I always end up in the live streams where I have no idea what people are talking about. Maybe because I don't have twitter?

[@superiorcatsociety]

eartianwerewolf There's a youtuber named Stef Sanjati(??) I think whose nickname is bread mom. That's her picture we see after Kropotkin's portrait.

[@comradefreedom8275]

I get the feeling that if you prove to people that you can still have stuff in a system that's not capitalism, people will start to criticize it more.

[@comradefreedom8275]

Also, "I like stuff too."

[@obliviousotterI]

ALL HAIL THE ALMIGHTY STUFF

[@comradefreedom8275]

@@obliviousotterI YES! That's beautiful! XD

[@omikronQ]

Because it's not true

[@comradefreedom8275]

@@omikronQ But it is though. Under capitalism, we already produce a lot of stuff in surplus, so why not just make a socialist gift economy?

[@isabelh5561]

I hope we get a video with Tatiana Tankiekova some time. Would be pretty hilarious.

[@thesewinggeekmiri9029]

12:43 may I just add: janitorial work is more important than you think. My great-grandfather managed to keep his job during the Great Depression (and therefore provide for his family) because he was a janitor, and his position was considered vital.

[@MelissaKarlee]

More Tatiana Tankikova please.

[@Angelogyn]

Slava Stalin!

[@DerrickMims]

Melissa Karlee I came here to post this exact comment! 😂

[@SketchyBack]

Nah, her accent sucks and it's too much of a caricature. Her German accent's better.

[@ceruchi2084]

@@SketchyBack I would love to see an argument between Tatiana and Fritz, like in Jreg's videos!

[@maisatanel]

@@ceruchi2084 that'd require two rifles

[@elianasisman6353]

“Our economy fundamentally operates in a way that makes inevitable these repulsive juxtapositions of scarcity and abundance. The global economy is structured around cheap, exploited labor.” Thank you ContraPoints! 🙌💜

[@PlaystationMasterPS3]

happy transgender day of visibility Contra

[@voidless1]

20 year old college dude here: I used to be a staunch right-wing libertarian activist and pretty active in their circles... and then I watched your channel. Since early high school years, I've looked all over the internet and debated all kinds of people on political issues, but it only solidified and strengthened my confidence in the ideas of free-market capitalism. Part of why I turned to radical right-wing politics in the first place was due to my family's background. They grew up in the Soviet Union, so I'd been more than briefed on the corruption and atrocities of Stalinist-era "communism." I delved into literature on classical liberalism, anarcho-capitalism, etc.. for years and mindlessly followed the ramblings of the capitalist intelligentsia. It wasn't until I stumbled on your channel, ContraPoints, that I'd heard some of the best critiques of neoliberalism and developments in radical right-wing culture in contemporary contexts. Thanks to you, I've gradually found myself aligning more with the left and shifting mindsets on all sorts of topics.

[@deadlypendroppingby]

Maybe you're just easily led

[@MobiusPeverell]

You might want to check out John Stuart Mill, especially "On Liberty." He was a classical liberal, but believed that the best way to ensure liberty was through Utilitarianism, and then through "liberal socialism," which is very similar to what Natalie seems to be advocating. In quite a few ways, he aligns with Marx, (they wrote at the same time, critiquing the same things) but he splits in a lot of important areas.

[@kato6196]

Holy fuck. This might be the only comment section I've ever seen that has reasonable, polite debate going on about a sensitive and complex issue like this. Congrats, contra, and much love 💜 keep on being awesome and inspiring people to think and talk about all this important stuff!

[@kato6196]

@Skeletor Did Nothing Wrong this made me giggle out loud. Thank you for brightening my day, friend ;)

[@andrewr311]

Yes, I've watched seven videos of this channel and the same thing struck me; it's like I've traveled to a different universe.

[@SimonClarkstone]

If you'll excuse the plug: Liana Kerzner does a similar thing often for video games and feminism. Her KZbin viewer stats are like 90% male, and conversation in comments is generally polite.

[@Slackker_]

17:24 - "capitalism has to fail" "we'll just have to wait" dont worry, you only had to wait 2 years.

[@kittykittybangbang9367]

Can't wait for Animal Farm

[@bradleyelsken622]

God bless you Natalie. You are a voice of reason in a vast, dark universe of Republicans, shitlords, and just generally horrible people

[@bradleyelsken622]

Not saying that at all. There are plenty of bad left-wingers. As far as I can see, there are no good right-wingers. They have all drunk the orange Kool-Aid

[@mugiwaraboshi37]

I was deprived of golden nails as a child... thank you for bringing attention to these issues.

[@Djoodibooti]

Weren't we all?

[@JakeFace0]

I think capitalism breaks immoral acts into several discreet moral actions. Making the pizza wasn't immoral. Selling the pizza wasn't immoral. Buying the pizza wasn't immoral. Eating the pizza wasn't immoral. But the whole affair in aggregate is grossly immoral but no one person is to blame. Each actor only made wholly moral actions.

[@Ronni3no2]

There is also the part of a third person wholly uninvolved in any part of this process (making, selling, buying, eating) appropriating the profits made from selling the pizza, backed up by the force of the state.

[@aaronlandis7929]

What moral or moral code does the pizza violate? What if the difference were less extreme. For example, if making a Honda is moral, should Honda close down their Acura division since the product is similar but more luxurious and more expensive? Should all pizza simply cost the same? Is that the moral you're trying to set up?

[@Woodthorn]

@@aaronlandis7929 Is it so difficult to see what the matter of investing resources enough to feed a community, to make fancy a single meal for an individual?

[@aaronlandis7929]

@@Woodthorn I was not being rhetorical. I want a clear delineation of the moral value at play here. I'd be willing to bet there are a lot of areas in your life where you can downgrade. For example, maybe you drive a car. You should definitely downgrade to a moped and give the difference to the needy. Otherwise, you are just as bad as the $2k pizza. I can safely say that because the principle is the same and you have not provided a better standard by which the line might be drawn between acceptable comfort and extravagance.

[@michaellatowicki7792]

SafetySkull: nice thought, though I disagree. The immoral step was mostly taken in buying the pizza, though I think the entrepreneur who decided to produce it has also failed here. These people could do something useful with their money and their time, and they chose to devote their resources (money and time) to waste. In doing so, they neglected the well-being of their fellow humans. This is not a major moral failing though, I reserve my strong condemnations to people who actively hurt other people, not to those who merely mis-allocate resources.

[@SweetHeartsofRhythm]

“I guess we’ll just wait for a time when capitalism fails and revolution is necessary...” 2020: you called?

[@AWindy94]

I came to the comments looking for this lol

[@cjuliec10]

@@AWindy94 Me, too.

[@mmoman22]

2021 will be a strange year in the books.

[@carolyntalbot947]

This time 3 years ago I still believed in the possibility of "conscientious Capitalism." The system is certainly failing most of us, but is it verging on collapse? And is revolution imminent? It certainly feels like our institutions (the free press, our elections, governmental checks and balances) have been dismantled in short order. I hope this is as close to fascism as we needed to get before the people revolt, but I'm afraid.

[@BothHands1]

yeah, pretty much 😅 been rewatching old contra vids cuse i'm starved for natalie's content on a regular basis. and yeah, if things don't change soon, i assume there may be some guillotines.

[@TapKim]

"video games are good" - Natalie Wynn, GamerGate Tankie

[@SergeantMild]

I would follow Tabby in glorious revolution against the bourgeoisie swine anyday, comrade! Any day! Any day, comrades...

[@CDexie]

I'm sure the revolution is going to happen any day now...

[@CDexie]

@Rainbow Hyphen Maybe that's why we get so attached to socialist leaders when they come about. Che, Lenin etc...

[@amygulley316]

There!

[@Shashu_the_little_Voidling]

Almost there, any day now

[@kentchamberlain5720]

Look at American history. In the material conditions of bourgeois democracy, disruptive economic change is only possible through civil war, not violent revolution. The exact conditions are that the people must elect a progressive moderate enough to win election yet still holding to a label that terrifies the rich. Today it's "socialism," last time it was "abolitionism." After winning election, this progressive will scare the rich into starting a counterrevolution. Then, those elements of the working class that tend towards conservativism will unite with the progressive elements against the liberals and fascists starting the thing, and being the majority, will win even if their only strategy is winning a war of attrition. It can only happen this way because even though bourgeois democracy is rigged for the rich, it retains legitimacy with too much of the working class for the workers to ever support a violent revolution against it. But the liberal media will prevent a properly socialist program from being even remotely electable, which is why you go with the most electable person credibly calling themselves a socialist, and let the wealthy liberal freakout after the election deliver the conservative workers to you while the fascists go over to them. So despite what people may think, the socialist revolutionaries next war will be behind the American flag, not against it. At least, they will be if they're going to win. Get the wealthy to be the traitors, and then the gun nuts are on our side.

[@bernaraccount6302]

Nerdy appreciation post: All of the classical music choices in these videos are seriously great! I love that the music selections always fit the mood of the moment and are generally not the same old overplayed classical tunes like Beethoven's Fifth or "Fur Elise" over and over again. Also the electronic remixes like the Goldberg Variations in the credits of this video are awesome. Just another subtle layer that really adds to my appreciation of how smart, stylish, and tasteful ContraPoints's work is. So far in these videos I've clocked Bach, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Wagner, Chopin, Gounod, Vivaldi(?), and a bunch of modern and Baroque stuff I don't recognize.

[@segmentsAndCurves]

She said she like German composers' music. I remember even heard stuff atonal stuff.

[@davidls187]

"I'm a socially concious KZbin enterntainer, not transgender Gandhi" is the most underrated line in YT history

[@grantrick1]

"BREAD MOM" From this day forth I will never refer to Kropotkin by his real name ever again

[@theannieelainey]

"I don't even check my bank account very often. I make the videos. I swipe the card..." Same.

[@stevie]

Annie Elainey hahahahahahahahahaha

[@joelman1989]

We can all relate to this. few things give me more anxiety than checking my bank account.

[@SapphireWolf1996]

the $2 pizza looked tastier.

[@PhscyoManiac]

Pretty much all of the "most expensive" things on that show included one or all of these things: Edible gold Truffles Caviar I started thinking it was tacky. The less expensive foods always looked tastier and wholesome and the medium was more curiosity and experiment.

[@iron1349]

@@PhscyoManiac yes. Tomato sauce > Foie gras

[@ihavenoname2569]

17:20 Natalie FFS stop predicting the future. STOP it. SSTTTOOOPPPPPP

[@AWindy94]

SERIOUSLY

[@anormalandnon-suspiciousbo5290]

Looks like what’s left is an uprising to abolish capitalism for good. Now who will be our tabby to lead this revolution?

[@danielpinto6504]

@@anormalandnon-suspiciousbo5290 For good never, Every other method of economy that is deemed as better than capitalism will only benefit the holders of the economic public institutions, a.k.a the bankers, in the same way that every socialost government has endorsed the lifes of the ruling class rather than the ultra-rich class, for good for them and the illusion of good for you...

[@chabelita3684]

I mean Marx was the OG prophet but...yes

[@Mexie]

I knew there was a reason I always hated Goldschlager. "try to eat more vegetables" - YES girl. the beginnings of any good communist uprising. great vid :), loved hearing Claudia on the track.

[@Mexie]

no, that would be a Pinochet Uprising.

[@Torthrodhel]

I liked Goldschlager. Its gold flakes cutting the back of the throat to get the alcohol into the bloodstream quicker was exactly the kind of edgy macho obvious lie I was begging to convince myself of during my phase in life where I would go out and spend money I didn't have looking stupid to music I didn't like for valueless cool points from strangers I didn't respect in a culture I felt excluded from. Depressants. I'll drink to that.

[@Mexie]

+Jane Ross I laughed about this comment for about 20 minutes last night. Cheers, Jane.

[@Torthrodhel]

Cool! :D

[@NoiseMarines]

"Hi, I'm Pinochet, and I am very bad at deducing why millions of people died under Stalin." Russia was an autocracy. So was China. One absolute leader. And it turned out these leaders with ridiculous amounts of power weren't exactly the best of dudes. Communism didn't have anything to do with Stalin's ruthlessness.

[@Conumbra]

I no joke replayed that Tatiana clip a dozen times. Her theme is also really great, holy shit.

[@crippled_kiwi]

It’s from Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker

[@paradiso123]

Conumbra It's just Dance of the Sugarplum faires, admittedly a pretty awesome song.

[@suzanfoster7500]

To paraphrase Emma Goldman: if I can't get drunk, I don't want your revolution!

[@nikolasslead6582]

The problem with capitalism can be really simply summarized as putting the priority on profit instead of on people's rights.

[@Fr33zeBurn]

No buddy that's greed.

[@Fr33zeBurn]

@Smash 123 Oh really.. who do you think was the richest and greediest in say, Soviet Russia? orrr Mao's China? What do you think about the Catholic Church (not capitalism) which is the greediest and richest entity in the world? Greedy rich people are always there, it's just how small the % of rich people is. In Capitalism it's about 3% with most of the money, in Socialism it's 0.000001% with most of the money.

[@BigLutris]

"Wait for capitalism to fail" - I think its a common, understandable, missconceptoion that the failure will just be apparent one day. The thing is, it has been failing for years and it IS failing. No substantial societal shift has happened from one day to the other. It can take decades. And I am actually quite sue we're quite far along the way. One of the strongest points of capitalism is that it incredibly resilient and tends to assimilate anti-capitalist movements and ... well, capitalises on them. Rewarding participants of that movement and, ultimately, turning them into capitalists. I am aware of the fact that I am commenting this under a 3 yo video but ... if I compare the current situation with three years ago, the "failing" of capitalism has noticably advanced since then, of course also accelerated by covid and (from a european perspective) the objective failure of Brexit. Also, when it fails ... its not gonna be pretty. I think it is a delusion of the left, that the transition into a post capitalist world will be smooth and the "downtrodden masses" will rejoice. Its gonan be very, very ugly. Not saying that one should not work towards the end of capitalism because of that, but ... if it happens in the next 1 or 2 decades, people should be prepared for that and not whinge in disappointment.

[@emmeline-tyler]

Capitalism doesn't survive just because it's resilient. The state jumps in to save capitalism every few years.

[@EmBookmark]

Watching this vid through the lense of the Corona recession is really wild

[@nathanmaxon1]

I've been talking to a lot of people, some die-hard capitalists and even they're seeing that the current structure in America will crack and shatter under even the slightest threat and panic. They're happy and that we may implement these SOCIALIST policies, like the 1/2k per adult thing. I'm out of work right now because of this and if I didn't have that sort of social welfare, I'd could very well be dead under a quarantine situation. Socialism, right now, is the only way we can save lives, and I wish people saw this sooner. Shit, this country has had socialist policies for DECADES, like social security (it's even in the fucking name) But people are so brainwashed by the dream they've been sold to them. It's sad, but I'm hopeful and happy to see real change coming of this. Sorry to be super long and ranty but I'm a lil drunk and passionate about this shit 😤

[@carolyntalbot947]

The center will not hold, comrades. Imagine a hundred-year pandemic occuring just after Republicans finally got their faux "right-wing populist" figurehead in office. Covid-19 will either bring about the end of the GOP as we know it, acting as the catalyst for radical progressive change--or it will accelerate the failed state and plunge us into a fascist dictatorship, in earnest.

[@mambisa2690]

PLEASE MAKE A "CAT GIRLS OF THE WORLD UNITE" TABBY T-SHIRT!! Also, this ones' brilliant comrade. ;)

[@ThewOrldIssqUare]

"The happiness of being envied is glamour" (15:50) - i love this as foreshadowing for her Opulence and Envy videos :D

[@Woga000]

Youre very smart. And very interested in justice so thank you for existing and for doing what you do

[@wwondertwin]

People always point at Soviets and TOTALLY IGNORE northern and western European systems - which are not based on capitalism but on social democracy. That funny strain of socialism that incorporates parts of capitalism, those parts that can be incorporated in a way that benefits the people.

[@Conqrix]

As a European I'm gonna have to say that this is, unfortunately, very untrue. Look at wealth distribution in France, GB, Germany, ... For one, the social democratic policies are being eroded as we speak. But even with them in place, European societies are gravely unjust

[@prezmeji5641]

@@Conqrix It may be unjust but not as bad as the u.s.

[@ithemba]

while the history of the political organizations of workers movement justify some relationship between social democrat policies and there is in fact somewhat of a fight of heritage about the term "socialism" between those social democrat parties of the socialist international, which still exists and now is constituted by such neoliberal parties like the german SPD or UKs Labour, it never was anything close to actual socialism on a economic level. In the social democratic parties there have been extended fights about "Revisionism" (meaning: breaking with Marx and appeasing with capitalist form of private ownership of the means of production) which ultimately lead to the schism of which then the communist parties of the world were funded and already in 1918 / 1919, the social democrats literally were collaborating with the reactionary monarchists and militaries to kill off their former comrades who tried to push for further revolutionary measures (speaking of course about the Mensheviki in Russias provisory government in 1917 and Berlin 1918 /1919 with the murder of Luxemburg and Liebknecht). As a european, I would always insist that of course scandinavian and western european systems are capitalist systems. Just because some countries have installed social policies (the first socialized healthcare and pension system in the world was instigated by Otto von Bismarck of all people, not exactly a progressive or a socialist, really), that doesn't change anything about the mode of production and commodification.

[@QuinnArgo]

Not only do I think the social structures are *problematic* up here in Germany, even then our system of social market itself claims to want to keep the fundamentals of a free market. Private property and all that good shit. We try to make everyone able to exchange at the market and our (I'll just call it that so you Americans get it) amendment calls for not inhibiting the trade market.

[@Pwntard]

I really dig the German model in it's theory and 60's reality. Capitalism at it's core but with a strong emphasize on social policy. Basically subsidizing costly socialist policies with excess wealth produced by a highly efficient capitalist economy. Sadly, that only works when the economy is doing well. And it also only works when you have good people on top that hold these ideas close to their hearts. I'd wish I could say the economy isn't doing so well but that's bullshit - as always it's the people on top that are just shit. They have other plans, "more important" goals to strive towards than making life for their citizens as good as possible. Still, despite their shortcomings and the country slowly sliding downhill, it's still one incredibly great country to live in. Wealth is very much attainable and survival is guaranteed through welfare. That's, honestly, pretty insane in how great of a deal that is. I'm all for criticizing the shortcomings of capitalism and improving upon it. But burning it all down and starting from scratch is terrifying to me. I've read history. I know how bad shit can get. But I also believe that for things to get better, they have to get worse first. A lot worse. So really I'm just sitting on the sidelines clutching my butt cheeks, hoping for the best.

[@Snow-sx5ev]

"Pizza in Africa could've eaten those children" Oh dear God I'm laughing so hard inside

[@gingercore69]

I live in a country where 2000 dollars could feed my family for years... To give you an idea... 10 dollars well spent can feed my family for a month

[@crosbysmith7538]

What country?

[@r.7530]

in my country, $10 could feed a family for around 10 days, now that I think of it.... of course it wouldn't be fancy meals but it would be filling

[@gingercore69]

@@crosbysmith7538 argentina, but have in mind that 8 months chamge alot of things... Also, depends from one plqce to the other in the same country, those in the city need more money

[@gingercore69]

@@r.7530 that is still much more value for each dollar than someone in tge usa could have... They had a "eat with 100 dollars" challenge not too long ago

[@r.7530]

@@gingercore69 yeahh

[@Randomaited]

LONG LIVE THE IMMORTAL SCIENCE OF TABBYISM

[@Leo-pw3kf]

I, for one, welcome our new feline overlords

[@mirmalchik]

paws up for tabby

[@sebster100]

I think that the problem with taking down capitalism as a whole is that the golden pizza is offensive to almost everyone. Apart from the people who profit off of the spectacle of being bourgeois (a la Trump), the majority of the actual bourgeoisie would be equally appalled by the golden pizza, and I think that's precisely the same logic that lets them justify their own place of structural power. See most people, no matter how rich they are, feel financial pressure, they feel as if they are using their disposable income to better their family's lives. Most Americans, I think, see displays of wealth as a noveau rich thing, or as something to do when you're not actually that rich, and moreover, most wealthy people see their wealth as the means of making their children's lives better. Therefore, the golden pizza seems equally appalling to the rich, but it's not because it reveals the emptiness of wealth, but because it points at the fact that the wealth enable indulgence, which is an uncomfortable reality when your entire world view is of being 'upper middle class, but still things are tight sometimes' like the top 20-5% of income earners probably feel. No one feels rich. No one, apart from people who are realllly at the top, would say they can afford to drop 2 grand on a pizza. And it's not those really at the top that lobby against school integration, that drive the exclusionary structure of suburbs, that hold the majority of electoral power, it's that top 20%. So, the problem comes -- how do you convince people to struggle against capital when they see their own capital not as a luxury but as a hard won means of securing their children's future? I think if you said to the average American -- 'we're going to have communism', their first question would be 'will I get to keep my house?'.

[@discountchocolate4577]

The correct response to that last question should be "Yes, you can keep your house, but if you own additional housing we're taking it away from you, to give the vacant housing to the homeless and the occupied housing to your tenants (if you have any). Also if your main source of income is collecting rent you need to start working for a living like the rest of us".

[@saiminayatullah6620]

the people in the top 20~25% in developed countries would be mostly petit bourgeois according to Marxian analysis, I think. they get a larger proportion of their wealth from (skilled, highly-payed) labour than from rent extraction, although they do do both

[@justinw1765]

Seems to be a somewhat naive world view. Crazy, super over the top hedonistic/indulgent Enron parties and the like are just one example that comes to mind. It's hard to say for sure without extensive research (and to my knowledge, there hasn't been such), but I would not be surprised if there wasn't a higher percentage of psychopathic types among the extremely wealthy.

[@ytho3557]

Why is collecting rent a bad thing? Like, you wouldn't say that people who build houses shouldn't make money. And I'd assume you're fine with people making money from selling rooms in hotels, so what is wrong with longer term housing also being rent based? If I want to live somewhere, I'm not going to buy a house to live there, I'd want to pay somebody a small amount of the cost of the house and live in it for a short period of time.

[@VioletVolchok]

Discount Chocolate and who gets to decide how much is ‘fair’ for them to keep and what they should give away?

[@miguelgil692]

I violently love your channel. I mean how the hell do you even have time to make such an amazing production design, editing, lightning and and still have time to produce such awesome content...I mean I study cinema and I envy your video production and consciousness of the medium really badly...

[@Radiantheart1111]

I’m re-watching this gem after the implosion of the Watcher channel. Steven Lim whining about needing a second Tesla on podcast while telling fans “5.99 a month is a price that anyone and everyone can afford” for their private subscription channel is peak entitlement. So many of the comments are about people not being able to afford food, while this greedy company privatises their content behind a paywall. 36k upvotes, 205k downvotes, losing 100k subscribers in 48 hours. Imagine that, a lot of fans not wanting to foot the bill for terrible “Worth it? 2.0” content when some can’t afford to eat or pay bills. Thank you for your content, it continues to stoke the love of philosophy in my heart.

[@ksdtsubfil6840]

I see I'm not the only one… well, was it worth it?

[@fun_ghoul]

"...Zarathrustra..." I'm dying.

[@ziusudra970]

Cocain Hegel

[@tonycampbell1424]

I was going to post this, but assumed someone already had. And here you are. But like . . . that shot killed me. I am dead now. Someone call Zizek, see if he'll speak at my funeral.

[@WhitePerson-]

in Germany , Norway, Finland ... and in all Scandinavian countries the labor worker is paid well... u will have similar amount of money if u gone to university and studied or u just go and dig holes in the ground. Digging holes pros: Good salary even tho no education CONS: Physical harder, cant progress much in ur work career (but u will have enough to get a nice car, pay credit, pay bills , eat what u want and travel the world

[@ferrinleonsons6620]

physical labor isnt always a con, when youre young and into that

[@WhitePerson-]

@Ty Bey true, but even the minimum is enough to pass he month with good food,paid bills, fill ur car with gass and still keep some money in the extra savings right? Go work in the balkans the minimum is 250 euros , u cant buy a car, cant travel, all u can do is pay the bills and eat rice, eggs and cook only home, if u order fast food then u are spending of ur budged for surviving. So being a minimum in the Scandinavian countries is pretty average for living like a decent human being i think

[@thatnorwegianguy1986]

@@WhitePerson- Well you can earn quite a decent wage just being behind the counter at a grocery store hell a friend she goes to Bali every year in the summer and she works at a grocery store.

[@무군]

The problem is, even with a Scandinavian model in place, it's still not resolving the issue of companies outsourcing labor to the third world or replacing workers with machines. More automation means less jobs. Capitalism requires humans to be able to exchange time and skill for money, and if machines do the labor for us, the system will start revolving around who has access to the most effective machines instead. And since the average person will not be able to afford the latest tech, corporations - not the people, will have all the power.

[@yllejord]

@@무군 Capitalism requires humans with disposable income to consume too.

[@thefalofideals]

You're amazing Contra. It's criminal you don't have more subs.

[@janemartindale117]

Capitalism has too fail for economic change me sitting at my house during quarantine **any moment now **

[@kittykittybangbang9367]

can't wait for Animal Farm