I sort of tell myself that it’s probably that I just hate how people are under capitalism, but sometimes I wonder if I simply dislike being around people in general.
Guy who wants everybody’s needs met so he can happily fuck off with a clean conscience and live in the mountains and never talk to anyone.
In a society that rewards greed and punishes empathy while grinding everyone into abject alienation from their labor, from their communities, from each other, and from themselves, it’s no surprise that so many people get molded into self-serving, willfully ignorant, insufferable pricks. It’s a feature of a capitalist society, not a bug. Capitalism cultivates and nurtures the worst aspects of human nature while trying to snuff out or at best twist the good and positive traits of our social species. There’s nothing wrong with hating the innumerable shitty people who have adapted to this mode of production by becoming shit people, so long as you don’t ever think they represent the “inherent” state of humanity or lead you to hate humanity as a whole. Don’t let that rational, understandable hatred of people as they are now, adapted under capitalism, dissuade you from seeing the beautiful potential for a loving, healthy humanity as it would be when adapted to communism.
You put it better than I ever could. Nothing under capitalism is left in anything resembling it’s natural state (if there even is such a thing), least of all the people living within it.
I don’t think it’s a paradox. Hexbear gets weirdly utopian. Our revolution is about making the worst instincts and behaviours economically and politically irrelevant. There will still be horrible people in our everyday lives. There will still be abuses but the power balance will be gone.
Hexbear gets weirdly utopian.
Our revolution is about making the worst instincts and behaviours economically and politically irrelevant.
This is a wonderful distillation of my entire attitude.
@[email protected] I got family I love to bits and I’m also really glad I only see them like a couple times a year. It doesn’t mean I don’t really love them or wouldn’t drop everything to help them. But we all have our limits. I’d take a person who volunteers twice a month at a food bank for 20 years over somebody that does it every day for three months, burns out, and never comes back. We don’t need people to martyr themselves to prove they give a shit. Building a better world will be slow and steady, it’ll be unglamorous, and it’ll be (hopefully, ideally) boring as fuck. But that’s a good thing. And that gives us plenty of time to work on ourselves, self care and do what we need to be the best version of ourselves to each other.
There will still be horrible people in our everyday lives
Yeah but there will be less of them (cluster B disorders are less likely to form in positive developmental environments) and such behaviour won’t be incentivized on a systemic level. Such issues would be taken more seriously by society because the goal switches from keeping the elite’s profits high to human betterment.
We shouldn’t underestimate how powerful deliberate changes to the environment and legal systems to maximize common good could be, the differences it would make even in a generation.
Nobody is (hopefully) believing that everything would be peachy post-revolution. Actually Stalin said that during this point the contradictions are the strongest and most notable.
it’s not just how other people are under capitalism, but what capitalism does to our brains too. when all of our energy and wellbeing are sapped by the perils of daily life, that too can make us antisocial. and that’s in addition to capitalism encouraging as many people as possible to be real assholes and grinding them into a paste.
People are especially shitty in settler countries, though. Not that you’re doing anything wrong, but there are better humans than the ones you’re seeing daily.
It’s not a paradox for me, I don’t like and I don’t want to exist around selfish, racist, money grubbers
Capitalism is literally geared toward producing those kinds of people and fostering their delusions to our detriment
I don’t want to live in a world where parasites like that are elevated and given the reins of life and death
If socialism triumphs humanity will persist, it just won’t be the human beings of today, the process of transitioning to socialism will change people over generations to be better. - His Holiness St. Bhagavan Shree Matt Christman (SAW)
I mean, it’s the brainworms, right? The whole point of materialism is that our environment shapes us, and right now that means the majority of the US is hyper individualist, neoliberal, and various forms of bigots.
Tbh as much as the current administration makes me think the US is on its last legs, the propaganda does run really deep. I kinda think we need a massive cultural values shift before we can start making progress - from a revolutionary or electoral perspective.
I think in practical terms that means we need to practice solidarity and otherwise combat neoliberal values. Teach ourselves and those around us that we can rely upon each other and things will just work out that way. That working towards group interests instead of personal interests is more effective. Stuff like that.
Although admittedly, saying that out loud it does kinda sound idealist. That we need to change minds and then the revolution will happen. Idk
capitalistic culture reproduces its horrific characteristic inside its population. Revolution will change how people act.
I hate people in the sense that I don’t want to deal with them, but I hope they live happy, fulfilling lives…elsewhere.
Euros don’t deserve communism
I work in retail and while I like to think I think pretty highly of humanity I sometimes wonder if I’m turning into a misanthrope. I think my annoyances more have to do with the pace and pay of work under capitalism rather than just hating customers (but I will shit talk customers for stupid questions in the break room).
You work in retail. Ideologically its the place were customers can act out the power dynamic of being a capitalist.
Some of my volunteering essentially puts me on a commune for 3-4 weeks, and holy fuck does leaving capitalism’s environment make everything better. I can easily tolerate liberals without screaming at them for the entire time because I’m not worrying about every little necessity - commuting, shopping, cooking - on an individual level, with everyone just sharing the load instead.
I mean… some people are just terrible
And I have to imagine that even with their needs met and their lives in order, they’d probably still be contemptable
But that doesn’t mean that I want them to suffer or die
I just want them to leave me the fuck alone once I’m done dragging them kicking and screaming into a better future
*walks up to you at the mall and sprays you with lizzybeth taylor’s Hot Honey Mist* I GAVE YOU A FREE SAMPLE WHY AREN’T YOU BUYING
