idk the author
Yes but counterpoint, capitalism is a human invention so humans (at our current state) are still the root cause
this post was submitted on 19 Jul 2025
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And it's not like it was all utopian paradise before capitalism was invented.
Such a western view: a capitalist society. We have the choice to participate in that or in a different system. Most just don’t want to give up the “I have” for “what can be”.
I would love to see a post-capitalistic society... but the (class-)war toward it is long and potentially bloody.
Exactly that
We can also be the solution.
There are more options than just capitalism (and especially the weird kind of klepto-capitalism that we're falling into globally now).
I believe in humanity being the solution when I see it.
So far I don't.
Humans will almost certainly bring a solution. Might not be a good one for most people though.
Capitalism no doubt sucks, but our other inventions suck even more unfortunately.
Humans also invented slavery, torture devices, nuclear weapons, and totalitarian regimes but we don't argue these things are "natural" or inevitable.
Just because humans created capitalism doesn't mean it's an expression of some essential or universal human trait.
Right but then it's a matter of reference. Anything can be a virus. The specific issue with unlimited capitalism is that it is a virus to ourselves as well as pretty much everything else on Earth except a handful of people that benefit from it. As if they were immune.
Capitalism is genetically baked in, to a certain degree. But so is egalitarianism, war, schadenfreude, empathy, looking at people but if they look back at you then you turn away because you’re really not trying to give them vibes but they’re still looking at you for an uncomfortably long time so you have to turn back to them to understand why they’re doing this but your perception was wrong and they had long since looked away.
hasn’t the earth already gone through several mass extinctions even before capitalism was invented?
Communist countries did some pretty heinous stuff to the environment, too. Industrialization lets us fuck things up efficiently regardless of the economic system.
Aye, but free market capitalism is against two important tools:
Rationing and regulations.
Since most people want more stuff than they need and will not vote for less consumption, the most effective form of government would be an enlightened dictatorship.
A dictatorship of any sort wont get you much different than capitalism does: capitalism has the effect that it does because it creates a situation where power concentrates (because wealth is generally a proxy for power, and having a lot of capital under capitalism allows you to more easily obtain more of the finite pool of it), so that decisions are made that benefit the few with power while the many without much of it suffer the negative externalizes of those decisions, that the wealth of the powerful insulates them from. A dictator represents simply skipping to the end-state of that, where power is highly concentrated among one person and those that directly enable them. They still will make decisions that benefit themselves at the cost of the well being of everyone else, because people are selfish that way. Even if you somehow get a person that somehow cares more about everyone else than themself, that person wont be dictator forever, and since that mentality isnt the norm for dictators, odds are soon enough you'll end up with an "unenlightened" dictatorship again.
Is ecofascism a real ideology? I’ve never run into a single adherent.
Humans can’t do anything but capitalism due to our need to differentiate from our peers and having massive egos that prevent us from truly sharing wealth. Mine is bigger than yours has been a thing for as long as we have history records.
We are the virus, because we uphold capitalism as the longest lasting form of “peace”time economy. Yes there are alternatives, but all of them would result in more peace on the one hand and gang-wars and multiple mass genocides on the other.
Earth is also a virus incubator. Eventually nature does its thing. Like right now, and then we have an extinction level event.
If we’re not the virus, then why is Gaia acting like it has a fever of at least +1.5ºC likely +3ºC in less than 20 years?
And that ego is also the reason why accepting responsibility is very hard.
Best we can do is using capitalism to create better alternatives like the way the cost of solar panels has made solar the cheapest energy faster than any other energy revolution.