94

Bazingas when you mention capitalism outside of Hexbear

https://hexbear.net/comment/3989539

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Me when multiple people in my life seem to think that Capitalism is the evolution of the barter system and was invented 4000 years ago. It must be so nice going through decades and decades of life blissfully knowing and learning nothing maybe-later-kiddo

[-] WayeeCool@hexbear.net 63 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

They literally describe commerce, something that has existed all of recorded human history. They think that commerce and capitalism are synonymous. This is proof of how effective capitalist propaganda has been.

People don't even associate capitalism with capital markets where ownership of productive capacity is commodified then bought and sold between owners totally alienated from production. It's why they rant about how the problem is blackrock, vanguard, or wall street banks and fail to realize they are pointing at foundational institutions of capitalism that are working exactly as intended. Instead capitalism is apparently the very concept of markets and any market activity, basic commerce and trade that has existed in all economic systems not just capitalism.

Same people tend to think capitalism invented currency and if currency is involved, it's capitalism happening... even though just like commerce, currency has existed all across human history where there is a sovereign, a city, or a state that can back its legitimacy as a store of value used in economic activity. Electronic transfers, paper notes, metal coins, colored beads... all the same.

[-] VILenin@hexbear.net 22 points 1 year ago

Capitalism is when you buy things

[-] MF_COOM@hexbear.net 45 points 1 year ago

the evolution of the barter system

graeber

[-] buckykat@hexbear.net 43 points 1 year ago

Not doing an effortpost to explain the entire history of capitalism for them to ignore and aggressively misunderstand is apparently trolling

[-] ZoomeristLeninist@hexbear.net 30 points 1 year ago

i saw they did the classic lemmy lib strategy of replying only to the shortest comments and ignoring the people answering their questions in an effort post. sometimes u just gotta bully

[-] buckykat@hexbear.net 18 points 1 year ago

See the timestamps, the effortposts are my beautiful brigader hexbear comrades from this thread, I don't think they've seen them yet.

[-] ZoomeristLeninist@hexbear.net 15 points 1 year ago
[-] Ho_Chi_Chungus@hexbear.net 51 points 1 year ago

theory-gary marx failed to consider that capitalism is actually when basic commodity exchange in a vacuum and therefore not bad

[-] axont@hexbear.net 9 points 1 year ago

what I've always liked about Capital is that Marx does describe capitalism in a vacuum as the exchange of labor and commodities disconnected from what those commodities are and with an assumption no government regulations exist

and it's still full of contradictions that make it fall apart

[-] Ho_Chi_Chungus@hexbear.net 8 points 1 year ago

"Even if you were right, you're still wrong" has got to be one of my favorite kinds of dunks

[-] UmbraVivi@hexbear.net 44 points 1 year ago

Me trading Pokemon cards on the playground? Capitalism in its truest form.

[-] DamarcusArt@lemmygrad.ml 21 points 1 year ago

And when that one kid steals your shiny charizard card? That's crony capitalism.

[-] FnordPrefect@hexbear.net 43 points 1 year ago

Seen this one enough times for a new entry in the libtionary:

very-smart True: adj. 1. Not true, but in a way that is conventionally accepted and will probably never get called out

[-] buckykat@hexbear.net 33 points 1 year ago

A spherical capitalism in a vacuum

[-] bigboopballs@hexbear.net 30 points 1 year ago

True Capitalism was two cavemen swapping personal possessions before markets existed.

It has been a steady decline towards present day cRoNy CaPiTaLiSm ever since.

[-] Owl@hexbear.net 28 points 1 year ago

Barter is actually extremely rare. Most people at most times in most pre-modern societies exchanged goods on a gift/favor system. Like you'd invite all your neighbors for feasts, they'd do the same for you, then when you hit a rough year they'd invite you to more feasts to get you through it. Or kings would take turns exchanging fancy bullshit gifts, and perhaps go to war if they felt like they were getting too little out of it.

[-] HumanBehaviorByBjork@hexbear.net 11 points 1 year ago

orthodox economists literally think innumerate tribespeople in central europe were keeping precise records of how many sheep everyone owed to everyone else

[-] Omegamint@hexbear.net 4 points 1 year ago

This is basically communal life

[-] GarbageShoot@hexbear.net 8 points 1 year ago

It's still a type of exchange, just less formal and rigid than modern ideas of trade. It's community life.

[-] Owl@hexbear.net 7 points 1 year ago

Yeah. Gift/favor economies are more social and less formal than a money economy, but that doesn't mean they're really better. These economies still routinely developed slavery, serfdom, and vassalage.

[-] Llituro@hexbear.net 20 points 1 year ago
[-] happybadger@hexbear.net 18 points 1 year ago

Sometimes I go outside and hope to see crows in my yard. I have this idea where I'll give them food and they'll give me little shiny trinkets they find. They're so smart that they understand capitalism.

[-] barrbaric@hexbear.net 15 points 1 year ago

:nerd: Umm actually, that's crow-ny capitalism.

[-] Kuori@hexbear.net 6 points 1 year ago

i'm coming to your house to give you a high five or a swirly and i won't know which it is until i arrive

[-] axont@hexbear.net 13 points 1 year ago

liberals completely making up historical things that didn't occur. They can't see history as a sequence of class struggles at all. They think of the development of capitalism as an enlightened set of rules between people nodding and saying "I agree." All historical development occurs when one or two smart and probably white guys make a declaration they've invented cool new ideas. Then everyone nods and says they agree, and their ideas manifest into reality.

Apparently the video is about how the Unity video game engine is going to charge everyone who uses it a fee based on the monthly revenue of the game being made, which is still normal everyday capitalism. They want to call it feudalism because this somehow violates the rules they made up for how capitalism is supposed to work.

not really related but the Unity debacle isn't about Unity charging a fee based on project revenue, but on install numbers, as determined by them through some unspecified, hidden means. they just announced this last week and were met with immediate backlash from pretty much every dev who uses their tools.

[-] axont@hexbear.net 4 points 1 year ago

Oh I see, thank you. I didn't properly understand the situation, it's such a debacle.

[-] epicspongee@hexbear.net 13 points 1 year ago

The 'capital' in 'capitalism' means nothing and is there for no reason

capitalism is when primitive barter economy

[-] GarbageShoot@hexbear.net 8 points 1 year ago

"Capitalism is bartering, even though that is not historically what commodities are produced to be exchanged for."

[-] Catradora_Stalinism@hexbear.net 5 points 1 year ago

newest hakim video is relevant lol

this post was submitted on 22 Sep 2023
94 points (99.0% liked)

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