this post was submitted on 28 Apr 2025
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Flippanarchy

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Flippant Anarchism. A lighter take on social criticism with the aim of agitation.

Post humorous takes on capitalism and the states which prop it up. Memes, shitposting, screenshots of humorous good takes, discussions making fun of some reactionary online, it all works.

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  1. If you post images with text, endeavour to provide the alt-text

  2. If the image is a crosspost from an OP, Provide the source.

  3. Absolutely no right-wing jokes. This includes "Anarcho"-Capitalist concepts.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 hour ago

People blame the concept but forget it was someone's life philosophy of survival in their environment at the time. It's better to de-abstract and use your best judgement from case to case. It makes more sense. You'd end up mixing a whole bunch of ideologies without realizing.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

people around here like to blame the nebulous concept of "capitalism" for all the world's problems instead of focusing on the actual causes of those problems: billionaires and corporations using their massive wealth to stiffle competition, bribe governments, harm those beneath them for their own entertainment, and otherwise inflate their own wealth even further. What part of this is unique to capitalism? Furthermore, what aspects of communism that are actually beneficial to the common man are exclusive to communism, and couldn't be implemented in to a capitalist system through changes in poliicy?

governments and economies are machines that require frequent cleaning and maintenance. Any government, lacking sufficient care, will decay into fascism. Look at the us currently.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 hour ago

"The problem isn't capitalism, it's just all the stuff capitalism allows and encourages people to do!"

If anything, your idea of what the problem is, is incredibly more nebulous. There's no analysis or understanding, just "bad people do bad stuff."

Furthermore, what aspects of communism that are actually beneficial to the common man are exclusive to communism

Are we talking about communism (economic system) or communists (ideological justification for state capitalism used by 20th century authoritarian states), because the differences between the economic system of communism and capitalism are pretty clear.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago) (1 children)

Capitalism isn't that nebulous, we can start with the basic wikipedia definition:

Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their use for the purpose of obtaining profit.[a] This socioeconomic system has developed historically through several stages and is defined by a number of basic constituent elements: private property, profit motive, capital accumulation, competitive markets, commodification, wage labor, and an emphasis on innovation and economic growth. Capitalist economies tend to experience a business cycle of economic growth followed by recessions

Now what's the central problem here? I'd say it's definitely capital accumulation. The problem is that capital is power, and it has a strong tendency to grow exponentially. Once capital becomes concentrated enough, it will subvert the government via bribery and any democracy via privatized propaganda. From an anarchist perspective it's just another unjust power structure, but veiled behind layers of false meritocracy and false consent.

If you make it impossible for private individuals or organizations to accrue large amounts of capital, you effectively no longer have capitalism but you may still have a market economy.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 38 minutes ago* (last edited 36 minutes ago)

That's a shit definition even by Wikipedia's own admission

There is no universally agreed upon definition of capitalism; it is unclear whether or not capitalism characterizes an entire society, a specific type of social order, or crucial components or elements of a society. Societies officially founded in opposition to capitalism (such as the Soviet Union) have sometimes been argued to actually exhibit characteristics of capitalism. Nancy Fraser describes usage of the term "capitalism" by many authors as "mainly rhetorical, functioning less as an actual concept than as a gesture toward the need for a concept". Scholars who are uncritical of capitalism rarely actually use the term "capitalism". Some doubt that the term "capitalism" possesses valid scientific dignity, and it is generally not discussed in mainstream economics, with economist Daron Acemoglu suggesting that the term "capitalism" should be abandoned entirely. Consequently, understanding of the concept of capitalism tends to be heavily influenced by opponents of capitalism and by the followers and critics of Karl Marx.

The introduction of The Cambridge History of Capitalism approaches it this way

What are the salient features of modern capitalism and how were these features manifested in earlier times? The scholarly literature refers variously to agrarian capitalism, industrial capitalism, financial capitalism, monopoly capitalism, state capitalism, crony capitalism, and even creative capitalism. Whatever the specific variety of capitalism denoted by these phrases, however, the connotation is nearly always negative. This is because the word “capitalism” was invented and then deployed by the critics of capitalists during the first global economy that clearly arose after 1848 and the spread of capitalism worldwide up to 1914. In the resurgence of a global economy at the beginning of the twenty-first century, however, scholars accept that there can be many varieties of capitalism and that there are comparative advantages to each variety (Hall and Soskice 2001).

Four elements, however, are common in each variant of capitalism, whatever the specific emphasis:

  1. private property rights;
  2. contracts enforceable by third parties;
  3. markets with responsive prices; and
  4. supportive governments.

Each of these elements must deal specifically with capital, a factor of production that is somehow physically embodied, whether in buildings and equipment, or in improvements to land, or in people with special knowledge. Regardless of the form it takes, however, the capital has to be long lived and not ephemeral to have meaningful economic effects. [...]

Beyond these technical terms used by modern economists to define “capital” objectively for purposes of academic research, however, “capitalism” must also be considered as a system within which markets operate effectively to create price signals that can be observed and responded to effectively by everyone concerned – consumers, producers, and regulators.

Those 4 elements come closer to economics textbook definitions: some sort of economic system involving private property rights, contracts, & competitive markets maintained & enforced by government.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

oh hey i use that same image for my catch-all hiphop playlist!

i love it, but the folks i send it to seem not to enjoy aesop rock and danny brown in such close proximity 😕

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Ooh, I’m a fan of Aesop Rock and Danny Brown in close proximity 👀 what else you got on there?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 hours ago

i hit shuffle and got avatar & dynamo, atmosphere, and then tech n9ne lmao

[–] [email protected] -3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

there's positives from it and negatives. stuff like large wealth inequalities can be easily fixed with progressive tax rates. it all depends on how its done

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 day ago (1 children)

by the time you fix all the problems, it's straight up, not capitalism anymore.

[–] [email protected] -5 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I want private ownership and competition along with markets that can find the optimal price for goods. there can be safety nets for the poor sick and insane and the combination of this is simply another sort of capitalsm

[–] [email protected] 2 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

What does optimal mean in this scenario? Because really that is the crux of the issue. Capitalism puts the power into the hands of corporations to determine what is optimal. That's what the free market is. The consumer doesn't really have power in that system in any way that matters.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 10 hours ago

What does optimal mean in this scenario?

That's a great question and it really depends on a lot. Ideally if there's no artificial monopolies and there is significant competition, all the sellers of a good or service will be forced to offer the lowest price, in order to win over the buyers, who will buy the cheapest product. Of course at some point the price cant get any cheaper, and that optimal price will be slightly above the cost of making the good.

The consumer doesn’t really have power in that system in any way that matters.

The consumer can choose not to buy a product they don't like, and if they want to amplify that effect they can organize boycotts of it. Imagine if Amazon doubled all of their prices tomorrow, no one would buy from them, and they would lose money. And because of this, the market can somewhat control Amazon's prices. if there's an industry that is filled with expensive, low quality products everyone hates, there is massive incentive for a new player to join with a product that is cheaper and better.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

Lmao you believe in the invisible hand?

The optimal price will simply be the price the oligarchy decides to practice.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

I like to link to https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crony_capitalism because without the people who abuse the system, it would be a lot better. We need to close these loopholes, but of course rich people have the money to keep them open or find new ones.

Removing loopholes that the cronies exploit and removing tax havens, etc (other tax loopholes) would (in my opinion) make leave us in a much better state that we currently are in.

We hate crony capitalism not just capitalism on its own I believe.

Edit: hope this isnt recycled

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago

no, no we hate capitalism around these parts

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago

Read the sub name fam

[–] [email protected] -2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

clears throat

Markets are not evil in and of themselves.

Concentrated capital and poor market controls lead to unfair outcomes.

Markets can be an efficient way of distributing goods, even under socialist structures.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 day ago

capitalism =/= markets

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