Caitlin Johnstone

Capitalism Is Violence: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix

Listen to a reading of this article: ❖ I always get people telling me, “Capitalism just means free trade.” No it doesn’t, that’s just some stupid nonsense libertarian types started saying a few years ago. Capitalism means what the Marxists who coined and popularized the term have been saying it means since the 1800s: the…

Caitlin Johnstone
, , , , ,

Listen to a reading of this article:

❖

I always get people telling me, “Capitalism just means free trade.”

No it doesn’t, that’s just some stupid nonsense libertarian types started saying a few years ago. Capitalism means what the Marxists who coined and popularized the term have been saying it means since the 1800s: the owners of the means of production exploiting workers by paying them a fraction of the wealth they generate. Capitalism is a system which financially coerces those who have nothing to sell but their labor to sell it to the owners of the means of production, necessarily at a price that is far below the amount of value they generate and with no influence over the industries they are powering with their work. It is inherently exploitative, and leads to corporations with no human interest pursuing profit at all cost even at the expense of the ecosystem we all depend on for survival.

Even those who support capitalism understand this distinction if they’ve done a tiny bit of research outside their partisan echo chambers. You don’t get to just change someone else’s definition of words to defend your belief system from their criticisms; that’s not a thing.

By distorting this definition, supporters of capitalism can object to its critics with “This isn’t real capitalism, because trade and finance are regulated by corrupt governments.” No it’s capitalism. Real capitalism is not just entirely compatible with the corruption of capitalist governments but an unavoidable component of it. Saying “It’s not capitalism that’s the problem, it’s crony capitalism” or “It’s not capitalism that’s the problem, it’s corporatism” is the same as saying “It’s not my chain smoking that’s the problem, it’s my emphysema!” One inevitably leads to the other.

Only narrative says I should be able to use my socioeconomically advantaged position to hire workers who exponentially multiply my wealth for a fraction of what it costs me to pay them. Capitalist narrative, created and promulgated for generations by those who benefit from it.

❖

A system which financially coerces those who have nothing to sell but their labor to work for companies for a fraction of the value they generate is violent. It is aggression. It is simply legalized theft. The only reason this isn’t obvious to everyone is centuries of capitalist propaganda, and if people ever manage to free their minds from that indoctrination and begin moving to redistribute the wealth the capitalist class has stolen, guess what will happen? Armed forces will be deployed to kill them until they stop. This is on top of the global war on communism that has been going on for generations. The entire thing is violence, and is held in place by violence.

❖

Malignant narcissists don’t typically seek out therapy, partly because they’re wired to assume they’re perfect and partly because our current systems reward the tendencies of malignant narcissism. We are ruled by untreated malignant narcissists who were elevated by this system.

❖

It’s a pretty interesting coincidence how western news media just happen to keep discovering reasons why censorship of internet platforms is gravely necessary in a globe-spanning empire that’s held together by global narrative control.

❖

The most significant political moment in the US since 9/11 and its aftermath was when liberal institutions decided that Trump’s 2016 election wasn’t a failure of status quo politics but a failure of information control. All the other bullshit since then has followed from this.

This was when the belief among mainstream journalists became widespread that internet censorship is needed and that it is their duty to manipulate public opinion. Another 2016 WikiLeaks drop in 2020 would never have been reported on by the mass media, as evidenced by their response to the Hunter Biden laptop story.

Now we’re seeing an increasing homogenization of online information as the media class cheers on censorship in the name of fighting Russia, white supremacism, Covid misinformation, and in the name of protecting US elections, while the media acts weirder and weirder. The way the entire mass media jumped right on board the Russiagate narrative instead of asking what’s true, for example, or the way many questionable claims about Covid which have since been invalidated were asserted with adamant aggression; this all followed from that moment.

And now we’re watching cold war escalations continually ramp up against Russia and China, and the mass media are forcefully and uncritically pumping all US government narratives into public consciousness. The 2016 reshaping of their values lubricated the way for this.

❖

“You only criticize the US and its allies, not Russia or China!”

Focusing one’s criticisms on the world’s most powerful and destructive government requires no defense. It’s not weird that I do it, it’s weird more people don’t. Those who want to hear criticisms of Russia and China are advised to switch on the nearest television.

It’s such a dumb complaint.

“It’s so strange and suspicious that you only focus on the worst impulses of the globe-spanning power structure which is vastly more destructive than any other in existence instead of yelling about the same governments as every billionaire media outlet throughout the entire western world.”

Durr.

❖

Remember when moral panic was a specific thing that would happen once in a while instead of western civilization’s general continuous state of existence?

❖

Our rulers always have to choose between bread and circuses or accelerationism; they’re either choosing to keep the people mollified and distracted while stealing a little or to risk provoking revolution by stealing a lot. Right now they’re picking the latter. Interesting choice.

When you look at it that way you realize that even when something horrible is happening it could also be leading to something very healthy. They’re walking a delicate tightrope walk while trying to keep their greed from consuming them. They’re not really in control here.

_________________

My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, following me on , , Soundcloud or YouTube, or throwing some money into my tip jar on Ko-fi,  or . If you want to read more you can buy my books. The best way to make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list for at  or on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. Everyone, racist platforms excluded,  to republish, use or translate any part of this work (or anything else I’ve written) in any way they like free of charge. For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what I’m trying to do with this platform, . 

Bitcoin donations:1Ac7PCQXoQoLA9Sh8fhAgiU3PHA2EX5Zm2

Liked it? Take a second to support Caitlin Johnstone on Patreon!
Become a patron at Patreon!

40 responses to “Capitalism Is Violence: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix”

  1. Paul Rackemann Avatar
    Paul Rackemann

    Hello Caitlin, nice to be able to talk to you again.
    Let me tell you a bit of what I was taught in Economics class about fifty-five years ago. There are four factors of production: land (which means raw materials), labour, capital, and enterprise. The payments to these four factors of production, respectively, are rent, wages, interest, and profit.
    In a small firm, it is likely, of course, that the same person will be getting interest on his capital employed, profit on his enterprise, maybe rent on his land (if he owns it), and maybe even wages if he does the work himself.
    After I was taught economics, they decided to write enterprise as a factor of production out of the textbooks. When I asked about it once, I was told that it was because it was hard to quantify and treat mathematically, but I think the real reason was that at that time (this was in the 1970s) many people believed that Communism was destined to take over the world, and nobody wanted to be caught teaching a doctrine that would probably have got you executed by the Communists.
    I think that system is a reasonable explanation of the way society works, from an economic point of view, and I have never seen a reason to reject it.
    As you say, capitalism is an inevitable component of crony capitalism or corruption. Business will adapt itself to whatever conditions it has to work under. If the people in charge are corrupt (as they are), business will work around them and accommodate them. That doesn’t make capitalism bad in itself: it just makes it part of the natural world, part of the law if you like, that even crooks have to live with, if they want to live at all. I’m sure even Al Capone paid the people who helped him and the people who served him his meals and wine. The work “capitalism” may have been invented by some Communist or other, as you say, but it just describes a system of honest exchange, which most people have to live by. (The other two main ways of dealing with other people are by exercising force against them and by deceiving them, both of which are the province of government. I accept that crony capitalists manage to get in on the use of force and fraud also, but that is by making friends with the government and using its expertise in those fields.)
    It is true, of course, that if you look hard at rent, you will see people who have inherited land that was probably originally stolen or conquered. We live in the real world, and our ancestors were the ones who won the battle for survival as it was fought back in their time. That included taking valuable land from other people. It is also true that some people inherit capital. If they husband it well, they can have an easy life. Having good judgement makes life a lot easier and better even for people at the bottom of the heap. As for people at the top of the heap, Warren Buffett is on record as saying that what he is good at is not so much fixing business problems as avoiding getting involved in them in the first place.
    Finally, I think that one problem with capitalism is that it tends to soften us. Once we have succeeded, most of us don’t know what to do, and what we do usually turns out to be some sort of dead end. Even Warren Buffett and Bill Gates have given most of their money to foundations, to be used for the public welfare. This practically guarantees that it will eventually get into the hands of bad people, upper-class socialists, who will use it in ways that will harm society. I don’t have any answer to that.

  2. Ishkabibble Avatar
    Ishkabibble

    Just exactly WHAT do people do after they’re all woke up — pick up a gun; guillotine some VIPs; march hand in hand down Penn. Ave. forever and demand, demand, demand that the Elite behave better, or else?
     
    Here’s what you are eventually going to HAVE TO DO because
     
    there. is. no. other. way.
     
    If you do not want More Of The Same that you’ve gotten after every election in the past, do not vote for another R or D, ever, no matter what an R or D promises! Jimmy Dore explains EXACTLY why.

  3. John Knox Avatar
    John Knox

    Good news, the ownership class needs us more than we need them! Imagine if most of them didn’t live in a country that didn’t have the ability to destroy humanity! They are safe in America because they are surrounded by Americans, and nobody can attack them without expecting a response from the Americans. They can ruin the environment and make the taxpayers clean up after them. They can scheme in their country clubs to keep the workers from organizing. They can sell us bullshit (like vaccines are a conspiracy) so we are too scared to think clearly. We can stop it. We don’t have to protect their wealth, we can protect each other instead. Collectivize! Organize! Nationalize your resources! Nobody has to starve!

    1. John Knox Avatar
      John Knox

      (oops, DID have the ability…)

  4. EsauIII Avatar
    EsauIII

    Dear Left,

    I’m requesting you sign my petition to name one of the “camps” in Australia after Mr Chomsky, He’s earned it with a lifetime of urging people to vote for Capitalists.

    We are confident he’ll speak against Mr Assange if asked.

    Viva La Revolution!

    1. John Knox Avatar
      John Knox

      Not likely, since he has always spoken up for Assange. https://youtu.be/RYdDp4mHDRY

  5. Fat thoughts Avatar
    Fat thoughts

    I think 99,9999 of the world populations are not ready to live in a fair society. If you question it then you should consider two possibilities: 1) You are playing along with fools thinking otherwise; 2) You are a part of the problem.

  6. Prison Avatar
    Prison

    They lie about capitalism being just “simple exchange” too. There is NO natural law that says ‘because I traded this hunk of metal to you for a chicken, that means I now own all the land from here to the sea.’ NONE. Far more often than not, genocide and murder decided ownership, followed by crony land parceling.

    In the US, they claim to hate ‘government,’ but universally worship – like holy writ – the Constitution, a government document establishing laws. Go figure.

    The capitalist is a salesperson, which is why he sells capitalism itself to you. People should notice the disconnect between the friendly family approach of their product ads and the fire-breathing, mean-spirited rhetoric of the propertarian who owns the business, but they don’t.

    Their only pitch is coercive. Join us or die in a ditch, or leave the country and magically obtain instant citizenship elsewhere. TINA.

    “Capitalism invented/created X for you to enjoy” is also lovely. With this line, they ignore every wart X brings, and assume it wouldn’t have been invented – ever – if not for the glory of money acquisition in this system, and assume for all of us that mass implementation was good and necessary, and that we want it because we’ve been born into using it.

    “You too can get on top of the pecking order. I did.” <—A line that could be said by the powerful in literally any system that allows pyramids, which so far has been all of them.

    If we run with their line, capitalists quite literally invented TRASH, a word they avoid like the plague, because it is what they are.

    They made all this advertising that we get jammed into every place, everywhere, and they made it “normal” to see it, everywhere. They made it “normal” to expect bananas every day in a landlocked crap town in Montana. Gross, and dystopian.

    They made it “normal” to criss-cross entire continents with massive highways, and to fence in huge stretches of wilderness in barbed wire that say ‘POSTED. No trespassing.’ Sound like freedom to you? For 99.999% of history and prehistory there were no countries, no borders, and it was a basic human & animal FREEDOM to walk unhindered through open forest lands. No more. Your freedom of walkable space is now public roads & buildings, parks, and businesses when open.

    What they stole from you, before you were even born: Life on Earth as a natural process. Send fifty random modern people into the forest and tell them, collectively, to produce a perfect wooden brick, square all round to hand tolerances, sanded for finishing, with only the tools they can make there in the forest. No Home Depot. Most would fail this simple task that humans have known how to accomplish for thousands of years. Because we're all specialized ants in a global system.

    1. Mike McDonnell Avatar
      Mike McDonnell

      Good rant! I don’t see a change in the system without collapse, though. It is a taboo subject, but there are just too many of us. Collapse is inevitable. It may be a slow process, or rapid, or even instantaneous, but it is coming. I wish the world was different, but it is what we have, and, actually, life right now is pretty good for many of us, so we have little sense of what is coming, and certainly no sense of urgency to fix it. The current climate conference will be as unproductive as its predecessors.

  7. Kurt V Avatar
    Kurt V

    What’s your alternative to “capitalism”? What about “voluntaryism”? What could possibly be better than de-centralized voluntary exchanges between individual humans?

    Everything and anything that is centralized is and will always be based on violence. Socialism, communism, democracy, democratic republic, your definition of capitalism, etc., etc., etc. — All based on violence.

    In all those systems, if an individual says “no thanks, not interested. I’m just going to do my own thing” — ultimately, violence or the threat of violence will be used to force that person into compliance, or to kill that individual. All centralized systems. All governments. All based on violence.

    So what is your alternative?

  8. Stephan Borau Avatar
    Stephan Borau

    Brilliant observation Caitlin: Most significant political moment (in USA) after 9/11 was when liberal institutions decided that Trump’s 2016 election wasn’t a failure of status quo politics but a failure of information control. Interesting how that plays right into the hands of the powers-that-be — almost like it was planned.

  9. sdbruns Avatar
    sdbruns

    “You don’t get to just change someone else’s definition of words to defend your belief system from their criticisms; that’s not a thing.”

    Well, it worked to disparage socialism. Most people are absolutely sure it means government ownership of factories rather than its actual definition, workers owning the means of production. Another example of controlling the narrative by re-definition of critical terms.

  10. Howard Switzer Avatar
    Howard Switzer

    Capitalism is the private control of the means of production, problem is many don’t understand what the means of production are. I guess because they can’t think or have been conditioned not to but MONEY is the foundational means of production. So Capitalism is the private control of the creation and allocation of money. You think not???? Think! For over 400 years the wealthy capitalists have controlled the money systems of nations. These insane sociopaths continue to drive us toward the abyss and people are just sitting on the bus either oblivious or are just complaining about the ride. Time to change the money system from private to public and to do that we need a new government. We all know that is what it will take, keep your eyes on the prize. monetaryalliance.org

    1. Newton E. Finn Avatar
      Newton E. Finn

      Yes, Howard. This is what Modern Monetary Theory is all about for those of us on the left who embrace it. For those on the right, it’s merely a more efficient mode of operating capitalism. To grok it from a Marxist perspective, check out another excellent Australian blog, that of Bill Mitchell. The material there is voluminous, but here’s a good place to dive in:

      http://bilbo.economicoutlook.net/blog/?p=48543

  11. BeliTsari Avatar
    BeliTsari

    When I was a kid, mean hypocritical grown-ups scolded us, “Don’t be an entitled, narcissistic, psychopathic little asshole… or nobody will want to play with you?” Now, forced to live on THIS side of the Hudson River, where reactionary Yuppies lecture their kids, “What, you want to be a schmuck, all your life?” I’m eager to know how anysomebody bought into libertarian horseshit like “free trade” in which “the Market” saves us from being forked to the circling sharks by brain-damaged III% cops, OathKeeper MAGA Sturmabteilung & Bogaloo Boi agents provacateurs? unleashed by Creative Class™ Liberals to save COVID Cash portfolios from us Berniebro, BLM, RooskiBot, uppity “essentials,” death ‘o disparity deplorable strikers “looting,” protesting “rioting” or organizing “insurrectionist terrorists!”

  12. BB Benderhaus Avatar
    BB Benderhaus

    We should make a distinction. There is capitalism and then there is exploitive capitalism. The problem is there is no way to prevent moving from the first to the second. Unions helped but they too became corrupted. For the love of money is the root of all evil. Money equates to power. Power corrupts absolutely. All systems become corrupted eventually because of this.

    1. Carolyn L Zaremba Avatar
      Carolyn L Zaremba

      Did you not read this article? Caitlin is saying that people who say exactly what you’ve just said are liars. And she’s quite correct. ALL capitalism is evil. Full stop.

    2. Jeff Emshoff Avatar
      Jeff Emshoff

      Don’t be an apologist for capitalism. You’ll thank me later.

  13. BeliTsari Avatar
    BeliTsari

    PS: as Pfizer & BioNTec’s PR releases gloat about the US preparing to inoculate YOUNG kids in Nov. Has anyone seen anyone question, our sneeringly infecting millions of kids at school (harvesting homes, WE jobs, indenturing chronically PASC survivors) only THEN, inoculating ALL tots, without spike-protein, IgA or IgG testing to delay unnecessary or potentially detrimental inflammatory side-effects, especially on kids we’ve doomed to PASC auto-immune, pro-inflammatory cytokine damage?)

    https://academic.oup.com/jid/advance-article/doi/10.1093/infdis/jiab490/6376537

    1. John Knox Avatar
      John Knox

      Vaccinations protect the workers (those are the people who keep us fed). That’s why socialist countries are vaccinating their people.

      1. Johnny Avatar
        Johnny

        “Take this Benzedrine, OxyContin, Vioxx, Thalidomide, etc etc, they’re good for you”
        “Oops, when is the funeral?”

      2. BeliTsari Avatar
        BeliTsari

        I remember COVID hitting the most affluent & best organized poarts of Lombardi, Sweden & Britian The response, by NYC liberals was, “Let ‘er RIP” as SF’s mayor “shut this sucker DOWN,” saving tens-of-thousands. Cuomo, Trump & de Blasio told dead-eyed sneering liberals, “Just go on about your business, as NORMAL!” Our leaders murdered 34K, flipped their rent-stabilized apartments & indentured a couple million of chronically ill survivors into disruptive, virtual share-cropping gigs! European Socialism got privatized by…

        https://mronline.org/2021/10/28/the-new-dangerous-class-the-pmc-and-virtue-hoarding/

        1. John Knox Avatar
          John Knox

          Can you name any fascists that don’t share your negative attitude towards vaccination programs? I can’t

  14. Stephanie L. Webb Avatar
    Stephanie L. Webb

    The “good” news is that narcissists will always mess it up, regardless of whatever obsession people have with, “bUt FrEeDoM!!” They take too much, offer too little, and “thanks” to a global health crisis compounded on others, we see them. I’m also thrilled that you bring together so many people who discuss how intellectually and emotionally disordered it is to keep “sEeInG tHe GoOd In PeOpLe.” It is not the job of EVERYONE to feed the delusions of the few. Glad they think they’re perfect; I’m not validating that with excessively watching their trash and not considering that they have ALL thr motivation to lie to me.

    “gIvE tHeM a ChAnCe!!!” They had their chances, EONS of them. There’s nothing the current systems have to offer at the point. Also, as a Black woman, if all the “progress” that they crowed about for 50-60 years can be undone in 5, it wasn’t progress, but placation. Narcs will “change” enough to manipulate us back into compliance, and return to normal. They all have.

  15. WindHarps Avatar
    WindHarps

    Patriot Act: If they get away with this the stage will not only be set, the stages will never end. War On Terror: If they get away with this the stage will not only be set, the stages will never end. Worldwide Surveillance: If they get away with this the stage will not only be set, the stages will never end. Rendition for Torture Program: If they get away with this …. WMD/Iraq: If they get away with this …. Libya (“We came. We saw” … cackle, cackle, laugh): If they get away with this …. False Flags/Syria: If they get away with this …. Worldwide PsyOp of Russiagate: If they get away with this …. Worldwide PsyOp of Chinagate: If they get away with this …. Parents standing up against CRT indoctrination are now “Domestic Terrorists”: If they get away with this …. Assange: If they get away with this …. Donziger: If they get away with this …. Saab: If they get away with this …. https://seaclearly.com/2021/05/01/a-final-warning

  16. Realist Avatar
    Realist

    What -ism is out there that works to the benefit of more than a few fortunate ones at the top? In the West this was long explained as evidence of god’s grace being bestowed on a lucky few elect who were predestined for the privilege. No fighting city hall or god’s will, eh? Don’t know that the caste system in Hinduism beats our Protestant Ethic. Nor Confusism through millennia in China. That just propped up empire and whatever it is they have over there now. I’m not saying I like it or that it is fair, but essentially every human society that persisted through deep time was based on some hierarchical structure including winners and losers. You see for yourself that even the most hardcore proponent of egalitarianism, the United States, is basically living a lie. We just pretend to offer democracy, equal opportunity, and a share the wealth social contract where all contribute and all have their needs met. It’s total bullshit but nobody dares admit to reality, at least not in public. Even religion has just come to be a ruse that gives public absolution to a land of hypocrites. Even “progressive” politics has come to be little more than a refuge that narcissistic poseurs hide behind. I dunno, perhaps the monastic existence has come closest to a system not totally dominated in its essence by the cult of catering to ego and avarice. Maybe those who submit that the purpose of life is simply to suffer come closest to an accurate description of reality. The rest of us just seem to get more confused about the point the older we become. Maybe it all just comes down to the impossibility of bucking the laws of thermodynamics.

  17. Privatization is Fascism Avatar
    Privatization is Fascism

    Capitalism is privatization. Privatization is Fascism. The Big Property Owners want to own every last genetic drop of life on planet Earth. The more they can assimilate Nature, steal the real and sell us back a fake version for patent profits, the better. Redefine “property rights”, like they are currently redefining “fully vaccinated”, and you remove that profit-making scheme while keeping Nature and our bodies in tact.

    The fascist privatizers don’t want to share financial authority with nation-states anymore. Fiscal policy for PUBLIC purpose is anathema to them. So, their goal has been to end nation-states, borders, freedom of movement, Constitutions (basic human rights), environmental protections, citizenship itself. They want a world of Owners and Others…. who will own nothing.

    And the way they get us to that point is by making us use central banks’ own CBDCs (central bank digital currency) that is PROGRAMMABLE, meaning they would control what you can and more importantly, cannot buy. Purchasing bans would depend on your social credit status, based on arbitrary guidelines, all conveniently built into your V-Port. (Vax passport).

    So hold on to cash. It’s our main defense.

    As if the labor scam wasn’t bad enough, the stock market scam beats them all. There is no more delusional a world than that of the stock market, where the gamblers never lose. (And isn’t it a sad statement that people with so much money have to resort to (often rigged) betting as an “exciting” past time?) If this “most detached from reality” class is leading the world, of course we are going to be faced with creations of their collectively deluded minds.

    Two economies. Two sets of rules.

    “Rich and poor are actually living in two different economies, which operate by different rules. Most ordinary people live in a world where a dollar is a dollar. Most rich people live in a world of what financial pundit Jerry Goodman, writing under the pseudonym Adam Smith, called “supermoney,” where assets have been “financialized” (that is, able to participate in the betting economy) and are valued today as if they were already delivering the decades worth of future earnings that are reflected in their stock price.

    Whether you are an hourly worker or a small business owner, you live in the dollar economy. If you’re a Wall Street investor, an executive at a public company compensated with stock grants or options, a venture capitalist, or an entrepreneur lucky enough to win, place, or show in the financial market horse race, you live in the supermoney economy. You get a huge interest-free loan from the future.

    The problem is that government policy is biased in favor of supermoney. The mandate for central bankers around the world is to keep growth rates up without triggering inflation. Since the 2009 financial crisis, they have tried to do this by “quantitative easing,” that is, flooding the world with money created out of nothing. This has kept interest rates low, which in theory should have sparked investment in the operating economy, funding jobs, factories, and infrastructure. But far too much of it went instead to the betting economy.

    Stock markets have become so central to our imagined view of how the economy is doing that keeping stock prices going up even when companies are overvalued has become a central political talking point. Any government official whose policies cause the stock market to go down is considered to have failed. This leads to poor public policy as well as poor investment decisions by companies and individuals.”

    It’s time to pop the bubble of grand delusion and finally do away with the artificially-propped up betting “economy”.

    https://www.oreilly.com/radar/why-elon-musk-is-so-rich/

    1. Privatization is Fascism Avatar
      Privatization is Fascism

      “Today’s world is being pulled by two opposing dynamics.”

      Great Reset prophets of doom which demand that an overpopulated humanity be sacrificed by a modern pagan scientific priesthood or open system thinking, the spirit of progress and investment in innovative thought.

      https://canadianpatriot.org/2021/10/10/cultural-warfare-in-the-20th-century-how-western-civilization-came-undone/

  18. Pascal Avatar
    Pascal

    “It’s a pretty interesting coincidence how western news media just happen to keep discovering reasons why censorship of internet platforms is gravely necessary in a globe-spanning empire that’s held together by global narrative control.”
    Quite! And it is downright fascinating that, according to Glenn Greenwald, “anti-Trump lawyer and social media #Resistance star Mark Zaid, who has been one of the most vocal critics of actual whistleblowers Edward Snowden and Julian Assange, both of whose imprisonment he has long demanded” is now backing Facebook Astroturf “whistleblower” Frances Haugen who’s apparently been playing footsie under the table with CIA and other deep state agents also known as serial warmongering psychopaths :o)

    1. Pascal Avatar
      Pascal

      Something like that:
      https://thegrayzone.com/2021/10/21/facebook-whistleblower-frances-haugen-us-intelligence/

  19. John Thomas Avatar
    John Thomas

    All true, Caitlin, all true. Your laser words are incisive and illuminating. Please allow me a postscript to briefly describe the absolute worst form of capitalism, that which is called Finance Capitalism though I prefer the term, “usury”. This is THE most violent form of capitalism. Levying [compound] interest on a loan of [imaginary] money created from thin air without generating the means to pay the interest off is not only violence but deeply and aggressively malignant. Money does not have the quality of fecundity. Lending money at any interest rate is usury. The money we are blindly compelled to use across the world has usury at its core and usury leads to indentured slavery to sadistic people who live the parasite’s life never knowing a day’s work. Look at the so-called debts across the world that are impossible to pay. All are in ‘debt’ to varying degrees.
    https://commodity.com/data/debt-clock/
    https://www.economist.com/content/global_debt_clock
    Usury should be viewed as worse than murder as it takes crushes whole countries & ultimately destroys the entire world.
    As Lord Acton, author of “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”, said less famously in 1875, “The issue which has swept down the centuries & which will have to be resolved sooner or later is ‘The People v. The Banks.’”, we have to get our act together.
    Solution? It’s so simple. Use a different form of user-friendly interest-free money! Use happy money! Choose a system. There are many out there. Start with a complementary one. Help available here: https://www.complementarycurrency.org/ or even consider my pet one!: https://twitter.com/DomeLord/status/705772854630084608?s=20
    Abolish Interest Rates!!
    I can love everything in the universe but not usury but if usury can be confined to one specific uninhabited grain of unconscious sand that’s going nowhere forever out there in some distant lonely asteroid belt then I might just relent a little.

    1. J. Rockhill Avatar
      J. Rockhill

      I have found this book has much insight on money and debt, insight that was not explained through Money and Banking class in college. I am linking to a review which gives a good overview of what you will find in the book. The author was instrumental in Occupy Wall Street which, unfortunately, could not gain enough cultural “traction” to effect change.
      https://www.attackofthebooks.com/review-debt-the-first-5000-years-by-david-graeber/

  20. Johnny Avatar
    Johnny

    Well stated Caitlin.
    Capitalism and Communism have also been driven and fuelled, for the most part, by testosterone and spiritual vacuity (as opposed to religion).
    No Love equals no compassion equals extinction.

  21. pearce tournier Avatar
    pearce tournier

    Not all capitalism is violent, just most capitalism.

    I think one should also acknowledge that not all, perhaps not even most, violence is capitalist.

    Feudalism is not capitalist, and tyranny does not have to be. Pol Pot and Nixon were pretty much tied, in terms of genocide (hey that rhymes!).

    As Alain Parguez has noted, the world (or at least Europe) would be better off if the feudal rentier elites were replaced by capitalists. And that is why he holds out more hope for the US than for France or Europe (a pox on both their houses, I say).

    And yes, capitalism is a social economy, as Marx said, but it is also fundamentally a tool for production, consumption, and social organization. And such a tool can be used for ill (as it generally has ) or for benefit. So, while I am not pro-capitalist, our immediate task has to be to subordinate capitalism to society. Ms. Johnson’s excellent point is that the myth of capitalism as inherently pro-society, pro-democracy, has to be fought tooth and nail, to disempower all the violent, the capitalists themselves, the fascists, and the feudal rentier powers.

    1. Jeff Emshoff Avatar
      Jeff Emshoff

      Maybe you just don’t understand the word “violence?”

  22. Josh Avatar
    Josh

    You are, of course, entirely correct about ‘capitalism’.
    The fallacy that somehow, by some magical and mysterious means, allowing total strangers that we will never meet to keep and control all of our money (for our own good, no less) is absolutely nonsense.
    However,
    I still feel obligated to invite you to consider that allowing ‘communists’ (also total strangers who we will never meet) to keep and control all of our own money (for our own good) just might end up being the same way.
    Ask the Russians, they can tell you all about it, it’s not pleasant.
    I am thinking that most conscious human beings are entirely capable of governing themselves, and that they need to start doing so, like yesterday…
    Or, right now if yesterday is no longer available…

    P.S. You guys are really pretty cool. Being able to communicate with you is definately one of the things that I have come to genuinely appreciate.

  23. Newton E. Finn Avatar
    Newton E. Finn

    Again, Caitlin cuts through the propaganda like no one else. NO ONE.

    Again Caitlin cuts through the propaganda like no one else. NO ONE.

    1. Newton E. Finn Avatar
      Newton E. Finn

      Meant to say it only once, but it bears repeating, doesn’t it?

  24. BeliTsari Avatar
    BeliTsari

    All through catastrophe capitalism’s current COVID caper, I’d waited for we the peons to aknowledge: feeding working poor to a frigging virus, to murder vulnerable loved-ones coworkers commuters; flip victims’ homes, then indenture chronically PASC survivors into Great Reset 1099 gig-serfdom. But, we’ve all fallen for each & every silly-ass lie, mediadiversion, distraction gavaged us… since we cannot accept, we’re POWERLESS.

    https://mobile.twitter.com/fasterthanlime/status/1452053941504684036

    https://greenwald.substack.com/p/pierre-omidyars-financing-of-the

    https://scheerpost.com/2021/10/21/lee-camp-the-four-layers-of-reality-and-why-were-only-allowed-to-talk-about-one/

    https://mobile.twitter.com/sharonchenhm/status/1451948558584881159

  25. Vayu Avatar
    Vayu

    I’m always in awe of how completely and concisely you describe what’s happening.

    “Armed forces will be deployed to kill them until they stop” People don’t realize that we live 1930s level fascism. Only a more insidious form of it. Masses of people are under the illusion of freedom. Were they to ever realize it, we have all the armed forces both locally and abroad to squelch it in a heartbeat.

Leave a Reply to Paul Rackemann Cancel reply

Trending