this post was submitted on 11 Oct 2023
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To blame capitalism for the lack of a Star Trek future is to fundamentally misunderstand why capitalism is the way it is.
Capitalism isn't some evil calamity that fell from the sky. Human beings created it. No matter what system you make, we will inevitably corrupt it so long as selfishness and greed are hardwired into our primate brains. Communism, socialism, capitalism, whatever. They all need hard rules to work because humans will turn any system into a way to enrich themselves, and given time, they will even erode the rules to do it.
For every extraordinary bit of technology or otherworldly space entity or reality shattering cosmic event to ever show up in Star Trek, the single most unbelievable thing about it is the notion that the human race could ever, collectively, and permanently forego their selfish instincts. Its a society that only works if the human race changes itself on a fundamental, evolutionary level, and does so in unison. Because as long as any human feels a desire for more than they have, or the desire to protect what they do have, we'll never achieve that.
humans being inherently selfish and greedy is literally a capitalist lie though, like that's really really obviously not true if you look at how generous and willing to sacrifice themselves for someone else people are.
People aren't necessarily selfish, but they are tribal. They'll go above and beyond for the people they know. Their family, friends, neighbours,...
But this sympathy is rarely extended to people further away. From different towns, countries,...
I believe most people are not purely selfish, but selfish people do seem to do extremely well under capitalism. (Not making any statements on other economic systems though)
right, and this is why it's so important that we have systems that take in mind how humans work.
Capitalism is horrendous for this reason, it explicitly and directly incentivizes the worst parts of humanity and results in a downward spiral of selfishness and dehumanization.
I wouldn't say "rarely" the entire liberal political movement is based on treating people we don't know and will never know with decency.
So what’s the excuse of the Soviet Union and China?
you do realize china is a capitalist dictatorship, and the soviet union was also turned into a dictatorship, right?
Pointing at dictatorships and acting like they're some amazing gotcha for an ideology they claim to follow is something even elementary grade school kids realize is dumb.
China wasn’t capitalist under Mao.
And yeah that’s kinda my point. You cannot have socialism without a dictatorship. That’s like explicitly in Marx’s writings. The term is dictatorship of the proletariat.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dictatorship_of_the_proletariat
It’s a fundamental cornerstone of Marxism. A dictatorship with a monopoly on force is necessary to transition from a capitalist society to a communist society by forcibly seizing the means of production and using force to prevent counterrevolution.
The problem is that once you give that dictatorial power to a state, you can’t get it back.
You can't have a socialist society under democracy?
You can't debate reality with commies because they don't live in reality.
Oh, they claim to be peaceful, but they're constantly violent! They're lazy! They're stupid! They'd rather loaf around and drink than put in a day's work! And you know what else? They treat their women like garbage!
Sure. Maybe capitalism is just serfdom 2.0. We gotta keep it pushing tho. Maybe in a million years we will finally subvert our baser instincts and push past capitalism. Gotta do it for the kids
So by your logic any system is fine with the proper regulations in place. How about we go back to slavery then? Just make sure theasters are benevolent right?