https://twitter.com/K_Niemietz/status/1704093894647161094
The think tank bros are not okay. Props to this dumbass retweeting all the people calling him a fucking idiot though. Good bit.
apolitical
I already knew this meant “status quo warrior ashamed of sounding right wing” but recent interactions with federated Lemmy users have really hammered in what a bunch of bootlicking sycophants for capitalism tend to call themselves “apolitical” or “nonpolitical.”
“The worst illiterate is the political illiterate, he doesn’t hear, doesn’t speak, nor participates in the political events. He doesn’t know the cost of life, the price of the bean, of the fish, of the flour, of the rent, of the shoes and of the medicine, all depends on political decisions. The political illiterate is so stupid that he is proud and swells his chest saying that he hates politics. The imbecile doesn’t know that, from his political ignorance is born the abandoned child, and the worst thieves of all, the bad politician, corrupted and flunky of the national and multinational companies.”
― Bertolt Brecht
“The worst illiterate is the political illiterate, he doesn’t hear, doesn’t speak, nor participates in the political events. He doesn’t know the cost of life, the price of the bean, of the fish, of the flour, of the rent, of the shoes and of the medicine, all depends on political decisions. The political illiterate is so stupid that he is proud and swells his chest saying that he hates politics. The imbecile doesn’t know that, from his political ignorance is born the abandoned child, and the worst thieves of all, the bad politician, corrupted and flunky of the national and multinational companies.”
― Bertolt Brecht
Brecht was cookin
how much could a bean cost, Michael… ten dollars?
It does seem to be “apolitical” awareness day on lemmy. Saw multiple threads on how the nonpoliticals want everyone to stop posting political memes
status quo warrior
Honestly I will start calling people Status Quo Warriors who call others SJW. Also SQW just rings better.
marx failed to consider this one
deleted by creator
This reminded me of a passage from that Conspiracist Manifesto released a few years ago. It was, uh, not great, but this quote has always stuck with me:
At this point, it would be foolish to ask whether they are conspiring, the 1% who hold %48 of the world’s wealth, who attend the same type of schools, places and people everywhere, who read the same newspapers, succumb to the same fashions, bathe in the same discourses and in the same sense of their hereditary superiority
Of course they breathe the same air.
Of course they conspire.
They don’t even have to plot for that
Those who suffer from conspiracy phobia are fond of saying: “Do you actually think there’s a group of people sitting around in a room plotting things?” For some reason that image is assumed to be so patently absurd as to invite only disclaimers. But where else would people of power get together – on park benches or carousels? Indeed, they meet in rooms: corporate boardrooms, Pentagon command rooms, at the Bohemian Grove, in the choice dining rooms at the best restaurants, resorts, hotels, and estates, in the many conference rooms at the White House, the NSA, the CIA, or wherever. And, yes, they consciously plot – though they call it “planning” and “strategizing” – and they do so in great secrecy, often resisting all efforts at public disclosure. No one confabulates and plans more than political and corporate elites and their hired specialists. To make the world safe for those who own it, politically active elements of the owning class have created a national security state that expends billions of dollars and enlists the efforts of vast numbers of people.
Also Epstein island, there’s that little gem
Damn that’s a nice quote, shame
George Carlin has a nearly identical quote out there somewhere, which I’m sure is what the “conspiracist manifesto” is ripping off.
It was likely written by some French anarchist nerd, so idk if they would care who Carlin is lol
The water cycle? Kind of ridiculous to think all those rivers are working together, most of them only care about their own flow. The idea that they all work together to prop up an ‘ocean’ is ridiculous.
how do all the birds know where the flock is going? nature really is a mystery
Birds are bourgeois
Man, people this bad at their jobs can get and keep jobs, why can’t I?
Have you tried preaching the good word of free markets?
Have you tried preaching the good word of free markets?
LinkedIn 
have you tried being dumb as hell? surely you haven’t tried that one yet
Are you rich?
Unless they are gathering in dimly lit rooms and saying “we are doing capitalism”, it’s not real capitalism
I would say that this is similar to how american liberals don’t believe in any form of racism besides someone screaming the n word while using klan robes, but I am not convinced that these think tank ghouls believe in anything besides filling their pockets
they’re not lobbying in behalf of capitalism
But they literally are lol. 95% of the politicians and organizations they support denounce communism and champion capitalism, using the word capitalism. The remaining 5% are explicitly fascist.
That’s like me paying a bunch of money to a chef and saying “I actually don’t have a ‘personal chef’ per se. He just assembles an assortment of raw ingredients to create an elaborate source of sustenance.”
Even at the lowest local level, governments grovel at the feet of businesses, dare they be seen as hostile to commerce
I am a man who has never heard of emergence before.
What does “high-status conspiracy theory” mean? Cuz every “high-status capitalist” seems to keep blaming the Jews without fail.
it reminds me of when chuds call a Starbucks barista the elite but a white guy in the suburbs with a pool supply business and a $100,000 truck is working class
Assuming he’s not stupid and/or lying, looks like he’s so annoying that despite being a think tanker, no business association is willing to invite him to any ! meetings.
He’s the “head of political economy” at one of the oldest British neolib think tanks lmao
Head of political economy and completely oblivious of the entire field of political economy.
Imagine being a ghoul so odious not even the other ghouls want you at their table.
Lmao
This guy is onto something in that liberals don’t perceive actions by markets as coordinated political actions. They see it as invisible, since capitalism wasn’t formed on the basis of markets explicitly, its formation was couched in more vague rhetoric about freedom, liberty, fraternity. Some aspects of the formation of capitalism took the structure of religious debate, like protestants breaking from Catholicism.
Whereas all socialist movements have been more explicit about the aims and goals. The communists don’t hide their intentions. That makes a communist government much more obvious in it’s pursuits to the average liberal. It’s why statements like “communism killed 100 million people” makes sense to a liberal in a way that a similar statement “capitalism killed billions of people” doesn’t make sense to them.
They don’t see capitalism as an agreed upon movement or enforcement of certain hierarchies. They see it as full liberation of people and simply the natural consequences of full liberation. But they can see socialism as an enforced structure, since socialists don’t hide what they’re doing and socialism is formed by a single united working class interest. Capitalists aren’t always in unison with one another.
I mean the point is Adam Smith’s hand is invisible
if it becomes visible, that’s communism
i meant this as a joke but there’s actually something there tbh
I’ve noticed that many capitalists will have a knee jerk angry reaction when you utter the word “capitalism” even if you’re not communist.
While it’s more tame in real life, on the internet I’ve seen posts about some extreme price markup and everyone complaining and asking why, then one commenter simply says “that’s capitalism for you” with no mention of socialism, then you get a bunch of replies going on angry tirades about Venezuela and North Korea. They’ll get angry at you for explaining economics 101, something they’ll smuggly tell you to study.
You don’t get to utter the sacred, holy name of C———m.
To be fair the term capitalism was created by socialists as a way to criticize it. Adam Smith and other pre-Marx economists never used the term. It only became a common term after Marx kept saying “capitalist mode of production” and that’s just a mouthful.
So the word comes up most often in socialist circles. Liberals don’t like calling it capitalism because the very word gives undue authority to capital, which liberals deny. Liberals don’t believe capital has supreme power and don’t want to describe society like that.
You don’t get to utter the sacred, holy name of C———m.
Cum, pbuh
Which is hypocritical because every single US politician talks about bringing jobs into their state or district as part of their policy. But also businesses are job creators. Somehow nobody is responsible for lost jobs though.
I think the average neoliberal would interpret brining jobs to a state as stuff like removing regulations or lowering taxes. They can only interpret political action in terms of austerity vs regulation.
These people think private industry is just a few tweaks away from delivering full utopia but the problem are those gosh darn bureaucrats always raising taxes and spending public funds on useless things like education, roads, and hospitals. If only we could unleash our poor, humble business owners from the oppression of taxes they will deliver us heaven
It’s amazing how these people have somehow managed to read even less theory than the average communist.
The smart ones do read theory, but regurgitate this cuz that’s their job. And then the stupid ones read this and regurgitate this, because it’s already shit
How much do you want to bet this person has a hidden checkmark?
I can’t get a business person to read their emails or attempt to understand their business even when a fuckload of money is on the line. The idea that they could have their mind changed about their desire for ownership and exploitation to live a fulfilled life in a world where we all suffer less is laughable. Their buy-in is incredibly solid. The idea that they’d strike a deal with a union more quickly than they would a CIA-backed mercenary group charging 20k to make the problem go away is ahistorical
