Cowbee [he/him]

To the surprise of 0 Leftists, Capitalism is incapable of solving the Climate Crisis.

It’s important to know that Capitalists support both the Democrats and the Republicans. Many donate to both, even. What’s important is to analyze what Trump offers that Harris didn’t.

1. Decreased taxation on higher tax brackets. Plain and simple.

2. High tarrifs on goods from China, as a means to combat the PRC’s rising influence globally and ideally force development of US industry. Marco Rubio is especially warhawk-ish about the PRC, which ties into the US Navy’s plan to be ready for a hypothetical war with the PRC by 2027

3. Austerity politics. Trump is slated to take a similar approach to Javier Milei and dramatically cut back on government spending, in many ways by selling publicly owned assets to private interests.

4. Strong anti-immigration rhetoric endangers undocumented workers, which means the Capitalists can leverage this fear to pay them even lower wages under the table. Instead of paying foreign workers microscopic wages traditionally and paying hefty transportation costs, they can have a super-exploited underclass domestically.

The important note about Capitalism, and by extension Imperialism, is that it starts to suffocate itself as it ages. The Tendency for the Rate of Profit to Fall is only able to be fought through expansion or centralization, to raise the absolute profit margins, and this sell-off of government assets is one of the most effective ways to do so.

Now, more than ever, is a great time to start reading theory. I made an introductory Marxist reading list if you want to check it out! Feel free to leave feedback.

Revolution does work, historically, but the US needs more class awareness and working class militancy for that to be viable.

Unfortunately, Bernie will not be the one to lead that. Social Democrats fundamentally have to side with and cater to the bourgeoisie as they depend on Capitalism, unless you mean to advocate for a real revolutionary Socialist party. In the latter case, PSL already exists, and the DSA has powerful Marxist caucuses like Red Star and MUG that are close to gaining over 50% control of the party. I wrote an introductory reading list for Marxism if that appeals to you or anyone else.

Social Democrats will always cater to Liberals, because they both rest on the foundations of Capitalism. Social Democrats aren’t trying to disrupt the system, but prod it towards more safety nets. Even if they raised successors, they would face the same struggles, because the DNC can’t support itself without the blessing and support of the Bourgeoisie as their donors.

A truly destabilizing movement comes from outside the boundaries of the normal electoral system and depends on real, actual Worker Organization. That’s why it’s helpful to read theory. I wrote an introductory reading list for Marxism if that appeals to you or anyone else.

They are still tied to the DNC Party Line, so that’s why they haven’t. This is also why the DNC cannot and will never be a Worker Party, it’s organized like a business that sells policy to wealthy Capitalists.

I wouldn’t feed the troll if I were you, that’s what they are after.

Yep, we need to move on towards Socialism to really begin to start fixing these problems.

Capitalist Wage-Labor is a scam. Surplus value comes from labor. Labor is a commodity just like anything else on the market, but the price of labor itself is tied to general subsistence plus replacement, it isn’t tied to how much value is created. Differences in wages come from various factors but regulate around cost to replace, ie training requires a lot of time, so this is represented by higher wages.

Instead, we should be advocating for public ownership, so that the people get the spoils of their labor, and can pay into a general fund of sorts to provide safety nets, infrastructure, and more that don’t rely on the profit motive. In other words, we should transition to Socialism.

I recommend you read theory. I wrote an introductory reading list for Marxism if that appeals to you or anyone else.

I’d zoom out, Capitalism has a growth phase and decay phase, we are at the tail-end of the decay phase and need to jump to Socialism. Marx’s analysis makes this more clear, I wrote an introductory Marxist reading list if you want to check it out.

Depends on what branch of Philosophy you follow.

What?

Ethics and legality are far from the same, or even linked.

I do think calling Capitalism’s end stage as “oligarchy” gets in the way of depicting the very real tie to its eventual collapse that comes from this centralization, though.

Individually? Either try to ride with the Capitalists for as long as they last if you’re already one of them, or join the Working Class and help bring about Socialism.

Capitalism has a natural tendency to go from free competition and decentralization to centralization over time, which lowers the real rate of profit. In fighting this, Capitalists go for more centralization to raise absolute profits, which has a definite limit. This means Socialism, ie public ownership and central planning by the Working Class, is a logical step beyond Capitalism brought about by Capitalism’s very mechanisms.

I have an Introductory Reading List for Marxism if you want to read more about what you can do personally.

My point is that you don’t have to be an analyst, mind reader, or Trump supporter to try to understand why people “reject reason,” as you say.

In my opinion, as a Marxist, the rise of Trump is a very clear symptom of Capitalist decay. As the Petite Bourgeoisie is proletarianized, ie as the Middle Class (small business owners and the like) face downward pressure from competition against massive, monopolist syndicates and cartels, they turn against the Proletariat, ie the working class.

This is in combination with the DNC’s failure to meaningfully address real working class concerns, by running to the right of Biden in 2020, they disconnected themselves even further from the will of the working class, and lost support.

But why? That’s a post-hoc justification, not an analysis of why people accept the ideas they do.

It’s a natural consequence of the decay of Capitalism, it will polarize and affect more and more people as time goes on.

If I don’t, I can’t remod it fresh and new after seeing all of the wonderful mods coming out all the time these days. Plus, I’d never play anything else!

I believe we need more of a return to Marxism, personally, as his predictions and analysis are only proven more correct with the passage of time and the addition of new data points. That’s why I made an Introduction to Marxism reading list, if anyone wants to take a look.

I agree that Sanders would have won 2016, 2020, and 2024 if he could only run in 2020. However, he hasn’t been allowed to run, rather, the DNC ran rightward despite polling showing this to be a mistake. This is because the DNC is a business that sells policy to Capitalists, not a party run for the working class. Any third party created by Sanders would face the same opposition the Greens and PSL do by liberals, which is why it’s high-time people look towards Marxism.