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You can't be anti-something without being for something

8 tweets · July 2019 · 20 likes · 0 retweets · read on Twitter

Replying to Oshan Jarow @OshanJarow ·

Here's a similar thread asking: "What is capitalism?" Because you can't move beyond something you don't understand. If Capitalism is: 1. Private property 2. Operating means of production for profit 3. Markets setting prices What's 'post' these tenets? x.com/TheMusingMind/…

quoting @OshanJarow: Ok, might as well turn this into a thread on wondering what capitalism is and recording my findings. The simplest way I've found to define capitalism. Capitalism: 1) Uses markets to set prices 2) Enforces private property rights 3) Means of production are operated for profit

@TheMusingMind This thread on markets pointed at the whole thing in a very powerful way, which is pointing at how the issue is perhaps not so much about capitalism and more the erosion of that-which-is-not-capitalism. (Not saying these are unrelated!)

🎃 Mark 👻 🟡⚪️🟣⚫️ @meditationstuff ·

2/ To re-summarize, the market is eating everything in a way that's making it alarmingly more difficult for people to have the social relations they want. It's alarming because social relations used to protect people from the market.

@TheMusingMind Also I came across both this thread of yours and this other one by @callumflack responding to both of them tonight. This tweet below relates to why people don't like "capitalism". Ofc, "communism" usually has same problems. cf Seeing Like A State twitter.com/BenMosior/stat…

@TheMusingMind @callumflack I basically don't believe it's possible to be anti-something. You need to be for something. It can be very helpful in that process to point at what you're not, but anyone who boos at capitalism without gesturing at what they're saying is better does not understand capitalism.

@TheMusingMind @callumflack To be clear: that does not mean the person's experience doesn't matter! Not knowing of an alternative economic system doesn't mean don't say "my life sucks under this one" or even point at structures that are producing problems. I'm just saying don't say "end capitalism"

@TheMusingMind @callumflack All of this is feeling related to this excellent essay by @everytstudies: (I guess because people could have the same views of structural problems & ideal solutions, and one says "end capitalism" and the other "fix capitalism") everythingstudies.com/2017/12/19/the…

@TheMusingMind @callumflack @everytstudies Oh! And you might like this thread of mine:

Malcolm Ocean 🏴‍☠️ @Malcolm_Ocean ·

1/ "You Might Have Earned It, But Don’t Forget That Your Wealth Came from Society" Subtitle: To be human is to earn the right to share in the wealth generated by productive social institutions Thread 👇 evonomics.com/wealth-of-huma…

@TheMusingMind @callumflack @everytstudies (I'm feeling more verbose than organized atm so I'm probably not putting all of these links in quite the optimal places in your threads. But I'm very excited to have met you on twitter and am looking forward to interacting with future things you post! 🙃)

@TheMusingMind @callumflack @everytstudies Oh man and here's another tweet from just now that also needs to be here in this mashup: "To develop a revolutionary science, we must overthrow the black banner of capitalism represented by the theory of relativity!"

Gary Basin @garybasin ·

Oh boy, this hits home