this post was submitted on 07 Sep 2025
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Political ideologies don't kill people. Individuals kill people.
Capitalism happens to reward this kind of behaviour but it doesn't "cause" it.
Edit: ML users don't seem to have a concept of nuanced political discussion. Should we just forgive these crimes against humanity on the individual level and blame an ideology instead? Is it true that communism inherently involves the death of millions of people? Or were those bad actors doing bad things because they are bad people?
Edit 2: Capitalism is a symptom not the cause. Until we address what led us to capitalism we will never see a better world.
Individuals don’t exist in a vacuum though. Ideologies and systems shape behavior by setting the rules of the game and defining what gets rewarded or punished. Under capitalism, exploitation, profit-over-people, and competition are incentivized, so it does cause patterns of harm — not just isolated bad actors. That’s why we see consistent violence, poverty, and dispossession under capitalism across the globe. It’s not random individuals — it’s a system rewarding destructive behavior.
You are just restating what I said.
My criticism is that blaming "capitalism" for the actions taken by individuals or collective actions taken by the group moves the blame away from the individuals committing those actions. Which is not helpful.
People do bad stuff because they are bad. I live in a capitalist county but choose not to bad things to people because I'm not a bad person.
FWIW I am anarchist so INB4 "supporting capitalism".
Also, that's not what downvotes are for but whatever.
I generally agree, but I need to ring the alarm bell for anyone who might listen
Consulting companies like McKinsey are the conspiracy selling indirect mass murder. The reading on them is endless... They're insanely evil
Time? Reality? Science? Humans? Feudalism? Like wtf are you going to address?
The lengths some people will go to to retain their sense of psychological safety...
You do realize I'm posting from an anarchist instance and that I'm an anarchist right?
Being realistic and placing the blame on the individual is not supporting capitalism in any way.
Because the individual exists outside any social context, which in no way influences how they think or act. /s
They both kill people, the first causes the second to happen and justify itself because of it.
Personally, looking at the state of western societies, I’m all up for both: personal re-education (yes, if you don’t show empathy towards others you’re going to prison) but before that, systemic change. If you don’t change society first, there is no place for “bad” people to be reintegrated in without falling for the same influences. A sick society produces (mostly) sick people.
I think I agree. It doesn't seem like we can have any nuanced discussion amongst the hive mind meme lords here though.
I don't support capitalism in any way shape or form. It only can lead to the situation were in now.
But it seems we are expected to believe in communism as some kind of holy untouchable grail that will solve all of societies woes. It's heresy to be critical of anyone who dangles the communism carrot in front of us. We must blindly consume the promises of charlatans.
Anyone one who thinks critically is a "dumbass" "liberal" who hasn't... checks notes read Einstein.
Eh… I do believe communism in perfect uncorrupted version solves most of the problems. Is it applicable right away? No. We have a sick society and first we need to heal and understand. Should we not aim for communism? No, we should, it’s good to have a final goal, a vision to inspire people. Getting there is the hard part.
I can see why you triggered a lot of people saying capitalism doesn’t “cause” it, because unfortunately it does.
It seems you are all getting caught in a false dichotomy of thinking that it's not possible to oppose capitalism and also hold individuals liable for their actions. I don't understand this.
To me this is the equivalent of saying that Nazis were just following orders. That they had no choice in that matter.
Nazism didn't "cause" the holocaust. Hitler and the people of Germany did. Nazism was a product of a social illness which has still not been cured. We defeated the Nazis but we didn't cure the social illness that led to it so look what we have again (Nazis).
Maybe a better word is "force". As in capitalism does not "force" harm.
Implying that capitalism forces harm excuses the individuals who are truly causing the harm.
You mention "perfect, uncorrupted" communism and this is what I want but I don't see a reality in which we obtain that without first accepting that "perfect, uncorrupted" communism is NEVER what we get without first curing social issues.
Would I rather have a fucked up communism than fucked up capitalism? Yeah but I believe fascism can accompany either and I would prefer to deal with that first and foremost.
I too want to live in an ideal communist society but I won't lie to myself and pretend we can get there without social change. That change starts with holding individuals accountable for their crimes against humanity.
We can do both, though. Hold individuals accountable, and still recognize how they're enabled and emboldened by the systems they operate in. Focusing on either the individual or the system while disregarding the other when trying to assign blame or find a better solution is not going to help
Yes exactly. We can and should do both.
But it seems most people here would prefer the false dichotomy that implies we can only do one.
People want communism to be a panacea and it's simply not. Until we understand that as a group, we will never see lasting change.
Well your initial comment very much reads like you're falling into the same dichotomy except flipped the other way. "We don't need to change the system as long as we stop the bad people from doing bad things" was the vibe I'm getting from it