this post was submitted on 08 Feb 2025
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[–] [email protected] 1 points 15 hours ago

So everything that happens right now is capitalist in nature? Wouldn’t that imply everything that follows is also capitalism?

No. Capitalism is wage-labor, and generalized commodity production. This is the mode of production. The human action under this mode of production are products of it. Nationalism is a tool the ruling class uses to divide the proletariat. Same with racism, patriarchy, and all forms of division other then class. Nationalism does not exist in a vacuum, it is given to us by our education, and the institutions of power. Capitalism is what drives this.

I'll try to illustrate this. Nationalism IS capitalism, because what nationalism is, is the creation of a "national identity", the institutions of the nation-state, and the subjugation of the national proletariat to its respective national bourgeoisie, ergo, the division of the global working class.

Do you think “freedom of association” is a value worth maintaining in society?

I don't know what that means.

does the individual owe a collective anything at all?

No

Is it not pleasurable for the vast majority of people to feel “free” (even if its an illusion) and thus “in their best interest” to feel free?

Yes.

Including feeling free from even joining a collective in order to pursue a competing position?

Yes

Property in at least some form is necessary for a lot of intrinsically emotionally pleasurable things.

Possessions that are respected by the rest of society is more or less the most rudimentary form. Even if its not “real”, life is not worth living without possessions, thus property.

I have no problem with possessions, I have a problem with creating a metaphysical fantasy of the idea of the "ownership" of things, property. I view property as the idea of the metaphysical "right" of ownership of an object or land. I reject that this really exists.

I could be made more accepting of that assuming the insurrection was engineered to be as bloodless as possible. I should clarify, on the anarchist vs authoritarian scale I merely lean anarchist. I’d not be that uncomfortable with the “statist” label of “Market Socialist” either. I just go with Mutualist because its slightly closer to my inclination to let individuals do what they want.

Why bloodless? When Capitalism is bathed in blood daily?

Agree to disagree, I don’t think that is an inevitability of Mutualism/Market-Socialism. Its an observation and a consistent phenomena of similar systems, but I don’t think its unavoidable with such a system. I view that as meta-narrative and I don’t believe in meta-narratives.

You need to understand the mechanisms of capitalist crisis. It's not a meta-narrative, we can demonstrate the contradictions of generalized commodity production in mathematical value terms.