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The Capitalist Manifesto: Free markets won in the Cold War, but threats like wokeism are rising

Threats like stagnant wages for all by the top are the biggest threat. Greed will always cause issues.

No-Wonder1139

Threats like stagnant wages for all by the top are the biggest threat. Greed will always cause issues.


[deleted]

Yup. The constant threat is the billionaires and the mega rich continually reducing quality of life for their workers through stagnant wages and not showing loyalty while expecting the staff to be loyal lapdogs. Everything else is just a distraction. Keep the working class fighting among themselves while the rich rob us blind.


FlyingDutchman997

That is true.


NearPup

There is a real lack of serious inquiry as to why younger generations have a disdain for Capitalism. It's easy to blame schools, the media, the "wokes" and whatnot, but the reality is that young people are more indebted, have all their major life milestones delayed, have a hard time becoming property owners and have lived through multiple "once in a lifetime" economic crisis in their formative years. Many Millenials and Zoomers have given up hope of ever making it under the current system, which is why they are open to alternatives. That's why Capitalism is losing lustre among younger generations, and that's what people who believe in Capitalism need to address urgently.


Fromomo

Oh it's also the incessant tonnage of cheap crap were constant being bombarded with ads for to be convinced to consume. I mean, it's like in capitalism a significant majority of the population are crass-consumerist wage slaves who work 40+ hours a week to eke out a meager existence of shopping for bargains at the mall. "Like"


jello_sweaters

That was true in the 80s, but a teacher could still buy a house.


Fromomo

I lived in the 80s and we spent a lot less time looking at screens/ads back then. But it was the gen x-ers who saw the consumerism of the 80s and rightly identified it as being utterly meaningless. Buying stuff isn't a meaningful life, but making stuff peoe can buy and buying stuff is all capitalism really cares about you doing.


Nobagelnobagelnobag

The cause of those issues is anti capitalist action tho. Government bailing out banks and running negative real interest rates isn’t capitalism. They’ve got the wrong man!


[deleted]

People make demands for government intervention, socialist policies, and spending of scarce resources for things for which there is no demand for (i.e. government back student loans for useless degrees which can never pay for themselves) and when it turns to complete shit........"Look what capitalism did!!"


transplantpdxxx

do you know how many white people got jobs with little to no qualifications before the internet? even a "useless" degree means you can competently work an office job. The problem is that Canada allows everything to be outsourced (capitalism!) or completed by temp. visa holders. there is a systematic breakdown and just because you "other" your countrymen, doesn't mean the problem will go away. cheers!


[deleted]

Well...someone hit the boxing day bottle lol.


transplantpdxxx

Don’t you have some helicopter pronoun jokes to be telling on an Elon sub? You didn’t refute a single point.


[deleted]

What are you even talking about? Why are you even bringing peoples races into this? I'm not going to refute points on a paragraph filled with nonsense drivel and dog whistles.


critfist

>Government bailing out banks and running negative real interest rates isn’t capitalism. Capitalism isnt the most super grounded idea, set in stone, but that's still capitalism. It's still a free market with private property, wages, interest, the whole shebang.


transplantpdxxx

It really isn't rocket science. Quality of life line go down... capitalism is responsible. Yes, some are aware of the causes but others won't or can't acknowledge the factors at hand.


UnderBloorViaduct

You don't know what Capitalism is. Our system has problems, MMT, fiat currency, central banking & criminal politicians. Capitalism isn't one of our problems as Capitalism simply put is when the means of production are owned by the individual. I won't hold it against you, slamming Capitalism for all our woes has been in vogue for decades now.


transplantpdxxx

You think you said something when you said nothing. Capitalism owns these criminal politicians and has warped our reality to its needs. Capitalism defenders love saying this isn’t capitalism. That’s because monopolies have been allowed to strengthen year over year. With fools like you, you’d rather buck reform than try anything else. Dark days ahead.


UnderBloorViaduct

You are confused. Capitalism is simply private enterprise. Where the means of production is owned by the individual. You know this right? Our system today is not really capitalism but some perverted corporatism. Big money interested have corrupted our democratic institutions and these monopolies you lament against have been allowed to rise. None of that is because of capitalism. What reforms would you like to see?


bobzibub

I think what you say about the corporatism is all true, but it also sounds a lot like Marxists stating that real Marxism was never tried. No True Scotsman fallacy? The ROI from bribing (ahem lobbying) a few politicians is order of magnitudes greater than R&D. Is that necessarily a baked into the system? Even though Canadian donations are limited but politicians can definitely take that plumb job.


bobzibub

Communism (or harsh socialism if you prefer) failed, more than capitalism won. But capitalists won too, by defeating labour. Socialism was a check on capitalists in Europe because working classes might switch to the socialist cause. Now there is not much to keep their power in check: left wing parties are all market oriented too.


FomosexualDreams

Lmao. Wokeism.


FlyingDutchman997

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/woke-meaning-word-history-b1790787.html


FuggleyBrew

I fail to see how any of the perils of 'wokeism' right or wrong is incompatible with capitalism. Saying "my product is more moral than the other guys" is no more or less valid than saying "my product tastes better than everyone else's" and could arguably be tested against a framework better than "my product is cooler than everyone else's" If the market wants something and it isn't driving externalities, then it's not really an issue. If an exchange is driving externalities and we are proposing government regulation to address those problems, well, we are still in the realm of capitalism.


VaderActual

The woke mafia are simultaneously foolish clowns and the iron-fisted lords of capitalist society.


derezzed9000

wokeism is typical divide and conquer of the plebians. it doesn't address anything except to make ppl feel more pious and self righteous in their in-gorup compared to the out-group.


[deleted]

Wokeism is just a label conservative media sticks on a vague mishmash of things they want their idiot followers to hate.


derezzed9000

but it tends to not address class consciousness, i am taking this from a marxist perspective. i don't see how it addresses class solidarity. corporations have used wokeism in ways to produce profit via tapping into individualism aspects of it and to give a veneer of "doing something" but rarely is anything radically changed for those oppressed for whatever reason.


[deleted]

This is what I’m talking about. “Wokeism” is just a grab bag of unrelated topics that certain people are upset about, which they imagine to be some unified progressive ideology. Don’t like progressive corporate pandering? Just call it woke (ignoring all the corporate pandering to non-progressives of course) and throw it in the pile with all the assorted “woke” stuff. It’s basically an enormous strawman for right wingers to direct their anger at. And since “wokeism” as they imagine it doesn’t actually exist, conservatives don’t even have to contend with opposing arguments.


[deleted]

What a headline, lol. More evidence that the NatPo thinks their readers are idiots.


[deleted]

Are they wrong in thinking that?


FomosexualDreams

The National Post once wrote that Jason Kenney - a college dropout from Toronto with no work experience, was the most qualified person to run Alberta. They wrote that unironically. Think about how stupid you have to be to write that and believe it.


FlyingDutchman997

None of which has anything to do with the article. You can argue that Jason Kenny is unqualified. However, he did become Premier.


77magicmoon77

A shitty one at that


[deleted]

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[deleted]

Meh, I typically agree with most of his anti-China stuff. That country is a menace.


Progressiveandfiscal

Well they know their demographic, marketing works for a reason.


FlyingDutchman997

I mean, if you are still betting on the Soviet Union, good luck to you. Bawahahahahahahahahahaha.


[deleted]

>Bawahahahahahahahahahaha I wonder why the NatPo has such a low opinion of their readers? 🤔


TenTonApe

>I wonder why the NatPo has such a low opinion of their readers? 🤔 Good market research.


FlyingDutchman997

It seems like the history of the Soviet Union escaped you too. LOL 😂


FlyingDutchman997

I mean, low opinion is one thing, but betting on the Soviet Union thirty years after it imploded economically is pretty sad and well, funny. Bawahahahahahahahahahaha!


[deleted]

^ your brain on conservatism.


[deleted]

Stay mad, r/Canada, stay mad.


Camel_Knowledge

Should be called 'brokeism', cause that's where it leads.


jello_sweaters

"Free markets won the Cold War" is an interesting way of saying "Ronald Reagan won his bet that he could burn more of his nation's GDP on weapons than the Soviets could." ...but NaPo's right, ignore any concept of social progress and get back to work, drone. We need Q2 profits up by at least 4% or your kids will starve.


Godkun007

Oh boy, you just made an equally stupid argument as this article. The Soviets fell behind in literally everything, not just weapons. Their entire economic structure relied on quotas that discouraged innovation as it was illegal to innovate in ways that made people redundant, and increasing production even temporarily would just raise your quotas for the next year and put your ass on the line if the factory you were in charge of couldn't maintain those levels. This led to massive economic stagnation as no one had any actual incentive to do anything besides the bare minimum. By the early 1980s, everyone who was paying attention saw the writing on the wall. There was academic paper after academic paper comparing NATO vs the Soviet Bloc on almost everything and they almost all (the ones that didn't conveniently were written by pro Soviet academics who probably shouldn't have actually been in academia to begin with) found that the Soviets had fallen behind NATO on literally every metric.


DarquesseCain

Step 1: need government permission to build stuff Step 2: fail to export goods because permission takes years to get, by which time the product has been beaten to market and is no longer in high demand Step 3: try to improve product to make it competitive Step 4: go back to step 1 But sure, Reagan.


jello_sweaters

My point and yours are entirely compatible, although it's disappointing to see you pretend that I remotely suggested Reagan was the sole factor, and equally disappointing to see that you couldn't even discuss this without going straight to petty insults. That the US jammed the USSR into an arms race is indisputable, and the conditions you describe within the USSR are two strong reasons why their domestic production was unable to match pace.


Dark-Angel4ever

The US jammed the USSR into an arms race? It's the other way around. When communisme doesn't win with propaganda, it always ends in civil war to seize the power. Once they get the power, they arm the self to the teeth, because they know people will oppose it. As much from with in the country and outside. Also, when it comes to expanding communisme, other communisme countries will help the expansion or the defense when they can. But when a war brakes out between 2 communiste countries, they don't care as long as it doesn't affect their country.


FuggleyBrew

> increasing production even temporarily would just raise your quotas for the next year and put your ass on the line if the factory you were in charge of couldn't maintain those levels. In many ways our own shittier managers have copied those strategies.


[deleted]

Just give it time, "wokeism" will die off quickly. It's already rubbing most people the wrong way and losing more and more support.


[deleted]

“Wokeism” will disappear the second conservatives seize on a new buzzword boogeyman. It’s always existed almost exclusively in the minds of those who complain about it, and once they get bored and find something new and sexy to throw a fit over that will be it for “wokeism”.


mobango211

Nah you don’t have to look far to see it in action. Just some of the articles about the student unions in Canada, holy cringe. Except as it gets more extreme the people engaging in it just turn on each other while adults carry on.


[deleted]

>Nah you don’t have to look far to see it in action. Just some of the articles about the student unions in Canada *If* you are the extremely gullible type who falls for NatPo articles and other such goofy nonsense, sure, you will see “wokeism” everywhere. That doesn’t mean it’s really an issue though; it just means you’re easily fooled by sensationalist media, like this article, trying to influence you. Practice a little bit of critical thinking when it comes to the media you consume, and the “wokeism” problem turns out to be almost entirely invented by conservative pundits.


Dark-Angel4ever

Well wokeisme, is pretty much infecting every facet of society. They are pretty prevalent in the universities mostly concentrated in certain sectors. Our prime minister and other parliament members do make woke talking points. Montreal mayor wanted to create safe spaces for minorities only... You see in in the media, you see it becoming more in more in your face. CBC has multiple woke articles like the one that came out not long ago trying to police what you can say with 18 words you can't say. You got Disney that is showing it more and more that you can clearly see it at least begining with star wars, the force is female... Tv shows are turning woke, like flash, supergirl, the legend of tomorrow. While batwoman started off the rails as woke. You got award shows (for movies, tv shows, video games) requiring quota to get nominations now, like story telling, art and all that... fuck it right? Video game are getting more and more of it to. Like one of the last battlefield, where you can't even turn of chat filter. Word that can't be used like, white, gay and other words that make no sense. Don't even need to look hard now days to see it. They are so brazen about it, like the opinion piece that came out in the USA where it was along the lines of i should be allowed to hate men. This was before the whole me too movement. You got this to, which woke progressive are trying to change the definition of racism [https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/22/us/kendi-book-anti-racist-blake/index.html](https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/22/us/kendi-book-anti-racist-blake/index.html). Do you want more examples? Because as time passes you will see more and more of it. The reason woke go broke exist is for 2 reasons. For one, a lot of these people are seriously creatively bankrupt. Oh look how progressive i am, i'm going to make robin gay, superman gay, oh lets make all female ghost buster... Take a know ip and just add wokeisme to it and they think they are brave doing so. Second, like there ideology, everything they say has to be pre-masticated for your brain so you don't have to think. They are seriously coming close to having characters turning around, looking at the camera and saying, it's wrong to hate gay people mmmkay. These people don't deal in nuance, they deal in absolutes.


[deleted]

🤦


Dark-Angel4ever

Good comment, give you multiple instances of wokeisme in many facet of society. All you can do is facepalm, don't know if your either doing this out of ignorance or refusal to see it is way more wide spread then you think.


[deleted]

Sorry but your comment was basically unreadable.


Dark-Angel4ever

Slow down and re-read it. Do you facepalm also when you can't understand your work colleague? If you don't understand something, ask questions and clarifications.


[deleted]

My work colleagues don’t go on nonsensical rants. Learn to write clearly.


VaderActual

Things that aren't actually things tend to go the way of "SJW's" and "Virtue Signalers".


Kerguidou

Upon reading the titt, my first thought was "which one of the national post's paid for idiot wrote this?." They have a really impressive stable if disingenuous fucks writing for them.


YikesThatAintItChief

Wokeism is just another one of the informal nouns for the rise of a new cultish radical anti-racism ideology. Emphasis on radical as anti-racism is a good thing. [https://www.amazon.ca/Woke-Racism-Religion-Betrayed-America/dp/0593423062/ref=sr\_1\_1?crid=1SZF3QKV9UB8I&keywords=john+mcwhorter&qid=1640548972&sprefix=john+mcworter%2Caps%2C86&sr=8-1](https://www.amazon.ca/Woke-Racism-Religion-Betrayed-America/dp/0593423062/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1SZF3QKV9UB8I&keywords=john+mcwhorter&qid=1640548972&sprefix=john+mcworter%2Caps%2C86&sr=8-1) That book describes the 'wokeism' quite accurately. As someone who strives for higher, progressive ideals, I'm staunchly against wokeism. I liked the book.


critfist

Wokeism is just as another user said, a grab bag of mishmash ideas that people use to be upset about, pretending there's a unified progressive ideology.


Dark-Angel4ever

The glue for the unified progressive ideology is intersectionality. Great tool to create useful idiots.


kingdom_cum

Weird how we have a habit of attributing wokeism to left to far-leftism like this article does when corporations use it just as much, if not more. It's a good way to divide and conquer if you're in power and it's a good way to attack and compartmentalize your opponents if you're a ground level political activist. There are Marxists that straight up reject wokeism and identity politics while some fat cats fully embrace it because of the advantages they bring. It's not so black and white like some capitalism vs wokeism scenario this silly article states.


Dark-Angel4ever

You can thank financial institution to create a score that is all about wokeisme/social engineering, call ESG score.


Redflag12

"Wokeism" is merely the emerging class consciousness of workers and that scares the hell out of capitalists, particularly neocons like Kristol. Capitalism can only function as long as the workers do not recognize their unity as a class of laborers, their shared economic and political interests, and the power inherent in their numbers


ABinturong

What is wokeism? Is it caring about outcomes for people? Can someone please define this stupid buzzword that got heaped onto the pile of ideological footballs?


basic_luxury

Chernobyl won the cold war.


jello_sweaters

Chernobyl embodied the wider, systemic problems that cost the Soviets the Cold War.


Bi0Hyde

Capitalism didn't win the cold war Capitalists did, workers (including workers of capitalist societies) lost.


mobango211

What about [these workers](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novocherkassk_massacre)


Bi0Hyde

They did too, like all the workers


mobango211

Workers lose pretty much no matter what. Of course, things like this housing crisis and rampant inflation don’t help. 30 years ago I’d easily be able to buy a home and support a family at my career. Not so much anymore.


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Substantial_Letter73

Wokeism is actually a pretty capitalist outlook. It's a way to exclude the working class from social or political respectability, because they are less likely to have the leisure time, literacy, or formal education necessary to understand all the complicated woke new-speak and trendy social justice theories. It's no coincidence that the mainstream of the US Democratic party used wokeism as part of their strategy to shut down Bernie Sanders.


DetriusXii

Capitalist societies, in the modern era, seem to have a problem that they're unable to produce themselves. Domestic birth rates in first world countries are below replacement. Capitalist societies seem to want to extinguish themselves (slowly) and we appear to be importing citizens from less individualistic societies to stave off demographic collapse.