I’ve lurked here since day 2, but I haven’t made a post on here yet so let my first one be an effort post, even though I suck at posting and efforts.

Ever since I read Mark Fisher’s “Capitalist Realism, is there no alternative?” a couple of years back, my politics and the lens through which I view and understand the world has been pretty much unchanged. Nothing that I read or watched after that really had an impact on me, or at least not one of this size.

In the country/region I was born in the most popular party has a concept called “climate realism”, and this morning rereading Capitalist Realism I couldn’t help but think that it’s pretty much the same deal. Climate realism is a position held by absolute ghouls, it’s acknowledging that there’s catastrophic change coming for us and things will keep getting worse; but that we can only try to prepare or mitigate within the confines of our dear capitalist system, where the only truth is the market, and the only tools are taxes.

Climate realism is capitalist realism. Capitalist realism is the idea that there is no alternative, that only solutions that work within capitalism are even conceivable. Which is why the most radical idea somewhat accepted by liberals is a carbon tax, because taxes is pretty much the only tool governments have left after privatizing almost everything.

Capitalist realism is of course so completely ingrained into politics and culture, that even proposing alternative solutions like nationalizing electric companies so you actually have direct control over future investments, would immediately condemn you to the political margins. And maybe we won’t get ridiculous situations like when corona first hit, where Germany’s coal powerplants kept running even though lack of demand resulted in negative electricity prices.

Don’t get me wrong, having green parties and left parties in power that function within capitalism is still way better than neolibs and neocons, but their policy would still be confined by our political culture of capitalist realism. However in said country/region I’m from, neolibs have way more power, so we won’t even get that.

So I guess we just end up waiting for some giant contingency that will change everything and make things possible again.

I hope I’m wrong and I probably am.

What book has cemented your politics? Is there anything I could read that might evolve me beyond this extremely depressing worldview?

tldr: shitty effortpost

  • DragonNest_Aidit [they/them,use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
    1·
    4 years ago

    As a third worlder in the equator it absolutely pisses me off how the western world is likely going to survive the catastrophe with their lands being warmer, while we burns to death in this fucking hellword desert.

    Sometimes I fantasizes that in this scenario the global south unites to build a nuclear arsenal to fucking annihilate the north. Itll be the end of fucking humanity but Id rather go down killing everything rather letting these colonizing fucks smugly survives into the future.

    • ZengakurenStick [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
      2·
      4 years ago

      As a Chilean I’ve always thought that, if a socialist revolution ever comes out of a country here, its primordial effort should be to make a unification of Latin America. It’s very unlikely to happen, but it’s something to think about

  • poppy_apocalypse [he/him, any]@hexbear.netEnglish
    0·
    4 years ago

    Hurricane realism is really frustrating because an alternative to insurance and praying exists in Cuba. I reckon most yanks would prefer death over adopting some ideas from the commies.

    • no_youre_a_liberal [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
      1·
      4 years ago

      A lot of yanks are Liberty Prime from Fallout 3 unironically. “Death is a preferable alternative to Communism,” and you see that with the reactions to even mild life-saving reforms. Sad to see, really.