I’m that too, but I’m definitely addicted to a lot of things and capitalism exploits the human brain’s love of dopamine, since it’s an easy way to keep us consuming
But I want to give away my work for free for the betterment of humanity, as long as I get a reasonable standard of living in return.
Does it make me a freeloader if I specifically want to remove my own possibility for becoming rich? As long as it's ensured nobody will needlessly suffer?
I don't suspect you're someone who will debate in good faith, but I'll bite anyway.
It's actually the opposite, Capitalists are freeloaders because they only need to own, and because they own, they can extract from the value of the labor of other people.
If the means of production are shared among the laborers, then the laborers get to proportionally share the fruits of their own labor, without a freeloader owner skimming off without helping.
As a freelance writer I'll usually avoid topics that fall into the "well d'uh" category.
Turns out I've been limiting my career path...
Capitalism turns people into addicts? No shit... that's entirely the point of capitalism. It's literally the defining characteristic.
Shit...I have an article in my hard drive right now about how our disposable approach to consumer electronics robs our generation of a sense of historical provenance.
I've never even considered publishing it because to me it falls into the "no shit... everyone already knows that" category.
Has never gone through the proper final edit. But my central thesis came when I was watching Antiques Roadshow and my brain tried to reconcile a pocket watch carried by a civil war soldier; engraved and handed down through generations until it lands in a museum in 2021 (when I began working on the article).
While in comparison, a modern smartwatch, that literally no one cares about once the company stops supporting it with software updates.
Certainly there are modern objects that will find a home in the museums of tomorrow (the first iPhone, for example). But as a writer (who went to university initially for archaeology) interested in artifacts from daily life, our generation's place in the museums of the future is effectively erased because we have nothing to preserve that anyone would honestly give a damn about.
By creating a world dominated by disposable things, companies have effectively taken control of our very legacy. If the only item worthy off being studied is one of corporate significance (the first iPhone, the first smartwatch, etc...), then we lose our personal connection to that legacy.
It's obviously more complicated than all that, and delves into how we study the techniques of individual potters and painters, for example. If I ever get it publication ready it would be a miracle.
No shit… that’s entirely the point of capitalism. It’s literally the defining characteristic.
Eh, not really. I mean, it pretty much is now, but as the guy in the article says, it's fundamentally different to sell juul than it is to sell like shovels or some regular product.
Watching the NFL yesterday for the first time in a few years, I was blown away by how much it's just a mechanism for pushing gambling addiction and alcoholism.
There's another article I'll drop here that talks about how cigarette manufacturers, once their addictive schemes were found out, went on to make Kraft Foods and Nabisco (who make oreos). Using their background in peddling addictive substances, they utilized the same model by creating "hyper palatable foods." basically, foods full of carbs and sugar, that trigger the dopamine response in your brain.
They drove people to early death from lung cancer, emphysema, and COPD, and when their scheme was found out, they started driving people to early death from diabetes, heart disease, and every other condition that obesity exacerbates.
There are currently class action lawsuits going after opioid makers for their lies about the addictive properties of their drug (FUCK THE SACKLER FAMILY), why not these Kraft foods too?
Yea, but it's more devious than that. Technology making it possible micro target groups and individuals get kinda scary. If I know enough about you, I can almost convince you if anything. All top tier marketing peeps know this.
Think, for example, of all the apps and platforms specifically designed to hijack our attention with pings and dopamine hits while harvesting our data.
I spoke to Courtwright about the problems this has created, why the battle against limbic capitalism is seemingly endless, and if he thinks we’re destined to live in a consumerist dystopia.
But what’s happened in the last 100 years or so is that more of these commercial strategies come from highly organized corporations that do very sophisticated research and find more ways to market these addictive goods and services.
So again, the demand, “I’ve got to eat something,” was always there, but what the processed food industry does, because it’s so competitive, is create products that will provide the calories and nutrients in ways that act like mood-altering drugs.
Sure, everyone needs to eat, but not everyone needs to tweet or buy 13 pairs of sunglasses or own a closet of products that add nothing to their life apart from marking their identity and status for other people.
And we have tax policy, we have potential structural limitations, we have lawsuits and big class action cases that pose serious problems for American limbic capitalists.
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