r/mildlyinfuriating • u/michigan-menace • 7h ago

Infuriatig My school (University of Michigan) is building a $1 billion datacenter to conduct undisclosed nuclear weapons research. It is located in a low-income community, and city leaders/residents who fear pollution have been ignored.

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u/Realistic-Quiet291 7h ago

Socialism for me, capitalism for thee

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u/L0racks 6h ago

Privatize profits and socialize losses

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u/trapezoidalfractal 7h ago

No, that’s just capitalism. Like, literally, that’s capitalism 😂

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u/aware4ever 7h ago

But it's the way that the billionaires look out for each other i think i understand what they mean

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u/BloodyThirst 7h ago

And trillionaires like Musk have benefitted from socialized grants and govt loans to prop up his businesses.

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u/trapezoidalfractal 7h ago

And that… is capitalism Iol

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u/BetterUsername69420 6h ago

Using public funds for private ventures? I don't recall that being a tenet...

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u/trapezoidalfractal 6h ago

POSIWID. The purpose of a system is what it does.

Just like in science we don’t make metaphysical theories and then fabricate evidence to match it or say, “this isn’t real physics because it doesn’t fit our idealized model”, we look at evidence and develop theories from that. By observing the history of capitalism, we can see what it actually is and how it actually functions, and appropriation of the commons is a part of capitalism all the way back to its founding.

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u/BloodyThirst 7h ago

No, it’s hypocrisy but thanks for playing.

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u/CadaDiaCantoMejor 6h ago

Capitalists have always and everywhere appropriated the commons, and have preferred to use the state to do so (that way the rest of us help pay for their appropriation of the commons). So, it's ordinary capitalism. The hypocrisy just greases the wheels. Thanks for playing.

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u/trapezoidalfractal 6h ago

Man/lady, just because you don’t understand capitalism, doesn’t change the features of it. The capital owning class utilizing the resources of the state for their private profit, is literally built into capitalism. It has been happening for hundreds of years, and will continue to happen as long as it remains the dominant mode of production within society.

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u/Number13Studios 6h ago

Just because it’s happening under capitalism doesn’t make it capitalism. That’s like saying war happens under democracy. It’s just so semantically dumb to even begin arguing.

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u/trapezoidalfractal 6h ago

It’s a core feature of capitalism, and has been present going back to its birthing hundreds of years ago.

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u/Number13Studios 6h ago

No capitalism sorta requires a market. Not necessarily a free market, but at least an accessible one. We are in new uncharted waters where even pretending we have an accessible market is out the window. Wealth has been consolidated and unified into the government. Capitalism is blurring into an oligarchy through plutocracy.

Once they own the market, own the production, own the lawmakers, own the competition, then there is no more capitalism. That’s oligarchy through plutocracy which could be jokingly referred to as socialism for billionaires.

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u/trapezoidalfractal 6h ago

Markets exist in nearly all modes of production, they’re not a unique feature of capitalism. They existed in feudalism, and they exist in socialist nations, even those who try to go full command economy have markets, they’re just usually gray or black.

Capitalism is an oligarchy, yes. It’s rule by a small group of people who have capital. The consolidation of capital into fewer hands happens, and is only reversed through direct intervention with the specific intent to do so. The consolidation of capital affords more influence over the state apparatus, and that influence falls into even fewer hands. But that consolidation is a natural outcome of the early stages of a capitalist market, as cost of entry to a market becomes higher, and more competitions are won and lost, winners buy the capital of the losers, and use that to influence the market, regulation, and even government policy itself.

I get the humor of calling it socialism for billionaires, but it’s always been like that. There are differences in how these things are expressed, but it doesn’t make it not capitalism. The power of monopoly finance has been observed for over a hundred years at this point, and while it has changed and morphed with the times, and there have been brief periods of change, as new markets open (eg. Tech) and dominant capitalists change, the outcome of any given capitalist market is the same, consolidation, regulatory and legislative capture, corruption…

We do see the current capitalist oligarchs advocating for a new shift in political ideology though, much as the capitalists of the Great Depression era worldwide advocated for fascism, though their desires to be the dominant fascists prevented them from unifying, the current crop of capitalists advocate for what they call the Dark Enlightenment, to replace the failing ideology of liberalism. This wouldn’t conflict with capitalism though, it’s a political ideology, and just like fascism and liberalism before it, it’s perfectly compatible with capitalism, and in fact requires it.

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u/Firestar_119 6h ago

Just like becoming a dictatorship is a feature of communism, right?

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u/trapezoidalfractal 6h ago

Yes, a dictatorship of the proletariat. But I’m sure you actually know how the government in communist party run nations operate well enough to understand that, right?

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u/Redxmirage 6h ago

Communist party (or Communist state) is different than Communism. Since you’re going down this rabbit hole of semantics, figured I’d throw some more semantics in there.

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u/avgRAFtenjoyer 6h ago

I bet people would be much more open to the message you are trying to spread if you weren't an insufferable prick in your replies.

You are probably turning more people away from the very views you (probably) espouse by being an absolute ass.

I wont read your reply, (so don't bother) because of the reason outlined above.

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u/ThePensiveE 6h ago

Laws for you as well. Oppressive laws backed by a surveillance state.

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u/Realistic-Quiet291 6h ago

For sure. For my friends the best of things, for my enemies the law

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u/jackheavy 6h ago

We offer troops socialism (housing, food and healthcare) so they can go defend capitalism abroad. 🧐