It's the dunk tank.
This is where you come to post big-brained hot takes by chuds, libs, or even fellow leftists, and tear them to itty-bitty pieces with precision dunkstrikes.
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https://twitter.com/K_Niemietz/status/1704093894647161094
The think tank bros are not okay. Props to this dumbass retweeting all the people calling him a fucking idiot though. Good bit.
Unless they are gathering in dimly lit rooms and saying "we are doing capitalism", it's not real capitalism
they’re not lobbying in behalf of capitalism
But they literally are lol. 95% of the politicians and organizations they support denounce communism and champion capitalism, using the word capitalism. The remaining 5% are explicitly fascist.
That’s like me paying a bunch of money to a chef and saying “I actually don’t have a ‘personal chef’ per se. He just assembles an assortment of raw ingredients to create an elaborate source of sustenance.”
I would say that this is similar to how american liberals don't believe in any form of racism besides someone screaming the n word while using klan robes, but I am not convinced that these think tank ghouls believe in anything besides filling their pockets
Assuming he's not stupid and/or lying, looks like he's so annoying that despite being a think tanker, no business association is willing to invite him to any ! meetings.
He's the "head of political economy" at one of the oldest British neolib think tanks lmao
apolitical
I already knew this meant "status quo warrior ashamed of sounding right wing" but recent interactions with federated Lemmy users have really hammered in what a bunch of bootlicking sycophants for capitalism tend to call themselves "apolitical" or "nonpolitical." 
“The worst illiterate is the political illiterate, he doesn’t hear, doesn’t speak, nor participates in the political events. He doesn’t know the cost of life, the price of the bean, of the fish, of the flour, of the rent, of the shoes and of the medicine, all depends on political decisions. The political illiterate is so stupid that he is proud and swells his chest saying that he hates politics. The imbecile doesn’t know that, from his political ignorance is born the abandoned child, and the worst thieves of all, the bad politician, corrupted and flunky of the national and multinational companies.”
― Bertolt Brecht
how much could a bean cost, Michael... ten dollars?
“The worst illiterate is the political illiterate, he doesn’t hear, doesn’t speak, nor participates in the political events. He doesn’t know the cost of life, the price of the bean, of the fish, of the flour, of the rent, of the shoes and of the medicine, all depends on political decisions. The political illiterate is so stupid that he is proud and swells his chest saying that he hates politics. The imbecile doesn’t know that, from his political ignorance is born the abandoned child, and the worst thieves of all, the bad politician, corrupted and flunky of the national and multinational companies.”
― Bertolt Brecht
Wow, no blue check. I assumed this was a viral attempt.
we obviously just imagined the chamber of commerce and every other business lobbying group
This reminded me of a passage from that Conspiracist Manifesto released a few years ago. It was, uh, not great, but this quote has always stuck with me:
At this point, it would be foolish to ask whether they are conspiring, the 1% who hold %48 of the world's wealth, who attend the same type of schools, places and people everywhere, who read the same newspapers, succumb to the same fashions, bathe in the same discourses and in the same sense of their hereditary superiority
Of course they breathe the same air.
Of course they conspire.
They don't even have to plot for that
Those who suffer from conspiracy phobia are fond of saying: “Do you actually think there’s a group of people sitting around in a room plotting things?” For some reason that image is assumed to be so patently absurd as to invite only disclaimers. But where else would people of power get together – on park benches or carousels? Indeed, they meet in rooms: corporate boardrooms, Pentagon command rooms, at the Bohemian Grove, in the choice dining rooms at the best restaurants, resorts, hotels, and estates, in the many conference rooms at the White House, the NSA, the CIA, or wherever. And, yes, they consciously plot – though they call it “planning” and “strategizing” – and they do so in great secrecy, often resisting all efforts at public disclosure. No one confabulates and plans more than political and corporate elites and their hired specialists. To make the world safe for those who own it, politically active elements of the owning class have created a national security state that expends billions of dollars and enlists the efforts of vast numbers of people.
Also Epstein island, there’s that little gem
Damn that's a nice quote, shame
George Carlin has a nearly identical quote out there somewhere, which I'm sure is what the "conspiracist manifesto" is ripping off.
It was likely written by some French anarchist nerd, so idk if they would care who Carlin is lol
The water cycle? Kind of ridiculous to think all those rivers are working together, most of them only care about their own flow. The idea that they all work together to prop up an 'ocean' is ridiculous.
Even at the lowest local level, governments grovel at the feet of businesses, dare they be seen as hostile to commerce
USING YOUR MONEY AND POWER TO SUPPORT THE STATUS QUO IS NOT BEING 'APOLITICAL'! 
How much do you want to bet this person has a hidden checkmark?
What does "high-status conspiracy theory" mean? Cuz every "high-status capitalist" seems to keep blaming the Jews without fail.
it reminds me of when chuds call a Starbucks barista the elite but a white guy in the suburbs with a pool supply business and a $100,000 truck is working class
I am a man who has never heard of emergence before.
“There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.”
I can't get a business person to read their emails or attempt to understand their business even when a fuckload of money is on the line. The idea that they could have their mind changed about their desire for ownership and exploitation to live a fulfilled life in a world where we all suffer less is laughable. Their buy-in is incredibly solid. The idea that they'd strike a deal with a union more quickly than they would a CIA-backed mercenary group charging 20k to make the problem go away is ahistorical
Okay if capitalism doesn't exist and nobody does anything on behalf of it, then it should be okay if we overthrow it, right? I mean you can't defend that which doesn't exist. So if there's nothing to defend, then what's the problem with socialism? What are you preserving?
I already know how these people would answer. Their response is that what exists currently is simply freedom. Maybe some minor tweaks are necessary to bring more people into the fold of freedom, but otherwise what exists now is not an intended, designed structure.
However they'd claim socialism is an attempt to corral natural human freedom in an unnatural way.
These people don't like admitting that certain people have intrinsic political conflict with others. They view all conflict as misunderstandings or the personal moral failure of greed
Like this has got to be case in point of a generation raised on media who can only relate to politics through spectacle and aesthetics.....right? I'm coming up short on analogies but this is like the equivalent of wondering why UFC fights don't look like marvel movie action pieces or some shit. Like guess what kids: in real life oligarchs and business interests don't meet in secret shadowy smoke filled rooms. They meet out in the open on million dollar yachts and pieces of property and they often televise everything openly.
The real life truth is every bit as evil but its also infinitely more banal.
Tell me you've never read Marx without telling me you've never read Marx
This guy is onto something in that liberals don't perceive actions by markets as coordinated political actions. They see it as invisible, since capitalism wasn't formed on the basis of markets explicitly, its formation was couched in more vague rhetoric about freedom, liberty, fraternity. Some aspects of the formation of capitalism took the structure of religious debate, like protestants breaking from Catholicism.
Whereas all socialist movements have been more explicit about the aims and goals. The communists don't hide their intentions. That makes a communist government much more obvious in it's pursuits to the average liberal. It's why statements like "communism killed 100 million people" makes sense to a liberal in a way that a similar statement "capitalism killed billions of people" doesn't make sense to them.
They don't see capitalism as an agreed upon movement or enforcement of certain hierarchies. They see it as full liberation of people and simply the natural consequences of full liberation. But they can see socialism as an enforced structure, since socialists don't hide what they're doing and socialism is formed by a single united working class interest. Capitalists aren't always in unison with one another.
I mean the point is Adam Smith's hand is invisible
if it becomes visible, that's communism
i meant this as a joke but there's actually something there tbh
Which is hypocritical because every single US politician talks about bringing jobs into their state or district as part of their policy. But also businesses are job creators. Somehow nobody is responsible for lost jobs though. 
Again, they're making up our position in an absurd way, and then getting mad about it so they can dismiss it.
We need to incept a new logical fallacy that covers this. I've noticed that people have been using "wh@taboutism" against neoliberals around the internet. It's not turning the tide yet, but it's making some heads explode. All of a sudden comparing two similar situations is ok and is no longer wh@taboutism. Unless you're criticizing Dems of course, then you're just helping trumputler
If they only care about their business, that in and of itself makes a political statement. Absence of care defines politics as much as presence of care does
The guy doesn't even admit that capitalism exists, apparently. There's no evidence of the bourgeois class doing anything.
My man you are literally head of political economy at a think tank. What is there to think about if there are no people manifesting effects economically!?!
??? A business owner paying an employee minimum wage and seeking a profit from this exchange is a specific action taken by specific individuals.
This person is like a fish saying water doesn't exist if they see no actions performed by capitalists. Or their entire job is being as obfuscating as possible.
Man, people this bad at their jobs can get and keep jobs, why can't I?
