this post was submitted on 20 May 2026
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Thats my point, humans are more harmonious in their default mental state. Capitalism had to come from somewhere. Some unhealthy people made this and we've been dancing to their tune ever since.
That's extremely idealist, not a materialist way of understanding the world. Capitalism emerged from the material circumstances of that time, the contradictions of feudalism were causing ruptures that led to economic power concentrating along with the accumulation of capital. The development of new forms of production and exchange that the old system could no longer contain were what "made" capitalism, it wasn’t created by "unhealthy" individuals, but arose out of changing material conditions and class relations. We aren't in this situation because "some mentally ill people snapped it into existence." That's not how the world works, and neither "removing the unhealthy people from power" nor "making people healthy" are going to end capitalism or bring us socialism.
I dont have the words to describe what I mean. But I dont believe that people who exhibit traits of Machiavellism or any other intense dark traid traits should just be shunted or killed and we move on, and I definitely dont believe that if Anarchism or Communism was the main mode of the world these people would vanish, they'll still be here. So we need a more developed understanding of these hypertendencies and fixations.
I personally don't like lumping the mentally ill with them, as some of the biggest sufferers under this system are mentally ill.
But I'm pretty sure that's not where you're coming from and your heart is likely in the right place so I'll stop lecturing you
if it helps, "mentally ill" is a pretty fake category and we shouldn't be lumped in with each other, so adding some kind of "too obsessed with making the money number go up syndrome" to the dsm shouldn't be understood as getting anything on the rest of us.
Remember that the people who make and use the DSM are the same people who said Drapetomania was a real thing and still say Oppositional Defiant Disorder is a real thing. Most understandings of "mental illness" victimize and pathologise the already marginalised and oppressed more than they actually help people who truly need help.
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right that's part of why it's a fake grouping.
whatever is wrong with the leeches isn't perceived by liberal society as dysfunction, and pathologizing it doesn't further the marginalization of anyone because jeff bezos disease doesn't present in people with modest amounts of money. even grindset bros would relax on a few million, there's gotta be something extra going on with the ones who keep going because they don't all try to keep going like that. the entire point of it for FIRE types is that you get to stop at some point.
Yeah, sounds about right.
These people do definitely have something wrong with them, it's just that liberal society rewards that while pathologizing people who can't fit into capitalism and to a lesser degree all the normal people like you and me who don't have any form of "line go up" disease.
If we want to consider them mentally ill, that requires a complete restructuring of the societal role that "mental health" as an institution occupies.
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Whether or not their heart is in the right place, you're totally right
and expressing that doesn't mean you're lecturing someone!
For real I didnt take it that way. I like chopping the block with the bears. Talking about these things is how they get better.