this post was submitted on 17 Mar 2026
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Late Stage Capitalism

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[–] Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 3 points 1 day ago

The allies of the US are largely saying fuck everything about this and not joining. Don't include us in their bullshit.

[–] BenLeMan@lemmy.world 40 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (3 children)

I call bullshit on the latter part of that statement. If it's wrong, it's wrong no matter who does it.

[–] AlexanderTheDead@lemmy.world 19 points 2 days ago (1 children)

lol no you don't get it! You're just trying to distract from the atrocities of your country that I consider you to be complicit in! I'm not complicit in the atrocities of MY chosen state! lmfao

[–] Alcoholicorn@mander.xyz 2 points 2 days ago (2 children)

It's totally in good faith when Israelis talk about how awful Hamas is on LGBT+ rights or when Americans do the same shit over Iran. You're definitely not just carrying water for imperialism.

I'm sure the people whose struggle you're so concerned about will thank you as they can't afford bread due to sanctions and their family is eviscerated by bombs.

[–] AlexanderTheDead@lemmy.world 6 points 2 days ago (7 children)

It's funny how I'm not even talking about Hamas, which I don't view as much of a state, and more of a militia operation? Ik they're technically the elected government but?

I'm talking about large scale world governments specifically. I'm not condemning mostly powerless people struggling for their lives.

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[–] BenLeMan@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

It's totally in good faith when Israelis talk about how awful Hamas is on LGBT+ rights or when Americans do the same shit over Iran. You're definitely not just carrying water for imperialism.

Just like it's totally okay to be a raging alcoholic who attacks random people on the Internet for opinions they do not hold.

[–] Zizzy@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 1 day ago

Thats not at all how I interpret the message. I interpreted as "when the US is invading somewhere under the guise of bringing freedom and peace," rather than, someone saying something bad about russia and it being refuted by the US being worse. In the first case the post can be true and still condemn multiple parties, because the US does infact try to excuse itself that way.

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[–] Berengaria_of_Navarre@lemmy.world 23 points 2 days ago (8 children)

You can hate both sides. The Iranian regime has killed substantially more Iranians (this year) than the USA has. Doesn't make the USA a good country, both countries are shit. The main difference is that the USA is a developing theocracy whereas Iran is an established one.

[–] DupaCycki@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

The main difference is that the USA is a developing theocracy whereas Iran is an established one.

I'd say the main difference is thay the USA has nuclear weapons and has killed dozens of millions of innocents, while Iran has only tried both and so far failed.

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[–] Hegar@fedia.io 16 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Power is murderous, the greater the power the more murderous.

As the US declines other already-murderous powers will prove themselves every bit as vile as western hegemony.

The problem is in the nature of power structures, not who has fought their way to the top at the moment.

[–] sartalon@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago

Power structures and, well... people.

[–] Jack@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (3 children)

Does anyone have sources for this?

I'm not an expert, and a quick look on Wikipedia shows that comparing just 2 recent big wars, the USA coalition's invasion of Iraq (2003-2011) killed approximately 151k to 655k[i] Iraqis, while the major Russian invasion or Ukraine (2022-ongoing) killed about 200k[u] Ukrainians.

Anyone have better numbers, and other non-defensive invasions?

[i] 151000 (2003-03/2006-06) New England Journal of Medicine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_Family_Health_Survey

460000 (2003-03/2011-06) PLOS Medicine Survey https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3797136/

654965 excess (2003-03/2006-07) Lancet survey, 186318 by coalition, 144246 by others, and 276472 by unknown https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancet_surveys_of_Iraq_War_casualties

[u] BBC https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce8n4l8elpgo This is just Ukrainians - if you include the Russian casualties then it may be more than 3 times that, and since some Russian soldiers may have been forced into the war (unlike in the Iraq war on the Western side), Russia should be held responsible for them getting killed also.

[–] Calfpupa@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Those are active murders, and are ignoring passive ones. Every death due to sanctions, every starvation in the US itself, every preventable death due to being blocked by the healthcare system. Add every death in Palestine, the Vietnam war, the internal struggles of China before the nationalists were defeated, every time they sold weapons to any group...

[–] Jack@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

According to the 2019 data at https://ourworldindata.org/causes-of-death 0.4% of deaths are from nutritional deficiencies (this may be defined differently from starvation), and 0.2% from war battle deaths, but that graph includes deaths which would occur because of aging so the percentages downplay these causes - I haven't been able to find good source for stats on preventable deaths.

What I also can't find is the percentage of indirect deaths caused by wars, which from that graph would probably mostly be from disease which could be big.

Sanctions probably are also a big cause of death from disease, neonatal deaths (3.3%), maternal deaths (0.4%), etc., but I personally think lots of sanctions and boycotts (of e.g. apartheid South Africa, Russia, North Korea, Palestine, Israel, Iran, USA) are actually good (I don't know much about the Cuban) even-tho innocents are victimized long before the authoritarians and/or oligarchs are ousted by the sanctions.

[–] leriotdelac@lemmy.zip 5 points 1 day ago

This.

However, it doesn't excuse the US from their military crimes.

In Russia, we also gladly use "what about": yeah, we might not be perfect, but just look at the USA... Bad rhetoric. (RU might take the cake for being the largest evil on earth, but even so it doesn't excuse others's crimes).

[–] sangeteria@lemmy.ml 0 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I'm not doubting your comparative analysis of these wars, but instead I would like to place another claim on the table: wars are no longer the primary vehicle of violence in our global society, just the most naked and public-facing violence.

Some examples of these other acts (and these are indeed heavily interrelated):

  • IMF loans and enforced austerity/liberalization
  • NED-related influence operations
  • coups
  • sanctions
  • embargoes
  • military presence itself (via bases)
  • funding of militant proxy groups

(Note that the primary vehicle of harm here is slowly economically depriving and strangling average people up to the last dollar, worldwide). Then you add this suffering to when the violence becomes protracted and sharpened via war.

Russia simply can't do this. Idk if it wants to; it probably does considering Ukraine (also Russia isn't like a person lol and I don't think it's all just Putin bc putting shit on one guy is naive imo; you can always replace the one guy). But Russia does not have the military and economic influence the US does.

This is just my understanding of the world like philosophically as I've spent 20-something beautiful years on this blue-green marble and another 375 on the red one (and also I'm like... incredibly lazy as a person!) so no sources 😔 but I am amenable to receiving new evidence!

[–] Jack@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 day ago

Your comments are welcome to my response to user Calfpupa above.

[–] lauha@lemmy.world 8 points 2 days ago (1 children)
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[–] favoredponcho@lemmy.zip 6 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Russia has killed more than the US in the last several years. Iran has also killed tens of thousands of its own citizens.

I don’t support the war in Iran, but come on. This comment is just ridiculous.

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[–] BlameThePeacock@lemmy.ca 8 points 2 days ago (3 children)

What does "and allies" encompass?

What does "murderous power structure" even mean?

Sources?

Yes the US is doing bad things. Human history is pretty much different groups taking turns doing the most murdering.

I'm not saying it's a good thing, but can you show me a realistic path to stop it? Every time a power has fades in history, another one steps up to take its place.

Can you prove to me that the next one will be better than the one we have now?

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[–] Grail@multiverse.soulism.net 5 points 2 days ago (30 children)

The Republicans are way more murderous than the Democrats so I guess criticising the Democrats is a distraction and helps the fascists according to OP's logic.

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