The cup of tea/escaping capitalism debate

so i saq during the protest last qeekend, that some people qere qalkin past qith CLEARLY cups of tea CLEARLY bought from a cafe

n i though, qoq, youre so against capitalism but you clearly need capitalism qhen you qant a cup of tea

that is so hypocrite

🙂

sorry btq my q key is broeken

by HieronymusNosh at 13:01 on the 3,459th Day

It’s not actually possible to do most things without involving capitalism in some way. Let’s say you want a cup of tea so you buy one from a café. If you’re the sort of person who takes things as instantly ridiculous without thinking for two seconds, you’ll say, “that’s hypocritical; you hate capitalism but bought tea provided by capitalism!” So what’s the alternative?

You have to grow your own tea and collect your own water; that would certainly show the capitalists what’s what. So where do you get tea seeds without involving capitalism? Travel to China, where tea is native. How do you get to China without paying for travel? You have to walk and swim there. How do you get across borders without buying visas and so on? You do it illegally, though that still involves capitalism since paid visas are only necessary if states (a form of landownership) and money exist. You’d probably have to illegally acquire the tea seeds too, since someone owns the land it grows on.

So to avoid capitalism you have to avoid tea and just have water. How do you get water without buying it? You collect rainwater. How do you get the rainwater collecting equipment without buying it? Make it yourself. How do you get the tools to make it? Make them too. How do you get the materials to make the tools? Mine them yourself. Where do you get mining equipment? Make it yourself from wood. Where do you get wood without paying money? Fell a tree illegally (someone owns the land the tree grows in).

So the choices are:

1) Buy a cup of tea from the café and work to promote an alternative to capitalism,

2) Travel 6,000 miles away by foot, avoiding all the police forces on the way and subsisting on foraged food and water,

3) Cut a tree down with a sharpened bit of stone to collect unfiltered rainwater, if not collecting unfiltered riverwater or God forbid seawater.

Since the second and third are unfeasible, it presents a false choice. What is a false choice? Have you heard the “cake or death” joke by Eddie Izzard? In the joke, people queue up in a canteen and the dinner lady offers the choice: “cake or death?” After a while she says, “we’re going to run out of cake at this rate”. It’s not really a choice since no one in their right mind would choose death over cake, and similarly, no one could be expected to choose dying of dysentery on the way to China over a cup of tea from a café.

Is it ironic? Yes. Does it mean capitalism is pervasive? Yes. Does that mean dodgy capitalistic practices can’t be ended? Of course not. There was a time when it was impossible to avoid things made under feudalism and we’re out of that period. It’s like how you can oppose the moonlooming while the moonlooming is happening.

Myself, I quite like tea, so from the off it’s not fair to say I hate everything even slightly capitalist, but I can’t speak for everyone. I’m not entirely a socialist either, I just notice some (very big) flaws of capitalism at least as it exists now, and that’s okay to do isn’t it? Even if you’re pro-capitalism you can criticise it to improve it.

by Suckmyknobofbutter at 13:02 on the 3,459th Day

suck my knob of butter mate