How Capitalism Destroys Radical Movements

Movements like Black Lives Matter often start out as radical demands for change, but someone along the way they get consumed, defanged, and turned into meaningless symbols. How does this happen?

How Capitalism Destroys Radical Movements – Second Thought

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Citations and Further Reading

Guy Debord/The Spectacle/Recuperation

Black Lives Matter & Defund the Police

Antonio Gramsci & Hegemony

Capitalist Realism

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About Second Thought:
Second Thought is a channel devoted to education and analysis of current events from a Leftist perspective. Welcome!

[fatcat]

This is what happened to the punk movement. Companies know that people want to feel like rebels, but most people are uncomfortable with actual rebellious ideas. So companies sold the aesthetics of punk without the substance, and it worked so well that punk suddenly *became* the aesthetics in the eyes of many people.

[shodanwashere]

this line of thought reminds me of one of Elliot's speeches in Mr. Robot:
"They packaged our fight into product. Turned our dissent into intellectual property. Televised our revolution with commercial breaks. They backdoored into our minds and stole our truth, refurbished the facts, then marked up the price."

[mossydog]

"Society is something to be imagined, not endured".
Stay engaged, don't give up, this is a multigenerational project.

[njcurmudgeon]

My wife ad I attended the Women's March in Washington DC in 2016. It was an extraordinary experience that had the visceral feeling of "making history." Seeing more people in one place than I will likely ever see in my lifetime, from so many different backgrounds, all ostensibly on the same page, felt validating and affirming. And...yet...in the end, it changed nothing. Yes, maybe some women were inspired to run for office here or there. And yes, it was good for our mental health to see we were not alone. But what did it accomplish substantively in the long run? It was a moment, not a movement. Despite the energy, it was not sustained or focused in ways that would bring about the deep fundamental changes necessary. Now I look back on it with pathos. It was a much-needed scream of frustration, but ultimately nothing more than...well...a spectacle...

[firestorm]

The scariest thing about this society of the spectacle is how it parallels other decaying societies in history where appearance became more important than reality. Late eighteenth century France being the most obvious.

[TheMan-txqz]

Recouperation is the SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT concept to understand and todays capitalist society and media climate. It’s the biggest factor fractionalizing the working class.

[Spiritfba]

A lot of us want to shift away from consumerism but it’s almost impossible due to planned obsolescence and decreased quality of goods. It’s getting harder and harder to find affordable solid furniture (even used) and instead we’re forced to buy something we know we will have to buy again in 3-5 years. Appliances used to last 20+ years and now they last 5. Frustrating.

[mjgasiecki]

That’s what’s so frustrating…people lean towards the dems or the republicans and we claw at each other over social issues while these people gape us behind closed doors…

[tayzonday]

Yep. Part of it is that capitalism normalizes a fringe fantasy called “rational individualism” and its subset “rational choice theory” — which teaches that any human can exercise unlimited agency over their own future based on what they personally consume in the market. Therefore, consuming a spectacle feels like a vote in some mythical plebiscite. Additional thinkers on the role of spectacle include Marshall McLuhan, Michel Foucault and Slavoj Zizek.

[GreyFox]

For a more recent example: Antiwork is no longer about abolishing the need for gainful employment in order to cover your basic needs, it is now about making employment slightly more palatable.

[chemccord]

An on topic example would be how the actual BLM movement was co opted by the more marketable “founders” while the actual founders and helpful members of society were jailed or killed. These “founders” now live in million dollar homes while the families of the murdered black men and women are not seeing any of the donations.

[DanielMwDias]

In capitalist reality, any work that criticizes capitalism implicitily (i.e: Kafka's Metamorphosis) is just passed off as a goofy work or being a critique of something else. Due to the fact that if its not obvious, people miss it because Capitalism is like the default setting. On the other hand, any work that has any kind of Government slightly more concerned with the welfare of its citizens, the people tend to catch it right away and say its lefty.

[thatoneguy]

I like how companies, politicians, influencers all used BLM like a public flesh light and threw it away when they were done with it.

[hdgsjfjdk]

I really liked your comment about how this video itself takes part in the spectacularization and the call to action. Watching videos is one thing, taking action is another! Thanks as always for tying in relevant theory into the discussion. The dissemination of ideas is extremely important.

[hughmann]

“During the lifetime of great revolutionaries, the oppressing classes constantly hounded them, received their theories with the most savage malice, the most furious hatred and the most unscrupulous campaigns of lies and slander. After their death, attempts are made to convert them into harmless icons, to canonize them, so to say, and to hallow their names to a certain extent for the “consolation” of the oppressed classes and with the object of duping the latter, while at the same time robbing the revolutionary theory of its substance, blunting its revolutionary edge and vulgarizing it.” Lenin

[Ad_Dohman]

Learning about cultural hegemony felt very important to understand the world I'm in, and to not as much be a passive cog in the dominant class's wheel. Thank you for such informative videos about the systems we're all a part of

[Sambouajram]

At this point I’m very aware of the pitfalls of capitalism but unsure how to navigate life in a way that moves us in a better direction. The best I’ve been able to come up with so far is prioritizing real life over commodities, finding cost-free ways to spend my time like learning a language, exercising, and enjoying time with friends. It seems like enjoying your life without spending money is an act of rebellion in itself, since corporations try to convince us we need to buy shit to be happy

[GimblyWimbly]

I had a conversation about this years ago and people just couldn't understand where I was coming from. The conversation started with a discussion around all the "Black Lives Matter" logos on NBA cours and jerseys etc and how that can actually be more damaging than helping at worst and at best it's just pandering with no real change.

[MB-stbe]

Never underestimate the ability of a French philosopher to build a career on stating the obvious

[RedCake-vnzl]

"FIght for change and make it reality" You people in USA need a Revolutionary Party. In Greece luckily we got one already but we could use these videos too because bourgoise propaganda has been distributed very effectively here and it hinders our goals. So thanks for the quality work...