THREAD

The history of capitalism

⚠️ EDUCATION ⚠️

The point of this thread will be to explain how 'capitalism' is, not only an anti-concept, but a useless vague political buzzword.
Disclaimer

I'm a voluntaryist/individualist anarchist/paleolibertarian

I believe in freed markets without state aggression.

I'm not a collectivist at all. Period. Though if individuals want to voluntarily collect like Mikhail Bakunin wanted to, I don't care.
Here we go

Capitalism is an anti-concept, used by both proponents and opponents alike.

They don't even know what it's purpose is at all whatsoever.

The term "capital" traces to ancient times and "capitalist" came with the financial revolution of the 17th and 18th centuries.
Next

"Capitalism" is a product of political conflicts and economic transformations of the 19th and 20th centuries.

State socialist Louis Blanc coined it in 1850 to sneer at advocates of freed markets.

It was also done with the intention of letting communists control the debate
After half a century, Blanc never uttered the word again.

Karl Marx only mentioned it a few times later in life.

Before that, in 1871 an American interviewer from the NY Herald had to explain to him what he meant by it: "capitalism, that is, as you [Marx] would say, monopoly."
Still in 1880 it was not mentioned in the first published text of the French socialist congress.

But among state socialists, authoritarian communists and Marxists it became part of the vocabulary of revolt by the end of the century.

The same is still happening to this day.
Also important to note

European economists remained skeptical of the term’s validity for a while.

American economists rejected it well in the 1920s.

As late as 1925 there was no entry for "capitalism" in the Palgrave 'Dictionary of Political Economy'.
And last, but not least, in this important area

The German book, the Handbuch der Staatswissenschaften, expressed doubt that it belonged in an academic work.

So what happened from here? Why is it that 'capitalism' has become tainted?

Stick around. There's more.
As I have been trying to explain

The term is utterly meaningless to psychologically condition people to project their own understanding of 'capitalism' onto the definition of 'capitalism.'

So every individual has their own idea that is mutually exclusive to others' ideas.
As a result

They end up assuming that everybody is operating under the same definition.

For example

A so-called conservative would think they support freed markets while a communist thinks they're fighting the status quo.

Obviously not true on both ends.
Furthermore

They end of interpreting each other's definitions in usage of 'capitalism' as meaning what they believe it means.

It gets ugly from there and I've seen it happen ALL THE TIME.

Especially when I see anarcho-"capitalists" argue with the tankies.
What happens?

Well, the conservative interprets the communist as opposition to freed markets.

And then the communist interprets the conservative as private ownership of the means of production enforce by the State.

And they do so by reckless buzzing of the term!!!
I don't need to go into further detail of the end result of that because it's awful.

But it does show why debating over what 'capitalism' is and/or what the correct definition is is a complete waste of time.

It turns into an argument over semantics, not having civil discourse.
While well intentioned, it was a mistake for Rothbard to create anarcho-"capitalism" since he inadvertently put libertarians in the position that I described above.

Make no mistake that I don't have negativity with him, Triple H, or Walter Block (who I know personally).
As shown by Gary Chartier

These are the 3 most used definitions of 'capitalism'

If capitalism1 is correct, then anarcho-"capitalism" is a redundant title.

More here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6929391D1020FDED
As far as I am concerned

Anarcho-capitalism is coming to an end, much like the partyarchists in the LP will fall as well.

The tide seems to have begun to turn back to its original roots of the early libertarians (aka classical liberals) and the individualist anarchists.
Oh yes, I should also mention this as well

Adam Smith was NOT the father of 'capitalism.'

He never coined the term nor did he ever refer to himself as such.

Saying this is just as bad as saying that Joseph Dejacque, an ANCOM, coined the term 'libertarian.'
To finish this off

Most don't know socialism inherited its meaninglessness from 'capitalism.'

It used to mean what Benjamin Tucker, a free market anticapitalist, advocated for in his 1888 essay.

RIGHT HERE: http://praxeology.net/BT-SSA.htm 

More on socialism: https://twitter.com/TheBasedPluto/status/1326744047852154881
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