It doesn’t matter what kind of “rules” you try to apply to this system, they won’t help. Capitalism’s number one rule, first and foremost, is and always has been exploitation.
Capitalism is theft. It is violence. It relies and thrives on the suffering of the most marginalized—stealing our labor, our time, our energy, our health, our sanity, and even our lives. It actively prevents our mobility.
It doesn’t matter what kind of “rules” you try to apply to this system, they won’t help. Capitalism’s number one rule, first and foremost, is and always has been exploitation. It is predicated on the enslavement, subjugation, and colonization of African and other Indigenous lands and peoples.
It often looks like wage theft and is classified as “necessary” violence—driven mostly by greed and wrapped up in anti-Blackness, white supremacy, and patriarchy.
It creates a culture of sameness, wherein there is never room for individuality. This places cogs in the machine, which leads to working people’s exhaustion; tired of the vacuous shared routines, which then leads to the commodification of care—most notably referred to as “self-care”—and other moments of escape. This keeps citizens too tired, too busy, or too apathetic to protest, and that is what creates what many refer to as the Organizer/Nonprofit Industrial Complex: the commodification of community organizing and other social justice engagement that eventually leads to the production of the Celebrity Activist.
Capitalism touches everything around us because it’s so pervasive and invasive. Wear Your Voice has written at length about the various ways in which capitalism harms all marginalized people and how it benefits the mega-wealthy who continue to squeeze every bit of blood out of our bodies and this planet, into their cups. We intended to write one cohesive piece about how capitalism is at its core a form of theft, but it is too vast, too insidious and too much to tackle with one piece. So we decided to assemble a list of the pieces featured on our site that illustrate just how endemic and destructive capitalism is:
Politics
Words Mean Things: Understanding Colonialism
The Depraved Violence of Britain’s ‘Subtle’ Racism
How White America’s Legacy of Voter Suppression Harms People of Color
The Case Against Elizabeth Warren
“Our Sin Was Being Indigenous, Leftist, And Anti-imperialist” — A Primer On Bolivia’s Us-backed Coup
From Lebanon To Chile, Protesters Are Uniting Against The Ruling Class
I’m Not Here For Your Presidential Candidates
Everyone Should Know What Happened To Black Wall Street
Communism, Socialism, And Anarchism 101
The Caste System Is The Biggest Hindrance To The Feminist Movement In India
From Europe To The United States: Empires In Decline, Fascism On The Rise
Colonizers Were And Are The Real Looters
Sanctions Kill: The Devastating Human Cost Of Sanctions
Prison, Carceral System, Slave Labor
These Are The Companies Profiting From Detaining Migrants At Border Concentration Camps
Abolish It All: A World Without Private Prisons is Still A World With Slaves
Profit Over People: Us Slave-like Labor And Human Trafficking Still Exist
This Labor Day, Don’t Forget About Incarcerated People.
When Incarcerated People Strike, The World Should Listen And Respond
Gentrification
Gentrification Is Not A Myth, It Is Very Real Violence
Gentrification: Rich Black People Pushing Out Poor Black Folks Won’t Solve Anything
Organizing and Social Justice Work
Organizing for Liberation Ain’t Free When Capitalism Rules Everything Around Me
Fat People Must Become a Priority to the Left
Anarcha-feminists Of The Past And Present Are An Inspiration For Today
Environment
Yes, Environmental Racism is Real and It Is Devastating.
The Price Increase for National Parks is Another Form of Environmental Racism
19 Youth Climate Activists Of Color Who Are Fighting To Protect The Earth
The Lasting, Racist Legacy Of Colonialism On The Environment
Dawning Climate Catastrophe and the Paradox of Green Capitalism
Economics, Corporations, and Billionaires
Away’s Treatment of Workers Is Symptomatic of Capitalism’s Violence
Billionaires, Bill Gates and The Scam That Is Philanthropy
It’s More Than A Check: Understanding Reparations
How I Benefited from Tax Evasion and Wealth Hoarding
The PPP: Black, Indigenous, And People Of Color Aren’t Getting Small Business Loans
As Fashion Lines Are Praised For Making Face Masks, Don’t Ignore Garment Workers
What The Shut Down of Gothamist And DNAinfo Means For Journalism And Workers’ Rights
21st Century Colonization: Becky Came For Our Bindis and Our Chai
Entertainment
How I Learned To Resist Geek Consumerism
PARASITE, The Horror of Poverty and The Importance of Class Solidarity
How Thanos Fits Into Real-World Myths of Overpopulation and Scarcity
Kill Your Idols Before Empty Platitudes and Capitalism Kill You
An Open Letter To Stans: We Must Divest Ourselves From Celebrity And Fight For Liberation
It’s Not Surprising That Ellen DeGeneres’ Show Is Rife With Abuse and Exploitation
A Movie Watchlist For The End Of The (Capitalist) World
Bops For Marching The Wealthy To The Guillotines
Lingua Franca and The Meaninglessness of The “Resistance Socialite”
The “Self-Made” Wealth False Narrative Gets Confronted In ‘Knives Out’
Idea: Only Fans PPV But It’s Me Fighting Bella Thorne
Transportation
Lyft or Uber, It’s All A Quick Ride to a Capitalist Hell
Uber And The NFL’s Corporate Platitudes Will Not End Racism
Reproductive Control
Reproductive Control is About Far More Than “Women’s Bodies”
Dating and Relationships
Black Love is Hard AF When the World of Capitalism is Trying to Kill You
Desirability: Do You Really Love Fat People When You Can’t Even See Us Beyond The Political?
Health
Why Living with Chronic Illness in a Capitalist Society is Dehumanizing
We Cannot Transcend Mental Illness In The Context of American Capitalism
Diet
Decolonizing Veganism to Make it More Accessible and Less Racist
Workplace Discrimination
Why Pay Secrecy Is Inherently Anti-Feminist
The Marijuana Industry Alienates Black People and Benefits White Folks
Death
When Marginalized Folk Take Our Lives, It’s Because the State Already Has
The Necropolitics Of The Coronavirus: Who May Live, Who Must Die
Time
I Do Not Have The Same 24 Hours As Beyoncé
Imagination
When They See Us Yesterday: The Black Imagination Beyond State Violence