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Obvs, I agree. Which begs the questions: why do they hold such beliefs (& its is a belief) and how does one change such beliefs?
I have posted this link before, it is a reasonable attempt to address why people hold (in this case irrational & rigid) beliefs:
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/believe
Thanks
One word: greed.
Some people will believe anything if it benefits them.
Weirdly, many people passionately believe things which are a disaster for them. Here’s an extreme example, which led to the death of a 22 year old Cambridge graduate
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cd6nqz0j03xo
My family experience of chemotherapy is exceptionally negative. I would have major reservations about having it now, as a result.
One thing that strikes me about market capitalism is the motivation to make a profit is so much stronger than the motivation to behave morally. Neoliberals never emphasise this weakness or indeed conflict. This ultimately is failure to recognise the drive for acting morally appears to be built into evolution:-
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/247759661_Evolution_of_Parental_Caregiving
Psychology’s Attachment Theory also has much to say about how the drive to care for others is inbuilt and revealed by the long gestation period human beings engage in to bring a child to adulthood.
The drive for morality is evidenced in the development of democracy by human beings. This is beautifully illustrated currently by the question of whether a government party that aids and abets ethnic cleansing by another country should itself become a proscribed organisation. Government therefore is needed not merely to correct the wrongs of market capitalism but also the wrongs of a government.
See this morning’s video
Well yes societal capital contains morality driven by evolution. It’s why we developed democracy and Parliaments:-
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3471369/pdf/nihms401950.pdf
and in depth:-
“Neurobiology and the Development of Human Morality: Evolution, Culture, and Wisdom”
Darcia Narvaez
There is some very interesting work going on in biology a present, much as I hate to admit it, because I loathed the subject at school.
I agree. You said this: “the wrongs of a government”. This article shows the impact of neoliberalism
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/aug/10/farmers-fight-to-save-estate-at-heart-of-powys-welsh-speaking-community
The clue is here: (extract): “In a meeting last month on the future of the county farms estate, councillors voted to pause the sales until November and formed an advisory group to look at the issue. The vote also scrapped a target set in 2018 to sell £10m in assets a year to help offset funding shortfalls,”
The journalist had neither the wit nor wisdom to understand that the neolibtards running the show in Wezzie are directly responsible for the need by the council to sell off assets. Not that Starmer/Reeves et al would give a stuff, these imbeciles would simply chant “maxed out credit card” or similar guff.
I sincerly hope LINO are wiped out in Wales next year, they deserve to be. Ditto Scotland.
Much to agree with
That was a very depressing article
Except that flat earthers are often confused soles who genuinely believe they are right. Neoliberals often know they are wrong but maliciously continue to espouse it for their own selfish ends.
Much to agree with
Neoliberalism is like a religion or a cult. It matters not that it is moral free, the antithesis of democracy, community and a working society, it simply makes vast fortunes for a cosseted few so they ‘believe’ in it regardless of the damage to the world and the rest of us, and even to themselves.
The Bible puts it pithily and succinctly: ‘For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?’
(Mark 8:36)
I’ve always thought it beyond hypocritical that many of the powerful and wealthy particularly in the Anglophone world claim some kind of deep held Christian faith whilst being the very opposite of Christ and doing the very things He and the Bible continually condemns. I’d suggest the vast majority of us are not fooled by it but it is part and parcel of the grubby and grasping nature of some of our elites.
This is what is so subversive about Neo-liberalism.
It knows that in its heart there is a democracy in facts, so it aims to capture key constituents in the ‘fact delivery framework’ – the media, academia, politics and then replaces facts with the beliefs of the few.
I tell you, no Trotsky cell we are warned about has worked as well as the Neo-liberals – their beliefs are what we must suffer in reality.
I loved The Oatmeal link from Mike Parr. Good one to share.
Nothing new in this, but here goes: We’re living through it right now: a corporate crisis. Maybe it started with the East India Company.
The current obsession with immigration, legal or illegal, is a convenient distraction from the true source of instability: a system designed to exploit labour, suppress wages, and shield corporate profits. The system hollows out public services, while polluting rivers.
Rely on cheap, often migrant labour to help suppress wages, in the same way we rely on Universal Credit to top up low pay and protect profit margins? Migrants, maybe overqualified, are pushed into essential but underpaid sectors like healthcare, social care, agriculture. Employers take full advantage, avoiding pay rises or better conditions. There’s no incentive to improve things when there’s a steady supply of under protected labour. Meanwhile, UC picks up the slack, with the state subsidising poverty wages. Workers stay poor, and companies stay rich. Wages are socialised; profit is privatised.
Enter the populist (he who should not be named; I’m just asking questions …). By whipping up anti-immigrant sentiment, they help accelerate the collapse of the health and care sector. Irony? Migrant workers are the very people keeping these services afloat. Vilify or block them, and staffing shortages grow. Services deteriorate. Private companies swoop in to profit from the wreckage, privatisation by stealth, and immigration becomes the scapegoat. Private health insurance mandatory?
Multiple purposes served here: it deflects blame from austerity and privatisation, demonises essential workers, and fractures any remaining sense of solidarity among the ‘working class’ or ‘citizens’, if those concepts still/ever exist/ed.
I think that many people accept and support capitalism/neoliberalism because their understanding is through rose-tinted lenses.
Why wouldn’t you want to be part of the American dream and make your fortune? There is little indication that it is at the expense of others.
Why wouldn’t you want to strive for a passive income in your retirement?
But then there is a big difference between the middle classes wanting financial security, and the Billionaire class who don’t see rules and regulations applying to them.
But what is left of the American dream now?