Replacing the scrounger with parasitic landlords and exploiters can break capitalist realism
Evidence
Generate new figures of loathing in our propaganda. Again, this follows up from what I argued in the “Communist Realism” post. Capitalist realism was established by constituting the figure of the lazy, feckless scrounger as a populist scapegoat. We must float a new figure of the parasite: landlords milking the state through housing benefit, “entrepreneurs” exploring cheap labour, etc. — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1900
Categorization
- ADDENDUM: Directly supports and extends the ‘Complaints About Immodesty’ essay’s theme of ruling-class self-serving moral rhetoric being countered by reframing who the true parasite is.
- XREF: connects to: Sustained capitalist mutation requires new institutional forms, not merely destruction — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 156; Blaming greedy bankers for crashes reinforces capitalist realism instead of challenging it — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 2109; Capitalism operates as opportunistic parasitism, not optimal allocation — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 180
Broader Connections
- Blaming greedy bankers for crashes reinforces capitalist realism instead of challenging it
#expands(0.80) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 2109 - Capitalism operates as opportunistic parasitism, not optimal allocation
#corroborates(0.77) — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 180 - Sustained capitalist mutation requires new institutional forms, not merely destruction
#complicates(0.72) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 156