I don't think either of those perspectives in your first sentence are correct. Doing this does not require you to drop your leftism, and it also isn't a leftist action. It's just... neither of those things. Leftists aren't required to be ascetic monks who shun money. We are largely broke, and if someone can make money at the expense of a hyper-predatory hedge fund, cool go for it. It's not as big a deal as you're making it.
To participate in the normal, every day, bit by bit stock trading is definitely predatory, but this is clearly an exceptional situation.
To participate in the normal, every day, bit by bit stock trading is definitely predatory, but this is clearly an exceptional situation.
if you're doing it to get passive income? then yes, by all means. but if you're doing it so you can retire or buy a house because the bourgeois state provides no safety net then you're literally not doing anything wrong. being a leftist is not the same as being a catholic priest lol
I don't think having a couple grand or even a hundred to throw around on stocks is broke. That and we can't forget this whole speculative system is built on imperial conquest and the subjugation of the global south. The whole reason these companies had any semblance of value is because of materials extracted from these places. That's what I don't get about this "money is fake" position like tell that to the people who are forced to engage with it via the petrodollar or else they'll get sanctioned. Money is violence everywhere outside of America.
Like this isn't about being the One True Leftist, I'd just expect us to have better prospective and understanding than "hehe big finance dude go boom", idk. I'm wrong I guess.
Linking gamestop stock manipulation directly to imperialism is tenuous. Obviously the whole of our economics system relies on imperialism, but then following your like of argument, we should all simply cease participating entirely. Nothing about this is more imperialist than buying a banana. And you fundamentally misunderstand the money is fake argument; it's not saying that money doesn't affect anything (obviously). It's saying that the value of the stock market does not correlate to the real material economy. The massive rise in Gamestop stock is unrelated to any on the ground reality. Rampant, baseless speculation is the name of the game, where the commidification of money itself reaches its most absurd and immaterial. There is plenty of Marxist analysis of the stock market that explains the position in great detail.
You can say it's not about being the one true leftist but clearly it is when you need to come in here and tut-tut over someone's gambling, going "I guess I'm the only one who gets it". What societal harm is actually being done by a leftist participating in this?
I think there's a big difference in working for a place and speculating off that place's value and how much you own of it. Those are the main dividing force between proletariat and bourgeoisie, you know, the ownership of the means of production. And yea there's a whole chain of exploitation and imperialism that goes into bringing a banana into the United States, what? Chiquita is the United Fruit Company with it's name changed.
We saw the damage this baseless speculation did last time in 2008, or any financial crisis really. My family was wrecked by that. That's been the consistent theme of all this, poor people and the global south get exploited further while the financial and middle class just duke it out because one feels it's being unfair to the other.
Idk though, this feels pointless, trying to argue against this stuff. That's why I said I guess I'm wrong lol, everyone just bought in and I'm still skeptical of it all.
The banana was an intentional example to show that every single thing you do in America relies on imperialism. Singling this out is silly.
Rampant speculation is hyper destructive exactly because money is fake. But doing it with Gamestop to ruin a hedge fund is not the same as those hedge funds doing it with housing to ruin millions of lives.
That and we can’t forget this whole speculative system is built on imperial conquest and the subjugation of the global south. The whole reason these companies had any semblance of value is because of materials extracted from these places.
Thats a very good point and something we should all still be mindful of. But, still, no ethical consumption. Its all blood money, etc etc.
I do think the criticisms here have been from the left though, and like I said before, communism is first an economic system. It would be very strange if none of us on this communism website were part of this
I don't think either of those perspectives in your first sentence are correct. Doing this does not require you to drop your leftism, and it also isn't a leftist action. It's just... neither of those things. Leftists aren't required to be ascetic monks who shun money. We are largely broke, and if someone can make money at the expense of a hyper-predatory hedge fund, cool go for it. It's not as big a deal as you're making it.
To participate in the normal, every day, bit by bit stock trading is definitely predatory, but this is clearly an exceptional situation.
if you're doing it to get passive income? then yes, by all means. but if you're doing it so you can retire or buy a house because the bourgeois state provides no safety net then you're literally not doing anything wrong. being a leftist is not the same as being a catholic priest lol
I don't think having a couple grand or even a hundred to throw around on stocks is broke. That and we can't forget this whole speculative system is built on imperial conquest and the subjugation of the global south. The whole reason these companies had any semblance of value is because of materials extracted from these places. That's what I don't get about this "money is fake" position like tell that to the people who are forced to engage with it via the petrodollar or else they'll get sanctioned. Money is violence everywhere outside of America.
Like this isn't about being the One True Leftist, I'd just expect us to have better prospective and understanding than "hehe big finance dude go boom", idk. I'm wrong I guess.
Linking gamestop stock manipulation directly to imperialism is tenuous. Obviously the whole of our economics system relies on imperialism, but then following your like of argument, we should all simply cease participating entirely. Nothing about this is more imperialist than buying a banana. And you fundamentally misunderstand the money is fake argument; it's not saying that money doesn't affect anything (obviously). It's saying that the value of the stock market does not correlate to the real material economy. The massive rise in Gamestop stock is unrelated to any on the ground reality. Rampant, baseless speculation is the name of the game, where the commidification of money itself reaches its most absurd and immaterial. There is plenty of Marxist analysis of the stock market that explains the position in great detail.
You can say it's not about being the one true leftist but clearly it is when you need to come in here and tut-tut over someone's gambling, going "I guess I'm the only one who gets it". What societal harm is actually being done by a leftist participating in this?
I think there's a big difference in working for a place and speculating off that place's value and how much you own of it. Those are the main dividing force between proletariat and bourgeoisie, you know, the ownership of the means of production. And yea there's a whole chain of exploitation and imperialism that goes into bringing a banana into the United States, what? Chiquita is the United Fruit Company with it's name changed.
We saw the damage this baseless speculation did last time in 2008, or any financial crisis really. My family was wrecked by that. That's been the consistent theme of all this, poor people and the global south get exploited further while the financial and middle class just duke it out because one feels it's being unfair to the other.
Idk though, this feels pointless, trying to argue against this stuff. That's why I said I guess I'm wrong lol, everyone just bought in and I'm still skeptical of it all.
The banana was an intentional example to show that every single thing you do in America relies on imperialism. Singling this out is silly.
Rampant speculation is hyper destructive exactly because money is fake. But doing it with Gamestop to ruin a hedge fund is not the same as those hedge funds doing it with housing to ruin millions of lives.
Thats a very good point and something we should all still be mindful of. But, still, no ethical consumption. Its all blood money, etc etc.
I do think the criticisms here have been from the left though, and like I said before, communism is first an economic system. It would be very strange if none of us on this communism website were part of this