Capitalism and the Web: A Critical Analysis

What is Capitalism? (0m51s)

The speaker examines different perspectives on capitalism, from Karl Marx to modern crypto enthusiasts, emphasising that the clue is in the name - it's about capital, not markets or freedom.

"The clue is in the name. It is capitalism, not tradeism, not marketism, not freedomism, and not democracyism."

"Capital is just like money, basically, or things which are worth lots of money in large sums."

Systems Thinking and Resource Distribution (2m02s)

Using visual metaphors and pie analogies, the speaker explains how capitalism doesn't create new resources but redistributes existing ones, often concentrating wealth in fewer hands.

"I can't emphasise this enough, where there is gain... Where there's a gain somewhere, there must be loss somewhere else."

"Capitalism [is] 'The privatisation of social capital,' because it's about taking what's shared, what's distributed, what's naturally occurring, and synthetically placing it... Into the hands of a very few specific people."

Labour Theory of Value (7m30s)

The speaker outlines how capitalism functions through labour exploitation, where workers are inherently paid less than their worth to generate profit.

"They're given a meagre wage, which is always, always fundamentally, and by definition, less than what they're worth because if it was what they were worth, there wouldn't be any fucking more capital at the other end."

"The less you pay your labour, see the more capital you get at the end. That's called a margin."

Slavery as the Foundation of Modern Capitalism (9m30s)

The speaker addresses how slavery provided the seed capital for modern capitalism, creating the initial wealth that enabled the system.

"Most of the luxuries and conveniences you experience are built on the bodies of slaves."

"You only got [capital] because you got loads... You, en masse, got loads of people to work for you for free by threatening violence."

Burnout and Emotional Externalities (11m00s)

The discussion moves to non-monetary externalities, particularly burnout in creative industries, which stems from the conflict between workers' desire to create value and employers' focus on profit.

"You don't have burnout without capitalism. The reason you burnout is because you wanting to do good, and to create value, and worth comes at odds with the intentions of the people who are employing you."

"Unless we address the capitalism part here, you are just gonna keep burning out over, and over, and over, and over again."

NFTs and Post-Fordism (13m00s)

The speaker critiques NFTs as the epitome of capitalism creating value from nothing, explaining how they represent symbolic ownership without actual utility.

"There are only two types of NFTs. There are shit NFTs because they were created by some sort of rubbish algorithm, or stolen NFTs."

"I can't stress this enough, the NFT itself almost invariably doesn't live in the blockchain where it says I own it."

"We are moving away from actually creating things, creating services, creating products, and we are going into the realm of just tech bullshit, basically."

Advertising Technology and the Engagement Economy (20m51s)

The speaker reveals how digital advertising doesn't work but drives harmful engagement patterns, creating societal externalities in pursuit of non-existent profits.

"Nobody makes money at it or... Nobody who advertises through these platforms makes any money. It just doesn't work."

"Their targeting performed slightly worse than random guessing."

"The bad content is the profitable content and that is what's wrong with society."

The Culture War as Capitalist Tool (27m00s)

The speaker explains how divisive content generates engagement, which sells advertising space, even though the advertisements themselves are ineffective.

"Why are these simple truths increasingly framed as a debate? In no small part because fomenting a so-called culture war increases engagement, which sells advertising space for adverts that don't fucking work."

"We are living at a time of a massive proliferation... of hate because someone, somewhere, wants to sell you a spatula and you already own a fucking spatula."

Surveillance Capitalism and the Last Virgin Wood (29m12s)

Drawing from Shoshanna Zuboff's work, the speaker discusses how capitalism colonises increasingly intimate aspects of human life, with our inner selves being the final frontier.

"The last virgin wood is the last thing that capitalism can take from us, and in Shoshanna's contention, that is our inner selves, our personalities, our fears, our intimate inner experiences."

"It only takes a few people to tip the balance. When it comes to propaganda, when it comes to political campaigns, that's all you need."

Disaster Capitalism and Brexit (32m00s)

The speaker explains how disaster capitalism deliberately destroys value for profit, using Brexit as an example of shorting the pound through manipulation.

"Not only is it just pumping up the value of things, it's actually destroying, deliberately destroying, value. So the externality is no longer a side effect, it's actually the central thing."

"People are deliberately ruining what we have in order to personally benefit."

Capitalism as Exploitation (34m00s)

The speaker argues that capitalism is fundamentally exploitation and cannot be reformed, comparing attempts to control it to reducing the capitalism itself.

"Capitalism is just exploitation, that's all it is, and it is a fundamentally irredeemable thing, like cancer or James Corden."

"What they mean is 'capitalism is good so long as you reduce the capitalism part,' which is functionally similar... to 'capitalism is bad,' but you are not allowed to say that."

Censorship of Anti-Capitalist Ideas (35m40s)

The speaker reveals how criticism of capitalism is being censored in UK schools, categorised alongside promoting criminality and terrorism.

"Teachers are now not allowed to present their students with material that is critical of capitalism in schools. In fact, it is categorised alongside promoting criminality and terrorism."

"There are people who are not allowed to see me make this talk, and I find that kind of terrifying."

Conclusion (37m20s)

The speaker concludes without offering trite solutions, instead providing the comfort of CSS container queries as a small positive development.

"I wanted to create something actionable at the end, but I think that would be trite and I think that it would be like selling you something."