The Socialist guide to surviving in Capitalism | Doing well isn't treason.

Hey you, yes, you. You want Capitalism gone? Good.

But let’s face it - unless every discord shitposter with an anime avatar gets equipped with a t-34 the downfall of the biggest system ever built isn’t going to be happening any day soon, at least not in the west. That’s why we introduce the well-rounded, and not in any way based on mine and my audience’s personal experience - the all encompassing - Socialist’s guide to surviving in Capitalism. While we can easily blame almost everything on Capitalism, unironically, I don’t have enough time to go through every aspect of life which the system damages.

Why? Because I can’t dedicate my full time to Youtube due to having a job, because of Capitalism, unironically. So, in order to keep this concise for all you wonderful pill popping anxiety ridden no attention span having tovarischi - we will cut it into 3 parts: WORK MONEY SPENDING STAYING MOTIVATED Some of these might not apply to your conditions, and you should not look at them as being the be all and end all approaches to the aspects of life defined previously.

Others will make you go "isn't that obvious? " Well, for some it might not be. The only thing this video is trying to do is share some experience, mistakes and lessons me and different comrades have had.

Wanting a better world does not mean we should live the one life we have in misery. Get outta here with that liberal moralism. Your employer, no matter how nice, or mean - will never be able to afford paying you the worth of your work.

In this system - profit is what drives them - and even if they attempted to step out of it and support you fully they would go bankrupt or lose to competition. Therefore you are not only in competition with your employer’s competitors but with your employer themselves. You owe them nothing - but to the contrary - they owe you.

By not paying you enough on what you deliver daily they exist as a direct anti-thesis to your thesis. Now that we have that out of the way, let’s get it started (play let’s get it started in here oooh) and then start listing out: Don’t overwork yourself. Thousands of data points and statistics show us that the employee who stays extra hours, doesn’t take days of, and is extremely loyal to 1 employer does not end up getting promoted.

Work - just enough - and then oversell it - the same way your employer oversells work benefits to you. Embellish your work experience during interviews. Sometimes straight up lie.

Job requirements nowadays are so high, especially in the beginning of a career that if you were to choose not to lie, you’ll most likely be the only one during the interview process who did so. Don’t be that guy. You’re not that guy.

If you're given a management position take it. There will be a manager no matter what - it's better for everyone if it's a marxist one. But don't get power hungry, or you'll end up proving the capitalist' point.

Socialism is the worker's ideology, sure, but no socialist project can succeeded without allies who were luckier in their experience with the Market. I mean look at Engels. Don’t be scared - you can learn most skills when you start the new job, as long as you’re not a doctor, pilot or an engineer or something.

There are tutorials on literally everything - and yes - you can learn from them. If paid education programs exist at your workplace - take them - but if they’re making you pay for them save your money and learn the skill yourself. Everyone is winging it.

Almost nobody is an expert. The only difference between someone who made a mistake at work and one that gets punished for it is who can think up an excuse on why something went arry. Don’t think your manager knows more about the job than you do.

Usually - they’re as clueless as you - but have learned how to fake it. Everyone is alienated from their labor, not just you. Remember that the next time a coworker is having a bad day.

Don't snitch. If you can find a better paying job for the same type of work - take it - loyalty to your boss - because they brought pizza over that one time during work hours - will end up killing your career. In the best case scenario you can show them the competitor’s offer and ask for a raise.

PDF edit the promised salary to look even higher - if you’re extra sneaky. Organize a union or join one when possible. Do so very carefully - if you get caught before the union is created you’ll be fired at worst and austresized from a promotion at best.

Don’t care so much. Literally. This is not your business, you’re not an owner, and it’s much bigger than you.

Whenever you see them not listening to your ideas for improvement don’t get defensive and make enemies. If their approach to whatever task fails - use it - politely - as an argument for your case in the future. But never ruin your relationship with your colleagues or managers because the company leadership chooses to do stupid things - most likely they’re just following orders like you.

At the end of the day do you really care if your company sells 50 000 diapers a day or 51 000 diapers a day? No you don’t. So stop taking yourself so seriously.

Your identity is NOT linked to that of the workplace. Health Is everything. No job or education is worth sacrificing it.

Quite literally. I’m not trying to be a hippy here - if you break your back over a job that barely pays the average wage - the damage done to your mind or body will end up costing you far more in the future. Unless you are being directly abused, never change your job before you find an alternative.

I’m sure we’ve all dreamt of just quitting like they do in the movies - but if you don’t have money saved, and no debt - that could be a fatal mistake. Plus - many people in HR have a thing against employing someone who says they’re quote unquote currently between jobs on the interview. Just don’t shoot yourself in the foot is what I’m saying.

Insist on talking about salaries with people you're organizing or working with. The only person winning when wages aren’t discussed amongst employees is the employer. They have all the information on you but you are rarely given transparency into how the business is run.

The first step in taking back some power is when you know just how much you’re being underpaid. Never quit your job to start a new one before all transitional documentation has been signed. Companies go back on promises of employment regularly.

It might say it's an 8h work day, with 1h worth of break time, but If there are no strict systems of time keeping available at your workplace then stretch it out as much as you can. Work hard for half a day and spend the rest relaxing - whenever possible. Working from home can cause aditional work alienation but also, for those sneaky enough - much longer sleep time and earlier workday endings.

Set your alarm in the morning to only wake you up so you can log in and appear online. Then go back to bed with a smile. Office equipment disappears all the time.

WINK MEME Use all your job benefits to the fullest, and always remember even with them included you're being underpaid. For example your workplace gives you x amount of money per week for gas and you don't use it? Fill up your moms car.

These only scratch the surface but basically boil down to the following: You need to remember that your worth is not based on your job title or pay. You’re a human, not an asset for your boss. Distance your personal identity with that of the firm, or it will swallow you up before you know it.

All those corporate drones you avoid at parties? Well - believe it or not they used to be real people like you before a brand replaced their soul - and linkedin became their guru. MONEY SPENDING Ching ching you just made a few bucks, life isn't bad, the sun is shining.

You managed to pay off some of your debt, or if you're lucky actually save a few bucks. Good for you. Now prepare to be bombarded by thousands of carefully designed advertising campaigns telling you what you need.

When you need it and how much of it you need. Get ready to have your very identity molded by how you spend your money. Get ready to be a consoomer.

And, honestly, it's kind of unavoidable at this point. We are all products of the systems and culture we live in and the Socialist is not here to preach some high and mighty liberal notion of modesty to you. To the contrary let's try and quickly go through different spending habits which Capitalism encourages which just leave you wasting your hard earned money: Brand obsession - while all of us have our preferences for what we want to wear or drive prices are often inflated beyond reason just because the product comes from a company which is defined as high end by consumers.

All of us know this but the trick is not actually continuously falling for it. One little Marxist exercise on getting more conscious about your spending habits is concentrating on what we care about the most - the true labor value of a given product. Is what you want to buy truly made by experts, in decent conditions - therefore relatively justifying the increase in prices - or is the company you’re buying from using their brand status to get away with exploitative low skill labour?

This is not to undermain low skill labour - but to the opposite - a simple trick which tells you the real worth of that given product - and just how much the brand sells on quality vs advertising. Karl Marx didn't write about advertising per say, but his writing on alienation - has a lot to say about the process of advertising. He said - and I quote - that 'selling is the process of alienation'.

Because we are underpaid we can not afford to buy everything in the market - so the sellers have to compete - and why compete based on quality and use value - when you can compete based on who can build a stronger and more recognizable brand? Don’t fall for it all the time, it’s a bloody meme at this point. Frequency of consumption - Systemic alienation leads us into an eternal search for easy and quick fixes for our inherent unhappiness.

While substance abuse and mental health have thankfully become mainstream topics of discussion addiction to consumerism is not. Marx wrote that alienation made it possible for us to seek to meet our human needs in such a distorted way that a whole range of products which are completely unnecessary and even harmful become central to a sense of self worth. Pinpointing the reasoning behind your drive to continuously purchase new and new and new and new things can do a lot of good for your wallet and your health.

Differentiate consumption for need, and consumption that makes you feel good for a couple of hours - because if the latter dominates your buying habits - you’re deeper into the consumerist rabbit hole than you think. To all according to their need - is what daddy Marx said - so follow it and limit how much extra money capitalists make selling you shit you really don’t have any use for. This isn’t the conscious buying shtick high end eco friendly companies want to sell you on - but a simple approach to a big problem - questioning why you’re buying something before you buy it.

There is no ethical consumption under capitalism. This eternal truth should preserve you from assuming you have almost any impact on the global environmental crisis. Because you don’t.

So don’t feel guilty about it. That said though - when possible and affordable - you lose nothing by trying to live a more sustainable life. Sometimes it could even give you hopeful purpose, which isn’t all that bad in this grim dark world of ours.

Maintain your home, car, and more expensive items - the price for upkeep is always lower than the price you’ll have to pay to fix it. Many manufacturers are making more money on fixing their broken or defunct products than actually selling them. See my video on why “Capitalism makes shit products” to learn more.

Rent vs Buy - I will get shit for this one but I have to say it - If you have enough capital do try and escape renting. It’s unstable and insecure, no matter how many arguments are made in favor of it by Capitalists. Without your own personal home - you are always at risk of greater exploitation by the system, the banks and your work place.

It’s extremely difficult to get a home nowadays - but I repeat - if possible - do escape putting food on your landlord’s leechy dinner table. Chances are your rent is higher than their bloody mortgage for the place. Mini tips: Use public transportation when possible, it’s cheaper and often faster, try your local union for a loan before going to a bank, balance out food quality and price - because saving on food today means paying the doctor tomorrow.

Treat yourself whenever possible, while at the same time following the rules above. Help homeless people. Like seriously.

Give them some change and don’t question what they’ll be spending it on. They have enough problems as is. Don’t buy self help bulsshit or follow gurus which conveniently want to sell you 5000$ studying packages.

There. is. no.

easy. way. out.

of. the. system.

Either cheat it, work it, or suffer under it. And finally there is no guilt in living a good life as long as it is not at the expense of others. As class conscious individuals we shouldn’t feel jealousy toward members of our own class who were a bit luckier, as we risk to alienate them from the cause - and if we end up being the lucky ones we must strive to never loose the class consciousness which most likely led us to the place in life we are in.

After savings - whatever you have left that you do not need - if possible - donate to socialist projects you believe in. And if you have actual time on your hands - participate in them or create your own. Mutual aid, food donation kitchens, and direct action in general are perfectly lovely places to start.

And hey, if something’s left after that - check out my patreon haha. Vibes Staying a motivated anti-capitalist isn’t an easy task. The system pushes you to sell out at every corner, and your past ignorance towards how the world works feels like a comfortable position you sometimes yearn to go back to.

As the political climate seems dangerously doomerpilled - we take any sunshine that we can get. A military coo being defeated here - or some additional healthcare there - but deep down inside our yearning for true freedom feels out of reach and distant. But then again - is it really?

There’s 2 fish in a barrel - one of them thinks it’s the ocean - the other one knows it’s trapped in a barrel local drunkards offten piss in. Realistically they’re both in the same situation - and the first - dumb fish - arguably has a far greater chance of being what is commonly defined as happier. But the second one - in it’s knowledge of the circumstances which it found itself in - has something far more valuable than ignorant happiness.

It knows that the rules she was always told about - were supposed to apply to the ocean - a thing, just like success in capitalism - which she might never see . And with this knowledge she can swim with far more purpose an elegance in a barrel than an ignorant one could in a planet of oceans. True freedom means looking into and questioning the presuppositions of everything which is given to us by the hegemonic ideology.

Questioning even freedom itself and never abandoning the struggle. Thank you for watching. If you like what I do here consider supporting it by subscribing or donating over on Patreon.

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