Have you ever dreamed of slaving away at a job until your last day on Earth? How about skipping sleep to spend all of your nights driving an Amazon delivery truck? If you can’t imagine a better way to spend your time than working 60 hours a week just to pay off your medical bills or student loans, we’ve got the perfect package for you: capitalism!
Below, we’ve gathered some of the most upsetting and painful posts from “Dystopian Late-Stage Capitalism Horrors Repackaged As Heartwarming Stories”, so you pandas can feel like you’re already living in a Margaret Atwood novel. Enjoy viewing these pics that try to pass off capitalism as cute, quirky and inspiring, and be sure to upvote the ones that make you want to quit your job yesterday!
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#1
Image credits: Miroslav Boljević
#2
Image credits: Logan Pingel
#3
Image credits: Rubén DL
Unless you’re the CEO of a major corporation or you’ve been able to inherit massive amounts of money from your parents, there’s a good chance you’ve had some complaints about capitalism before. Perhaps you work 40+ hours a week, but your job still doesn’t provide enough income for you to feel secure buying groceries and paying rent each month. Maybe you have an injury that requires medical treatment, but you’re terrified of going to the doctor and being saddled with a huge bill. Maybe your boss pressures you to work late every evening, causing increased stress and forcing you to sacrifice time with your family. We all know these situations aren’t enjoyable, but those in power are happy to paint them in a much more optimistic, and frankly delusional, light.
That’s where groups like Dystopian Late-Stage Capitalism Horrors Repackaged As Heartwarming Stories come in. This community, which has amassed an impressive 19.6k members on Facebook in only 2 years, is committed to calling out all of the ridiculous propaganda late-stage capitalists try to sell us. From romanticizing hustle culture to creating “games” out of trying to pay off exorbitant medical bills, there’s nothing that big companies are above, so this page shares it all.
#4
Image credits: MoveOn
#5
Image credits: Ceiren Bell-Animation
#6
Image credits: McDonald's
If you’re interested in participating in the Dystopian Late-Stage Capitalism Horrors Repackaged As Heartwarming Stories community, there are only a few simple rules that need to be followed. First and foremost, be kind and courteous. Second, no hate speech or bullying. Third, no promotions or spam, and finally, maintain a spirit of community. “Social progress, deconfliction, cooperation, and a spirit of goodwill is essential to us overcoming these problems,” the administrators write. “Don’t cause more polarization.”
As long as members abide by the rules, they’re welcomed to share anything they find that features companies and late-stage capitalists acting appallingly greedy, and boy do they really come through! But if you’re wondering why late-stage capitalism is harmful, if these posts and your own experiences haven’t already convinced you, we consulted this article breaking down some of the reasons why you might feel like you’re starting to live in a dystopian society.
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Image credits: Dave Wsims
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#8
Image credits: Ev Williams
#9
Image credits: Joanne Fitzpatrick
Kimberly Amadeo at The Balance pointed out how hypocritical companies and CEOs can be when it comes to keeping up their capitalist agendas, citing the example of Budweiser spending $5 million on a Super Bowl ad to advertise how it donated millions of cans of clean water for disaster relief efforts. For many of the people in charge, it’s all about optics. So it doesn’t matter if the CEO is taking home 350 times what their employees make or if the company is rapidly polluting the planet and draining it of natural resources, if a corporation can convince customers that they’re doing some good and convince employees to dedicate their lives working for them, it’s been a successful day.
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Image credits: Ted Hammersborg
#11
Image credits: Logan Sielow
#12
Image credits: The Mother of All Nerds
One of the glaring issues of late-stage capitalism is that it represents the unrelatable perspectives of the wealthiest 1%. To a rich CEO who has never faced adversity in their life, the messages in these photos might seem perfectly reasonable. But to the massive middle class, and the ever-growing population in poverty, it’s obvious that the people calling the shots don’t understand where we’re coming from at all, and quite frankly don’t care. The system is rigged so that the rich get richer, the poor get poorer, and it becomes harder and harder to climb up the ranks.
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Image credits: Romeo Vásquez
#14
Image credits: Andrea Sasía
#15
Image credits: Ghouls of Capital
The reason why many people use the term “late-stage capitalism” is because they’re optimistic about a changing future. If the system collapses or people finally realize how unfair and unsustainable it is, perhaps we’ll finally transition to something else, such as socialism. And while it’s debatable whether or not the United States in particular is in the last stages of capitalism, Amadeo points out some of the reasons why it might be. Some of the necessities for capitalism to function are no longer in effect, such as a free market economy and the free operation of the capital markets. Monopolies have destroyed the free market, and corporate greed has eliminated competition in many industries. And while the problem might not be with capitalism itself, but rather what it has become thanks to government regulations that favor corporations, there’s no question that something has to change.
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Image credits: Rubén DL
#17
Image credits: Ban Kikuaza
#18
So I just landed an international job auditing commissaries. I went to my first commissary in RAF alcunbury, UK and this was posted at checkout.
Image credits: Joseph Fiorenzo
While we might seem hopelessly deep into capitalism at this point, it’s important not to lose hope. Perhaps, one day we will live in a world where even Americans can afford to call an ambulance or go to university without being saddled with decades of debt. For a previous Bored Panda article, we got in touch with the Agency, an anarchist PR project, and they were kind enough to have a chat with us about what the average person can do to combat capitalism. First, they encouraged anyone interested in engaging with anarchist ideas to get involved in mutual aid projects in their community. “Mutual aid networks sprung up across the world during the COVID-19 pandemic. Mutual aid is a form of anarchist practice!”
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Image credits: John Van Druff
#20
Image credits: Jared Zeiders
#21
Image credits: Memebase
“Read books and watch documentaries about anarchism, and listen to anarchist podcasts,” the Agency went on to recommend. “Take direct action on issues you care deeply about, and organize with others in non-hierarchical ways on liberatory issues such as anti-racism, anti-sexism, environmental defense, migrant solidarity, queer and trans solidarity, and animal rights, to name a few. Start a discussion group or book club about anarchism and anti-authoritarianism. Write about anti-capitalist, anti-authoritarian theory and practice, make a zine or start a blog, and share it with your friends!”
#22
Image credits: Anon
#23
Image credits: theslowfactory
#24
Image credits: Tom Hack
And if the photos on this list are making you worry about the future of our world, the Agency says things might be looking up. “Increasingly, anarchist thought is breaking into pop culture,” they previously told Bored Panda. “From best-selling books like David Graeber and David Wengrow’s The Dawn of Everything to the recent film Triangle of Sadness, which holds a mirror to classism and consumerism. In the news, grassroots social movements like the Stop Cop City protests in Atlanta, GA illuminate the work of anarchists to resist oppressive structures and defend the natural world.”
#25
Image credits: Ancient Finds
#26
Image credits: G style hip hop
#27
Image credits: Elie Richardson IV
Are you feeling inspired to quit your job and go off the grid, pandas? These photos might not leave you feeling very optimistic about the future, but at least we can all ban together to roast companies who try to put capitalist horrors in cute, quirky packaging! Feel free to share you thoughts on these photos in the comments below, and then if you’re interested in checking out another Bored Panda article that might make you want to immediately become an anarchist, look no further than right here!
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Image credits: Mc Sam
#29
Image credits: Entry-Level Cinephile Meme Starterpack
#30
Image credits: anon
#31
Image credits: Derrick Marshall
#32
Image credits: David Swinstead
#33
Image credits: The Vintage News
#34
Image credits: Hannah Greene
#35
this is by far, the worst job rejection email i’ve ever received
for context: this was for a social media manager position
Image credits: Julia Winnie
#36
Image credits: James Parker
#37
Image credits: Andy Settle
#38
Image credits: Steve Milosic
#39
Image credits: Wira Wijaya
#40
Image credits: Christopher Brierley
#41
Image credits: Weird History: Food
#42
Image credits: You're not you when you hunger for the flesh of the bourgeoisie
#43
Image credits: Catmin's Anticapitalist Treehouse of Solidarity
#44
Image credits: Vladimir Boskovic Serrudo
#45
Image credits: Joshua Nathaniel Harris
#46
Image credits: Nevin KT
#47
Image credits: anon
#48
Image credits: Pablo Garcia
#49
Here are some reasons why it feels hotter than it use to.
Image credits: The Simple, Minimalist Life
#50
Image credits: Just Sock Thoughts
#51
Image credits: Viktor Mrkva
Source: boredpanda.com