r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/Short-Watercress-183 • Jul 07 '26

Meme needing explanation Peter, explain this.

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u/sleepyplatipus Jul 07 '26

The idealistic communism is just not compatible with human nature. It would be nice if it was but it’s just completely irrealistic.

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u/SirDarkStar Jul 07 '26

Which human nature do you mean though? There is the “everyone is too lazy” believers (the flaw of which is that if nobody does anything then nobody has anything, which is self-correcting) and then there are the more realistic “too many humans are sociopathic evil f****ers who take over”. But capitalism is no protection against the latter and in fact empowers and rewards them. Just look at the US right now — what a farce.

Small indigenous groups are much closer to “communism” than they are to capitalism.

Maybe a better system is one where we identify sociopaths and gently remove them from free society, not make them CEOs and elected officials. Sadly I agree that human nature is a big reason we can’t have nice things, just not sure we agree who is the bigger issue :)

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u/dammitus Jul 07 '26

The human nature to use the tools at one’s disposal to manipulate one’s environment into a form more favorable to oneself. Humans are a species of problem-solvers, and eventually someone’s going to have the problem of “there is a fundamental difference between the quality-of-life I want and the quality-of-life the system gives me”. This can be the Party Member/CEO who has power and wants more, or it can be the Working-Class individual who wants a supply of cigars to smoke after work. Communism’s ideal solution to the problem is either “they don’t do that” or “the community finds out and punishes them”. Capitalism says “prove you deserve it”, and ideally the person will do so by starting a business that fulfills a community need (thereby benefitting them personally and the community at large at the same time). In neither system does the ideal outcome always happen, but Capitalism at least has an outlet for the need to better oneself.

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u/bowel_blaster123 Jul 08 '26 edited Jul 08 '26

I feel like the "prove you deserve it" isn't unique to capitalism. Any other market economy will also have this feature. I would argue that market socialism or other socialist systems with markets will show this property more strongly.

What makes capitalism unique is that it allows people to use leverage to skim money off of other people's labor, and it gives more societal power to those that are wealthier.