A response to a video from Russel Brand

Pearce Deacon
3 min readJul 21, 2021

In response to the YouTube video created by Russel Brand 18 July 2021 (https://youtu.be/-7SZ9vsaKew):

My only problem here is semantics… what I consider the misuse of the term ‘Capitalism’. The proper understanding of the meaning of words is important in order to avoid confusion.

Capitalism is not what you are describing in this video. Capitalism is simply a set of rules that under ideal circumstances creates a fair and free system for people to work and compete within. Of course there are never true ideal circumstances, but Capitalism comes closest to liberating the creative spirit and humanity of the individual.

I think what you are justly criticizing is closer to Oligarchic Fascism or Corporate Fascism (or just Corporatism) which grew out of classic Marxism/Socialism and is the opposite of Capitalism. Corporatism was designed to unify the ‘means of production’ under government control by imagining/creating distinct autonomous classes which are then integrated into the state. You have the investor class, the manager class, and the workers all separate but equal under the firm guidance of the government apparatus. However, even in the 19th and early 20th centuries these separate classes were largely contrivances, and now they are wholly artificial having to be maintained by the heavy hand of authoritarianism in order to…

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