NSPM-7 and Capitalism (and What It Means to be an Anti-Capitalist)
A look at capitalism, NSPM-7, and what it means to be anti-capitalist in a time where dissent is labeled as "domestic terrorism."
I want to confront three big topics I’ve been hesitant to talk about except among friends: capitalism, fascism, and imperialism. Small, lighthearted topics, but ones my conscience compels me to speak up about.
Others have not been so timid. Enlightened people have been writing about these topics for well over a hundred years. Karl Marx published Capital, his magnum opus, in 1867, and it remains a scathing and salient critique of capitalism that’s still relevant today. In more recent history, folks like Greta Thunberg are bravely raising their voices about this unholy trinity, often — and definitely in Greta’s case — at great risk to their own reputation, personal health, and safety.
This is going to be a three-parter, so bear with me. For now, here’s part one on capitalism and what it means to be an anti-capitalist in a time when dissent is labeled as domestic terrorism.
NSPM-7 and ‘domestic terrorism’
I’m ashamed to admit it’s taken Trump issuing NSPM-7, “Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence,” on September 25th for me to decide I can’t afford to keep my mouth shut any longer. NSPM-7 specifically calls out people who hold “anti-capitalist” points of view as likely or prone to becoming so-called domestic terrorists. This statement was issued in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination, and the Trump administration (and many prominent Republican elected officials and public figures) wasted no time pouncing on the assassination as an opportunity to push a narrative of left-wing domestic terrorism.
This is, sadly, a classic tactic of bullies, despots, and dorks — create a boogeyman that must be defeated, even by unconventional or extraordinary means, and use that boogeyman as a pretext to persecute your perceived enemies. In this case, the boogeyman might just be described as a leftist or progressive, since that’s essentially who NSPM-7 identifies as the alleged threat without explicitly saying so. There is no evidence of violent leftist extremists committing acts of “domestic terrorism.” It’s the same type of horrible narrative the right has been pushing about trans people and mass shootings, or people on SSRIs 🙋🏻♂️ and mass shootings.
The charade goes like this:
- Take a group of people you don’t like (the Other)
- Create a false pretense for them to commit acts of violence (e.g., “people on SSRIs are prone to violence”)
- When an act of violence is committed, point the finger at the Other and circulate rumors or disinformation to frame them (e.g., “The school shooter was taking an SSRI, therefore all people on SSRIs are likely to become school shooters!”)
- Garner public support for your accusations, stir up a moral panic, and persecute the Other in some way
Like I said, this is a pretty popular play that has been used by vile people for time immemorial — often against immigrants — and it’s now being used by those who Trump sees as the enemy at home: leftists and the infamous Antifa, which, by the way, the federal government itself has admitted is not a real thing.
But NSPM-7 goes so far as to identify people who hold specific points of view, anti-capitalism chief among them. Which begs the question, what is an anti-capitalist? But first, let’s back it up even further and answer the question, “What is a capitalist?”
What is a capitalist?
A capitalist is someone who uses capital to generate wealth. “Capital” of course, can be a number of things, from cash to land to machinery to intellectual property. The system of political economy in which a capitalist does their thing is, of course, capitalism.
This makes capitalism a way of organizing society to produce goods and services in which a small group of people (the capitalists) own the big things that produce the stuff everyone else needs or wants. Capitalists aren’t doing the backbreaking labor of producing goods like, say, cars, themselves. Rather, they own the means of producing cars. This is what socialists mean when we talk about “seizing the means of production.” The capitalists own the factories, the machines, the raw materials that go into making a car, but they do none of the actual physically and mentally demanding work themselves while reaping all of its rewards. That job falls to the working class, or the proletariat, if we’re using our Marxist terminology correctly.
Unless you walk around carrying a cane and wearing a monocle and a top hat, you are, by definition, not a capitalist. Being a capitalist has nothing to do with whether or not you think capitalism is a good way to distribute wealth in a society — it fundamentally has to do with whether or not you have an outsized amount of wealth compared to an ordinary person and if you leverage said wealth to grow it even more by exploiting other people’s labor for your own personal gain. That is a capitalist.
In a word, an asshole.
What is an anti-capitalist?
An anti-capitalist, then, is someone who thinks that’s fucked up. An anti-capitalist looks at the capitalist sunbathing on the deck of his brand new mega-yacht in the Mediterranean while 70% of Americans live paycheck-to-paycheck working meaningless, demanding jobs and thinks to himself, “Hm, something is off about this picture.”
Anti-capitalists are often lumped into an amorphous category that most Americans might questionably label as “Communists,” but that’s not necessarily true (and besides, I’m willing to bet the average American has no idea what a real Communist is). Some anti-capitalists are Communists, but they don’t have to be. Some are anarchists or socialists or just against everything being run by big business. I’m willing to bet way more people are anti-capitalists than realize it if we’re going with an actual good-faith definition of “anti-capitalist.”
So why is Trump so hung up on these people? What have they done to hurt him?
Well, for one thing, Trump is an actual, real-life capitalist. He made his money the good old-fashioned way: inheriting a real estate empire from daddy. Trump is arguably a better leader of an organized crime syndicate than a capitalist, but once you start educating yourself more about Marxist critiques of capitalism, you might start to think there’s not much of a difference between the two. You’d be correct in thinking so.
Trump hates anti-capitalists because they pose a threat to his way of life and the way of life for people like him. Trump is so bullish about suppressing their voices because he knows they see through his bullshit and aren’t afraid to call him out on it. In fact, if enough people were to see through the bullshit of capitalists, that would probably spell trouble for all of them. And if history is a reliable guide, the specific kind of trouble the capitalists are worried about is usually called revolution.
When the capitalists get nervous about revolution, the rest of us get fascism
Ah, fascism. The F word that’s unfortunately been on a lot of people’s minds the last uh, ten or so years. Gulp. We’ll do a deep dive on fascism in part two of this three-part series, but for now, I’ll leave you with this — when the capitalists realize public opinion has turned against them, they pull an emergency lever labeled “fascism.”
This has been said in one way or another many different times, but the important thing to remember is that fascism is a tool employed by capitalists to keep the working class in line. In other words, in a capitalist society like ours, fascism is a feature, not a bug. Fascism in this country has waxed and waned many times. It was here before the Nazis, and it’s still here today, unfortunately alive and well. We’ll talk more in part two about NSPM-7 and fascism, but for now, know that the two — fascism and capitalism — are inextricably intertwined. It’s no coincidence that Trump’s security directive takes aim not only at anti-capitalists but also at anti-fascists.
I think it’s important to help people make that connection. Until next time.