[user104658]

Originally Posted by Oliver_W

Can't disagree there.

The way you phrased it isn't something about which I know a great deal. I can't really call my self "anti-capitalist", though I'm certainly against mass consumerism.

As you say, it is somewhat ironic that the behavior of self-proclaimed "leftists" are possibly the outcome of a free market, and that they seem incredibly pro-consumerism. The way some of them defend the latest mass-produced product excreted by Disney...

The late 80's, all of the 90's and at least the first half of the 2010's was all about companies, politics, all sorts of people with vested financial interests pushing a narrative to kids and young people of;

"I am the best, I am the most important, I can be whatever I want, I can have whatever I want, I can have it all, the world is mine for the taking!"

And (cynically) that's because it was thought that those people would then be driven to productivity AND excessive spending within the consumer economy.

What they didn't expect but I think was somewhat inevitable, is that the NEXT generation (the ones who were BORN into that narrative) would have it so firmly embedded in their sense of self that they place importance on self/the individual in really extreme and often bizarre ways... and when you boil it right down... it was sparked by a late-stage capitalist idea that "self centred people will want to buy themselves more stuff".