There is horror in understanding the way capitalism functions to create and reinforce so much deprivation and violence, no doubt.

Having comrades helps, though! And there is some value in revolutionary optimism and seeing where revolution worked, how the struggle evolved, and what we can build together. It took nearly a millenium for capitalism to dominate production, and yet look at how many victories have been won in such short time. Life expectancy in China alone is incredible and was wrought from, at minimum, a coherent anti-imperialist project that (partially) shields the people there from the cold sociopathy of global capital.

I also want to validate the frustrations you’ve shared about hegemonic capitalist psychology, of the power of propaganda so pervasive that it’s simply accepted as fact and common knowledge that is rarely investigated, but is still raised in contradiction to better-informed views. I don’t know if it makes you feel better, but this is something commies have recognized, highlighted, and battled against since at least Marx, and in the imperial core it’s certainly gotten worst as we have reached much more advanced stages of capitalism. On the other hand, revolutions still succeeded, revolutions that succeed occurred in countries where there was substantial liberal resistance and these same tired (and usually implicitly racist) capitalist arguments were everywhere, and we will accomplish the same through prolonged struggle, just as they did. Not that it will be easy or fast - just that the system itself breeds its own primary contradiction (a self-liberating working class) that can only be resolved resolved through revolution or fascism, and fascism will increasingly run out of frontiers to exploit.

Solidarity, comrade.