A system where the totalizing, all-pervasive logic of the market and the profit motive achieves such dominance that it subsumes all aspects of human life—social bonds, personal identity, art, religion, and politics—into its framework. The state may not control every thought, but the market dictates every viable choice, creating a "soft totalitarianism" where freedom is the freedom to choose between branded alternatives, and dissent is marginalized not by secret police, but by unprofitability and social irrelevance.
Example: "Capitalistic totalitarianism is when your town's only public square gets sold to a developer and becomes a 'privately owned public space' where you can be ejected for loitering (not shopping). Your protests against it are organized on a corporate social media platform that algorithmically demotes your event, covered by media outlets owned by the same developer's friends, and the most effective form of dissent they can imagine is a consumer boycott of one of his twelve subsidiaries."
by AbzuInExile February 1, 2026
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