I agree with the general thrust of this thread, but "freedom" isn't exactly how we ended up here. The capitalist moment that we find ourselves in wasn't the result of individual freedoms and free economies. https://twitter.com/jenbrea/status/1273770484484562944

It's possible (perhaps even likely?) that we might never have reached this capitalist moment had the geologic and microbial processes of the Americas had behaved differently, to say nothing of the "availability" of African peoples for enslavement.

Put differently, even though the intermediate outcomes were exceedingly regrettable for much of humanity (and perhaps all life on earth), an argument can be made that humanity is fortunate—lucky, even—that Europe was able and willing to exploit it. This should trouble us.

We'll never no for sure, but had the course of history run slightly differently, the breakthrough to industrial capitalism might plausibly never have happened, no matter how much time passed.

Is it okay to admire the ends of these historic developments, even if one remains appalled by their vastly destructive means? I honestly don't know.

But it disturbs me to think that only Western Europe may have capable in a historical sense—for reasons geographic, demographic, and epidemiological—of facilitating the transition to industrial capitalism.

I guess what I'm saying is that it's a mistake to view "capitalism" and the state of humanity (good or bad) as somehow the result of self-serving individual actions, detached from command economies, germs, and the availability of natural resources, etc. History is never neat.

It's entirely possible that this thread made no sense.