Coomer Capitalism
A problem that arises in any capitalist system is lack of clarity as to what is valuable.
A problem that arises in any capitalist system is lack of clarity as to what is valuable.
In our society today, it is not so far fetched to imagine a man living with his parents who does not appreciate his mom cooking all his meals, but is para-socially obsessed with an OnlyFans model who is just exploiting his lower nature for a chunk of his disposable income.
You might say OnlyFans does not deserve this much attention. $6.6B is really only .03% of total 2023 household expenditure, so who cares? But it’s a symbol of a larger issue!
Mis-valuing goods and services out of ignorance is expressed in larger, more destabilizing ways as financial bubbles, where investments are put into empty facades, or literal illusions and temptations (Theranos, Dot Com, etc.).
The die-hard economics worshipper, with no moral intuitions1 other than what is economically efficient, might say it is because the OnlyFans model is able to meet some need that his mom cannot meet, and so this is rational behavior. But anyone who looks a bit deeper will see that what is rational is often not what is truly good. Because it is rational reasoning only from false premises that arise from a misunderstanding of one’s self and the environment.
For example: "I like scrolling through this OnlyFans page and do not see much harm in it. Therefore, I will pay for it."
This is rational, sure, but such a person surely has a shallow understanding of why he likes what he does. And on further investigation will see that there is a deeper, and, dare I say, more important, part of him, that actually is repeatedly harmed by this transaction, as the habit of avoiding reality through the illusion of romantic or sexual companionship is being cemented deeper and deeper into his psyche.
Or am I being too moralistic? Can we really separate drives into lower and higher, or decisions into good and bad?
What if we said good actions arise from higher clarity of the situation at hand, and bad actions arise from ignorance? Isn't that kind of fair? I mean, we don't have to judge people, or tell OnlyFans man that if he looks at OnlyFans one more time we'll throw him in prison. But actions arising from ignorance just seem... not as good.
So, then, have any of you ever had a moment of clarity, where the world looked vivid, your head felt clear, and everything about life seemed ok, and in this state, you received this command from the heavens: "You must tip Bhad Bhabie $20 for VIP access to her unreleased nudes"?
I’m asking sincerely, not rhetorically. I'm genuinely open to anything at this point. Maybe you have some daemon by your side whose muse is Bhad Bhabie and demands a certain amount of content each week in order to maintain creative inspiration. Maybe OnlyFans is good.
And he doesn’t regret it!
Maybe the OnlyFans executive team is spreading genuine joy to men in need. Maybe they are actually undervalued, both morally and economically, for their benevolent healing services.
“Moral intuitions” is a fascinating technical term of Rudolf Steiner’s. I think that for him, morality is not a human construction, but moral truths have an independent existence that humans can tap into through the faculty of “moral intuition”.