Is the self-help genre reactionary?

Is the self-help genre reactionary?

What kind of thinking even goes into this?

Capitalism is the ultimate in just world fallacy.

Yes.

It fully backs up the ideology of bourgeois individualism.

It's also almost always a scam like all ideology pushed on the masses.

Well obviously when it says "everybody" it isn't talking about the worthless proles whose houses are being foreclosed on. Nobody cares what happens to them.

oh entirely, the entire thing is based on the notion that with just an adjustment of your personality, you can be more successful in the capitalist system, which is asinine on nearly every level and prevents people from getting genuinely mad

Yes, never rely on yourself. Have blind faith in the stateā€¦ that always works out.

Ah yes because the only thing keeping you from your millions is that you just aren't being enough of a sociopath.

What if I make my millions by providing a service or product which makes the lives of the average individual exponentially better.

*?

...

It's just your average joe who is confused he isn't turning profit in his small business. The state is the thing which is fucking him.

Piglets are still pigs.

It's philosophy for plebs. It's capitalist garbage too.

Monopoly is a natural part of of the progress of capitalism. In fact, in order for industrial capitalism to establish itself, it had to destroy innumerable cottage industries and small peasant holdings. It is, in fact, large businesses that fuck over small businesses, and if the state hurts small business, it is merely because they're at the beck and call of big business, but it sure is convenient for the massive corporate multinationals that useful idiots like to blame the state and themselves instead of said corporate multinationals or capitalism writ large.

The richest 1% of Americans pay 37% of income taxes, how exactly are small businesses suffering because of the state? minimum wage laws? come the fuck on.

This. Every time someone complains that muh regulations are strangling small business, remember that this is a way of raising the barriers to entry and forcing competition down to protect the big dogs.

It's not necessarily reactionary, it's just delusional.

Yes. Self-help, self-improvement and positive thinking psychology are all capitalist propaganda.

Is this the leftypol version of "Is X white" garbage threads on oldchan?

Yes, I think there are 2 approaches.
Both levels assume that society is a zero-sum game and that you have to TAKE what you want, unless you want to die penniless. In this sense they're right: if you're a piece of shit there are many more fucked up, downright evil options you can take. I mean, look at your pic related.
The difference between the 2 approaches is that one lets you know that in this world there is no book that will teach you how to be rich, and that at best it's all about attitude, and at worst it's all about how many millions you've got in your bank account.
The other approach you does not tell you that, and in fact treats the reader as a prey. It will fed him up with countless other shitty self-help books, courses and cult-like shit that will go absolutely nowhere.

Fuck sake what's wrong with all of you? Obviously you shouldn't trust a book that says by following it you'll become a millionaire, but that doesn't mean there aren't books that can teach you useful interpersonal skills or how to adjust your personality and thinking to be more helpful and constructive. It's like you want to remove any ounce of agency you have and give all control over your life to Capitalism.

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yeah dude just read some self-help books and lift yourself up by the bootstraps

That isn't our position. Our position is that it wasn't there to begin with.

Yes, to a certain extent, all people have agency and their decisions can have an impact on their lives, but you don't need a "self-help" book to know that. Ultimately, the message of the "self-help" genre is that your position in life isn't the result of vast socio-economic forces beyond your control, but of your attitude and lifestyle choices. It's a call to view social problems as personal problems. And that's bullshit.

Self-"""help"""

I didn't say that you illiterates. You're anti-capitalists yet all you can do is think squarely in capitalistic materialistic terms. You're like a petty booj who thinks self-improvement is worthless if it doesn't make him more money.

It depends on the book. But again, you're making it seem like societal problems have complete control over your life. They might've fucked you over to begin with, but that doesn't mean you can't do anything to fix what they've broken now. Besides, not to defend Capitalism, but people have overcome the vast socio-economic forces beyond their control, unfortunately most of the time they end up becoming their former oppressors.

Pretty much.

How come self help books always use the most pretentious font?

Real Comic Sans advice