In this episode of Capitalism Hits Home, Dr. Fraad looks at the recent dramatic US Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. She argues that all of the SCOTUS decisions for 2022 share a common purpose. First, they help to create a capitalist authoritarian state enforced by unaccountable police. Secondly they divide the mass of people. They antagonize divisions between people and fuel culture wars. The goal is to create hierarchical and hostile divisions that keep Americans from uniting as an employee class and winning
“We have to accept that empire and militarism is not what’s going to save the world, it’s what’s going to destroy the planet.” In this episode of Capitalism Hits Home, Dr. Fraad continues discussing America’s problem with gun violence. Because the US never converted to a peacetime economy after WWII, it continues to spend billions waging wars, stockpiling military equipment, and funding overseas conflicts. This militaristic culture enables domestic terrorism and mass violence. To counteract this, we need to encourage our many separate social movements to join together and fight to redistribute the excessive military budget to universal health care, child care, affordable housing, decent wages, climate justice, and more.
In this episode of Capitalism Hits Home, Dr. Fraad looks at mass shootings in the US and in particular the most recent tragedy in Uvalde, Texas. She examines the psychological, emotional, political, and economic reasons the US is the world leader in mass murder, and suggests solutions to end this cycle of violence and death.
"Capitalism is really bad for our health.” In this episode of Capitalism Hits Home, Dr. Fraad discusses mental health through the lens of a 4-legged table of connection: intimate relationships, friends, larger groups such as PTAs, work, or political groups, and connection to your country and shared humanity with the world. Under capitalism, Fraad explains, each leg of the table is made very shaky. With abuse, alcoholism, crime, and suicide all going up, as well as unemployment and illness rising, it’s clear that our social fabric is breaking down. Cooperation and connection, the most important contributors to mental health, aren’t protected under capitalism. In a system that allows for such deprivation, our only antidotes are to have hope and create connection through political activeness, strikes, unionizations, and more. Hope is not passive, it can be an active way to build a better world.
With rising inflation rates, mass resignations, poor working conditions, and expensive housing, it’s clear that capitalism in the US is falling apart. To counter this, the right wing is working hard to repress each and every marginalized group in order to keep the working class divided. In this episode of Capitalism Hits Home, Dr. Fraad looks at that fascist push to maintain a hierarchy in family, faith, morality, and nationalism. One way the Right does this is by attacking women and LGBTQ+ rights with abortion bans and anti-trans bills. In this legal stage of early fascism in the US, we need to take cues from other countries that successfully countered right-wing attacks on body autonomy by creating coalitions and unified fronts.
In this episode of Capitalism Hits Home, Dr. Fraad continues her discussion of mental health. She argues that we need to do away with the medical model of mental health that diagnoses depression as a brain disease and seeks to treat it exclusively with medication rather than acknowledging the societal and systemic conditions which lead to this chronic unhappiness. Fraad contends that human misery stems from a lack of meaningful connections to others, society and the world. Capitalism keeps people isolated and often unable to satisfy basic human needs. To truly address the mental health crisis the US faces, we need to create a system built on collective resources, collaboration, and connection.
"One out of four American women take antidepressant drugs." In this episode, Dr. Fraad addresses how mental health is diagnosed and treated in the US. Human suffering and misery have been systematically categorized as disorders for which treatment with medication is needed and prescribed by psychiatrists. She argues that the collusion of medical doctors, insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies and hospitals driven by their quest for profits, are to blame. *Disclaimer: d@w does not provide medical advice of any nature, specific or general, nor the suggestion of any diagnosis or treatment, nor the endorsement of any physician or medical facility mentioned herein. Nothing in this podcast is intended to or should serve as a substitute for medical advice or diagnoses rendered to you by your individual doctor or other health care provider. Only a licensed physician should evaluate your situation, provide a diagnosis, or render other medical advice to you, and you should act only upo...
During its inception, the Women’s Liberation Movement was rooted in anti-capitalist and anti-racist ideals, pushing for equality for all. Today, however, feminism tends to focus mainly on gender equality. In this episode of Capitalism Hits Home, Dr. Fraad discusses how that fracture happened and the deliberate forces behind it. Now more than ever we need an intersectional and collaborative approach to our social movements, with involvement from everyone.
Our nation's racism was a deliberate policy developed in response to rebellions in the 1600s when white indentured servants, free black men and women and enslaved black people rose up together against their exploitation. In this episode of Capitalism Hits Home, Dr. Fraad shares the story of this hugely important, yet often untaught, historical moment and its implications today.
**CW: RAPE, SEX TRAFFICKING** In this episode of Capitalism Hits Home, Dr. Fraad brings a Marxian class analysis to a highly controversial topic: sex work. Though illegal in the United States, sex work is all around—from brothels and sex trafficking to the sugar industry and communes. Fraad traces a brief history of sexuality and exploitation from antiquated marital expectations and slavery to the choices women make today to be single, not have children, or find a sugar daddy to fund higher education and stay independent. When looked at through a class analysis, it becomes clear that the issue of morality need not be focused on the work itself, but rather, on the level of exploitation the sex worker endures.