I see the term "late-stage capitalism" everywhere online.
Its persistence is proof of Marxism's staying-power as a tool of critique, but I question its usefulness beyond that.
Because of its symbolic implications. Words shape and reveal our beliefs. And each belief allows us _not to think about something_.
"Late-stage capitalism" is fatalistic. The system is spent but can’t die. It lets us avoid alternatives. It aestheticizes collapse. It turns politics into content. Absurdities into punchlines. Organizers into grifters. "Welcome to late-stage capitalism. What did you expect?" Full ironic detachment. It dissuades _action_.
I’m searching for other terms - ones that accurately frame what is happening but also ask "What is to be done?".
"Techno-feudalism" does both. It breaks the liberal frame of profit through commodity exchange for one of rent extraction. It implies that we rank somewhere in a feudal hierarchy. It also suggests change: feudalism has come and gone before.