I’ve heard many people say “Capitalism ends in fascism,” but let me put in my thought – Capitalism seems to create messiahs. Inevitably.
Lately in 2025 it seems Capitalism is filled with messiahs. It used to be you’d get a few here and there, but now we’re awash in them and their annoying products, videos, and podcasts. People who will save us from ourselves, who will usher in the singularity, or take us intergalactic or whatever. It seems late-stage Capitalism produces an embarrassment of messiahs, and all of them are embarrassing.
This got me thinking. Because Capitalism in popular imagination is often portrayed as hard-edged, about bargains, and money, and economic growth and so on. When it’s not, it usually involves drugs (usually cocaine) and sex (when on cocaine), and excess (thanks 80’s movies). If there was philosophy it was pseudo-Nietzsche/Ayan Rand stuff at best. If people were Capitalists out to reshape the world they were usually villains fighting James Bond or Superman.
I think these pop culture ideas may have shielded us from the messiah Machine that is Capitalism.
Capitalism allows people to accumulate power in the form of wealth, influence, and public regard. Capitalism has no restraints, so some people are going to get a lot of wealth and power, which lets them do whatever they want. Most of them use that to get more wealth and power, since they’re competing with each other and you don’t want anyone to get the drop on you.
Capitalists also don’t face a lot of repercussions as they have money, power, and the backing of our culture. When’s the last time you’ve seen someone whos rich face repercussions for their actions, even when you hear of horrific accusations of scamming, child abuse, and worse? Exactly. It’s easy to get used to that, and start thinking of yourself as invulnerable – and even get used to it.
Lots of power. No repercussions. It becomes easy to think you’re special, maybe even a messiah.
But you’re also totally abstract from human experience as one of our hyper-capitalists. You live in a soft world where cause and effect isn’t what it is for everyone else. Your world is a world of numbers and marketing, and nothing else. You’re just a suit of flesh around a bank account and a stock portfolio. How easy is it to spin some messiah story to give your life meaning?
It’s probably much easier when your life is devoid of cause and effect, of meaning, so you come up with a story to make yourself special and not just a money meat suit.
Some Capitalists may not fall into such traps, but messianism is also a useful shield. People catch on that some idiot who got a huge inheritance is still just an idiot, but an idiot deciding how large chunks of the world run. Claiming messianism is a great way to protect yourself from people who are starting to realize you didn’t earn anything and figure you shouldn’t have it.
You might even believe you’re a messiah after awhile. And in the isolation. And probably the drugs.
In retrospect, Capitalism seems to be a kind of messiah machine. Sure it may have taken awhile to get to our current state of multiple messianic money morons, but boy have we done it in spades the last ten to twenty years. We’ve also got a lot of would-be Capitalist Messiahs with their video channels and other grifts.
It’s probably both the concentration of money and power and the media. We’ve got powerful people with influence over the media, a media filled with bootlickers, and the chance of parasocial relationships. That’s been a powerful force letting people find someone to worship, inviting both the manipulative and the deluded to indulge.
Capitalism leads to fascism, sure. But it also leads to messiahs and those are a pretty integral ingredient to fascism.
-Xenofact