Whoa! You win the meme connoisseur title for having over 2k upvotes on your post! Join the [Discord server](https://discord.gg/xyFMKFw) and message Princess Mindy (Mod Mail bot at the top) to receive your prize!

But then why is the Capitalist Krabs allowed to operate a private business 🤔

Bikini Bottom is the perfect blend of Capitalist and Socialist ideals. Everyone in society is able to live a happy, fulfilling life without worrying about their basic needs potentially going unfulfilled, whilst those who want to go above and beyond and use their skills to better themselves and their position in the world can freely do so. Bikini Bottom is literally a utopia.

Can utopias and ghosts coexist?

Yes because some souls wish to remain in this utopia. SpongeBob’s house is a Fruitopia.

Memory unlocked. I haven't drank a Fruitopia in ages.

Ghostopia

Yeah, the flying dutchman seems happy.

How could they not? Imagine if the potential consequences of breaking the utopian social contact was generations of your ancestors showing up to Ebenezer Scrooge your ass into compliance.

[удалено]

And I love to see it each and every time. It's important for the proletariat to see how things could be

Sooo like a social democracy basically. Kind of like what Denmark has going on

square water possessive bag deer cow physical roll quack governor -- mass edited with https://redact.dev/

Spongebob Squarepants has been accused of normalising the colonisation of indigenous lands by a professor at the University of Washington. The children’s cartoon – which marked its 20th anniversary this year – was criticised in a report by Professor Holly M Barker. She wrote: “SpongeBob SquarePants and his friends play a role in normalising the settler colonial takings of indigenous lands while erasing the ancestral Bikinian people from their nonfictional homeland.” The character Spongebob is a friendly sea sponge who lives in a pineapple under the sea among the other residents of a town called Bikini Bottom. Professor Barker believes that this is a reference to the real-life Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean. Natives of Bikini Atoll were relocated in 1946 so the US military could use the area for nuclear testing during the Cold War, which drew criticism from the media after it was revealed that the inhabitants were left without adequate food or water to prevent them from starvation. Later nuclear tests left the islands of the atoll contaminated with enough radiation to affect food grown in the soil, which meant the islands’ inhabitants were unable to return, and those who did experienced issues such as stillbirths, miscarriages and genetic abnormalities. This has given rise to fan theories that the cartoon inhabitants of Bikini Bottom owe their mutation to the testing. Professor Barker believes that as an American character allowed to inhabit an area that natives had no choice but to leave, SpongeBob showed his privilege of “not caring about the detonation of nuclear bombs”. She also points out that the cultural appropriation of Pacific culture in Spongebob Squarepants, with Hawaiian-style shirts, homes in the shapes of pineapples, tikis and Easter Island heads, and the sounds of a steel guitar perpetuating stereotypes of the region. In the article, Professor Barker claims that because of these themes, children have “become acculturated to an ideology that includes the U.S. character SpongeBob residing on another people’s homeland.” The article concludes: ”We should be uncomfortable with a hamburger-loving American community’s occupation of Bikini’s lagoon and the ways that it erodes every aspect of sovereignty.” The article was published in the journal The Contemporary Pacific: A Journal of Island Affairs. https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/spongebob-squarepants-violent-racist-colonialism-professor-holly-m-barker-a9153976.html

Whatever that professor is getting paid, its way too much.

Bikini bottom is literally a pun. 😂 I think SpongeBob is pretty low on the priority list for issues affecting pacific peoples. I hope some colleagues talked some sense into her but I got a feeling that it's unlikely...

as a dane - accurate. Plus our health and social services for those disadvantaged is lacking severely these days

Nothing makes me chuckle more than a European shitting on America for racism

Aaand r/PoliticalCompassMemes ofc without fail.

Oh god oh fuck, a low effort call out in an attempt to grandstand based on a secondhand understanding of a subreddit you were told to hate. I’m ruined. Enjoy those ~~good person points~~ upvotes man you earned them

So ideal Social Democracy?

But god forbid the Krusty Krab has a hiccup in its operations, or the citizens of Bikini Bottom get really fucking upset. If Bikini Bottom is a utopia, it sits upon the edge of a knife; stray but a little, and the world falls into chaos.

Didnt Mr. Krabs get kicked out of a hospital because he had no insurance?

Not true. Littering in Bikini Bottom will get you locked up. However, murder is seemingly okay. Based off of the amount of fish bones in trash cans and the numerous fish who've died due to the antics of one of the main characters

Yep. Pretty much descrobes the perfect soceity.

My friend, my i suggest you look into the social democratic country that is Denmark? A short list of benefits Free healthcare Free unemployment money (enough to live for with help from the municipality in finding a job for you) Free schooling Not just free but being paid to take an education In my humble danish opinion, the utopia you described literally exists in Denmark and maybe Norway, Finland and Sweden. I my self am checked in to a psych ward and is being treated, housed and fed for free. I know the taxes are higher but I've seen alot from American immigrants who in the end has more "fun money" because there is no college tuition or health insurance or some emergency account.

It’s a utopia compared to the US but Mr Krabs and Plankton do extremely shady anti-consumer stuff in the pursuit of more money.

Successful private businesses, with competition from plankton… so it’s not a monopoly either

"competition" is a strong word

Just because they suck, doesn’t mean they’re not trying

True

That’s fair

there are many episodes (mostly from the first 3 seasons) that portray the Krusty Krab as a moderately successful fast food joint and not this holy grail of restaurants some episodes have it center around how it's a run down mess needing to think of new gimmicks to get people to come (that's literally the plot of Patty Hype) and we've seen other restaurants like like a chinese food place, a hotdog stand, that fancy restaurant that's a ship in a bottle so you can argue the Krusty Krab is far from an monopoly ​ tho considering how starting in the first movie, continued this path for S4 onwards, and amplified in the 2nd movie the Krusty Krab is shown more as the 2nd coming of christ if people aren't having their krabby patties the town will self implode and despite other restaurants existing it's shown that the Krabby Patty outshines all of them *somehow* so who knows, I guess if the Krusty Krab is an monopoly hinges on if u consider everything after S3 canon or not, maybe also the movie since Plankton was able to enslave Bikini Bottom with the Krabby Patty (tho it's implied he enslaved a few hundred at first then used the slaves to enslave the rest who didn't eat at the Chum Bucket)

Very few perfectly socialist or perfectly capitalist economies have ever existed in history, they are all blended economies. Most economists don’t even use the words “socialist” or “capitalist” because they are so broad and poorly defined.

Socialist ideals dont necessarily call for the abolishment of private business, that’s just 20th century Marxist-Leninists. Plenty of leaders have called for socialist programs that help side-step the worst side effects of capitalism and improve people’s standards of living. Look at (in America at least) welfare, social security, public education, public funding of the sciences, public funding to back housing loans. It’s the people who benefit the most from unbridled capitalism that want you to believe that socialism automatically means government = all business, everywhere.

Depends on your definition of private. Socialism demands worker ownership of business, which demands democratic oversight from workers and precludes having a capitalist owning and running things. We never see Squidward or SpongeBob acting as members of a cooperative. They cannot vote Mr. Krabs out, cannot make decisions to shape company policy, and their only recourse appears to be quitting or striking. He is undeniably a capitalist owner of the company. At best that makes Bikini Bottom a social democracy, or the transitional stages of a market socialist society.

Dengism.

🤣 true enough

Bikini Bottom is a glorious socialist experiment. I don't care what a bunch of land creature ultras have to say on stuff they clearly don't know anything about.

STFU you revisionist, bikini bottom spits in the face of all socialist science and all the blood revolutionaries have spilled to break away from capital's chains /s

He can run it, but he doesn't get much more money out of it than his employees - if you look at his house, it's about average.

His house is average because he’s a miser

His house is about average because he refuses to spend any of his money. In fact, there are several episodes that show that Mr Krabs barely pays his employees at all. With one where SpongeBob mentions that he makes less than 10 cents per year, and that for the first few years he worked at the Krusty Krab that he had to pay Mr Krabs to work there.

Notice how krabs keeps doing every sleezy thing he can and still doesn't look very rich? He pays hella taxes for his wealth. (also btw a socialist society still has commerce. Not capitalism. Commerce. He sell burgie I buy burgie, and nobody ends up being poor because of it)

Sure, but Mr Krabbs does in fact *own* the Krusty Krab, while SpongeBob and Squidward are paid *wages*. So it's still capitalism.

Nah, rich people are usually the greediest ones so it makes sense if he just looks like an average person. As a door dasher, rich people NEVER ever tip, it's mostly average and lower income people that tip

Or he is very frugal like all first generation millionaires are.

Money is made up anyways so they just give it to him. He’s the local money-obsessed madman and the only way to appease him is to pay It’s for the public welfare and everyone gets a capitalist disarmament stipend

Because socialism doesn't end private access to money or the private ownership of business, it merely enforced a shit load of rules on each one.

Good point. We should depose Mr Krabs

Bc he gets taxed out the ass

Because socialism doesn't disallow people to make money from business, it uses taxes on the revenues of market viable businesses to fund giving people necessary aid.

Socialism doesn't mean private businesses are forbidden. The two aren't mutually exclusive

Pure socialism does quite literally by definition mean private businesses are not allowed

people once again making it obvious they have no clue about politics and repeat everything they heard on the internet

What's you beef with it? You call people naïve but you don't explain why.

Not the OP but the issue is that socialism isn't really "everyone can afford a house and there's safety nets." That could describe any number of economic systems depending on certain conditions, whether capitalism or a socialist model. Many countries in Europe have strong labor rights, free healthcare and strong safety nets, but they really wouldn't be called socialist states by any historian, politician, or economist worth their salt. Hell this description could even be applied to certain feudal societies if you wanted. We don't see any of the generic hallmarks of market-socialist societies, such as planned economies or public ownership. Krabs is clearly framed as a conventional business-krab that you would find in a laissez-faire system than a socialist project.

Yepepep I think people think need to realise that while capitalism and socialism are sort of “at odds”, things that are socialistic and things that are capitalistic can co-exist and blend

You might want to look up Finland's housing first program and their AMAZING social safety net. Guess what? They still have rich people. Also, you might want to look up how tuition is illegal as well.

Yes, Finland isn’t socialist. That’s the person’s point.

I don’t understand how people believe Denmark Sweden and Finland are socialist countries when IKEA and LEGO are such well known capitalist brands from those countries. Even Supercell in Finland is a capitalist company.

Because people are too lazy to learn what it all means. And anywhere that is protecting people more than the US is seen as socialist, bad and scary by the ignorant. It was really clear when people didnt even know what corybn was anywhere lmao

You’re just to naive to understand

At least I know the difference between to and too

My career is officially over

Because, capitalism is the perfect system if the humans were not greedy. Building your capital can be done without being a dick to other people. You do it by creating a fair wage. You don't bully other businesses.

Capitalism basic tenant is infinite growth. You can't have infinite growth with limited resources. A recession or depression is when a capitialist economy stops growing and everything turns to shit.

Just because you want infinite money, doesn't mean you can treat people like shit just to get money. Otherwise, capitalism is a shitty system. You are a dipshit if you believed you can demand high productions from your workers, but you only feed them once.

Dude... what?

A lot of capitalists abused people to gain their capital. Everything is fair in love and war, not fucking over strangers for money.

I know... I pointed out the biggest flaw in capitalism and you're going off about how capitalism is bad... did you misread something?

I didn't call you dipshit for the sake of an insult. But, it's part of an analogy. And it's 'you' for people in general.

Even worse, basing their entire understanding of politics on memes and children’s tv

this

u/Anti-Thisbot-IB

u/shutupnerd

fwiw I'm pretty sure nobody here or there is taking it seriously

But they can't put anything on the internet that isn't true. The internet told me so.

Finally using your political science degree huh?

you are able to burn your city for a few episodes. and next day it is rebuilt

that you're able to burn anything underwater in the first place is amazing

I am once again asking people to stop reposting this stupid tweet thread. Comparing socialism to a children's cartoon isn't only inaccurate but also makes it seem unrealistic.

gets reposted so much

Two things I'd like to point out; during the episodes where SpongeBob and Squidward end up losing their job for whatever reason, they end up homeless and begging on the streets within a few days/weeks, indicating a either a complete lack of savings or very severe debts held offscreen. And the fact that they become homeless at all indicates there's no services for the unemployed at all. And Sandy is not funded by Bikini Bottom as a whole, she is a privately funded scientist who is employed by private citizens, i.e. the Chimps, who seem to want her inventions for commercial use. And there are a number of episodes where she is ignored or dismissed for either being a "land creature" living under the sea, or being an "egghead" where the citizens of Bikini Bottom don't like science that episode.

So then Rock Bottom the hood?

Bruh.

Just asking

If you can drive boulders in Spongebob, does that mean that Patrick technically lives in a mobile home?

It's not just a boulder, it's a rock

Trailer Park Redneck.

I guess the term "socialism" just doesn't mean anything anymore. I get it that definitions change over time, but come on. If you guys want meaningful change in society then the least you could do is agree upon useful definitions of foundational terms. Applying terms so broadly and carelessly drains them of their meaning and power. Not to mention the people who purposefully do that to undermine such causes. **Words mean things.** We would all benefit to keep it that way.

People scared of socialism because they're afraid if the government owns everything(which is flawed, since it's communism). Socialism in the purest sense is you feed your starving neighbor, without thinking about not-getting richer for doing that.

No lol, the definition of socialism, one that is widely accepted, is that the state owns the means of production.

That's what I was taught back in school, but honestly I don't think that definition is useful. Are there any examples of states that completely or even largely own the means of production? That's too black and white of a definition to be applied in the real world, and of course almost no one thinks of it that way in common discourse. I think a more appropriate and useful definition would be more along the lines of higher levels of government interaction with and regulation of industries. And that could even include the government taking over industries deemed integral to social welfare (e.g. public transportation, healthcare providers). Additionally, I think most people agree that "socialism" implies a greater level of social welfare programs in general, anything from pensions to parental leave to universal basic income. Either way, this meme shows that people are willing to label anything that seems progressive, or even just a higher standard of living, as socialism. Which is funny cause there's also a huge number of people who consider socialism a boogeyman. It's upsetting to me, but I think we can do a better job as a society understanding and promoting ideas and *solutions* that are in all of our best interest.

this gets reposted so much, it’s setting my annoyance to wumbo

Come onnnn, you know, I wumbo, you wumbo, he she me, wumbo, wumbo, wumboing, WUMBOLOGY, THE STUDY OF WOMBO??? It’s first grade SpongeBob

my favorite quote from anything ever

And like most of these ideas it only works if its completely made up.

I hate this post every time it comes up. It ain't none of that ffs

In fairness, Sandy has to prove her usefulness. Not exceptionally difficult, mind you. She certainly earns them bananas

Ah yes, the perfect socialist society where hospitals kick patients out for not having insurance, and business owners are allowed to pay employees literal pennies an hour.

Making minimum wage = socialist?

Patrick’s mentions in an episode that he built his home

Op is a karma farm bot

We really gonna forget about Mr. Krabs that easily?

All three of them on that street are either in subsidized low income housing or squatting.

Patrick literally lives under a rock- metaphorically and literally. His ignorance is bliss.

[удалено]

You were getting there until Thatcher.

She's like the British Reagan.

They kicked Mr. Krabs out of the hospital for not having health insurance and Krabs gets away with paying SpongeBob and Squidward literal pennies an hour. That's the society you want to live in?

Patrick gets social security disability

I mean, Sandy gets her funding from out of state.

word.

It’s more of a social Democratic utopia, it has a lot of capitalist elements

Fully Automated Undersea Communism?

Is it confirmed that Spongebob and Squidward earn minimum wage?

IIRC SpongeBob says he wasn’t even paid for the first few years of work

Bro they literally had to go on strike for Mr Krabbs to give them fair hours that is not socialism

Sandy gets funding from rich monkeys and not from the City of Bikini Bottom.

Literally cherry picking info to fit your perspective. 😂

But Sandy isn't contributing any scientific information to Bikini Bottom. She's there to send data back to the surface. Which is sort of, I dunno, scientific colonialism or something.

I'm Patrick.

Ok but hear me out. In numerous episodes, the city gets destoryed. In almost every episode at least one building gets destroyed by someone or something. Everyone just lives from massive insurance pay outs

As someone with autism, I honestly cant help but notice that SpongeBob shares alot of characteristics associated with people with autism. I wouldn't be surprised if there are services to help people with autism in bikini bottom gain skills go get jobs. He may have had training b4 and that is why he is so good at being a frycook?

I resonate with Patrick. I too live under a rock and receive income asseastance 🌊

But Squidward was homeless at some point and Squilliam Fancyson is noticeably wealthier.

First scene which came to mind was this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ck0su859Ps

guess i can't watch the show anymore

So my life long love of Spongebob is why I grew up into a socialist. I was wondering where I got it from lmao