What do you think?
Rate this book
Capital Hates Everyone: Fascism or Revolution
Why we must reject the illusory consolations of technology and choose revolution over fascism.
We are living in apocalyptic times. In Capital Hates Everyone, famed sociologist Maurice Lazzarato points to a stark choice emerging from the magma of today's world events: fascism or revolution. Fascism now drives the course of democracies as they grow less and less liberal and increasingly subject to the law of capital. Since the 1970s, Lazzarato writes, capital has entered a logic of war. It has become, by the power conferred on it by financialization, a political force intent on destruction. Lazzarato urges us to reject the illusory consolations of a technology-abetted “new” kind of capitalism and choose revolution over fascism.
This offensive was made possible by the cycle of revolutions coming to an end. But while it was unfolding, critical thinking announced the suppression of social relations and the advent of a new capitalism, a milder one, more attentive to the comfort of workers. Today, the prophets of technology even boast of a solution to the climate crisis or an exit from capitalism by the very means of capital. In the face of these illusory consolations and the growing threat of fascism, Lazzarato argues it is urgent that we rediscover the meaning of strategic confrontations and the means of rebuilding a revolutionary war machine. Since capital hates everyone, everyone must hate capital.
We are living in apocalyptic times. In Capital Hates Everyone, famed sociologist Maurice Lazzarato points to a stark choice emerging from the magma of today's world events: fascism or revolution. Fascism now drives the course of democracies as they grow less and less liberal and increasingly subject to the law of capital. Since the 1970s, Lazzarato writes, capital has entered a logic of war. It has become, by the power conferred on it by financialization, a political force intent on destruction. Lazzarato urges us to reject the illusory consolations of a technology-abetted “new” kind of capitalism and choose revolution over fascism.
This offensive was made possible by the cycle of revolutions coming to an end. But while it was unfolding, critical thinking announced the suppression of social relations and the advent of a new capitalism, a milder one, more attentive to the comfort of workers. Today, the prophets of technology even boast of a solution to the climate crisis or an exit from capitalism by the very means of capital. In the face of these illusory consolations and the growing threat of fascism, Lazzarato argues it is urgent that we rediscover the meaning of strategic confrontations and the means of rebuilding a revolutionary war machine. Since capital hates everyone, everyone must hate capital.
248 pages, Paperback
Published March 1, 2021
31 people are currently reading
639 people want to read
About the author
Maurizio Lazzarato
47 books103 followersMaurizio Lazzarato is a sociologist and philosopher in Paris. He is the author of Governing by Debt and Signs and Machines: Capitalism and the Production of Subjectivity, both published by Semiotext(e).
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
April 21, 2021
"To counter the attacks undergone by “revolution” after its politico-military defeat of the 1960s, [Lonzi] distinguishes 'revolutions' (which always end badly!) from the 'becoming-revolutionary' of participants in the revolutionary process. This becoming-revolutionary continues beyond the failure of the revolutions themselves. Many of the post-’68 movements seem to have built their strategy on this separation of the 'becoming-revolutionary' (critique of the subjugations, differential production of subjectivity, autonomy and independence of the 'forms of life,' affirmation and care of 'self ') and 'revolution' (radical change of the property regime, struggle for political power, expropriation of the expropriators, supersession of capitalism). This separation corresponds to the distinction between emancipation and revolution, in which the first consists of the escape of all sorts of minorities (sexual, racial, ethnic) from their state of inferiority, exclusion, and domination in which capitalism has confined them, whereas the second requires the exit from capitalism. ... The “creative” dimension of political action is thus separated radically from the “destructive” dimension. / But is it possible to break the close relation that links revolution to the becoming-revolutionary? Can the process of production and differentiation of subjectivity take place without aiming, simultaneously, for the demise of capitalism and the state? Forty years of neoliberal domination seem to have shown that without a relation and a mutual enrichment of revolution and the becoming-revolutionary, both grow inexorably weaker."
Lazzarato seems to make a similar (and similarly vague) move by comparing the 'cognitariat' with the worker/slave. The one creative, the other destructive? Overall, there are a lot of ideas floating around in this text, but they seemed to fail to congeal around the subtitle of 'Fascism or Revolution' (though I think that this title is correct).
Lazzarato seems to make a similar (and similarly vague) move by comparing the 'cognitariat' with the worker/slave. The one creative, the other destructive? Overall, there are a lot of ideas floating around in this text, but they seemed to fail to congeal around the subtitle of 'Fascism or Revolution' (though I think that this title is correct).
Read
October 31, 2021Un ensayo que tiene la virtud (y el límite?) de poder resumirse en tres o cuatro ideas. 1) el capital se impone siempre como resultado de un conflicto. Por tanto, crítica a la mayor parte de teoría post-68 que ve al neoliberalismo como un poder productivo/creativo; al contrario, el neoliberalismo es el resultado de la derrota del siglo de las revoluciones (socialista, anticolonial, feminista). 2) la técnica está siempre subordinado a la político, hay que diferenciar entre máquina (técnica) y máquina de guerra (organización política/social), desde la fábrica fordista hasta el capitalismo de plataformas. 3) los subalternos tienen que recuperar una dimensión estratégica ante todo esto. Diferenciar emancipación (afirmación de los sujetos, pérdida de la subalternidad y consecución de un estado de igualdad dentro del capitalismo) y revolución (reorganización de la propiedad, el poder político y la administración de la violencia, es decir: salir del capitalismo). Se lee bien y, diría, es un pensamiento a contracorriente que inspira para rearmarse intelectualmente.
November 5, 2022
better than Changing the World Without Taking Power. less jargony (at least by my standards!) and also very focused on how we think about global companies, revenue growth, exploiting workers (overseas and even at home), worker consciousness, and bureaucratic / management ethos.
March 3, 2025
This is a repost from my Critical Theory discussion group for creative professionals, and we read "CAPITAL HATES EVERYONE" as a group-read in Feb. https://vintagecontemporary.substack.... for more information on this club, join today!
You spent years honing your craft—designing, writing, filming, creating. You took out student loans that you are somehow still paying back. You brought your artistic talent to the once-lauded streets of Madison Avenue and, uh, Spadina Avenue. You believed that in a world of automation and corporate conformity, creativity still mattered. That it still had value. That you could fight the good fight, turning bad money into good.
Then the clients started showing you their AI-generated logos as if to say, “Why did you charge me so much last time?” The agency you work at suddenly stopped hiring junior writers with the wink-wink nudge-nudge "Hey, you have ChatGPT now!” So you took on a freelance path, but the design firm told you that they could get a hundred versions of your work in seconds without paying you, so can you cut that part out of your scope, please? The strategist gave you a briefing that was clearly just a copy/paste from a “strategy GPT co-pilot” that literally doesn’t make any sense, but we can’t talk about that right now because I have eleven clients.
This is not an accident. This is not “progress.” This is not merely an unfortunate byproduct of capitalism that we now all have to manage. It is capitalism’s endgame.
Maurizio Lazzarato makes one thing brutally clear: capitalism does not just extract value from us, from our creative work—it actively works to destroy the conditions under which creativity can exist as a form of resistance.
You are not being replaced because AI is better. You are being replaced because AI ensures that your labour—your ability to demand better wages, your right to refuse exploitation, your capacity to challenge the system—no longer exists as a threat.
They told you that creativity was the one thing machines could never replicate. That was a lie. Not because AI is creative. It isn’t. Not because it produces better ideas. It doesn’t. But because capitalism doesn’t thrive on creativity—it thrives on predictability, obedience, data, KPIs, and the relentless drive to cut costs at any expense.
It only needed a workforce—cheap, obedient, and expendable. And now, with AI, it has found something even cheaper, even more obedient, even more expendable than you.
And just like that—we are disposable.
We are replaceable.
We are dispossessed.
This Is Not a Crisis. This Is a Strategy.
Capitalism has endured not because it is indestructible but because it is parasitic. It doesn’t fight revolutions—it absorbs them, metabolizes them, and sells them back to us as lifestyle choices. Like Judo, it doesn’t resist force head-on; it bends, redirects, and ultimately uses our own energy to throw us to the ground.
The punk movement? Repackaged as edgy branding for canned water companies.
The DIY ethos of underground artists? Now just another selling point to keep you connected in the Apple omnichannel multiverse!
The radical language of feminist and anti-racist movements? Diluted into corporate diversity workshops with no real power, and then tossed the second there was a change of the guard in D.C.
H&M gets Trolled: Unethical Fashion Giant vs. 'Strong Scene Productions' – CVLT Nation
Every act of resistance we ever created was immediately co-opted, stripped of its power, and sold back to us as a product. In fact, for some of us working in advertising, our very job has been sniffing out and co-opting cultural movements and stripping them of their power in the guise of branded collaboration.
This is not incompetence. It is not hypocrisy; it is capitalism doing exactly what it was designed to do—harvesting our passion, creativity, and rebellion and turning it into something that serves capital instead of challenging it.
And now, with AI, it doesn’t even need you for that anymore.
For decades, capitalism tolerated creative workers because it needed us. Now, it believes that it has found a way to eliminate our collective bargaining power altogether:
You won’t demand fair pay if there are a thousand AI-generated designs waiting to be licensed for pennies.
You won’t organize for better conditions if every client believes AI can do your job for free.
You won’t push back against exploitative contracts if you’re too afraid of being replaced entirely.
This is not the death of creative work. It is the deliberate, systematic disempowerment of creative workers.
And unless we act, it will roll over us.
The Gig Economy Was Just the First Wave. AI Is the Kill Shot.
Lazzarato argues that capitalism survives not by defeating its enemies head-on, fragmenting them into isolated, powerless individuals.
This is exactly what has happened to creative workers.
First, stable creative jobs are been eliminated
Full-time positions in advertising, media, and design were replaced with short-term contracts, unpaid internships, and freelance gigs with no security. What is the average tenure for an agency staffer right now - 12 months?
Then, agency competition starts employing cheap labour to stay competative
Fiverr, Upwork, and 99designs turned creative work into a global race to the bottom, where artists and writers fought for scraps while corporations got richer. Full agencies are now active that are fully deployed against cheap hourly labour.
Now, they’re questioning if we are needed at all?
AI doesn’t necessarily replace creative work, but it would be hard to argue that it is devalued entirely. When “art” can be generated in seconds and “copywriting” can be produced by a machine, what happens to those who once made a living from these skills? Why are the marketers the first to go when times get tough?
This is not technological progress. This is capital systematically eliminating the one of last group of workers who believed they were untouchable.
Your skills? No longer special.
Your ideas? No longer worth paying for.
Your career? A luxury that capital no longer has to tolerate.
Enough.
If Lazzarato’s work teaches us anything, it’s that capitalism only succeeds when workers believe they are powerless.
You are not powerless. But you will be if you do nothing.
What Must Be Done?
We need to have a real, honest conversation about what we are losing by embracing AI in our daily work flow.
AI is a corporate tool, not an unstoppable force of nature. Companies are choosing to use it to eliminate creative workers. They can be forced to choose otherwise.
Hollywood writers just won a battle against AI replacing them—because they fought. So can we.
Refuse to Create for Free.
No more unpaid internships. No more “portfolio-building” gigs that pay nothing. No more speculative work that only benefits the client.
If we don’t refuse to work for nothing, capital will continue to treat creative labour as worthless.
Organize
Creative workers must act collectively or they will be picked off individually. Many of us looked the other way when our agencies hired non-union talent, that was a mistake.
Labour has been key in many other creative industries, but is so rare in design, advertising, media, and digital work.
It means refusing to be played against each other in a gig economy designed to keep us weak.
Build Alternative Models.
Worker-owned creative cooperatives can replace exploitative agency models.
Independent publishing and media networks can fight corporate consolidation.
Creative workers must start funding, distributing, and supporting each other outside of corporate structures.
Name the Enemy. Stop Thinking This Is “Just Business.”
Capitalism is not neutral.
Tech CEOs, venture capitalists, and corporate giants are making the decision to kill creative labour. Stop treating them like visionaries—they are your enemies.
We have to fight the urge to just go take a fucking nap.
Do You Use Sleep As A Coping Mechanism? Read This | by Joe Gibson, Above The Middle | Change Your Mind Change Your Life | Medium
Capitalism wants you to feel exhausted. It wants you to believe you are replaceable. That there is no alternative. That you should accept lower wages, fewer rights, and the creeping domination of AI because “that’s just the way things are.”
That is a lie.
Lazzarato’s work is a warning: creative workers are at the front lines of capitalism’s latest war against labour. And if we do nothing, we will be crushed.
But history is not predetermined. Capital does not always win.
The only question left is:
Are we going to let them erase us?
Or are we going to fight back?
The choice is yours.
You spent years honing your craft—designing, writing, filming, creating. You took out student loans that you are somehow still paying back. You brought your artistic talent to the once-lauded streets of Madison Avenue and, uh, Spadina Avenue. You believed that in a world of automation and corporate conformity, creativity still mattered. That it still had value. That you could fight the good fight, turning bad money into good.
Then the clients started showing you their AI-generated logos as if to say, “Why did you charge me so much last time?” The agency you work at suddenly stopped hiring junior writers with the wink-wink nudge-nudge "Hey, you have ChatGPT now!” So you took on a freelance path, but the design firm told you that they could get a hundred versions of your work in seconds without paying you, so can you cut that part out of your scope, please? The strategist gave you a briefing that was clearly just a copy/paste from a “strategy GPT co-pilot” that literally doesn’t make any sense, but we can’t talk about that right now because I have eleven clients.
This is not an accident. This is not “progress.” This is not merely an unfortunate byproduct of capitalism that we now all have to manage. It is capitalism’s endgame.
Maurizio Lazzarato makes one thing brutally clear: capitalism does not just extract value from us, from our creative work—it actively works to destroy the conditions under which creativity can exist as a form of resistance.
You are not being replaced because AI is better. You are being replaced because AI ensures that your labour—your ability to demand better wages, your right to refuse exploitation, your capacity to challenge the system—no longer exists as a threat.
They told you that creativity was the one thing machines could never replicate. That was a lie. Not because AI is creative. It isn’t. Not because it produces better ideas. It doesn’t. But because capitalism doesn’t thrive on creativity—it thrives on predictability, obedience, data, KPIs, and the relentless drive to cut costs at any expense.
It only needed a workforce—cheap, obedient, and expendable. And now, with AI, it has found something even cheaper, even more obedient, even more expendable than you.
And just like that—we are disposable.
We are replaceable.
We are dispossessed.
This Is Not a Crisis. This Is a Strategy.
Capitalism has endured not because it is indestructible but because it is parasitic. It doesn’t fight revolutions—it absorbs them, metabolizes them, and sells them back to us as lifestyle choices. Like Judo, it doesn’t resist force head-on; it bends, redirects, and ultimately uses our own energy to throw us to the ground.
The punk movement? Repackaged as edgy branding for canned water companies.
The DIY ethos of underground artists? Now just another selling point to keep you connected in the Apple omnichannel multiverse!
The radical language of feminist and anti-racist movements? Diluted into corporate diversity workshops with no real power, and then tossed the second there was a change of the guard in D.C.
H&M gets Trolled: Unethical Fashion Giant vs. 'Strong Scene Productions' – CVLT Nation
Every act of resistance we ever created was immediately co-opted, stripped of its power, and sold back to us as a product. In fact, for some of us working in advertising, our very job has been sniffing out and co-opting cultural movements and stripping them of their power in the guise of branded collaboration.
This is not incompetence. It is not hypocrisy; it is capitalism doing exactly what it was designed to do—harvesting our passion, creativity, and rebellion and turning it into something that serves capital instead of challenging it.
And now, with AI, it doesn’t even need you for that anymore.
For decades, capitalism tolerated creative workers because it needed us. Now, it believes that it has found a way to eliminate our collective bargaining power altogether:
You won’t demand fair pay if there are a thousand AI-generated designs waiting to be licensed for pennies.
You won’t organize for better conditions if every client believes AI can do your job for free.
You won’t push back against exploitative contracts if you’re too afraid of being replaced entirely.
This is not the death of creative work. It is the deliberate, systematic disempowerment of creative workers.
And unless we act, it will roll over us.
The Gig Economy Was Just the First Wave. AI Is the Kill Shot.
Lazzarato argues that capitalism survives not by defeating its enemies head-on, fragmenting them into isolated, powerless individuals.
This is exactly what has happened to creative workers.
First, stable creative jobs are been eliminated
Full-time positions in advertising, media, and design were replaced with short-term contracts, unpaid internships, and freelance gigs with no security. What is the average tenure for an agency staffer right now - 12 months?
Then, agency competition starts employing cheap labour to stay competative
Fiverr, Upwork, and 99designs turned creative work into a global race to the bottom, where artists and writers fought for scraps while corporations got richer. Full agencies are now active that are fully deployed against cheap hourly labour.
Now, they’re questioning if we are needed at all?
AI doesn’t necessarily replace creative work, but it would be hard to argue that it is devalued entirely. When “art” can be generated in seconds and “copywriting” can be produced by a machine, what happens to those who once made a living from these skills? Why are the marketers the first to go when times get tough?
This is not technological progress. This is capital systematically eliminating the one of last group of workers who believed they were untouchable.
Your skills? No longer special.
Your ideas? No longer worth paying for.
Your career? A luxury that capital no longer has to tolerate.
Enough.
If Lazzarato’s work teaches us anything, it’s that capitalism only succeeds when workers believe they are powerless.
You are not powerless. But you will be if you do nothing.
What Must Be Done?
We need to have a real, honest conversation about what we are losing by embracing AI in our daily work flow.
AI is a corporate tool, not an unstoppable force of nature. Companies are choosing to use it to eliminate creative workers. They can be forced to choose otherwise.
Hollywood writers just won a battle against AI replacing them—because they fought. So can we.
Refuse to Create for Free.
No more unpaid internships. No more “portfolio-building” gigs that pay nothing. No more speculative work that only benefits the client.
If we don’t refuse to work for nothing, capital will continue to treat creative labour as worthless.
Organize
Creative workers must act collectively or they will be picked off individually. Many of us looked the other way when our agencies hired non-union talent, that was a mistake.
Labour has been key in many other creative industries, but is so rare in design, advertising, media, and digital work.
It means refusing to be played against each other in a gig economy designed to keep us weak.
Build Alternative Models.
Worker-owned creative cooperatives can replace exploitative agency models.
Independent publishing and media networks can fight corporate consolidation.
Creative workers must start funding, distributing, and supporting each other outside of corporate structures.
Name the Enemy. Stop Thinking This Is “Just Business.”
Capitalism is not neutral.
Tech CEOs, venture capitalists, and corporate giants are making the decision to kill creative labour. Stop treating them like visionaries—they are your enemies.
We have to fight the urge to just go take a fucking nap.
Do You Use Sleep As A Coping Mechanism? Read This | by Joe Gibson, Above The Middle | Change Your Mind Change Your Life | Medium
Capitalism wants you to feel exhausted. It wants you to believe you are replaceable. That there is no alternative. That you should accept lower wages, fewer rights, and the creeping domination of AI because “that’s just the way things are.”
That is a lie.
Lazzarato’s work is a warning: creative workers are at the front lines of capitalism’s latest war against labour. And if we do nothing, we will be crushed.
But history is not predetermined. Capital does not always win.
The only question left is:
Are we going to let them erase us?
Or are we going to fight back?
The choice is yours.
December 30, 2022
Absolute trash. Boring is an understatement, and I have read all of Moldbug. I'm not disgusted by any political view, but I am completely allergic to uninspired hacks.
November 5, 2021
Cosa possiamo/dobbiamo imparare dal fallimento del progetto rivoluzionario del XX secolo? Lazzarato cerca di rispondere a questa domanda nelle quasi 150 pagine di questo libro. La risposta ovviamente non può che essere vaga e proteiforme. Ciò che l'autore intende fare nei 3 capitoli che compongono il libro è cercare di sottolineare come dalla pratica filosofica anti-capitalistica sia scomparso dallo spettro dell'analisi un elemento fondamentale: "l'atto di violenza fondativo". Secondo M.L., il pensiero critico si limita nelle sue disamine e critiche della "macchina (da guerra) capitalistica" ad evidenziare ed occuparsi "della violenza che conserva". Leit-motif del libro sarà quello di quindi di cercare di introdurre questa violenza originaria, di integrare all'interno dei sistemi filosofici post-68ini (come ad esempio nella teoria del biopotere foucaultiano) una sorta di genesi dei "governati" a partire dai "vinti".
Molto scorrevole alla lettura, a volte sembra perdere un po' la mira lasciando al lettore la sensazione di essere sbattuto di quà e di là. Risulta difficoltoso quindi unire i pezzi ma di sicuro gli spunti di riflessione non mancano. Specie per quanto riguarda il capitolo finale.
Molto scorrevole alla lettura, a volte sembra perdere un po' la mira lasciando al lettore la sensazione di essere sbattuto di quà e di là. Risulta difficoltoso quindi unire i pezzi ma di sicuro gli spunti di riflessione non mancano. Specie per quanto riguarda il capitolo finale.
January 19, 2025
This book truly demonstrates how Capital Hates Everyone. Don't take it personally. That's what the capitalist machine is designed to do. Lassarato makes clear Capital is a War Machine. It shapes our lives. Governmentalities anticipate and control behaviours and frame futures that align with capitalist values. Capital's various apparatuses promote 'smart' markets and platforms that seek out and create crises and resolve confrontations through violent means. The machines of capitalism serve as slaves to make more slaves in ever expanding automations. The world is a gigantic machine park according to Gunther Anders to which Lassarato says replace the word machine with capital to which we might replace the term capital with war machine. How to break the spell of capitalism's vampirism and master-slave dialectic? Start by acknowledging our place in this hateful war machine.
June 1, 2025
Required reading for those disillusioned and frustrated at the current liberal and socialist movements that don’t go anywhere/achieve any results. I believe the knowledge regarding the various machines within the capitalist landscape is essential in building a better foundation for critique and destruction of the machine o capital, war, finance, etc. Highly recommend.
May 10, 2024
this was really inspiring and did make me think a lot about new ideas of socialism. it was a difficult read but this fid just make me want to reread it. rating a hook like this is very difficult. it was very inspiring.
December 22, 2025
The Book in itself is great! The Ideas about revolution and war are interesting, the historic examples are wisely chosen but: the critique on Foucault takes too much space within the wider framework, especially as it is in my humble opinion very unfair and based on a certain intellectual lazyness
December 29, 2021
Preciso y fino para la crítica obrera del siglo XXI, contra las lecturas que no quieren pasar de Foucault, pero se pone llorón cuando se trata de defender europa de las críticas poscolonialistas
April 30, 2022
Little to no respect for anybody. I'm keeping this violence for the weekend.
January 10, 2025
The first half was excellent but it got more and more French as it went on
April 8, 2021
Se podría decir que es su deuda melancólica con el fin de una izquierda estructurada. No propone mucho ni tiene hipótesis reveladoras y teóricamente importantes como otros de sus libros.
Se puede rescatar la claridad que tiene al decir que el neoliberalismo sabe que el mercado no se regula solo y por eso interviene matando a lo que salga de la cadena de producción.
Es una síntesis rara de su pensamiento sin un fin claro.
Lo definiría como la ensalada que haces de emergencia con lo que te queda en el refri.
Se puede rescatar la claridad que tiene al decir que el neoliberalismo sabe que el mercado no se regula solo y por eso interviene matando a lo que salga de la cadena de producción.
Es una síntesis rara de su pensamiento sin un fin claro.
Lo definiría como la ensalada que haces de emergencia con lo que te queda en el refri.
December 14, 2023
good book i guess. not huge on his version of autonomism even though i do agree on the primacy of capital in power formation etc. really bad critiques of foucault as always. he should try reading foucault. felt like a shorter version of W&C w/ alliez but not written as well. way too polemical (again mostly viz. foucault). otherwise good arguments connecting capital with war, acceleration, subjection, semiologization, etc. (though latter is more S&M). pretty decent
April 4, 2020
Another governmental bureaucrat who gets very upset when the Big Brother does not control some aspect of your life. It is cute to see an old man throw the tantrum of a 6 year old, but it seems to be the norm for Lazzarato's generation raised by the Nanny State.
April 22, 2022
Crítica séria ao anti-capitalismo-não-revolucionário-(pós-tudo).
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews