Can you actually “heal” from capitalism?
Short answer: no.
Short answer: no.
I realized yesterday that my mission to help fellow queerdos and neurodivergent witches who are “healing from capitalism,” a mission I established in 2022 when I began The Financial Witch, is a pipe dream.
It’s not that capitalism will last forever—it certainly will not—but we cannot heal from active, ongoing harm. In order for healing to happen, the harm first needs to stop. And we haven’t stopped capitalism yet, so there is no “healing from capitalism,” but there is coping. There is mitigating harm. There is imagining a world without capitalism. There is the act of subversion. We still have all these tools at our disposal, if we choose to use them.
Capitalism is not an open wound to be sutured, it’s a chronic illness. It must be lived with and it must be navigated in a thoughtful manner. It must always be accounted for. And you are allowed to resent it for its control over many aspects of your life.
I also want you to channel that resentment, that anger, that harm into solidarity and application. The instinct to self-preserve is not unnatural, but capitalism is, and when we only focus on keeping ourselves safe, we inherently put our comrades at risk. Class solidarity is all we have. Celebrities aren’t your heroes, billionaires aren’t your idols. My hero is the 50 year old trans woman who has worked in the deli at my grocery store for over a decade, well before her transition, and has the kindest demeanor toward people who continuously and deliberately misunderstand her. My hero is the single mom who lives across the hallway from me, who drives buses for the city and has a disabled adult child she cares for, holding together entire worlds on a daily basis. My hero is the man who runs the Hawaiian chicken shop a few miles away, understaffed and sometimes completely by himself, who is curmudgeonly and gruff but also kind, in his quiet way.
It begins with seeing the divine in your fellow human again; sorry.
The Financial Witch is a reader-supported publication; thank you for being here!
Your financial support makes it possible to continue producing my podcast, to offer more sliding scale and no-cost offerings in the future, and also supports the unpaid labor of childcare. To upgrade your subscription to paid, click here.
Share this publication: like, comment, restack, or link me on your social media! I love to receive thoughtful feedback and continue conversations beyond this platform.
If you would like to pay for a subscription, but don’t want to do so through Ghost, you can pay via my Venmo or direct debit. If you’d like a paid subscription, but can’t afford it, please reach out to me and I’ll add you—no questions asked.
