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From the source Underground Art Collective Strikes Ukrainian Rebel Stronghold (my emphasis):

On Thursday, the underground artist collective Myrzilka released photographs of their work in Donetsk. Here's that image of Strelkov, being urged toward suicide in the most capitalist of ways.

What does that expression mean?

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4 Answers 4

up vote 5 down vote accepted

The phrase you have highlighted and are asking about would not mean much out of context.

"in the most capitalist of ways" would simply mean something along the lines of:

  • No other way can be more capitalist
  • The way in which this is done has characteristics which are very capitalist

Basically the word "capitalist" describes a way of thinking, and the phrase "in the most capitalist way" is saying that the "way" has lots of qualities that have the same qualities as capitalism.

In context, this is meant to be a bit of a joke, almost like a pun. The word choice of "capitalist" highlights the relationship between the text underneath the picture in the link provided, "JUST DO IT", and Nike's

Nike Logo

slogan "Just Do It":

Nike Slogan

Picture from the blog

The joke is made in the similarity between the text and Nike's slogan, and the fact that Nike is a large company, and that companies operate under the principles of capitalism.

The original phrase does not hold much meaning, as the act of suicide that the picture in the blog and the sentence which the phrase "in the most capitalist way" is pulled from do not correspond to each other, normally, but the text underneath happens to be related to the Nike slogan, and this comparison between two normally unrelated things brings some humor with it, though because the humor involves the subject of suicide, it would normally be known as "black humor".

tl;dr: The word "capitalist" makes a pun on Nike's slogan and the text in the picture from the blog.

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It means that there were potentially many ways in which he could have been urged toward suicide and that the way in which he was urged was very capitalistic in nature. I.e., it was done the way one might imagine a capitalist would do it. The use of most adds that it would be hard to think of a way that would be more capitalistic than that.

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+ "Just do it" is a trademark slogan of Nike, a big company. What could be more capitalistic than a big multinational firm? –  CopperKettle Aug 2 '14 at 1:57
Agreed. I chose to answer OP's stated question rather than explain the "humor" behind the statement. –  Jim Aug 2 '14 at 4:10

"In the most _______" is a common expression.

A capitalist in this context is contextual.

Logo clothing is seen as something very capitalist (after all, people advertise your logo for free!) and Nike is one of the most common companies that put their logo over everything.

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That phrase was written by a person who has lived their entire carefree life under a democratic government, where every conceivable product and service was readily available in a free exchange with limited government interference. However the writer has been exposed from kindergarten till graduate school to teachers and professors who are quasi-socialist and adore at least two of the following people: Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, and Vladimir Lenin.

Those professors wept when Soviet Union broke apart, refused to believe in the Gulag system, think entrepreneurs are vile and as is limited government and they look forward to the day that their western countries would embrace socialism and then communism since they will get it right this time. They contribute towards actualizing Karl Marx's dream, by indoctrinating pupils with systematically structuring lessons to show that

  • unless the government controls the means of production and distribution of all goods and services, then strong greedy people will enslave the weaker people;
  • everyone who is not a minority has a family tree full of rapists, slave owners, and evil exploiters and it's their job to live a life of paying reparations for their sins.

They don't use words such as proletariat, since the class struggle won't start a revolution, so instead they divide society in a different manner. The bad guys are no longer just the priests and the wealthy, but they now include: bigots, racists, colonisers, exploiters, conservatives, Christians, Caucasians, males, CEOs, profit seekers, and polluters who are all lumped together as capitalist oppressors.

The good people, the kids in all Western countries are taught, are no longer the workers and the farmers (farmers are evil polluters of land), but today the new proletariat are vegetarians, people of color (everyone not white/Caucasian), proud indigenous people (no Caucasian is indigenous since they stole the land from proud natives, even in Ireland or Ukraine), gays, Muslims, environmentally conscious, atheists (some) and in general people on the fringes of society who got exploited by the previous group.

After 12-16 years of hearing this every single day, a lot of Westerners start believing this narrative wholeheartedly. And one of these individuals is the author you are quoting.

The author, expecting to experience a show from a proper 'underground photographer' in a former Soviet Block country, was expecting some seedy basement, where a password was needed to get passed a beefy guard through a hidden door behind a vegetarian bar, down a flight of stairs.

In a corner a blind elderly black man woefully beats a homemade drum and the light are low. In another corner a transgender person with Trotsky's beard, yet with female curves, is passionately reading from some typed papers about the need to return back to the days of communism, to enthusiastic claps of approval. Nothing is sold, but donations are accepted for new boots for Chechen freedom fighters and similar causes.

Instead the author likely found a bright gallery, with the latest techno mixes spun on a futuristic mixing board, a few females are gyrating possibly in g-strings and bra which comes off later. Knowing how such events look in former Soviet Countries, it's usually loud, with lots of brand name booze, sponsorships from Heineken, Sky Vodka and every other corporation that was willing to pay.

The photographer is dressed in expensive brand name clothes. The whole scene looks an imitation of everything capitalist, racist and homophobic found in the west, but transplanted to Ukraine, where just two decades ago, everyone lived as brothers, listening to The Internationale and now corrupt.

Since the author hates what's in front of their eyes, they pulled out the one word that's been drilled into them. Vile capitalists have done it again, corrupting everything pure. So the author wrote that piece and returned to browsing for some US$50/pound fair-trade coffee hand picked by some hard working indigenous tribe, on their iPad while eating a recycled blueberry muffin top while sneering at the evil capitalism around them.

This is a short YouTube video that gives you an idea of the type of person who likely to write the statement you asked about.

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