“Capitalist Realism” is a term popularized by the late cultural theorist Mark Fisher in his 2009 book Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative? The concept describes the widespread, often unspoken, sense that not only is capitalism the only viable political and economic system, but it is now impossible even to imagine a coherent alternative to it.
Fisher argued that this pervasive belief shapes our culture, our education systems, and our very mental health. When a system is viewed as as natural and immutable as the weather, systemic problems (like inequality or environmental degradation) stop being seen as failures of capitalism, but rather as individual failings or inevitable facts of life.
Understanding Capitalist Realism is crucial for analyzing modern political discourse, as it highlights how deeply entrenched capitalist ideology has become, moving beyond a mere economic structure to a comprehensive framework for reality itself.