Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez leaned into her socialist image at SXSW, saying ‘capitalism is irredeemable’

Jim Bennett/WireImage for Getty Images

• Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez spoke about her self-described socialist values at the SXSW festival and called moderate politics "an attitude towards life, of, like, ‘meh.’"
• She also critiqued capitalism, saying "capitalism is irredeemable."
• Her remarks follow a tweet last week aimed at Ivanka Trump, who she said was against the idea of a minimum wage.

Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s controversial views on capitalism have made her a target of both Republicans and Democrats, who have also balked at her disagreement with moderate politics.

 During a talk at SXSW on Saturday, Ocasio-Cortez called the moderate perspective "an attitude towards life of, like, ‘meh,", according to NBC News.

"We’ve become so cynical, that we view ‘meh,’ or ‘eh’ — we view cynicism as an intellectually superior attitude," Ocasio-Cortez said. "We view ambition as youthful naivete when … the greatest things we have ever accomplished as a society have been ambitious acts of visions."

She added, "The ‘meh’ is worshipped now. For what?"

The remarks follow a tweet from Ocasio-Cortez last week criticizing guaranteed minimum wages, that Business Insider’s Jim Edwards argued traces Marx’s Labour Theory of Value.

"Workers are often paid far less than the value they create," she tweeted, suggesting that there’s an economic problem when workers can’t afford to buy the products that they make and are underpaid for what they’re worth.

Read more: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s tweet about workers being paid ‘less than the value they create’ is essentially a restatement of Marx’s Labour Theory of Value — here’s why that’s interesting

Ocasio-Cortez is among a handful of politicians and 2020 presidential candidates who have descended upon SXSW this year.

Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, John Hickenlooper, and Beto O’Rourke also stopped by the annual music, film and tech festival. While he hasn’t officially announced a presidential run, former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz spoke on Saturday about why President Trump will win the 2020 election against Democrats with ideals like Ocasio-Cortez or Elizabeth Warren.

"The vast majority of Americans are not going to embrace socialism," Schultz said. "I have a right to disagree with what they’re [The Democrats] proposing. A free enterprise system is core to our democracy."

Ocasio-Cortez defended her self-described socialist values, including the idea that the corporations are inching in on government. According to Ocasio-Cortez, "corporations have already taken over our government."

Capitalism, she said, is an "irredeemable" system" because of the "concentration of capital and to seek and maximize profit," according to Bloomberg.

She also spoke about the unequal spread of wealth in America.

"It doesn’t feel good to live in a society like that."

NOW WATCH: The wives of high-level cocaine traffickers reveal how their husbands took down ‘El Chapo’

See Also:

• Share your opinion — become a BI Insider!
• Another Boeing 737MAX has crashed leaving no survivors. This time it was flying with Ethiopian Airlines.
• Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s tweet about workers being paid ‘less than the value they create’ is essentially a restatement of Marx’s Labour Theory of Value — here’s why that’s interesting

SEE ALSO: THE TRUTH ABOUT ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ: The inside story of how, in just one year, Sandy the bartender became a lawmaker who triggers both parties

SEE ALSO: France scrapped a more extreme version of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s tax plan for millionaires because it was making so little money

Source: Business Insider – ljohnson@businessinsider.com (Lauren Johnson)