This meme is deeper than a simple critique of one ideology. It’s a diagram of the feedback loop the modern State-Corporate system uses to play both socialists and libertarians against each other to perpetuate its own power.

The common enemy for both idealists is a ruling class that exploits the public. This cycle is how that ruling class keeps everyone fighting the wrong enemy.

The Socialist Trap: A crisis, often caused by a prior government-corporate policy (bailouts, inflation), harms the public. The fallout is never blamed on the specific policy, but on the abstract boogeyman of "capitalism." This generates public demand for a "socialist" solution, which is always more state power. This new power is then immediately captured by the same crony interests, strengthening the state half of the beast and restarting the cycle.

The Libertarian Trap: A crisis, often stemming from the instability of the crony system, harms the public. The fallout is blamed on "deregulation" and "market failure." In their rush to defend the principle of free markets, libertarians are easily maneuvered into appearing to defend the reality of the current corrupt system. They get painted as apologists for big banks and monopolies, which neutralizes their arguments and makes the socialist call for more state power seem like the only moral alternative. They are tricked into defending the corporate half of the beast.

Both sides are being played. The real path is to reject this false dichotomy and focus on the true enemy: the fusion of state and corporate power itself.