Boots Riley: Theft is not outside of capitalism, it's what it was built on'

Capitalism is treated as a concrete bogeyman that suffocates the ambitions of young people. Early work in subversive hip-hop mocked the genre’s culture of excess, and later film and television projects use dark comedy and magical realism to critique capitalism’s predatory logic. Sorry to Bother You targets telemarketing greed and exploitation, while I’m a Virgo extends the critique to how Black bodies are commodified and valued before agency is possible. I Love Boosters reframes shoplifting as a survival allegory, while debates over retail theft raise concerns that boosting can harm workers and enable harsher enforcement. Theft is presented as integral to capitalism, with legal theft by elites contrasted against moral distinctions used to justify industrial growth.

"Theft is not outside of capitalism; it's what capitalism was built on and not even, like, metaphorically, Riley says. The bourgeoisie was no different in that they stole land, stole minerals, stole labor. But that theft is thought of as legal. Boosting, he adds, is a moral distinction that gives cover to industrialists who pursue perpetual growth at all costs."

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