Tootfinder

And yet, there is a strange paradox in all of this. My home, the community that nourishes me taking the place of the religious communities my ancestors lost, is that same anarchist one.
Going to anarchist spaces always feels like home. It always feels like I'm among "my people." It feels safe. It's a safety and a familiarity that I don't find outside, in the "real world."

As an anarchist, in the face of current political realities, I sometimes console myself* with the thought that:
1. If humanity has the potential to build an anarchist society, it will prevail for a much longer period of history than the current terminally-unstable configurations.
2. If not, extinction, and my opponents will still be just a blip in the span of history.
*This may or may not be a consoling thought for you.
#anarchy

The first time I ever really felt at home, comfortable and safe, was in an anarchist space in Seattle called "The Wildcat." It only existed for a few months, maybe a year, after I found it. Since then I've found similar places here in Amsterdam, and other places.
I want these places to be as comfortable, as much of a refuge, for everyone as they have been for me. Part of that is acknowledging and addressing the things they make physical and organizing spaces hostile.

Students thoughtfully exercising their rights isn’t an ‘anarchist free-for-all’
https://www.forwardky.com/students-thoughtfully-exercising-their-rights-isnt-an-anarchist-free-for-all/

from my link log —
The femme's guide to riot fashion: this season's hottest looks for the discerning anarchist.
https://crimethinc.com/2017/10/16/the-femmes-guide-to-riot-fashion-this-seasons-hotte…

I just updated my reading guide, “Entry to Left-Wing Anarchist Reading” again!
I want it to be a curated path from beginner-friendly intros to deeper theory and real-world examples, enjoy!
Google Docs: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Wu…

It's also probably worth pointing out that humans willing to take small actions are more likely to take larger actions in the future. If you want to go from people too afraid to resist to people fighting in the streets, the path goes though little things like this.
This is the anarchist calisthenics equivalent of walking 10 paces a day before you try to prepare to run a marathon.

This reminds me of another quote, courtesy of the statistician and sociologist Adolphe Quételet:
“Society prepares the crime, and the guilty are only the instruments by which it is executed.” https://todon.eu/@anarchistquotes/115006479446719860

Entropy, a decentralized crypto custodian that raised a $25M seed led by a16z in June 2022, is shutting down after "several pivots, and two rounds of layoffs" (Zack Abrams/The Block)
https://www.theblock.co/post/386942/entro…

Entropy, a16z-backed decentralized custody startup, is winding down and returning capital to investors
Entropy's "anti-capitalist anarchist" founder is winding down the firm and returning capital to investors after failing to find a scalable business model.

RE: https://universeodon.com/@SrRochardBunson/116296713591693164
Yup, read fucking EVERYTHING, particularly anarchist critiques of Marxism and communism. I say that *as* a Marxist communist myself.
Here's one of my faves:

RE: https://social.notjustbikes.com/@notjustbikes/116386013892596738
@… 's "The Sound and Fury of a Collapsing Order" hit the nail on the head. This is exactly the time that things can change. The ways in which they change matter.
Petroleum is the primary pillar of the global order, and weakening it's grip weakens that order. As an anarchist, I'm obviously more focused on direct action but there are absolutely local policies that are also important.
Attacking car-centric infrastructure as a political issue makes it easier to change other things.

It's not simply that the Anarchist Library has some shitty stuff in it, though that's important too. It's that failing to take intersectional feminist critiques seriously will make us miss critical opportunities to critique and ultimately undermine this system.
We should not be missing this, because failing to miss this critique at this time *is missing our opportunity in this moment.*

I understand, I do. As a straight cis man I grew up with the the anarchist critiques of "anti-capitalism," "something something FREEDOM," and "all that other stuff that you should probably read if you have time." That failed me and left massive holes in my analysis that I'm still working frantically to patch.
I understand how we got here, but I don't understand why we aren't, specifically at this time, doing better.

Buddhist Anarchism: Theory and Practice | The Anarchist Library
#Buddhism

The history of the term "anarchist" is itself adversarial. Those who embraced it did so intending to engage with it as controversy, so I feel like I'm not too out of line with this history in using my socialization of being comfortable while being adversarial, and my social license as a cis dude to just say some random shit for attention, to draw that attention back to this whole subject.
Since this post did get some attention, I'm gonna link back to the one that prompted it (and tag @…, who I think is the author, for a heads up if there's anything to add):
https://immerautonom.noblogs.org/the-elephant-in-the-room/
I think I have said some useful things in my post, or at least repeated things others have been saying for years in a useful way, but this post is really the thing to look at (again, if you didn't miss it like I did) and think. There was definitely a time when I would have fallen for that whole hoax, and maybe even have struggled to argue against the things being highlighted. But it's clear that there is still a problem, and I hope repeating these things in my dude voice catches the attention of some folks who might have otherwise missed it... And I hope my adversarial approach doesn't pull focus away from the self-reflection that needs to happen.
Men are the problem here. Men need to fix this. Men are responsible for looking at some of this really horrible shit and acknowledging that we've all been part of the system that makes them possible and have an obligation to destroy that system.

Consider this an official motion to drop the term "anarchist" and replace it with the term "consensualist" so as to leave less room for oppression to masquerade as "freedom."
https://hexmhell.writeas.com/consent

I’ve lost a lot of respect for Andrewism after his recent upload. It feels disconnected from the reality of working-class life and from anarcho-syndicalism as it actually exists.
This response is a worthwhile read. It doesn’t romanticize work or the working class, but it doesn’t drift into abstract alternatives either. It sits with the fact that we don’t want to be working class, but we are, and that contradiction isn’t something you escape with theory.
I strongly relate to what’…

Slight tanget but...
There is exactly one way to prevent authoritarianism. That is to make these systems optional. It must be possible to leave a system if it becomes oppressive, and by doing so deprive the system of it's power.
This is what anarchists assert.
Now, have you thought to wonder why the state claiming that someone is an anarchist is generally considered sufficient to excuse any violence against that individual? If someone wants to lock you into the system, they are going to target people who assert that systems should be possible to leave.
Remember that when the only evidience against someone is "they had anarchist literature."

#Anarchism

Why this is all relevant to the OP is that there is actually nothing preventing us from exploiting these same vulnerabilities (and doing so far more effectively). The (illusion of The) Satanic Temple has already given us some vision of what that could look like. We can imagine a religious institution that actually challenges power in the way TST claims to do. We could imagine an institution that is more radical. We could imagine an institution so dangerous it actually forces the state to choose between it's own survival and alienating liberals by (more) visibly clamping down on freedom of religion.
One could imagine an anarchist or solar punk religion that intentionally builds an alternative society within the shell of the old, one that recognizes the validity of other religious sects (like, for example, Quakers) who are doing similar things.
While there is a very interesting spiritual element to #CultPunk. I think there's also a very interesting set of radical opportunities that we have long since ignored....