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@tiotasram@kolektiva.social
2025-10-07 12:52:49

Picture the human body. Zoom in on a single cell. It lives for a while, then splits or dies, as part of a community of cells that make up a particular tissue. This community lives together for many many cell-lifetimes, each performing their own favorite function and reproducing as much as necessary to maintain their community, consuming the essential resources they need and contributing back what they can so that the whole body can live for decades. Each community of cells is interdependent on the whole body, but also stable and sustainable over long periods of time.
Now imagine a cancer cell. It has lost its ability to harmonize with the whole and prioritize balance, instead consuming and reproducing as quickly as it can. As neighboring tissues start to die from its excess, it metastasizes, always spreading to new territory to fuel its unbalanced appetite. The inevitable result is death of the whole body, although through birth, that body can create a new fresh branch of tissues that may continue their stable existence free of cancer. Alternatively, radiation or chemotherapy might be able to kill off the cancer, at great cost to the other tissues, but permitting long-term survival.
To the cancer cell, the idea of decades-long survival of a tissue community is unbelievable. When your natural state is unbounded consumption, growth, and competition, the idea of interdependent cooperation (with tissues all around the body you're not even touching, no less) seems impossible, and the idea that a tissue might survive in a stable form for decades is ludicrous.
"Perhaps if conditions were bleak enough to perfectly balance incessant unrestrained growth against the depredations of a hostile environment it might be possible? I guess the past must have been horribly brutal, so that despite each tissue trying to grow as much as possible they each barely survived? Yes, a stable and sustainable population is probably only possible under conditions of perfectly extreme hardship, and in our current era of unfettered growth, we should rejoice that we live in much easier times!"
You can probably already see where I'm going with this metaphor, but did you know that there are human communities, alive today, that have been living sustainably for *tens, if not hundreds of thousands of years*?
#anarchy #colonialism #civilization
P.S. if you're someone who likes to think about past populations and historical population growth, I cannot recommend the (short, free) game Opera Omnia by Stephen Lavelle enough: increpare.com/2009/02/opera-om

@midtsveen@social.linux.pizza
2025-10-03 11:25:18

I snuck myself one of these at our works CNC Plasma cutter! ❤😏
#Anarchism #Anarchy

Anarchy logo of metal against a white background
A person is wearing a black shirt with an anarchy symbol necklace visible
@midtsveen@social.linux.pizza
2025-09-30 22:05:05

I bought a copy of "God and the State" by Mikhail Bakunin for about $10.
#Anarchism #Anarchy #MikhailBakunin

Red book cover featuring a portrait of a bearded male figure. The title "God and the State" and author "Michael Bakunin" are in bold white text.
@midtsveen@social.linux.pizza
2025-09-29 19:02:11

Like David Graeber said, the biggest weapon they have is crushing our imagination, making it easier to picture the end of the world than the end of oppressive systems.
#Anarchism #Anarchy #Politics

@tiotasram@kolektiva.social
2025-11-18 12:11:51

This is a subtweet...
People who are not anti-capitalist sometimes wonder: "Why is there a monopoly on X life-critical thing?" (E.g., epipens, insulin, web search).
This one is really simple actually: because monopolies are more profitable than competition, and the foundation of capitalism is that capital = power.
Various societies have recognized the necropolitical outcomes of monopolies and have tried to erect barriers to monopoly; we all know that monopolies are bad, death-and-suffering-causing things. But since these societies mostly remain capitalist, they allow these barriers to be eroded by the power of capital (to do otherwise would be to repudiate capitalism because it puts a limit on the power of money). The barriers are ineffective, and the capital = power equation holds, and monopolies result and get to do their killing & maiming thing (remember: even things like social media monopolies that you wouldn't expect to pay for political assassinations like a mining company still profit from inciting genocides). *Sometimes* there are oligopolies instead of monopolies, but instances of really competitive markets are pretty rare for things that are widely sought-after.
The "government will manage the markets to prevent bad outcomes like monopolies" strategy has failed repeatedly, spectacularly, and almost universally. To actually prevent monopolies you need a population that no longer believes that money should equal power, it's that simple. Sadly, it's actually not that simple, since all of the alternatives which equate something else to power, like "the king" or "party loyalty as judged by the supreme leader" have the same problems or worse. The attitude you need to cultivate is "nobody should have power," which is hard because *all* of the power-systems we have constantly propagandize against this attitude in myriad ways. Still, in the future once we've broken free of this age where hierarchy is accepted, people will look back and wonder whether the historical records are even credible given how much needless death and suffering were endured with little resistance.
#anarchy #capitalism

@midtsveen@social.linux.pizza
2025-09-24 21:43:22

#Anarchism #Anarchy

@midtsveen@social.linux.pizza
2025-09-30 18:18:00

Anarchist Analysis | A Modern Anarchism (Part 1)
#Anarchism

@midtsveen@social.linux.pizza
2025-12-02 19:46:47

Apparently anarcho-nazbol is a thing.
#Anarchism #Anarchy #Fascism #AntiFascism

@midtsveen@social.linux.pizza
2025-09-12 22:11:39

#Anarchism #Anarchy

@midtsveen@social.linux.pizza
2025-10-23 16:00:01

How does state centralization affect freedom? | B.2.4 | An Anarchist FAQ
#Anarchism

@midtsveen@social.linux.pizza
2025-09-19 23:24:58

Ah yes, strange women lyin' in ponds...
#Anarchism #Syndicalism #AnarchoSyndicalism

A person in medieval attire sits at a table with a sign reading, "Strange women lyin' in ponds distributin' swords is no basis for a system of government. CHANGE MY MIND."
@midtsveen@social.linux.pizza
2025-10-12 17:48:29

I refuse to replace capitalist hierarchies with red-tinted authoritarianism, because in the end, I want liberation, not another power structure draped in red with the hammer and sickle.
#Authoritarianism #Anarchism

A three-panel meme with a scene from a movie. The first panel shows a hand holding a ring labeled "Capitalist State." The second panel features a serious person with an anarchist symbol, saying, "Cast it into the fire. Destroy it!" The third panel shows another person with a communist symbol, defiantly replying, "No." The tone is dramatic and political.
@midtsveen@social.linux.pizza
2025-10-26 04:51:32

#LucyParsons #Anarchy #Anarchism #Capitalism

Black-and-white image featuring a historical quote and an illustration. The top portion shows large serif text that reads: Let every dirty, lousy tramp arm himself with a revolver or a knife, and lay in wait on the steps of the palaces of the rich and stab or shoot the owners as they come out. Below the quote, smaller text says: Lucy Parsons, quoted in the Chicago Tribune, 1885. Beneath the text is an engraved portrait of Lucy Parsons, a woman with short curly hair, earrings, and a high-collare…