This is probably a bit too reductive. Violence is sometimes necessary, but isn’t always the best strategy.
In general, the left should take an approach of nonviolent, disruptive agitation, combined with a willingness to use violence in self-defense. Arm up, protect each other, but don’t try to instigate a shooting war.
Ah yes, the “good German” strategy. It may or may not actually work for you.
Liberal democracy has been decaying for a while, so this result was going to happen sooner or later. If we don’t want to be dragged backwards into autocracy and feudalism, then anarchism is the path forward.
Reminds me of the Alt Right Playbook episode “You Go High, We Go Low”.
Those of you feeling disillusioned with democracy and its tendency to vote itself into autocracy might want to look into anarchism. I’m fond of mutualism in particular.
The electoral system is so focused on the specific immediate task at hand, the election these people were hired to win (and working people to the bone doing it), that there’s never any room to step back and build something long-term. No one is planning for the Democratic party five or ten years from now (at least, not in a way that affects local organizing) because that’s ten or twenty times as long as the average staffer is expected to last. The feeling seems to be that every minute spent planning for something further out than the next election is a minute not spent working on winning the next election.
So, when I get on my anarchist high horse now and talk about how we need to spend our time, energy, and money on something other than electoral politics, it’s not the voting part that upsets me. It’s all this bullshit. Every election, we have to burn out all our most promising organizers in six months because there was no infrastructure for them to build on, and they have to make it all from scratch every time. It’s like we’re working extra hard to pay off our last payday loan, then taking out a new payday loan at the end, ensuring we’ll have to do the same thing over again next time.
I feel like this part bears emphasizing, given the arguments over it that I’ve seen recently. I’m aggressively neutral on the question of whether or not anarchists should vote. The hour or less per year that an individual anarchist may spend on voting just doesn’t matter. Almost all the waste of electoralism is in the time, energy, and money spent on campaigning, and having nothing to show for it afterwards if your candidate loses.
On the other side, if a fellow anarchist doesn’t want to vote, fighting with them about it isn’t worth the social cohesion cost. Even if you see value in voting as a rearguard action, we’re not a big enough bloc for their non-voting to really matter.
Rule
Oof ouch owie my skin
Huh, didn’t know that this was a thing. Sounds a little more permanent than I would want, though. I don’t want to stop being a mascboy (mascman?) entirely. Variety is nice though.
The problem is that I am very, very lazy.
I’m serious, though. For this whole platform to work, admins and moderators need to be able to discuss their issues in a mature fashion. Ava acted reasonably here, but you remained belligerent and got the community removed from her instance. It didn’t have to go down this way.
It might be wise to step away from the computer for a bit. You didn’t handle this exchange well.
NOOOOOOOOOOO!
…
It wasn’t me. I’m still hairy. q_q
Some anime meme communities:
And that’s true, but I think it’s important to note that Trump is a symptom, not the disease itself. The disease is his base, and the corruption of their belief in democracy. I hope I’m wrong, but I feel like we’ll see this level of politics for a while more.
It goes both ways, really. You’re right in that Trump couldn’t have gotten elected without the existence of that reactionary base. That’s always existed in American politics, though its strength has varied over time. However, his presence in politics energizes them, and inspires them to organize and spread their propaganda, while also serving as a powerful propaganda mouthpiece himself.
You’re also right that Trump’s exit from politics won’t calm things down right away. Hopefully his movement won’t find a new Fuhrer figure, though that’s always a possibility.
I’d been trying to promote gun ownership and training among left leaning folks since early 2016. Took various friends and Facebook randoms to the range and taught them to shoot. Have had motivation issues with that project for a while though.
Cheapest option is an assault 12 gauge.
I don’t think I’ve come across any “assault shotguns”, but maybe you’re referring to the “tactical” variants? They’ll typically come in black rather than wooden or camo pattern, have shorter barrels, and hold more ammo when compared with hunting shotguns.
It’s important to note that shotguns aren’t super beginner friendly, though they’re probably the most financially accessible option for home defense. One piece of advice I would give is to look up what “cheek weld” is when using a shotgun (in additional to general safety and usage info). We’re also pretty late in the game here for those that are worried about election-related violence, since developing marksmanship skills takes time. Better late than never though, just try to get at least one range trip in so that you can familiarize yourself with the basics.
Not looking to turn this into a guns thread, since that wouldn’t be very useful for the OP. If anyone has any questions on the subject, you could make a post in one of these communities, and I (and probably others) can give advice:
And shaming those that leech off the commons for profit without contributing back is a time-honored tradition.
This is the way.
Are the liberals going to stop being annoying if anarchists write enough impassioned comments about how voting is in fact NOT infinitesimally good, but is ACTUALLY infinitesimally bad?
Seriously y’all, move on. This doesn’t matter. You definitely have better things to do with your time, even if it’s just idle leisure. Go, be free. Let anarchist voting discourse chain you no more.
At what point will anarchists stop bikeshedding about voting?
It smells like Fed in here. ಠ_ಠ
Anarchists have a significant history of using “Propaganda of the Deed” and accomplishing fuck all with it. No shortage of examples among the history of the broader left, too. So yeah, I’m gonna have to call BS on this.
Violence is a tool, and there’s a time and place for it. Don’t be an idiot adventurist about it though.