nimms

[nimms]

#anarchism

[nimms]

YES !!!!!! ✅✅✅✅✅

29 November 2023

[nimms]

Abandon Punishment

Poster by Roger Peet

#anarchism

[nimms]

There is fundamental difference in how we understand capitalism here, and frankly if I believed capitalism really was a system of free and voluntary exchange I would also think it's the best system.

To me it is an absolutely essential element to understand that private property is inherently theft (not personal property, to be clear, I'm talking owning factories or accomodations for the purpose of renting). Example just to lay it out so we can talk about it, apologies if it feels simplistic:

You work at a job where you make item A using 3 worth of tools and materials provided by the job. When the item complete, it is sold for 10 as you've added 7 of value.

Being optimistic 5 of that goes to your pay and benefits, 3 pay for the tools, materials, and everything else you can think of, and 2 goes to the owner as profits.

The owner will continue receiving that 2 long after the 3 paid off the tools and materials, just like a renter will continue paying their landperson long after they have paid enough to buy the housing they're renting.

Why is the owner or landperson entitled to the fruits of your labor ? Profits are, inescapably, stolen wages; that is not a feature of crony capitalism or laissez-faire capitalism but inherent to capitalism.

As to being able to exchange your labor voluntarily, how can an exchange be voluntary when for one side it is made under the knowledge that refusing it means facing starvation or homlessness ?

Looking for a job elsewhere is mostly not an option when the worker has no money to move and the capitalist no reason to pay more than the lowest pay in the area when workers are desperate enough to accept these wages.

The choice between a low pay with awful working condition and homelessness is not a choice at all (and that's not even mentioning the majority of homeless people who are employed).

Besides, the capitalist workplace is inherently hierarchical to a degree that is only accepted because we have no choice. Because they have power over you (once again through the option of firing you, meaning the threat of homelessness etc) your superiors get to decide not just when you are at work and what you do when you are, but also your appearance or the way you dress.

As a worker you only own yourself outside work hours.

Commies remain eternally pressed that anarchy, followed to its logical conclusion, necessitates free market capitalism

#and that's not mentioning how capitalism gains from (and so props up) other hierarchies like racism/patriarchy/etc #or even how it can't exist without a state #not just for bailouts but because w/o the systematic and enforced threat of violence workers would not accept any of this #like just look at every time workers protest #anarchism #anarchy #capitalism

[nimms]

i wish ppl on this website, and within leftist circles in general, were a little less gung ho about making jokes or statements like "billionaires arent people" "nazis arent people" "police arent people"

there is no level of evil where a human stops being a human. if you decide to kill them for their crimes, then you are killing a human. and sometimes that is justified! oil execs and war profiteers have destroyed countless lives in service of their own sick greed, and given the chance to enact that same violence on them, id probably pop their heads like a pimple.

but it is important that we do not shy away from the reality of that choice. it is a human life that is being ended. a person with interiority, feelings, family.

if we stop considering any group as people, even a group defined by their own evil actions, then we are drawing a line to divide society into persons and non-persons, and stating that those non-persons do not deserve to live.

i hope i dont need to explain why that is a dangerous position to take.

these people and all of their evil, their greed, their hatred, are just as much a part of humanity as art, culture, language, food. they are a part of us that has grown malignant and cancerous, and like a cancer, they must be excised for the sake of the whole--but they are still a part of us, made of the same stuff as us, down to their cores.

evil humans are still humans.

#anarchism

[nimms]

i just think people should be able to navigate difficulties in their personal life without having the threat of homelessness or starvation or destitution hanging over their heads the whole time

#anarchy

[nimms]

#anarchy

[nimms]

Daily words of affirmation

#autism #actually autistic #not a fan of how this article talks about autism actually #tw alcohol #tw alcoholism

[nimms]

#build alternatives to the state so we can fight it #we must make it unable to threaten our access to food/shelter/healthcare/accessibility/etc

[nimms]



Since it's been a while since I sang the praises of my favorite book 'Anarchy Works' by Peter Gelderloos: here's a reminder that there is an easy to read anarchism book out there organized around frequently asked questions and it's online for free with the authors consent. I'll copy-paste them all just to showcase how great it is:

Introduction

Anarchy Would Never Work

What exactly is anarchism?

A note on inspiration

The tricky topic of representation

Recommended Reading

1. Human Nature

Aren’t people naturally selfish?

Aren’t people naturally competitive?

Haven’t humans always been patriarchal?

Aren’t people naturally warlike?

Aren’t domination and authority natural?

A broader sense of self

Recommended Reading

2. Decisions

How will decisions be made?

How will decisions be enforced?

Who will settle disputes?

Meeting in the streets

Recommended Reading

3. Economy

Without wages, what is the incentive to work?

Don’t people need bosses and experts?

Who will take out the trash?

Who will take care of the elderly and disabled?

How will people get healthcare?

What about education?

What about technology?

How will exchange work?

What about people who don’t want to give up a consumerist lifestyle?

What about building and organizing large, spread-out infrastructure?

How will cities work?

What about drought, famine, or other catastrophes?

Meeting our needs without keeping count

Recommended Reading

4. Environment

What’s to stop someone from destroying the environment?

What about global environmental problems, like climate change?

The only way to save the planet

Recommended Reading

5. Crime

Who will protect us without police?

What about gangs and bullies?

What’s to stop someone from killing people?

What about rape, domestic violence, and other forms of harm?

Beyond individual justice

Recommended Reading

6. Revolution

How could people organized horizontally possibly overcome the state?

How do we know revolutionaries won’t become new authorities?

How will communities decide to organize themselves at first?

How will reparations for past oppressions be worked out?

How will a common, anti-authoritarian, ecological ethos come about?

A revolution that is many revolutions

Recommended Reading

7. Neighboring Societies

Could an anarchist society defend itself from an authoritarian neighbor?

What will we do about societies that remain patriarchal or racist?

What will prevent constant warfare and feuding?

Networks not borders

Recommended Reading

8. The Future

Won’t the state just reemerge over time?

What about other problems we can’t foresee?

Making Anarchy Work

Recommended Reading

It Works When We Make It Work

There, all you gotta do is click the question and read! Or start at the beginning and read the whole book if you want the best reading experience. It’s one of my favorite books. It doesn’t cover everything but it’s a great place to start.

#it's great #anarchism #if you're a leftist but you've always heard the #“anarchism is a great idea but impractical” chant #then read a couple chapters of this ! i promise it won't take long

[nimms]

@stvksn on ig

[nimms]

This probably sounds obvious, but I learned today that prisoners aren't protected by OSHA regulations, and that this is another reason why employers are so eager to utilize this modern slavery. It's only a couple cents an hour, less transportation costs than the overseas sweatshops, and if you want people to work with hazardous materials without proper training? That's fine too! Prison labor is the ultimate free market solution!

#wtf #what the actual fuck #i don't know why this fucks me up when i already knew it was slavery with a ribbon on it #anarchism

[nimms]

If safety in your ideal society is entirely based on care by networks of affinity, and does not provide care for people who are not liked by anybody, then your society is actually even worse than the situation we are in now.

Pissing off people close to you or over-exhausting your social network or isolating yourself is often an inherent part of many mental health problems, addictions, etc. By the time people need care the most, they have often lost all their networks of affinity, and with some bad luck, any of us could find ourselves in that situation.

There has to be unconditional care available for the more unlikable of us, or there isn't really a safety net for any of us.

#anarchism

[nimms]

The thing with amateur local theater is it is almost always bad BUT keeping it alive is the most important thing

#anarchy

[nimms]

There are many ways in which I am part of the problem, I just hope I can also be part of the solution

#or like not slowing the solution down at least i guess #anarchism #text

[nimms]

fnb memphis

[nimms]

It is a very important point that we are not fighting for the bare minimum, because we have a right to more than survival.

It isn't just the right to avoid starvation, it's the right to good food that makes you happy.

It's not just the right to a shelter, it's the right to a living space that allows for proper fulfillment and growth.

It's not just the right to clothes, it's the right to comfortable clothes that reflect your expression of self.

Never in history has it been as possible to guarantee these rights to everyone as it is now, but it wouldn't make a handful of white men absurdly rich so instead people starve at their feet.

I think food should be free forever and ever. even the fancy shit.