During an ongoing pandemic, the last thing we should be arguing over is the use of PPE. When a majority of medical experts are recommending mask use to slow down infection rates, the last thing we should be doing is protesting the use of said masks. But during a period when we are also seeing…
[Hear an in-depth discussion on this article and its topics in this episode of The Enragés] In a previous column, I examined the way in which those who praise Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and their ilk for their “creative genius” or “value creation” are misplacing the credit. All the components of Tesla designs, and of…
Individualism, community, self-sufficiency, self-reliance, and faith are the values of the people of Appalachia. It is in these values that we find an anarchism that has existed in the cities and rural communities for decades. However, most Appalachians don’t refer to their culture as such, but it carries many of the same attitudes and beliefs…
Can there be such a thing as a “conservative anarchist?” Yes, as is true of any broad political label – socialist, democrat, libertarian, the list grows longer every day as the far right tries to appropriate the language of other tendencies. Ultimately, one can identify with whatever values they want, this is the foundation of…
Those against firearm ownership often lead their objections with a distaste for over-enthusiastic attitudes about guns that they say verges on cult-like worship. The claim is also made that these attitudes encourage a needlessly violent approach toward conflicts that have alternative resolutions. At most, those passionately opposed to gun ownership may allow an exception for…
Last month, on July 14th, the United States ended a seventeen-year pause on federal executions and put Daniel Lewis Lee to death, strapping him to a gurney in expectation of a federal court’s decision to end the stay on his execution. Using a new single-drug injection procedure of solely pentobarbital, he was executed with an…
Popular movements, focusing on anti-police community self-defense, may be the best way to effectively circumvent the influence that alt-right fake news sites are continuing to have on society now and in the long-run. In contrast to single-issue protest campaigns, a broad movement towards community self-defense would avoid key pitfalls in the struggle for the support…
Often the free market anarchist response to dealing with business misconduct includes the ability for workers to find a new job, consumers to buy a new product, etc. The more fleshed out version of this ideal includes wildcat unionism, mass boycotts, pickets, and demonstrations. And yes, workers should absolutely be able to use collective bargaining…
Can an anarchist be socially conservative? Yes. I see no reason why someone who is anti-abortion or has fundamentalist views on sex or drugs can’t be an anarchist. Anarchism is about building a society in which no one forces their beliefs on others. As long as you respect the views and lives of others, your…
Ayn Rand wrote that “Fascism, Nazism, Communism, and Socialism are only superficial variations of the same monstrous theme – collectivism.” However, I think this should be changed to reflect all the forms that collectivism, the enemy of liberty, can take. This new maxim would be “Fascism, Nazism, Communism, Statist Socialism, and Capitalism are superficial variations…
The tricky business of violence against the state (or other systems of power) is really defined by two questions: When is violence acceptable and justifiable on principle, and when is it the best tactic to achieve your goal? There are times when violence is both justifiable and strategically useful. However, there are also times when…
A week before the writing of this article, I wrote another that stated that we should privatize the police. When people hear that, they think of the anarcho-capitalist idea of the same name. The difference between that and mine is monumental. The AnCap idea is to have communities or, more likely, corporations hire a police…
This article is best started by briefly outlining two historical figures: Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) and Marsha P. Johnson (1945-1992). Christopher Columbus is believed to have been born in Genoa, Italy and most famously, as the rhyme goes, “sailed the ocean blue in 1492” in order to find a route to Asia under the patronage of…
In times past, people emptied buckets of shit from their windows to the streets below. We can remember this as a historical fact without the streets continuing to be covered in human waste. If you were violently assaulted, you would want people to recognise the injustice but probably wouldn’t be campaigning for a statue of…
Oh dear, conservatives, you’ve been looking kinda confused and down recently. What a bind you’ve gotten yourselves into! You instinctively and viscerally oppose the popular uprising against the police state. But everything you can point to was done in the American revolution. It’s helpful if you curate your feeds to see only the worst examples…
When massive Western corporations provide relief and assistance during a pandemic, these stories are easily framed by corporate communications teams, the government, and mass media as some sort of angelic benevolence. This is, at most, half the story. Many have hailed these companies for “stepping up” as they turn their productive capacities to producing things…
The situation is fluid, we may all be dead tomorrow. But it is interesting to examine the splits going on right now within the establishment. It’s clear that no matter what the MAGA chuds will continue whacking off to fantasies of slaughtering everyone to show How Real Power Works. But the establishment has come to…
Most folks radicalized online in these recent years have virtually no knowledge of what serious state repression looks like, and that lack of preparation scares me to my bones. SWAT raids, abductions, rape, torture blacksites, mock executions… those of us anarchists around from the counter-globalization era have experienced a vast array of state repression. The…
This may be the year folks. The economy is already mostly shuttered, let’s shut it the rest of the way down! For once a general strike on a massive scale may be an achievable goal. Oh what a joyous May Day indeed. Last month launched the April 1st rent strike, where almost a third of…
The concept of legal personhood as separate from natural personhood stretches back centuries. From collegia to modern day corporations, collectives of individuals have found the need to protect their institution’s ability to conduct business and maintain continuity as membership comes and goes. While the convenience of this abstraction eases the complications of liability, continuity, and…