I used to hear people talk about Islam or Muslim-majority states and sense that something was not right. It wasn’t that everything people were saying was necessarily wrong, but it was about how they said it. Namely, it was that the tropes they used, such as “barbaric” and “savage,” could understandably be seen as distasteful….

The United States government recently shut down for the longest stretch in history: the government spent one-month in deadlock between its Democratic-majority Congress and Republican President Donald Trump over a budget resolution. President Trump proposed a deal temporarily reinstating protections for people who immigrated to the United States without documentation while minors in exchange for…

Come, Satan, come, slandered by priests and kings! Let me embrace you, let me clutch you to my breast! – Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1858) God — in nearly all monotheistic incarnations — represents the ultimate authoritarian. The creation must adhere to the creator’s rules for fear of eternal judgement. Anarchist thought has long reflected this, and…

In the past few decades Albert O. Hirschman’s seminal text, Exit, Voice and Loyalty has risen to prominence in certain circles. Libertarians, liberals, and reactionaries have all found value in the ideas of Hirschman, especially as they relate to the promises of the IT revolution. Unfortunately the left has failed to really grapple with this…

David Brooks, a columnist for the New York Times, recently wrote a series of op-eds where he critiques liberalism and its emphasis on individualism. He argues that America has been moving in a bad cultural direction and that it’s primarily due to the loss of a shared cohesive moral order. As Brooks states, “People like…

When Jair Bolsonaro became president-elect of Brazil, the reaction from many was as expected: shock, horror, and questions over just how Bolsonaro — a man who openly praised Brazil’s past dictatorship — came to power.  Less expected was the ringing endorsement of Bolsonaro from The Wall Street Journal (WSJ). Praising Bolsonaro’s ability to give progressives,…

There are few things more intrinsic to what we do as humans than communication. Activism, politics, and philosophy rest heavily on our ability to effectively engage in meaningful discourse. Jürgen Habermas even claims in Moral Consciousness and Communicative Action that communication is foundational to morality and freedom. All that philosophy jargon aside, the way we…

So we’ve survived another election cycle and the inevitable surge of libertarian socialists like Chomsky lecturing anarchists about our abstention from voting. I want to be clear: it is certainly true that the results of elections can matter. Unless you’re gonna roll the very long odds on a type of accelerationism, a bumbling centrist would…

Introduction Once championed by anarchists, leftists, and liberals; in recent times, free speech has become a right-wing talking point. Where the free-speech movement of the 60s opposed government sanctions on protest and dissent, the political right largely focuses on the following issues; right-wing speakers being denied platforms, social media censorship, the use of accusations such…

Very soon, the citizens of Los Angeles, California will vote on Charter Amendment B. This amendment, if passed, will allow for the creation of a public bank for the city. Although I am not a resident of LA or even California, I’d like to give my tentative support for this amendment and outline why I…

Recently, the Trump administration, through the Department of Health and Human Services, issued a worrying memo about gender identity. In the memo, HHS argues for an interpretation of gender and sex that would define gender as “either male or female, unchangeable, and determined by the genitals a person is born with.” This would roll back…

“We take politics that exclusively valorize the local in the guise of subverting global abstraction, to be insufficient…. Refusing to think beyond the micro-community, to foster connections between fractured insurgencies, to consider how emancipatory tactics can be scaled up for universal implementation, is to remain satisfied with temporary and defensive gestures.” -Laboria Cuboniks, Xenofeminism “[T]he…

In their call for nuance on the issue of indigenous nationalism, Emmi ends up writing in ways I find quite dangerous, The nationalism that we oppose is Westphalian. It is neoliberal. It is authoritarian communist. It is anti-cosmopolitan. Its roots are in the sociopathic protection of geographic kin at the expense of those deemed “other”…

Automation, the reduction and/or removal of human participation in processes and procedures, has been a topic of economic discussion since the Industrial Revolution. The general dispute has been about whether or not automation will lead to mass unemployment. Acknowledging but passing over the primitivist perspective, in the 20th and 21st century, two camps have taken…

To be an anarchist is to be anti-nationalist. It is no coincidence that national-anarchists have so often turned out to be white supremacists — the movement itself is crypto-fascist. However, our critique of nationalism and related critiques of things like in-group preferences must deeply understand the differing strategies behind largely distinct forms of nationalism if…

Towards the end of August, Ireland became the subject of much media attention. The reason was quite simple: Pope Francis was scheduled to make a two-day visit to the country, leading many in the media to ask whether “his Holiness” would acknowledge and apologize for the never-ending list of sexual, physical, and psychological abuses the…

The Bootleggers & Baptists allegory is a helpful illustration for understanding the motivations of actors within a regulated industry. Popularized by economist Bruce Yandel, it helps to explain how two seemingly unaligned groups can come together to support the same policy prescription — when they both stand to benefit from the outcomes. It goes like…

In the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, many began to grow increasingly skeptical of the state’s response. Even many of those who were not in the anti-war movement ended up questioning the Bush administration’s reaction. While the official story placed the blame at the hands of al Qaeda who were currently hiding…

Quakers, the religious sect with which I most closely identify, have a long history of radical action. Historically, Quakers were leaders in the American abolitionist movement and adherents have long been allies of black liberation, womens’ rights, and other social justice struggles. Today, that tradition continues, with many meetings (the equivalent of a congregation) explicitly…

Rothbard’s role in shaping the character of the American libertarian movement cannot be overstated. In the early years, the movement was made up of a small number of individuals and, like a small town, everybody knew each other. The rapid expansion since then gave rise to a founder effect. The particular idiosyncrasies of our founding fathers…