Spooky has rightfully criticized me for utilizing obscene and ableist language in my article “Libertarianism vs Psychopathic Dumbfuckery.” I am deeply, deeply sorry to the neurodivergent community for the crass, thoughtless, and harmful language that I used. I’ve caused harm to people who are already marginalized in society, and there are no excuses for that. …

On May 21st, 2021, the Center published a piece by Andrew Kemle titled “Libertarianism vs Psychopathic Dumbfuckery.” The article discusses Rand Paul’s active role in the ongoing disinformation campaign against vaccination and COVID response more generally, focusing specifically on his promotion of conspiracies blaming eminent immunologist Dr. Anthony Fauci and the U.S. government for “creating…

Is anarcho-capitalism a form of anarchism? The resounding cry from anarchists of all stripes—including myself—is NO! The debate rages on, but two questions are raised by this claim: why isn’t it anarchism and if it isn’t anarchism then what is it? I believe the answers are: because it fails to meet the deeper commitments of…

I cannot remember when I last saw a Von Dutch hat. I remember being offended twenty years ago, when for a time they were all over the place, on the heads of people imitating at third hand the ironic poses of other people who had never heard of Kenny Howard; who had no idea who…

Commentators criticizing authoritarian health policies from the mainstream left could turn more radical. I hope they do. Leftist critics of heavy-handed political responses to the Covid-19 pandemic have rightly noted multiple concerns. School closures risk decades-long damage to the most vulnerable students. Business closures harmed workers and employers even as they enjoyed substantial support from…

On February 4th, 2022, the Republican National Committee wholeheartedly endorsed the congressional inquiry into the causes of the January 6th, 2021 insurrection that delayed the certification of Donald Trump’s failure to be re-elected for another term. Actually I’m kidding. They not only opposed it but in the process censured the only Republican members of congress…

This week, attorneys with the CLDC successfully defended Eric King, a man whose heart is bigger than the walls it’s being kept in. A poet, yoga instructor, boxer, Nirvana fan, and anarchist, serving a 10-year sentence for a previous conviction, King was accused of allegedly assaulting a federal officer. The details of this case reveal…

[Hear an in-depth discussion on this article and its topics in this episode of The Enragés] The word prefigurative has been used in a radical political context for around half a century, but I’ve been encountering it more and more recently. As a sometime design professional it occurred to me that if prefigurative design is…

[Hear an in-depth discussion on this article and its topics in this episode of The Enragés] The human rights of transgender people, and specifically of vulnerable transgender youth, are being systematically denied and dismantled all over the United States. To advance this violent oppression, the states and politicians in question use more than merely legislation…

When we think of propaganda we tend to think of that associated with the worst totalitarian regimes of the 20th century; and the impression we then have is of a sort of Orwellian slogan-bombing which operates on the principle of getting people to assent, by threats of violence, to overtly admitted falsehoods so frequently and…

I’ve admitted before and will admit again that “I am not particularly tech-savvy. I am a cheerleader for open-source, peer-to-peer, decentralized, appropriate, etc. technology, but, otherwise, I am only about as knowledgeable about this stuff as your average zoomer.” However, I have observed that with the rise of cryptocurrencies and blockchain there has emerged a line…

Last week, The Gay Times reported that—based on “a leaked letter sent on 20 February to Michelle Bachelet, the United Nations’ (UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights”—U.S. officials claim there is an official Russian list of “‘journalists, activists and gay rights advocates’ to punish in the event it invades Ukraine.” Would this be in line…

If one’s goal is to have productive exchanges when the word capitalism is thrown into play, they must stop doing two things: naively assuming people are more or less on the same page when the term is used; and suggesting that one or another meaning of the word is completely wrong. Some use the term…

Dersim Massacre is the name given to the events that took place in Dersim between 1937-1938 due to the disagreements between the central Turkish government and Kurdish tribes in Dersim regarding the dominance of the region. The city’s current name, whose former name was Dersim, is Tunceli. In the process of the massacre, exile, and…

American Incompetence, not Afghan Corruption: A Post-Mortem of Good Intentions Like most children in Palestine, many of the first foreigners I met were well-intentioned volunteers and academics working for, and funded by, international non-profits and institutions. I idolized these young, lively, and worldly supporters of the Palestinian cause throughout my childhood. However, with adolescence comes…

It’s never been easy to know what to make of self-styled free-marketers who see global capitalism as a real-life instantiation of their values. Given the deep and decisive role of state violence in the creation of global capitalism, they’re either unaware of the basic facts, and so unqualified for their positions, or engaged in a…

Back on March 14, 2020, I began a series on the Coronavirus, which continued through 35 installments (the most recent of which was posted on November 10, 2021). This is not technically an installment of that series, but it addresses another kind of infection, which persists to this day among a certain brand of “libertarians”—who exhibited symptoms of it way back…

On February 16, 1967, NBC aired the twenty-second episode in Season 1 of “Star Trek“; it was called “Space Seed,” known to Trekkies as the episode that introduced the world to the character Khan Noonien Singh, he who would come back with fury in the 1982 film, “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.” For those who aren’t familiar with…

One of the central claims of capitalism is that it is the best system to bring supply and demand together; when people need a good or service, the capitalist market will provide. However, the reality of the situation can be quite the opposite. An excellent example of this—from my perspective as a lay person whose…

Over the last several weeks, it has been difficult to ignore the whining that has been going on throughout much of the so-called “online left” — and even some in the mainstream press — over the utter collapse of the Build Back Better bill, mostly due to opposition to said bill by extremely conservative Democrats…