I assume that the reich-wingers will use these protests as justification for crackdowns.
Here in Finland we had months of strikes against our current extremely conservative government's cuts to public services, welfare etc. – naturally their reaction was to refuse to negotiate and make political strikes illegal, and to use the strikes to vilify unions and as scapegoats for poor economic performance
Sounds abut right (wing). This is the kind of shit I see coming for a lot of Europe, including German (where I am located). The funny thing is that they can't stop talking about "Eco Fashism" here and how the Greens are trying to dictate their every day live (like what to eat and what to fuel their cars with) and how that is a left green dictatorship.
And then shit like you bring up here the second they get elected.
Yeah this is absolutely the most fucking infuriating part about conservatives. They'll crow about how "leftists" (ie. what seems like anyone left of the Strasserites) want to have a one-party fascist state that controls every aspect of people's lives, and when they get in power they start doing exactly what they accuse leftists of wanting.
They also have a real habit of blaming all of their own fuckups on the left; our current extremist government got in to power by claiming that our previous leftist government caused some sort of massive debt problem (government debt did increase, but they had COVID to deal with), when the reality is that it has been the previous 20 or so years of right wing governments who have consistently cut taxes for the rich and sold government property to cover for the budget deficits. Conveniently reich-wingers ignored the part where their ideology is the one that wants to cut taxes, leading to higher debt and cut social programs and public services, and somehow they're stupid enough that they don't even see it themselves and they believe it when their lying politicians claim it is all the evil leftists' fault that our public healthcare is now completely broken and the welfare system is among the worst in Europe.
At the last family reunion, my mother and I were in charge of making all the food. We spent 3 days getting all of the groceries, and stacked fruits and vegetables in the family room, filled the bathtub with ice to keep the meat, and stacked the drinks in the garage.
We fried the meat, boiled the noodles, mixed the salad, and cooked the chili. The entire counter and range were covered in pots and pans. Most of the intermediate cookware had been rinsed and was in the process of going through the dish cycle while we were setting tables out in the yard, when my Mom realized she hadn't made any red pea soup. Her brother was flying in from the island for the occasion and she knew it was his favorite. The bag of peas had hid under a couch pillow, and we missed it while making the rest of the meal.
We didn't have enough time to wait for the cleaning cycle to finish, so I dumped out a shallow stainless steel flower vase and put that over the flame. There was no time to soak the peas, so my mom just mixed them raw with the broth, yams, carrots, milk, and spices, and then transferred them to a clean bowl once the cycle was complete. The soup didn't look right, though. The peas and broth are supposed to have a full ruddy color, but the result was a much darker red like a beet.
When uncle arrived he was really pleased to see we'd kept him in mind, but after the event was over and everyone had gone home, we found a pile of wet peas dumped behind some bushes. I learned a very important lesson that day: Those who make peas full-red solution in posse bowl, make violet-red solution inedible.
Hmm, I find some of the questions and assumptions a bit odd. Like are there really a significant number of transhumanist anarchists? At most I have seen some "anarcho-capitalist" leaning transhumanists that like the former have very little in common with actual anarchists.
Edit: ah, I remember reading some anarcho-transhumanist zine a while ago, which was not so bad (mostly about space exploration), but it seemed like total fringe and not in any way popular amongst anarchists at all.
Back when the Anarchist subreddit had account flairs, anarcho-transhumanism didn't have a plurality, but did have significant representation. William Gillis was the most visible anarcho-transhumanist in the forum, I'm glad to see he's still kicking around on Mastodon.
My hunch is that transhumanist anarchists are over-represented in the field of sci-fi compared to most other tendencies of anarchism.
One thing I would really like is more accessible text in regards to anarchism.
Things like logical conclusions pointed out, not just flowing in 20+ word long sentences. The people that really need to read this stuff imo dont have the comprehension or the interest to go through it. I myself would love to gain more talking points from this but its not easy to stay motivated let alone in more expanding writings which often get referenced.
It also helps certain people further their own agenda inside the movement imo. Text walls and drowning out others are common amongst charlatans and people who are always „right“.
TL;DR: I feel like anarchism is the way to go but accessibility needs to get better imo.
Sadly, when you publish information about folks in the upper right corner - never let your guard down, as they are quite eager to try violence even if they won't prevail. Antifascist activism benefits from staying anonymous.
This type of attacks aren't an isolated occurrence, sadly. I can name a few cases from nearby countries, including one where I live. I will start with the worst:
A catastrophe
Norway: the 2011 mass shooting and explosions by a terrorist named Breivik left 77 people dead. You can read about it from Wikipedia, since it reached headlines and set a precedent in terrorism in these parts of Europe.
Sadly, where the gunman caused most damage - a leftist organization's summer camp for children - had no defense at all. Any competent person with a functioning weapon (not even a firearm - a gunman with an arrow in them is harmless to bystanders) could have prevented great loss of life there.
A bad day
Finland, one year later: no prior instances of terror had occurred, so there didn't seem to be a reason to expect any. However, a new Nazi movement had raised its head. A book by some leftists was being introduced in the library of Jyväskylä. The book was titled "The Far Right in Finland". A Finnish account of the events can be found at the website of Varis, their local network of antifascist activists.
In short: three Nazis from the now-banned organization "PVL" named Sebastian Lämsä, Paavo Laitinen ja Sampsa Muhonen attempted to enter using force, bringing along knives and bottles. Some folks from the local anarchist scene confronted them with chairs. One nazi managed to stab a punk in the back. The nazis were forced to escape and police found them all. The punk was rushed to treatment and the event proceeded.
A smooth ride
Estonia, two years later: a presentation about far right organizations in Estonia was being held. Since we already knew that things can turn out badly like in Finland or worse like in Norway, we took some time to prepare. One person (yours sincererely) monitored the yard of the building involved from a remote location with binoculars, had radio contact with the people at the door, and was ready to intervene with a car. People at the door had more pepper than a van full of riot cops, and had a contingency plan to block the door with a good enough obstacle. Helmets were available in case fists, clubs or pepper would find use. Equipment was nearby which could be re-purposed to defend a corridor against a gunman.
Nazis did send threats. Some even convened in an opposite corner of the yard - but physical agression did not occur. Some folks came to the door and were denied entry after asking them questions. They obviously saw an unusual state of readiness and told their fellows not to try. Meanwhile, I had the privilege to observe a local city councilor (whose hobby at the time was railing about the autonomous social center in council) come to the yard, shake hands with the nazis and also try entering. Since he was a known person associated with the far right, he was denied entry. Nothing happened, all I got was photos of the city councilor shaking hands with nazis.
For those who don't know, Sudan has seen a number of wars during the past 70 years. The longest period of peace lasted about 10 years. Recently, war was mostly contained to southern parts of the country, with the armed forces and the Janjaweed cooperating against southern rebels (I recall hearing about the Janjaweed and their methods already in 2008).
Now the same factions fight each other. Several foreign countries have tried to mediate some negotiated settlement or at least a ceasefire. But some foreign countries have also supported some of the factions.
...and my take: when two or more authoritarian factions fight each other, and have comparable eagerness to violate human rights and commit war crimes, and there's not enough anarchists to make a faction or make a difference... an anarchist can either emigrate, go anonymous or go apolitical. The latter is not a guarantee against being targeted - if random non-combatants are targeted, then apolitical people will also be targeted. It might be best to preserve oneself and wait for warrring factions to burn each other out, maintaining a low profile and helping local people without raising any banners.
Wow, what a brave woman doing immensely important work. It’s refreshing to see a new and different take on handling trauma and PTSD. We all need nervous system education after these past few years. I’m seriously considering that course of hers!
It's just too easy to delete years worth of history on modern platforms without any recourse. It's like burning down libraries and not even batting an eye.
UVW’s account was suspended in December and deleted in early January. The platform ignored multiple requests to restore the union’s account. UVW is back on Twitter with the same username.
Two notes here:
One: I'm screaming into a pillow.
Two: Never let anybody tell you that left unchecked, competition will always land on the optimal outcome for a market.
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