It seems to be endemic in certain US circles to confuse Communism with Authoritarianism (which is what that link does). Yes. Stalin was an (evil) authoritarian, and his massacres were done under the banner of communism, but so was Hitler (and so is Drumpf) neither of whom were (are) Communists.
Why are the two things so regularly conflated by Americans ?
Thank you. I feel like people either think “Stalin was a socialist/communist and a horrible leader” or “Stalin was a socialist/communist and good, actually” instead of considering that maybe the socialist branding was just the propaganda they used to justify the dictatorship.
It seems to be endemic in certain US circles to confuse Communism with Authoritarianism
Why are the two things so regularly conflated by Americans ?
Because the American education system and lifelong propaganda peppered throughout popular culture creates this confusion intentionally. It’s like a word association game: anything not capitalism = oppression and death. This is why, in large part, why most people will describe capitalism when asked to define communism or socialism.
So this is more of a ‘how’ vs ‘why’ answer, however I’m sure you can easily arrive at the ‘why’ using the explanation I’ve given.
The only notable attempts at communism, and the ones who vehemently claim to be communists, were the USSR and the CCP, both of which were/are the most violent and oppressive regimes in modern history.
Like it or not, if more people use the term to describe something different than you then that’s what the term actually means.
See this comment is funny because there are two ways to interpret this comment: There are other notable examples OR that those previous examples weren’t bloodthirsty monsters, but even if I asked subscribers of either belief which they were they would both claim the former.
Because American’s are stupid and don’t understand the difference between economic systems and political systems. After WW2, Russia was seen as a political threat/rival. Since Russia used a communist economic system Americans were taught that communism was bad. I can at least personally attest that I was educated to believe communism was equated with authoritarianism during the mid 1980s. This is something I didn’t come to recognize until I was in college.
Feelings of helplessness and victimization combined with low levels of education as well as black and white thinking. A lot of Americans want the “system” to not be what it is, but they’ll look to strongman types to make the world what they want rather do it for themselves, alone or collectively. Conservatives want to have their enemies either run out of the country, locked up, or shoved back into the closet so they don’t have to know it exists- they went for Trump. They’re also greedy and seem to assume that anything that benefits someone else or society was taken from them. Boomers grew up on Cold War propaganda, the idea that communism was the anti-America, so they fight hard against anything remotely social (plus add in some bigotry that socialism would benefit the folks they hate). But on the flip side, many on the left have come to idolize the authoritarian left method because it forces the change they want and that old propaganda of “communism is anti-American” has the reverse effect; it’s embraced because they’re reactionary.
It’s all more rabid each way online, the right just managed to find their figurehead around which to build a cult of personality first. The left now in-fights because it’s a three way battle between the old guard Democrats who want to go back to business as usual, the reactionaries seeking their golden goose, and the rest who don’t want to go back to what it was or rewrite the MAGA playbook but with “our guy” in charge.
At some point you do have to answer the question of what do you do with the people that will inevitably try to bring the old exploitative systems back.
People are bent this way, not most, but some. What will you do with them? What will you do if they convince a lot of others the system is wrong? What will you do if enough of them collectively have a skill or stumble upon a resource the collective really needs?
Because decades of propaganda has conditioned us to do so. They couldn’t attack communism because the ideals of communism are actually great to 99% of the population, so instead they painted communism with the blood that people abusing communism shed and told us all it was the nature of the beast.
I do not know if it’s my genuine and jaded opinion or my programming as a USian, but I also have a distaste for Communism. The ideals are all that I want in the world but I can’t think of any situation where it wasn’t immediately transformed into authoritarian or destroyed from the outside. It feels half baked, so close to done but lacking the internal structure to transition from the representative system we’ve been using since gods ordained kings. Without that, bad actors will always have an easy access to power and like a cancer they are not so readily cut out when they metastasis.
Personally, I think the only way to organize more than 50 humans is to take humans out of the equation. Power will always encourage the darker impulses of man, so why let it be the option? I’d propose technocracy. None of this llm bullshit, no AI singularity, just statistics, data, and analysis processed by an open source, fully transparent, machine. We know population statistics to a fraction of a percent, how do you gerrymander if the computer can district a state to have functionally identical population distribution. A token representative body selected by the machine from each district for their abilities to maintain the machine and update it prevents cult of personality from putting the unqualified in power. Changes to regulation can be posed and voted on by text, no human hand to disqualify you for a hanging chad. Changes preferred are implemented in the best statistically possible way as long as they don’t go against the core principle in the computer. All of this could be run on the server I use to run jellyfin, most of it has been proposed to the government multiple times over the last 50 years, but why would a man release power to a thing that would destroy him?
Whatever power structure you try to create, men will try to control and corrupt it. The founding fathers thought splitting the power in 3 tri-force style would prevent it, but it’s only been delayed.
You put a cpu in charge? They will go after the cpu. You don’t allow access to the cpu? They will say it can’t be trusted. (Like they’re doing with scientists now) Or they put their own people in charge and lie about what the cpu is saying.
Whatever system you put in place, they will find a way around it. They will never stop, it’s their nature. And even if you devise the perfect system, maybe something that hasn’t been invented yet (like the internet) could bring it down.
I think the founding fathers also knew this, and it’s why the 2A exists. They just underestimated the power of decades of brainwashing and conditioning.
just statistics, data, and analysis processed by an open source, fully transparent, machine.
I think perhaps an Anarcho-communist society could adopt a Cybersyn type system, at least to help manage or distribute resources to where they are needed, which would be useful if we abolished money and instead switched to a gift economy where basic food, housing, healthcare, and transport was entitled to everyone.
If you’d like to see how a society like that may function in a very fleshed out and grounded book, I’d highly recommend checking out The Dispossessed.
The ideals are all that I want in the world but I can’t think of any situation where it wasn’t immediately transformed into authoritarian or destroyed from the outside.
Anarchist Catalonia in the 30’s avoided becoming authoritarian, but unfortunately due to the strength of the enemy (Fascist Spain being helped with tons of weapons and supplies by both Hitler and Mussolini) and the betrayal of the Stalinists (who they allied with out of necessity), it was not able to continue and spread around the world.
However, I do want to point out that it wasn’t that it was half-baked that they were defeated, but was instead due to a lack of allies to aid in logistics, along with particularly bad timing with so many fascists on the world stage willing to help each other. It was bad luck, really. Any ideology or political system under the same circumstances would’ve failed as well. They way they organized horizontally was effective, and if it is tried again under better starting conditions, there’s nothing to say it wouldn’t succeed and finally begin to spread across the globe, we just need to help it along.
Check my next comment below for a handy guide on how to rise up! (it wouldn’t fit in this one).
The protests are good ways of meeting like-minded people in your community to form connections, as well as spreading awareness of local mutual aid groups so more can join or form ICE resistance groups who can join an encrypted chat to coordinate, alert neighbors, and talk strategy. It also is a good place for unions or union members to encourage others to unionize their workplaces, which can also ultimately work toward a national general strike, which is our most tangible and powerful collective action.
The country would be brought to its knees if suddenly deprived of profit and labor, allowing us to directly demand real changes (such as ending the war in Iran, ceasing support for the genocide of Palestine, and Abolishing ICE).
The General Strike was extremely effective in Chile in 2019, and had they not fallen for the trick of liberal reform, they would’ve had a successful revolution on their hands with virtually no bloodshed.
There are some concrete steps all of us can take toward enacting that hard-core general strike to make it more viable and bearable for us all. (the titles below expand if you click them).
Part 2: Learn First Aid ⛑️
Violence is being used against those who resist and it will only continue. It extremely important to have the skills to be able to keep yourself and others alive if they get hurt.
Tacticool Girlfriend provides a great introduction to building a personal first aid kit, called an IFAK, which can deal with things like bullet wounds and other serious bleeding wounds. I also want to emphasize her recommendation of only buying medical gear from reputable sources (not Amazon!), such as North American Rescue to avoid fakes that could cost you your life.
But you’ll need to learn how to use that equipment, too. The best resource for that is to take a local Stop The Bleed class, which are pretty widely available in most places. They may cost a small fee, but can also sometimes be free. Alternatively, if you cannot access a local class, this video by PrepMedic will give you a solid understanding of how to use Tourniquets and Gauze for wound packing.
Injuries are less harmful if they are tended to early. Learning first aid can help conserve resources when healthcare becomes unaffordable. Having several medics in case of harm by police is an extremely powerful morale booster during a protest that may become a police riot. When you become comfortable with the basics of first aid, riot medicine is the next suggested step.
Part 3: Establish or join local Mutual Aid networks ✊
If you haven’t already, get to know your neighbors. Mutual aid is a willingness to support and grow your community. This can include informal networks through friends, tenant/renter organizations, solidarity groups, and industrial unions.
These are groups using direct action to solve each other’s problems. Building strong communities makes it difficult for fascism to take root. The actions of the government are going to hit every community hard, and the ones who build trust in each other and work together are most likely to survive. We’ve been building a list of resources in !inperson@slrpnk.net to help you on your way. Also check out this handy guide to find existing groups in your area.
This isn’t only for your own community protection. Your ability to organize today will change the political landscape tomorrow. When revolution occurs, the social organizations that show the greatest resilience through the regime are the ones typically calling the shots when the dust settles. When it comes to elections, get out the vote drives are useless if most of the voters are fascists. At some point, you have to do grassroots political education if you don’t want fascist candidates winning elections. Mutual aid networks are excellent forums not only for teaching each other good political ideas, but demonstrating them in practice.
There’s also some projects you can do that help build community (and can be fun in themselves!), for more info, go here, and scroll down to the “Fun Projects to Build Community) section”
Part 4: Join a Union to help prepare for a General Strike 💪
If you aren’t in a union (or even if you are, it’s worth dual-carding), consider joining the IWW to unionize your workplace (bonus: you’ll get higher wages, better benefits, and more time off if you succeed!) to make a general strike possible.
Once you are in a union you and your coworkers will need to pressure your leadership to prepare for a general strike, as well as pressure them to organize with other unions to enact a general strike. This is especially true if you are in a more traditional union that isn’t the IWW. Your local shop may need to organize directly with other unions if your union leaders are too cowardly to do so.
Most unions have a strike fund that can supplement your income during a general strike to make it more financially bearable (you should also save as much money as you can reasonably do, so it can also be used to keep yourself afloat during a strike). A General Strike is officially planned by the UAW for May 1st 2028, but it was planned before Trump was elected, and by then will be too late, so prepare now for one that may start sooner.
And for our international friends, you should join one as well, as fascism is gaining momentum globally. If your country isn’t listed below, just contact the IWW directly in the link above, and they’ll help you set up a new local branch.
Part 5: Adopt Security Culture and Digital Camouflage 🛡️
Sometimes benign seeming efforts can turn into unexpected personal data collecting traps. Like an obscure website for exchanging contact info with other students turning into a global ad-tech surveillance network (Facebook), or innocent seeming online personality tests being use to harvest character profiles. Even Etsy, Reddit, Tinder, and Duolingo are feeding information to US Government Agencies like ICE.
Security culture is commonly used to describe the general awareness of such potential traps and how it can affect groups or entire communities. This goes beyond mere individual privacy efforts, as without joint efforts these often fail to work.
Especially in activist circles, security culture is paramount. For opsec reasons not everyone in the group might be aware of what clandestine efforts others are involved in, but with a general security culture many potential data leaks can be avoided.
Movements are made by the volume of their participants, and the easier and less dangerous it is to participate, the more people will get involved. As more people get involved, individual involvement becomes even less dangerous, creating a virtuous cycle.
We’ll start it off with some General Advice:
Mentally wall off personal uniquely identifying info from your online presence, actively build a habit of opsec so that withholding information is your default mental state
Be careful about who you meet online
Use different, unrelated usernames, passwords & emails for every account. And try not to connect to those accounts with your real IP address (use Tor or a VPN)
Be mindful that anything done online leaves a trail
agents provocateurs may seek to find patsies willing to perform an ill-advised illegal activity in order to legitimize police repression. If someone is trying to pressure you, especially if you don’t have a long and proven history with them, be extremely wary.
For a full guide on what encrypted communications platforms to use, and how to stay off the radar, read the Digital Camouflage section within the Monthly Meta post here (you’ll need to scroll down. I’d add it here, but it won’t fit in this comment).
All states are authoritarian friends. Even proletarian states. The goal is to abolish the state entirely but doing so requires seizing the authority to repress your former oppressors. In the Western imagination this is evil because the dominant ideology is that of our oppressors. We are conditioned to see the world through their lense.
Do not be afraid of authority, it is a useful tool and our aversion to it only benefits the ruling class. It makes us easier to crush. There is nothing more authoritarian than a revolution, it is the forceful assertion of one classes rule over another’s. Class society doesn’t dissapear because we say so, we need to dismantle it and a state is the perfect tool for doing so. To not build one is to remove our best defence against counter revolution. We would be failing ourselves and the world. Failed revolutions get slaughtered and I do not want to see my comrades slaughtered.
I cansee the argument that its a necessary harm even if i disagree, but denying that there is harm is just jumping off the side of the fucking mountain.
getting out from under-boot is the same as wearing boot, because old boot wearer’s boot cozy was stolen and a violation of desire is a violation of desire
No doubt this is how they see it, but no.
Youre much more likeable when youre doing aspirational uncontroversial ontological goods, like fucking sharks
Didn’t mean to give the impression that having authority wouldn’t be harmful. It absolutely will and people will be hurt by it, that’s what states do.
I don’t like hurting people and I personally hope I never have to do it. I don’t even like hurting fascist. It does need to be done though and we should not be afraid to do it. Fascism and capitalism deserve to be systematically oppressed until they no longer exist and doing so is best facilitated by a state. Hell, doing so typically creates a state whether you want to or not. A lot of anarchist revolutions ended up forming a limited state apparatus out of necessity. It isn’t ideal but I am not an idealist.
It seems to be endemic in certain US circles to confuse Communism with Authoritarianism (which is what that link does). Yes. Stalin was an (evil) authoritarian, and his massacres were done under the banner of communism, but so was Hitler (and so is Drumpf) neither of whom were (are) Communists.
Why are the two things so regularly conflated by Americans ?
Thank you. I feel like people either think “Stalin was a socialist/communist and a horrible leader” or “Stalin was a socialist/communist and good, actually” instead of considering that maybe the socialist branding was just the propaganda they used to justify the dictatorship.
We have known what those guys were about since the second party congress in 1903.
Because the American education system and lifelong propaganda peppered throughout popular culture creates this confusion intentionally. It’s like a word association game: anything not capitalism = oppression and death. This is why, in large part, why most people will describe capitalism when asked to define communism or socialism.
So this is more of a ‘how’ vs ‘why’ answer, however I’m sure you can easily arrive at the ‘why’ using the explanation I’ve given.
The only notable attempts at communism, and the ones who vehemently claim to be communists, were the USSR and the CCP, both of which were/are the most violent and oppressive regimes in modern history.
Like it or not, if more people use the term to describe something different than you then that’s what the term actually means.
Wrong and we both know it.
See this comment is funny because there are two ways to interpret this comment: There are other notable examples OR that those previous examples weren’t bloodthirsty monsters, but even if I asked subscribers of either belief which they were they would both claim the former.
Short answer: Senator Joseph McCarthy and The Red Scare.
Because American’s are stupid and don’t understand the difference between economic systems and political systems. After WW2, Russia was seen as a political threat/rival. Since Russia used a communist economic system Americans were taught that communism was bad. I can at least personally attest that I was educated to believe communism was equated with authoritarianism during the mid 1980s. This is something I didn’t come to recognize until I was in college.
Red scare.
Conditioning.
Media.
Feelings of helplessness and victimization combined with low levels of education as well as black and white thinking. A lot of Americans want the “system” to not be what it is, but they’ll look to strongman types to make the world what they want rather do it for themselves, alone or collectively. Conservatives want to have their enemies either run out of the country, locked up, or shoved back into the closet so they don’t have to know it exists- they went for Trump. They’re also greedy and seem to assume that anything that benefits someone else or society was taken from them. Boomers grew up on Cold War propaganda, the idea that communism was the anti-America, so they fight hard against anything remotely social (plus add in some bigotry that socialism would benefit the folks they hate). But on the flip side, many on the left have come to idolize the authoritarian left method because it forces the change they want and that old propaganda of “communism is anti-American” has the reverse effect; it’s embraced because they’re reactionary.
It’s all more rabid each way online, the right just managed to find their figurehead around which to build a cult of personality first. The left now in-fights because it’s a three way battle between the old guard Democrats who want to go back to business as usual, the reactionaries seeking their golden goose, and the rest who don’t want to go back to what it was or rewrite the MAGA playbook but with “our guy” in charge.
Because propoganda.
At some point you do have to answer the question of what do you do with the people that will inevitably try to bring the old exploitative systems back.
People are bent this way, not most, but some. What will you do with them? What will you do if they convince a lot of others the system is wrong? What will you do if enough of them collectively have a skill or stumble upon a resource the collective really needs?
Because communism has to be bad,because capitalism gas proven it doesnt have any virtues.
Because decades of propaganda has conditioned us to do so. They couldn’t attack communism because the ideals of communism are actually great to 99% of the population, so instead they painted communism with the blood that people abusing communism shed and told us all it was the nature of the beast.
I do not know if it’s my genuine and jaded opinion or my programming as a USian, but I also have a distaste for Communism. The ideals are all that I want in the world but I can’t think of any situation where it wasn’t immediately transformed into authoritarian or destroyed from the outside. It feels half baked, so close to done but lacking the internal structure to transition from the representative system we’ve been using since gods ordained kings. Without that, bad actors will always have an easy access to power and like a cancer they are not so readily cut out when they metastasis.
Personally, I think the only way to organize more than 50 humans is to take humans out of the equation. Power will always encourage the darker impulses of man, so why let it be the option? I’d propose technocracy. None of this llm bullshit, no AI singularity, just statistics, data, and analysis processed by an open source, fully transparent, machine. We know population statistics to a fraction of a percent, how do you gerrymander if the computer can district a state to have functionally identical population distribution. A token representative body selected by the machine from each district for their abilities to maintain the machine and update it prevents cult of personality from putting the unqualified in power. Changes to regulation can be posed and voted on by text, no human hand to disqualify you for a hanging chad. Changes preferred are implemented in the best statistically possible way as long as they don’t go against the core principle in the computer. All of this could be run on the server I use to run jellyfin, most of it has been proposed to the government multiple times over the last 50 years, but why would a man release power to a thing that would destroy him?
Whatever power structure you try to create, men will try to control and corrupt it. The founding fathers thought splitting the power in 3 tri-force style would prevent it, but it’s only been delayed.
You put a cpu in charge? They will go after the cpu. You don’t allow access to the cpu? They will say it can’t be trusted. (Like they’re doing with scientists now) Or they put their own people in charge and lie about what the cpu is saying.
Whatever system you put in place, they will find a way around it. They will never stop, it’s their nature. And even if you devise the perfect system, maybe something that hasn’t been invented yet (like the internet) could bring it down.
I think the founding fathers also knew this, and it’s why the 2A exists. They just underestimated the power of decades of brainwashing and conditioning.
I think perhaps an Anarcho-communist society could adopt a Cybersyn type system, at least to help manage or distribute resources to where they are needed, which would be useful if we abolished money and instead switched to a gift economy where basic food, housing, healthcare, and transport was entitled to everyone.
If you’d like to see how a society like that may function in a very fleshed out and grounded book, I’d highly recommend checking out The Dispossessed.
Anarchist Catalonia in the 30’s avoided becoming authoritarian, but unfortunately due to the strength of the enemy (Fascist Spain being helped with tons of weapons and supplies by both Hitler and Mussolini) and the betrayal of the Stalinists (who they allied with out of necessity), it was not able to continue and spread around the world.
However, I do want to point out that it wasn’t that it was half-baked that they were defeated, but was instead due to a lack of allies to aid in logistics, along with particularly bad timing with so many fascists on the world stage willing to help each other. It was bad luck, really. Any ideology or political system under the same circumstances would’ve failed as well. They way they organized horizontally was effective, and if it is tried again under better starting conditions, there’s nothing to say it wouldn’t succeed and finally begin to spread across the globe, we just need to help it along.
Check my next comment below for a handy guide on how to rise up! (it wouldn’t fit in this one).
How to build up a movement toward a better world:
Part 1: The big picture 🖼️
The protests are good ways of meeting like-minded people in your community to form connections, as well as spreading awareness of local mutual aid groups so more can join or form ICE resistance groups who can join an encrypted chat to coordinate, alert neighbors, and talk strategy. It also is a good place for unions or union members to encourage others to unionize their workplaces, which can also ultimately work toward a national general strike, which is our most tangible and powerful collective action.
The country would be brought to its knees if suddenly deprived of profit and labor, allowing us to directly demand real changes (such as ending the war in Iran, ceasing support for the genocide of Palestine, and Abolishing ICE).
The General Strike was extremely effective in Chile in 2019, and had they not fallen for the trick of liberal reform, they would’ve had a successful revolution on their hands with virtually no bloodshed.
There are some concrete steps all of us can take toward enacting that hard-core general strike to make it more viable and bearable for us all. (the titles below expand if you click them).
Part 2: Learn First Aid ⛑️
Violence is being used against those who resist and it will only continue. It extremely important to have the skills to be able to keep yourself and others alive if they get hurt.
Tacticool Girlfriend provides a great introduction to building a personal first aid kit, called an IFAK, which can deal with things like bullet wounds and other serious bleeding wounds. I also want to emphasize her recommendation of only buying medical gear from reputable sources (not Amazon!), such as North American Rescue to avoid fakes that could cost you your life.
But you’ll need to learn how to use that equipment, too. The best resource for that is to take a local Stop The Bleed class, which are pretty widely available in most places. They may cost a small fee, but can also sometimes be free. Alternatively, if you cannot access a local class, this video by PrepMedic will give you a solid understanding of how to use Tourniquets and Gauze for wound packing.
Injuries are less harmful if they are tended to early. Learning first aid can help conserve resources when healthcare becomes unaffordable. Having several medics in case of harm by police is an extremely powerful morale booster during a protest that may become a police riot. When you become comfortable with the basics of first aid, riot medicine is the next suggested step.
Part 3: Establish or join local Mutual Aid networks ✊
If you haven’t already, get to know your neighbors. Mutual aid is a willingness to support and grow your community. This can include informal networks through friends, tenant/renter organizations, solidarity groups, and industrial unions.
These are groups using direct action to solve each other’s problems. Building strong communities makes it difficult for fascism to take root. The actions of the government are going to hit every community hard, and the ones who build trust in each other and work together are most likely to survive. We’ve been building a list of resources in !inperson@slrpnk.net to help you on your way. Also check out this handy guide to find existing groups in your area.
This isn’t only for your own community protection. Your ability to organize today will change the political landscape tomorrow. When revolution occurs, the social organizations that show the greatest resilience through the regime are the ones typically calling the shots when the dust settles. When it comes to elections, get out the vote drives are useless if most of the voters are fascists. At some point, you have to do grassroots political education if you don’t want fascist candidates winning elections. Mutual aid networks are excellent forums not only for teaching each other good political ideas, but demonstrating them in practice.
There’s also some projects you can do that help build community (and can be fun in themselves!), for more info, go here, and scroll down to the “Fun Projects to Build Community) section”
Part 4: Join a Union to help prepare for a General Strike 💪
If you aren’t in a union (or even if you are, it’s worth dual-carding), consider joining the IWW to unionize your workplace (bonus: you’ll get higher wages, better benefits, and more time off if you succeed!) to make a general strike possible.
Once you are in a union you and your coworkers will need to pressure your leadership to prepare for a general strike, as well as pressure them to organize with other unions to enact a general strike. This is especially true if you are in a more traditional union that isn’t the IWW. Your local shop may need to organize directly with other unions if your union leaders are too cowardly to do so.
Most unions have a strike fund that can supplement your income during a general strike to make it more financially bearable (you should also save as much money as you can reasonably do, so it can also be used to keep yourself afloat during a strike). A General Strike is officially planned by the UAW for May 1st 2028, but it was planned before Trump was elected, and by then will be too late, so prepare now for one that may start sooner.
You can contact the IWW with the link below:
And for our international friends, you should join one as well, as fascism is gaining momentum globally. If your country isn’t listed below, just contact the IWW directly in the link above, and they’ll help you set up a new local branch.
Part 5: Adopt Security Culture and Digital Camouflage 🛡️
Sometimes benign seeming efforts can turn into unexpected personal data collecting traps. Like an obscure website for exchanging contact info with other students turning into a global ad-tech surveillance network (Facebook), or innocent seeming online personality tests being use to harvest character profiles. Even Etsy, Reddit, Tinder, and Duolingo are feeding information to US Government Agencies like ICE.
Security culture is commonly used to describe the general awareness of such potential traps and how it can affect groups or entire communities. This goes beyond mere individual privacy efforts, as without joint efforts these often fail to work.
Especially in activist circles, security culture is paramount. For opsec reasons not everyone in the group might be aware of what clandestine efforts others are involved in, but with a general security culture many potential data leaks can be avoided.
Movements are made by the volume of their participants, and the easier and less dangerous it is to participate, the more people will get involved. As more people get involved, individual involvement becomes even less dangerous, creating a virtuous cycle.
We’ll start it off with some General Advice:
For a full guide on what encrypted communications platforms to use, and how to stay off the radar, read the Digital Camouflage section within the Monthly Meta post here (you’ll need to scroll down. I’d add it here, but it won’t fit in this comment).
I’d also highly recommend Full Spectrum Resistance to anyone who wants further info on how to resist (audiobook version here).
All states are authoritarian friends. Even proletarian states. The goal is to abolish the state entirely but doing so requires seizing the authority to repress your former oppressors. In the Western imagination this is evil because the dominant ideology is that of our oppressors. We are conditioned to see the world through their lense.
Do not be afraid of authority, it is a useful tool and our aversion to it only benefits the ruling class. It makes us easier to crush. There is nothing more authoritarian than a revolution, it is the forceful assertion of one classes rule over another’s. Class society doesn’t dissapear because we say so, we need to dismantle it and a state is the perfect tool for doing so. To not build one is to remove our best defence against counter revolution. We would be failing ourselves and the world. Failed revolutions get slaughtered and I do not want to see my comrades slaughtered.
I cansee the argument that its a necessary harm even if i disagree, but denying that there is harm is just jumping off the side of the fucking mountain.
No doubt this is how they see it, but no.
Youre much more likeable when youre doing aspirational uncontroversial ontological goods, like fucking sharks
Didn’t mean to give the impression that having authority wouldn’t be harmful. It absolutely will and people will be hurt by it, that’s what states do.
I don’t like hurting people and I personally hope I never have to do it. I don’t even like hurting fascist. It does need to be done though and we should not be afraid to do it. Fascism and capitalism deserve to be systematically oppressed until they no longer exist and doing so is best facilitated by a state. Hell, doing so typically creates a state whether you want to or not. A lot of anarchist revolutions ended up forming a limited state apparatus out of necessity. It isn’t ideal but I am not an idealist.
I will return to shark fucking now
You do good work, comrade.