Posts by Hex@kolektiva.social
(DIR) Post #AMfmBe477w0J54Bkoa by Hex@kolektiva.social
2022-08-19T03:08:08Z
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There's a *ton* of power at the local level and it's often not really contested. Let's just remember diversity of tactics means we shouldn't be leaving any options on the table. This *includes* legislation.Let's also not forget that politics can also be a platform for theater. The right knows this. This is how they primarily use the political system, aside from just smashing things randomly...
(DIR) Post #AMfmBezXgPwPxB3cKO by Hex@kolektiva.social
2022-08-19T03:09:50Z
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It turns out that anarchists are good at theater and smashing shit too. Let's not forget that.That's all. Do what makes sense and don't limit yourself. We need as much creativity as possible to make thing better.
(DIR) Post #ASQB9tUkNa4OvIFD16 by Hex@kolektiva.social
2020-12-05T05:51:20Z
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An ethiopian comrade of mine asked me to get the word out that fascists in Ethiopia are working with government forces to murder civilians. This is happening now, and has been happening since November at least. Coms are being cut off to hide the genocide. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-55189607?fbclid=IwAR0nL0R-AfbulrmU11QdgfQhIz_Mvz4VGQc4f5V6sPMMY_ASKC0uqBKglpU
(DIR) Post #ASQB9uZ2P762EtG9LM by Hex@kolektiva.social
2020-12-05T05:53:23Z
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@OCRbot
(DIR) Post #AUDIFj4YQwzxNTMb7w by Hex@kolektiva.social
2023-04-01T16:21:31Z
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@kingu it's like a visual metaphor for how to fix American democracy.
(DIR) Post #AUpWBQcXrrH8OkzBtA by Hex@kolektiva.social
2023-04-20T02:56:36Z
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@stux if you look at the beds you'll notice they actually have the same cargo capacity.
(DIR) Post #AW7tRwC0SFn5M7wTC4 by Hex@kolektiva.social
2023-05-27T17:53:41Z
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On some level, failure to address climate change doesn't make sense. No one can avoid the impacts of climate change. It seems like only the petroleum industry is invested in continuing this and that all other industries, even the auto industry, have a vested interest in changing. It seems like this is something that actually could be fixed by the state because capital should have a vested interest in a different future. This is roughly the model sold to us by the Democratic party and other reformists.There are a lot of problems with this model, but the biggest one is that the entire global order is propped up by petroleum. We are living at the end of the petroleum age. The end of this age won't simply be the same global order with oil swapped out for some other energy source and set of mineral resources; it will be a completely different global order. Let me unpack that a bit.Reading the intro to The Sacking of Fallujah, I realized I never thought deeply about the fact that petroleum forms the core of the military industrial complex. The US military sees access to petroleum as strategically critical. US foreign policy is shaped primarily by maintaining access to oil. It makes a lot of sense given that the machinery of the military is almost universally petroleum based. Losing control of petroleum could give massive advantages to large enemy nations. If *all* large militaries were denied access to petroleum it would completely rebalance world power by removing entire classes of weapons from the battlefield. The existing order of industrialized nations dominating the developing world is held in place by continued access to petroleum. It is logistically impossible for the US military to disentangle itself from petroleum, probably for several decades. There are like, 300k Humvees and like 10-20k MRAPs. Electrification of *non-combat* vehicles alone is mandated for 2035. Charging infrastructure is a major unsolved problem, and none of that accounts for the 10k+ Abrams tanks. All of these huge numbers completely omit entire branches or the military. There is no electrification plan for aircraft. Imagine the US military without the ability to establish air superiority. The US military is the largest consumer of petroleum in the world. The military needs petroleum corporations for their extraction and logistics. These corporations, therefore, can direct military action to ensure their survival. They can also direct decisions that impact civil society as national security issues. All coronations outside of petroleum rely on US global domination through violence and the threat of violence to secure their supply chains. Farming relies on migrant labor fleeing conditions created by US interventions. The price of resources are kept low through US backed coups and interventions. But even things you wouldn't expect like the recording industry is propped up at least indirectly by US global domination. It's common in EU countries to tax all basically technology to pay intellectual property holders under the assumption that technology will be used for piracy. This is fundamentally just tribute paid to the US, and it's tribute that probably wouldn't be paid if the US couldn't rain death on anyone it finds inconvenient or threaten to rain death on the behalf of those who pay sufficient tribute.Every element of the US economy rests on petroleum extraction directly, indirectly via the military, or indirectly via military enforced cost suppression. Without petroleum, the US economy would crumble. Oil created this social order, and there is likely no combination of resource and technology that can maintain the same social order.Democratization of technology like drones is already starting to rebalance global power, as seen in Ukraine (which is, by the way, another oil war). As access to petroleum becomes more of a challenge, the impacts of those technologies will be magnified.Until the US military finds a way to replace oil, it will continue to use oil. Policy makers will continue to prop up industries that support the oil industry (like the auto industry) and will continue to propose fake solutions in order to buy time to find a new path to global domination. If there is no alternative to oil, the US military will use every last drop of oil in the search for that alternative. Policy makers will continue to make room for the petroleum industry, they will allow every possible well to be drilled, they will drill and frack in the antarctic, they will not stop until there is nothing left. They can't stop because their entire paradigm is based on the assumption of US hegemony and that is not possible without US control of oil.You can't vote that away (at a national level anyway). Even if you did manage to elect a leader who would actually do something, and that person wasn't just eliminated during primaries, and wasn't just eliminated by some coup, and wasn't just killed, there would just be a military coup. There is no democratic way to solve this problem.It's a good thing we never needed democracy to shape the world.
(DIR) Post #AW7tRxEWaNOoaE7zl2 by Hex@kolektiva.social
2023-05-27T18:03:50Z
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It's funny, but locally we're actually a lot more powerful than nationally. Local politicians can be pushed to make changes to infrastructure that undermine petroleum and the oil industry. Local politicians simply don't share the same scope and mostly don't have the same lense.Collective action works. Local democracy *can* work when combined with direct action. Direct action gets the goods.The flip side of this doom-and-gloom "you can never change things" rant is that there's actually a massive vulnerability at the heart of the machine that's holding a lot of us down and killing us all. Not only is it possible for things to change for the better, it's going to happen. We will live in a more egalitarian world. The question isn't if that will happen, but how long we will suffer though the transition and how many people and species will die before we make it to the other side.
(DIR) Post #AXIGoEWESFW3UGeRzE by Hex@kolektiva.social
2023-07-02T17:20:58Z
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FBI agents reading Kolektiva right now.:
(DIR) Post #AXQrN2OQHfvovEufM8 by Hex@kolektiva.social
2023-07-06T23:02:32Z
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@tek @ryanschultz I hope they figure out how to settle this with a good old fashioned hand genade dual.
(DIR) Post #AXUXdW4WU7pF9W1bUG by Hex@kolektiva.social
2023-07-08T17:06:12Z
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@Radical_EgoCom preparing to survive in a world where collapse is inevitable is indistinguishable from building a world where collapse is preventable.Ask yourself what it would look like if we won? What is your utopia? Share it with your friends. Learn about their utopias. Work together to figure out one piece of that utopia you could have today and make that happen. Then do it again.
(DIR) Post #AZL5b1hH08vHZzIfFQ by Hex@kolektiva.social
2023-09-01T22:30:30Z
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> your doorbell rings> you open the door> two people wearing balaklavas are standing in your doorwayHello. Has anyone ever introduced you to the concept of psychedelic anarchism? Here E̶̝̼̤̩̠͂̉͘ą̶͚̦̠̖̄T̶͓̳̱̀̋̌͐ ̵̬̜̞͂m̷̡̻̥̲͚̏̈́̈́Y̶̧̘̯̔̈́ ̸̭̎̈́p̵̹̦̈́̐͊͛A̵͚̞͇̲͑͑͜m̵̨̌̊̾P̴͓͖͊͂̓̎h̷͓̥͈̓L̸̛̫̏͊̔͠ȅ̴͈̱̩͈͐T̸̫̫͕͑͜ ̴̯͚̈́̉̄͛͒ẗ̶̝̙o̷̫͓̝͎̩͛̎ ̶̼̃̐L̶̯̪̫͙̇̒͆͜E̵̹͆̈̎̚À̷͓̞̩̻R̸̡̖̿ͅŅ̵̯̩́̾̍̂ ̴͈͕̓̎ḿ̷̗̼̤̽̈́̚͝ͅo̷̢̪͎̖͊̓̅ă̶̢̛͈̣̓̕̚͜͜ŕ̶̛̙̭̼̃̀Please take this pamphlet while I explain the concept.The material preconditions of revolution are an illusion. The preconditions for revolution are psychological. Without the imagination of a new society, no material conditions could ever allow for it to manifest. The first step of liberation is to dream. Tearing off the corner of page 1̵̡̦̫̗̣̪̣̳̺̍̑͐̍͑̆̅͒͋̈͜͝͝3̷̮̗͋̈́̅ and putting it under your tongue will help you know what I mean.> you turn to page 1̴̩͐̇̆͊̕3̶̣̖̤͇̉.> the only text on the page is "FREE YOUR MIND AND YOUR ASS WILL FOLLOW." > the lower left corner is marked with a dashed line. > you tear along the line and put the tiny piece in your mouth.> your body tingles with the crisp metallic sparks of an angle grinder cutting the top off a cop car.We will grow sunflowers in the corpses of oppression cruisers as dandelions crack the concrete. We will bike through the streets to dance in the dead offices of the old world. We will watch each other's kids, and wash each other's laundry as we process the grief of everything the old world has taken from us, then we will make bread together and sing.> you experience every emotion at the same time as you gaze upon an upside down reflection of the full comprehension of the universe through a camera obscura piercing through the vale of reality. Everything is going to be OK... Or at least, it's going to be OK enough. You're going to make it OK. You just have to remember to dream before you wake up.
(DIR) Post #AZLg3RaZvRruLA1CxE by Hex@kolektiva.social
2023-08-06T19:42:26Z
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Me in the Netherlands unable to overcome my desire to signal right hand turns like an American but also wanting to use Dutch signals so I don't confuse other folks on bikes:
(DIR) Post #AZLgAPS0H3hDjfKSZ6 by Hex@kolektiva.social
2023-07-21T06:39:14Z
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20 years ago or so my dad got me a Mosin Nagant M44. A few days ago I consigned it at a gun store. This will probably be the last time I hold a gun that I own. It's a strange feeling, but I'm generally fine with it.My feelings about guns have changed a lot over the years. My dad was a contentious objector. I wasn't allowed to have anything that looked like guns during my early childhood. My parents were generally liberal-ish, at least on the issue of guns. I was raised with a lot of the liberal anti-gun talking points.Living in a rural area, I would end up debating guns a lot. I could come up with whitty things to say and generally look like I'd won an argument, but when I finally listened I learned a lot and ultimately changed my views. Guns are just a lot more complex than anyone stuck in the "two sides" mindset is able to admit.Gun violence is real. Having guns doesn't make you safer... except when it does. Guns historically have been used by colonizers to control people of color, but they've also been used to defend against white mobs, klansmen, and vigilantes. As much as guns are used to control marginalized people, gun laws are also used for the same thing. Gun laws (and liberal fear of guns) is used to justify violence against black and brown people. Meanwhile, guns in communities attacked by police are used by marginalized people on each other more than they are used for community self defense. Complexity is OK. It is messy. Gun violence is a problem, but we can't talk about the problem of gun violence without including police as systemic perpetrators and instigators. Winning arguments with whitty quips is good for show, but doesn't actually solve anything.I'm moving somewhere where guns are illegal. I won't be able to own one. I won't be able to build one. But I also won't hear gunfire in my neighborhood anymore.But the problem with the US isn't guns. The problem is the privatization of everything. Gun violence is a symptom of a much larger systemic issue. Gun laws as a solution to the problem of gun violence is like treating the fever from an infection with aspirin: it may work, but you still have an infection and if you keep suppressing the symptoms instead of treating the cause you're gonna die.I've talked a lot about gun ownership and US politics. I feel like I'm leaving that part of my life, so I want to leave it thinking about what could be in opposition to what is.I don't really believe in individual ownership of firearms, with a few exceptions. But in the US, because the system is so completely dysfunctional individual ownership is probably the only way in that context. Having a personal firearm for self defense is generally not useful and actually increases your likelihood of getting killed. But, having armed community members who are organized and trained for self defense can and has stopped organized violence.But it's not enough to have people with guns at an event. Without training and very specific rules, you increase danger rather than decrease it. Any high risk event should have protest marshalls and an armed defense group. Marshalls talk to the public to deescalate, but never carry guns. Armed defense folks can carry guns, but never interact directly with the public. They only talk to each other and marshalls. Folks in defense and safety teams need to train and train together. Folks with guns have to be ready to kill someone, because if they hesitate they will be killed by a shooter. But those same folks risk taking on a lot of trauma and folks with trauma are attracted to these types of roles, and trauma can drive the wrong types of action. We see this with cops, becoming more and more violent as they experience more trauma and inflict trauma on the communities they "protect and serve." If we're going to reimagine community defense in opposition to police, we need to start by looking at all the things wrong with them. It's not just that they don't keep people safe because that's fundamentally not their job, it's that even if it was their job there are a lot of other things we wouldn't want to emulate in any security forces we build for ourselves.But even more than any of this, there's something else that is important. The image of the revolutionary with a gun, or of the Panthers, or whatever is more attractive than it is valuable. The number of people who should do this work, and the number of people we *need* to do this work, is much smaller than the group who *wants* to do this work. The people who take this on are extremely valuable. But for every one of them we need 7 more people doing something else. We need more farmers than armed self defense folks. We need *way* more healers than armed self defense folks... And every time we use guns, we need even more healers.There is a cultural blindness to the equivalent exchange inherent in violence. Every scar you inflict leaves one behind. A warrior takes on a burden. It's not just about risking one's life: it's about dealing with the scars of survival. Dead warriors are the ones who got out easy. And those scars are not just on the warrior. They come back to the community. Every bit of violence we express, even for our own liberation, inflicts wounds on ourselves that we need to heal.The American government disposes of its warriors when it's done with them. It offloads that trauma to the population to handle...and dumping the trauma of every war back to its population is part of the sickness that will eventually kill it.If we fail to learn from this, whatever we build from the ashes of the American empire will suffer the same fate. Think about this when you're thinking about what role you want to play in building the new world. There's lots of hard work to do, and not everyone needs to do the same work. Guns and the ability to use them are a critical part of community self defense and are especially important in the US context. There can be no future if we can't defend the world we're creating. But you don't personally need to be part of that. If it's for you, great. But be critical of where that drive comes from and how much it emulates behaviors that are killing the thing that we want to replace.
(DIR) Post #AZLgAQoNDNBTxKnq4W by Hex@kolektiva.social
2023-07-21T06:52:36Z
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I do have one last thought.Me having a gun wouldn't have stopped me from getting shot. Having backup with a gun probably wouldn't have stopped me from getting shot. It's unlikely that any warrior could have saved me from experiencing gun violence. But a healer in the right place could have prevented it.The trauma people are inflicting on us often comes from trauma inflicted on them. None of that makes self-defense illegitimate, but it does mean that the (typically invisible) labor of healing and care work is something that protects us every bit as much as (if not more than) violence.
(DIR) Post #AZb9NosSd1CEXPmMsa by Hex@kolektiva.social
2023-09-09T17:55:39Z
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@stux technically an extruder is just anything that feeds material out. So like, a playdough spaghetti machine is an example of an extruder. In this machine the extruder is in the middle where the wire comes out.The name I know this by is a "wire bending machine." But I don't know if there's another name.
(DIR) Post #AZl5pA09OiKqoTKj9k by Hex@kolektiva.social
2023-09-13T05:54:36Z
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@Radical_EgoCom every time a CEO says something completely evil, everyone cries out for the #guilotine. But guillotines are only useful once you've already won. They're a tool of revenge.But what revenge is a quick death? I want these people to see the world they prevented. I want them to be utterly powerless in our utopia, like we have been completely powerless in theirs. I want the malignant narcissism that drives them to have to face the fact that they were never the brilliant people they thought they were. I want them to live in a world built for everyone by everyone, instead of a world built by them for them, and understand every day that it's fundamentally better.Everyone calls for guillotines, but there's no number of guillotines you can build that will get us closer to a better world. If you hate these people, build thing libraries, plant food forests, create shared pantries and free thing dispensaries. Channel that anger into building a world where guillotines are unnecessary.Guillotines don't make them afraid. Us building a world without them is what they really fear.https://crimethinc.com/2019/04/08/against-the-logic-of-the-guillotine-why-the-paris-commune-burned-the-guillotine-and-we-should-too
(DIR) Post #AaST20ZEq19BOqSupc by Hex@kolektiva.social
2023-10-05T11:15:30Z
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@xkcd the intuitive/dominant model for how change happens is that "Influencers," such as Monroe, drive change by picking up new ideas and spreading them to consumers. Analyses of communication within social networks has disproven this widely accepted model. The inverse is actually true. Influencers tend to be late adopters who accept a social change after it's already passed the tipping point towards wide social adoption.This comic is indicative of something really interesting: in communities where XKCD is popular, this being anti-car is so widely accepted that there's little to no risk from promoting the idea. This is an early indicator that we have started to win the larger cultural war on cars.
(DIR) Post #Ac5fybq6ZbG3wIylhQ by Hex@kolektiva.social
2023-11-23T07:06:22Z
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@stux can the other parties form a coalition to neutralize his party?
(DIR) Post #AcNE9W5oykKhQn1OwC by Hex@kolektiva.social
2023-12-01T18:19:29Z
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@fcktheworld587 @sco7sbhoy they believe they will survive, but they'll die first.