Why they are not the same There are a lot of negative opinions of anarchy that I’ve often heard phrased as follows: Anarchists “can’t get anything done.” They don’t organize because “they don’t believe in hierarchy.” They don’t have anyone in charge because everyone is in charge, or there’s no such thing as being in charge, “so there is no direction.” [1] An important takeaway here is the assumption made about organization, about structure: that it is inherently hierarchical. Read more...

A.K.A.: We’re all gonna die, so let’s work together One of the things I’ve noticed in the radical left space is that there are many ways to talk about the same end goal. So far, I haven’t yet come across a radical leftist who is against dismantling capitalism, decolonizing, and giving reparations. We all seem to agree on the fundamentals. Usually, what seems to be the departure is what we do after all is said and done - do we create a temporary State to take over the dismantled mass, do we all go off and live in the woods forever and forsake society, or do we come up with something more organic? Read more...

Or, Why Anarchy Currently Isn’t Working Ursula K. Le Guin said the following: What is an anarchist? One who, choosing, accepts the responsibility of choice. It is deeply related to the Spiderman quote from Uncle Ben: “With great power comes great responsibility.” Having choice is itself a power, and becomes near limitless when you decide to adopt anarchy as a societal “structure”. The problem with peers that identify as anarchists, though, is that they deny the responsibility that comes with choice. Read more...

I recently finished The Philosophical Trends in the Feminist Movement, which is a short but power-packed work by Anuradha Ghandy. To call Ghandy just a feminist is an understatement. Her work was centered both on gender and on the Dalit. This small written work explains why she identified as a Maoist as opposed to a “liberal activist” or a “radical feminist”. I’m still trying to grapple with the latter part, since it covers critiques of anarchy that I still need to spend time digesting. Read more...

There was a right-to-repair initiative that made the rounds during one of the last voting cycles. While the one I had voted on had been for cars specifically, there are other right-to-repair initiatives for phones, laptops, video game consoles, and pretty much any proprietary item you can think of that has a complex enough set of parts to require “special maintenance”. I think about this with websites and web apps. I am working on three different things right now, all of which have varying levels of difficulty to develop. Read more...

what are ur thoughts on cyber defense against big data collecting all of our personal info // defense against profound biases of AI that will eventually be used to enforce a police state The text came in late at night from my friend who had left my apartment only an hour previously. Sensing a larger conversation at hand, I responded with details on my latest project, which would be rooting a Pixel 3a and replacing its OS with CalyxOS. Read more...

And all I got was this lousy prize I remember my first “big kid job”. It wasn’t as a ski instructor. I did that for nine years, but it was like working on a big playground. Too fun to be real. No, it wasn’t working on farms, which I also did for a number of years when there wasn’t snow on the ground. The summer breezes, sudden storms sweeping you up, the sun burns - also too meditative and calm to be real. Read more...

Or is it just simpler than that? Let’s cut straight to the chase: I think this article’s attempt at understanding burnout is tone deaf. In fact, it’s almost laughably tone deaf: The truth is that if a company were to spend some resources teaching employees how to bolster their resilience, optimism, self-efficacy and internal locus of control, burnout would start to decline. Oh hai, Mark. Are you suggesting that we should learn to wake up in the morning with fucking sunshine coming out our mouths and rainbows coming out our asses? Read more...

It’s a Friday night, and I’m slightly tipsy after making a drink with a homemade shrub, cradling a frozen Tupperware of cookie dough on my lap. I’m alone. Almost 29. In an apartment that’s due for a rent increase next year. I’m thinking that I’ll have to regress and get a roommate. I thought I was supposed to grow out of that phase. Though I guess I should’ve popped out two kids by now, too, so ¯_(ツ)_/¯ Read more...

What follows is something more of a personal essay than a blog post. “You know, I think we really learned that we can’t trust the government for anything. And that’s why we started relying on each other, on our community.” We were nursing drinks on a Monday night in a bar that used to be a funeral home, recently opened by a couple from Austin, TX. It was a last-minute event planned by our grassroots Pride organization, but the tiny bar adorned with mismatched furniture and (in some windows) pot plants quickly filled up. Read more...