GlyphMar 8
I would never describe myself as a "capitalist" but I do kinda understand the structure and function of markets a little bit, and it's sometimes frustrating chatting with leftists whose entire experience of markets has been watching the enormous trash-fire of post-2008 dysfunctional crime-based capitalism destroy the possibility of them ever owning a home. Like if you really liked trains but lived in a town where 3/4 of the population had been killed by a chemical supply train derailment
Show threadGlyphMar 8

"We should have better public transit!"

"Transit, what do you mean?"

"Like… you know… trains"

"Trains? Those machines that kill your entire family in wracking pain with clouds of poison from a realm beyond nightmares? Why do you want more of those?"

"Yeah but not like that"

Show threadGlyphMar 8
hard to ask someone whose whole body is covered in chemical burn scars to just imagine, for a moment, a train carrying a *different* thing, like maybe some people going to have a good time at a restaurant downtown, instead of the caustic hellfire that they see every time they close their eyes
Show threadGlyphMar 8
and yet… the fact remains… this town really _could_ use a subway
Show threadGlyphMar 8
for those of you stuck on the word “capitalism” here rather than the experience I was trying to relate, you can have the same experience with “leftism” (communism, socialism, or even just any policy vaguely left of center) by trying to have a conversation with an emigrant from a repressive communist regime, i.e. any survivor of the cultural revolution, an experience I have also had, albeit less frequently
Show threadɗ𐐩ʃƕρʋ
@glyph somehow nobody complains about repressive anarchism though
Mar 8 at 5:48pmWeb
Show threadGlyphMar 8
@deshipu I do! 😊 https://www.jofreeman.com/joreen/tyranny.htm
The Tyranny of Stuctureless

The Tyranny of Stuctureless by Jo Freeman

Show threadɗ𐐩ʃƕρʋMar 8
@glyph And where did you have the opportunity to be raised in this horrible regime? Or is it like your ideals of markets, purely hypothetical? The article you link doesn't seem to be talking about anarchism as a socio-economic system, but rather as a strategy of organizing small groups, which you have to admit is fundamentally different from capitalism or communism?
Show threadGlyphMar 8
@deshipu the answer was somewhat tongue in cheek. Have there been any times or places where anarchism flourished? I can't really say any "anarchist nations" for obvious reasons but as far as I know there aren't any repressive anarchist regimes because there aren't any anarchist regimes to speak of. The closest I can think of is Rojava?
Show threadɗ𐐩ʃƕρʋMar 8

@glyph Yes, that was the joke. It seems that every time we are threatened with anarchism, there appears some glorious heroic leader and leads us safely towards whatever other regime is in fashion at the moment.

If you are interested in historical examples of anarchism, there was some of that with the Malagasy and Carribean pirates. David Graeber wrote a book about the former. Obviously a pirate colony has a somewhat skewed economic system, and the records are a bit scarce, though.