@richpuchalsky

I've been thinking about this. Mamdani took power and instantly became a cop lover. The weird ammosexuals took power and instantly stopped hating the idea of federal cops. Progressives are losing power and so are becoming less pro-cop. Communists love cops when they're in charge and hate them otherwise. Poor gay people chant "bottoms, tops, we all hate cops" but rich gay people support them.

I'm beginning to think that one's relationship to the police is not a matter of ideology, but a matter of specifically whether you have power or not. I think anyone who gains power (or who becomes part of the ingroup) is going to be corrupted into a cop-lover.

The implications of this, as an anarchist, are something I've been thinking through.

@passenger

It's not so such an implication of anarchism as it *is* anarchism. You can not be in power in a hierarchical system without loving cops (or whoever the equivalent enforcers are in your society). The hierarchy doesn't maintain itself and always requires physical force.

@richpuchalsky

I mean, if loving cops is something that comes and goes from ideologies depending upon their power in society, what does that mean for us when we win? Are we going to become bootlickers, and if so, how can we avoid that?

I'm not an anarchist because I like the idea. My anarchism is based on it being the most pragmatic and realistic way forward, and I think we have a real chance of winning in my lifetime (I think we came closer than people realise to a successful revolution in 2020.)

As anarchists, however, we have a tradition of thinking things through carefully before we do them. We don't rush in heedless of the consequences like communists or liberals do. We understand that no system outgrows the circumstances of its birth, so we need to be careful about those circumstances. If there's a chance of us becoming cop-lovers, then I think we need to take that seriously.

@richpuchalsky @passenger

Police exist to enforce top down power. Anarchists exist to dismantle top down power. I could be president of the universe and I would still be an abolitionist.

@FranceskaMann

If you were President of the universe you would quickly discover that you could not be an abolitionist. If you tried anyway the system would dispose of you.

@passenger

@FranceskaMann @passenger

If I ever daydream about what I would do if somehow made President, what I would do is cleverly destroy everything to the maximum amount possible. In other words, pretty much what Trump is doing (without the trans panic), but on purpose. Of course he's "better": I don't think I would have had the fortitude to switch positions that many times within one speech, and greet every sign of negotation with "ha ha I win" in order to make inter-state negotiation worthless.

@richpuchalsky @passenger

You would destroy things? I would repurpose existing architecture, implement a green new deal, destroy colonialism & encourage collaboration. There would be massive scientific education globally. Our world is focused on profit. Imagine a world focused not on profit but on saving the other species on our planet. We would do everything differently. Billionaires & police are abolished. Insects, water, air & soil health are prioritized.