HOW DID WE GET HERE?
(a thread of threads, quotes, and links)
This is a collection of writings and research concerned with how we got where we are today, which is in fact the story of what has been done *to* us, and what has been *taken from us*.
By "us" we're talking about "the 99%", "workers", "wage slaves", all non-owners of private property, "the poor", unhoused people, indigenous people, even plenty of people who swear by capitalism and identify as "capitalist" yet have no capital of their own and no serious hope of ever having any worth speaking of. In other words almost everyone except for the very few who have had the power to exploit us and shape our lives to serve their agenda. We're going to examine institutions and concepts that have deeply altered our world at all levels, both our external and internal realities.
By "here" we are talking about climate crisis and myriad other environmental catastrophes resulting from hyper-excessive extraction, consumption and waste; a world of rampant inequality and exploitation, hunger and starvation; a world of fences, walls, tollbooths, prisons, police, bullshit jobs and criminalized poverty; a world overrun with cars and preventable diseases; a world of vanishing biodiversity and blooming fascism; a world where "democracy" results in being led by some of the worst of humanity; a world ruled by an imaginary but all-powerful and single-minded god: Capital.
Our inspiration and structural framework for this survey is this quote from "The Prehistory of Private Property", an important work from political philosopher Karl Widerquist and anthropologist Grant S. McCall:
"After hundreds of millennia in which all humans had direct access to the commons, it took only a few centuries for enclosure, colonialism, capitalism, and industrialization to cut off the vast majority of people on Earth from direct access to the means of economic production and therefore to rob them of the power to say no. It took only a few generations to convince most people that this situation was natural and inevitable. That false lesson needs to be unlearned."
Also recommended: "Prehistoric Myths in Modern Political Philosophy"
#capitalism #colonialism #enclosure #PrivateProperty #state #police #inequality #anthropology #environment #ClimateCrisis #economics
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Books - Karl Widerquist
List of Books Universal Basic Income: Essential Knowledge (2024) The Problem of Property: Taking the Freedom of Nonowners Seriously (2023) The Prehistory of Private Property: Implications for Modern Political Theory (2021) A Critical Analysis of Basi…Karl Widerquist
RD
in reply to RD • • •A big part of this false lesson is the fantasized history that serves as its foundation; the stories we've been told and the assumptions we've been conditioned with.
To introduce us to "A new understanding of human history and the roots of inequality" here is the TED talk by archaeologist David Wengrow (link includes transcript):
ted.com/talks/david_wengrow_a_…
2/30
David Wengrow: A new understanding of human history and the roots of inequality
www.ted.comRD
in reply to RD • • •To explore this new understanding further here is a more detailed look at the stories we've been told and who has been telling them:
"How to change the course of human history (at least, the part that’s already happened)"
by anthropologist David Graeber and David Wengrow:
eurozine.com/change-course-hum…
3/30
How to change the course of human history
www.eurozine.comRD
in reply to RD • • •Understanding the state of things requires us to understand The State. Here's a crash course:
The State, Our Ancient Enemy
thecommoner.org.uk/the-state-o…
edited 29 September 2024 to add this helpful thread from @HeavenlyPossum:
What Is The State?
kolektiva.social/@HeavenlyPoss…
edited 2 June 2023 to add info about another aspect of state, and another example of accepted narratives that need to be questioned in light of actual evidence. It turns out we can probably thank state for #patriarchy:
How did patriarchy actually begin?
bbc.com/future/article/2023052…
4/30
The State, Our Ancient Enemy
Samuel Clarke (The Commoner)RD
in reply to RD • • •Next we're going to meet a monster and do our best to kill it. This monster is the ghost of the man John Locke, a philosopher known as "the father of liberalism". We're going to spend some time dragging Locke through the mud because his ideas became a lynchpin in our whole system of property, justifying atrocities that continue even as we read this together now. It's not that Locke was single-handedly responsible for our plight, but he does serve as an example of the kind of men who used high-sounding words and "moral" arguments to draw us all into a nightmare that enables *them* to "live the dream".
We'll start with this excerpt from an article by political economist @blair_fix "Can the World Get Along Without Natural Resources?" (by all means read the entire excellent article, but for now this excerpt serves our purposes):
"The original sin
From its outset, the field of political economy was not designed, in any meaningful sense, to understand resource flows.
... show moreNext we're going to meet a monster and do our best to kill it. This monster is the ghost of the man John Locke, a philosopher known as "the father of liberalism". We're going to spend some time dragging Locke through the mud because his ideas became a lynchpin in our whole system of property, justifying atrocities that continue even as we read this together now. It's not that Locke was single-handedly responsible for our plight, but he does serve as an example of the kind of men who used high-sounding words and "moral" arguments to draw us all into a nightmare that enables *them* to "live the dream".
We'll start with this excerpt from an article by political economist @blair_fix "Can the World Get Along Without Natural Resources?" (by all means read the entire excellent article, but for now this excerpt serves our purposes):
"The original sin
From its outset, the field of political economy was not designed, in any meaningful sense, to understand resource flows. Instead, it was designed to explain *class relations*. The goal of early political economists was to justify the income of different classes (workers, landowners and capitalists). They chose to do so by rooting this income in the ‘production of wealth’. What followed from this original sin was centuries of conflating income with ‘production’. This conflation is what allowed Robert Solow to proclaim that the world could “get along without natural resources”.
Let’s retrace this flawed thinking. It starts with a failure to understand property rights. Political economists largely understand property as a productive asset — a way of thinking that dates to the 17th-century work of John Locke (or perhaps earlier). Locke proclaimed that property rights stemmed from ‘natural law’. A man, Locke argued, has a natural right to own what he ‘produces’:
_____
...every Man has a Property in his own Person. This no Body has any Right to but himself. The Labour of his Body, and the Work of his Hands, we may say, are properly his. Whatsoever then he removes out of the State that Nature hath provided, and left it in, he hath mixed his Labour with, and joyned to it something that is his own, and thereby makes it his Property. It being by him removed from the common state Nature placed it in, hath by this labour something annexed to it, that excludes the common right of other Men. For this Labour being the unquestionable Property of the Labourer, no man but he can have a right to what that is once joyned to, at least where there is enough, and as good left in common for others.
_____
Locke’s thinking became known as the ‘labor theory of property’. This theory (and its derivatives) is why political economists misunderstand the role of natural resources. Here’s what happens. If we accept Locke’s argument that you have a right to own what you produce, it follows that your wealth should stem from your output.
Most political economists after Locke accepted this reasoning (at least in part). That meant that the debate was not about whether wealth was ‘produced’, but rather, about *which* ‘factors of production’ were ‘productive’. The physiocrats thought land alone was productive. Marx insisted that only labor was productive. Neoclassical economists proclaimed that, alongside labor, capital too was productive. The debate between these schools played out over centuries. The problem, though, is that it’s based on a flawed premise. The debate assumes that value is ‘produced’. (It’s not.)
To see the flaw, let’s go back to Locke’s theory of property rights. Notice that it’s not really a ‘theory’ in the scientific sense. It doesn’t explain *why* property rights exist. It explains why they *ought* to exist. Locke proclaimed that a man ought to own what he produces. That is his ‘natural right’.
This change from ‘is’ to ‘ought’ is important. It means that we’re not dealing with a scientific theory. We’re dealing with a system of *morality*. The philosopher David Hume was perhaps the first to understand this moral sleight of hand. He noticed that moral philosophers made their arguments more convincing by framing what ‘ought’ to be in terms of what ‘is’. Here’s Hume reflecting on this trick:
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In every system of morality, which I have hitherto met with, I have always remarked, that the author proceeds for some time in the ordinary way of reasoning, and establishes the being of a God, or makes observations concerning human affairs; when of a sudden I am surprised to find, that instead of the usual copulations of propositions, is, and is not, I meet with no proposition that is not connected with an ought, or an ought not. This change is imperceptible; but is, however, of the last consequence.
_____
With David Hume’s observation in mind, let’s return to Locke’s ‘theory’ of property. It’s not a ‘theory’ at all — it’s a moral treatise. According to Locke, we *ought* to own what we produce. But that doesn’t mean that we *do*.
To see the consequences of this mistake, we need an actual scientific theory of property rights — a theory that explains why property exists, not why it ‘ought’ to exist. The most convincing theory of private property, in my opinion, comes from the work of Jonathan Nitzan and Shimshon Bichler. To understand property, Nitzan and Bichler argue that we should turn Locke’s idea on its head. Property isn’t a ‘natural right’. It’s an act of *power*.
Property, Nitzan and Bichler observe, is an act of exclusion. If I own something, that means that I have the right to exclude others from using it. It’s this exclusionary power that defines private property. Here are Nitzan and Bichler describing this act:
_____
The most important feature of private ownership is not that it enables those who own, but that it disables those who do not. Technically, anyone can get into someone else’s car and drive away, or give an order to sell all of Warren Buffet’s shares in Berkshire Hathaway. The sole purpose of private ownership is to prevent us from doing so. In this sense, private ownership is wholly and only an institution of exclusion, and institutional exclusion is a matter of organized power.
_____
When we think like Nitzan and Bichler, we get a very different view of income. Recall that most political economists see property in terms of the ‘things’ that are owned. They then argue that income stems from these ‘things’. Nitzan and Bichler upend this logic. Property, they argue, is about the *act* of ownership — the institutional act of exclusion. Income stems from this exclusionary act. We earn income from the *fence* of property rights, not from what’s inside the fence. In other words, if you can’t restrict access to your property, you can’t earn income from it."
economicsfromthetopdown.com/20…
5/30
Can the World Get Along Without Natural Resources? – Economics from the Top Down
Blair Fix (Economics from the Top Down)RD
in reply to RD • • •Here are two short threads from @HeavenlyPossum on the Labor Theory of Property and John Locke:
kolektiva.social/@HeavenlyPoss…
kolektiva.social/@HeavenlyPoss…
6/30
HeavenlyPossum (@HeavenlyPossum@kolektiva.social)
kolektiva.socialRD
in reply to RD • • •More on Locke and others like him from "The Prehistory of Private Property":
"Locke could hardly have been unaware that his theory provided a justification for an ongoing process disappropriating European commoners and indigenous peoples alike or that that process amounted to redistribution without compensation from poor to rich. This observation raises serious doubts that the principles contemporary propertarians have inherited from him reflect some deeper commitment to nonaggression or noninterference.
Lockeanism eventually revolutionized the world’s conception of what property was by portraying full liberal ownership as if it were something natural that had always existed, even though it was only then being established by enclosure and colonialization. Lockean and propertarian *stories* might have been more important than their *theories* in that effort. The “original appropriator” in Locke’s story resembles European colonialists rather than prehistoric indigenous North Americans who first farmed the continent. Locke’s appropriator esta
... show moreMore on Locke and others like him from "The Prehistory of Private Property":
"Locke could hardly have been unaware that his theory provided a justification for an ongoing process disappropriating European commoners and indigenous peoples alike or that that process amounted to redistribution without compensation from poor to rich. This observation raises serious doubts that the principles contemporary propertarians have inherited from him reflect some deeper commitment to nonaggression or noninterference.
Lockeanism eventually revolutionized the world’s conception of what property was by portraying full liberal ownership as if it were something natural that had always existed, even though it was only then being established by enclosure and colonialization. Lockean and propertarian *stories* might have been more important than their *theories* in that effort. The “original appropriator” in Locke’s story resembles European colonialists rather than prehistoric indigenous North Americans who first farmed the continent. Locke’s appropriator establishes the fee-simple rights that colonial governments (building a global cash economy) tend to establish rather than the complex, overlapping rights indigenous farmers in stateless societies tend to establish."
"The intent of Blackstone, Locke, Grotius, and other early modern property theorists was not to describe what property actually was or even what kind of institutions most people wanted at the time. Instead, it was “a common strategy of claiming the ground of property so as to preempt serious consideration of alternatives like common property” [Olsen,E. J. 2019, “The Early Modern ‘Creation’ of Property and its Enduring influence,” European Journal of Political Theory, Online Early, 1–23]. In that way, private property theory furnished propaganda for the enclosure and colonial movements that forcibly established that institution around the world."
widerquist.com/books-3/#2b
7/30
Books - Karl Widerquist
Karl WiderquistRD
in reply to RD • • •Let's spend some time looking at Enclosure both historically and as a continuing reality. We'll start with a quick look at one small example of how people organized life on their own just before having it turned upside down by Enclosure:
@HeavenlyPossum on the Irish rundale system of common property:
kolektiva.social/@HeavenlyPoss…
8/30
HeavenlyPossum (@HeavenlyPossum@kolektiva.social)
kolektiva.socialRD
in reply to RD • • •Looking further back we see that humans all over the globe have been actively managing our environment successfully and sustainably for many millennia, which reveals falsehoods embedded in the Lockean (white, European, patriarchal) view of humanity, history and land use. From the research article "People have shaped most of terrestrial nature for at least 12,000 years":
"The current biodiversity crisis is often depicted as a struggle to preserve untouched habitats. Here, we combine global maps of human populations and land use over the past 12,000 y with current biodiversity data to show that nearly three quarters of terrestrial nature has long been shaped by diverse histories of human habitation and use by Indigenous and traditional peoples. With rare exceptions, current biodiversity losses are caused not by human conversion or degradation of untouched ecosystems, but rather by the appropriation, colonization, and intensification of use in lands inhabited and used by prior societies. Global land use history confirms that empowering the environmental stewardship of Indigenou
... show moreLooking further back we see that humans all over the globe have been actively managing our environment successfully and sustainably for many millennia, which reveals falsehoods embedded in the Lockean (white, European, patriarchal) view of humanity, history and land use. From the research article "People have shaped most of terrestrial nature for at least 12,000 years":
"The current biodiversity crisis is often depicted as a struggle to preserve untouched habitats. Here, we combine global maps of human populations and land use over the past 12,000 y with current biodiversity data to show that nearly three quarters of terrestrial nature has long been shaped by diverse histories of human habitation and use by Indigenous and traditional peoples. With rare exceptions, current biodiversity losses are caused not by human conversion or degradation of untouched ecosystems, but rather by the appropriation, colonization, and intensification of use in lands inhabited and used by prior societies. Global land use history confirms that empowering the environmental stewardship of Indigenous peoples and local communities will be critical to conserving biodiversity across the planet.
"Archaeological and paleoecological evidence shows that by 10,000 BCE, all human societies employed varying degrees of ecologically transformative land use practices, including burning, hunting, species propagation, domestication, cultivation, and others that have left long-term legacies across the terrestrial biosphere. Yet, a lingering paradigm among natural scientists, conservationists, and policymakers is that human transformation of terrestrial nature is mostly recent and inherently destructive. Here, we use the most up-to-date, spatially explicit global reconstruction of historical human populations and land use to show that this paradigm is likely wrong. Even 12,000 y ago, nearly three quarters of Earth’s land was inhabited and therefore shaped by human societies, including more than 95% of temperate and 90% of tropical woodlands. Lands now characterized as “natural,” “intact,” and “wild” generally exhibit long histories of use, as do protected areas and Indigenous lands, and current global patterns of vertebrate species richness and key biodiversity areas are more strongly associated with past patterns of land use than with present ones in regional landscapes now characterized as natural. The current biodiversity crisis can seldom be explained by the loss of uninhabited wildlands, resulting instead from the appropriation, colonization, and intensifying use of the biodiverse cultural landscapes long shaped and sustained by prior societies. Recognizing this deep cultural connection with biodiversity will therefore be essential to resolve the crisis."
Those in power have been telling us that *we* (people in general or "human nature") are the problem. The evidence tells us otherwise: the problem originated with a specific group of people who had the power to enforce their will over the entire globe eventually. We'll look more later at the disasterous results of colonialism.
pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2023…
9/30
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RD
in reply to RD • • •With all the above context in mind let us examine the process of Enclosure.
Here is an introduction to "The Tragedy of the Commons" from @HeavenlyPossum:
kolektiva.social/@HeavenlyPoss…
10/30
HeavenlyPossum (@HeavenlyPossum@kolektiva.social)
kolektiva.socialRD
in reply to RD • • •Here is an insightful, extensive and detailed look at the history of Enclosure in Britain and the so-called "Tragedy of the Commons":
thelandmagazine.org.uk/article…
11/30
RD
in reply to RD • • •@HeavenlyPossum on the enclosure of our roads and car dependency as capitalist rent:
kolektiva.social/@HeavenlyPoss…
(for more horrifying details of car culture see this article which fleshes out the statistics very well though it falls short by only dealing with superficial causes and solutions:
devonzuegel.com/post/we-should… )
12/30
We Should Be Building Cities for People, Not Cars
devonzuegel.comRD
in reply to RD • • •on art as an enclosed commons:
kolektiva.social/@HeavenlyPoss…
13/30
HeavenlyPossum (@HeavenlyPossum@kolektiva.social)
kolektiva.socialRD
in reply to RD • • •- An investigation into money, credit, and the social role of landlords:
kolektiva.social/@HeavenlyPoss…
14/30
HeavenlyPossum (@HeavenlyPossum@kolektiva.social)
kolektiva.socialRD
in reply to RD • • •The result of all this has been to force us into a "market society".
@HeavenlyPossum on the imposition of markets and the demolition of society:
kolektiva.social/@HeavenlyPoss…
15/30
HeavenlyPossum (@HeavenlyPossum@kolektiva.social)
kolektiva.socialRD
in reply to RD • • •Another quote from "The Prehistory of Private Property":
"No argument about the freedom to appropriate can support the market economy, because capitalism makes people no freer to appropriate property than the common property regime, public property regime, or any other system. A person born into the contemporary market economy is as unfree to appropriate land as a person born to a common property regime or a public property regime that allows no private landownership. The right to appropriate scarce resources, as economist define the term (i.e. anything with a monetary value), is inconsistent with a system of equal freedom from coercion. The propertyless today are not and cannot be equally free to appropriate.
"Lomasky’s “liberty to acquire” holdings actually means the “liberty” to purchase goods. That’s not a liberty at all. That’s a positive opportunity. The goods you are expected to buy are made out of resources you have forcibly been excluded from using yourself. The chance to take orders from one resource owner so that you
... show moreAnother quote from "The Prehistory of Private Property":
"No argument about the freedom to appropriate can support the market economy, because capitalism makes people no freer to appropriate property than the common property regime, public property regime, or any other system. A person born into the contemporary market economy is as unfree to appropriate land as a person born to a common property regime or a public property regime that allows no private landownership. The right to appropriate scarce resources, as economist define the term (i.e. anything with a monetary value), is inconsistent with a system of equal freedom from coercion. The propertyless today are not and cannot be equally free to appropriate.
"Lomasky’s “liberty to acquire” holdings actually means the “liberty” to purchase goods. That’s not a liberty at all. That’s a positive opportunity. The goods you are expected to buy are made out of resources you have forcibly been excluded from using yourself. The chance to take orders from one resource owner so that you can “earn” the right to buy goods from other resource owners might be useful, but it is not freedom from some form of coercion that exists in societies with a common property regime."
16/30
RD
in reply to RD • • •Here is @AdrianRiskin on the role of state violence in market society:
State Violence, The Diamond/Water Paradox, and an Invisible Axiom of Classical Economics
chez-risk.in/2023/01/29/state-…
17/30
State Violence, The Diamond/Water Paradox, and an Invisible Axiom of Classical Economics
chez-risk.inRD
in reply to RD • • •Ok, so capitalism can be a tad harsh 🙄 , but we are told it's worth it because capitalism has "lifted billions out of poverty!" and that even the poor of today are wealthier than kings of old. Let's unpack these claims and take a close look at the concepts of "wealth" and "poverty".
@HeavenlyPossum on Wealth
kolektiva.social/@HeavenlyPoss…
18/30
HeavenlyPossum (@HeavenlyPossum@kolektiva.social)
kolektiva.socialRD
in reply to RD • • •on Poverty
kolektiva.social/@HeavenlyPoss…
19/30
HeavenlyPossum (@HeavenlyPossum@kolektiva.social)
kolektiva.socialRD
in reply to RD • • •on Hunger
kolektiva.social/@HeavenlyPoss…
20/30
HeavenlyPossum (@HeavenlyPossum@kolektiva.social)
kolektiva.socialRD
in reply to RD • • •"Capitalism and extreme poverty: A global analysis of real wages, human height, and mortality since the long 16th century"
sciencedirect.com/science/arti…
Highlights:
- The common notion that extreme poverty is the “natural” condition of humanity and only declined with the rise of capitalism rests on income data that do not adequately capture access to essential goods.
- Data on real wages suggests that, historically, extreme poverty was uncommon and arose primarily during periods of severe social and economic dislocation, particularly under colonialism.
- The rise of capitalism from the long 16th century onward is associated with a decline in wages to below subsistence, a deterioration in human stature, and an upturn in premature mortality.
- In parts of South Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America, wages and/or height have still not recovered.
- Where progress has occurred, significant improve
... show more"Capitalism and extreme poverty: A global analysis of real wages, human height, and mortality since the long 16th century"
sciencedirect.com/science/arti…
Highlights:
- The common notion that extreme poverty is the “natural” condition of humanity and only declined with the rise of capitalism rests on income data that do not adequately capture access to essential goods.
- Data on real wages suggests that, historically, extreme poverty was uncommon and arose primarily during periods of severe social and economic dislocation, particularly under colonialism.
- The rise of capitalism from the long 16th century onward is associated with a decline in wages to below subsistence, a deterioration in human stature, and an upturn in premature mortality.
- In parts of South Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America, wages and/or height have still not recovered.
- Where progress has occurred, significant improvements in human welfare began only around the 20th century. These gains coincide with the rise of anti-colonial and socialist political movements.
Abstract:
This paper assesses claims that, prior to the 19th century, around 90% of the human population lived in extreme poverty (defined as the inability to access essential goods), and that global human welfare only began to improve with the rise of capitalism. These claims rely on national accounts and PPP exchange rates that do not adequately capture changes in people’s access to essential goods. We assess this narrative against extant data on three empirical indicators of human welfare: real wages (with respect to a subsistence basket), human height, and mortality. We ask whether these indicators improved or deteriorated with the rise of capitalism in five world regions - Europe, Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and China – using the chronology put forward by world-systems theorists. The evidence we review here points to three conclusions. (1) It is unlikely that 90% of the human population lived in extreme poverty prior to the 19th century. Historically, unskilled urban labourers in all regions tended to have wages high enough to support a family of four above the poverty line by working 250 days or 12 months a year, except during periods of severe social dislocation, such as famines, wars, and institutionalized dispossession – particularly under colonialism. (2) The rise of capitalism caused a dramatic deterioration of human welfare. In all regions studied here, incorporation into the capitalist world-system was associated with a decline in wages to below subsistence, a deterioration in human stature, and an upturn in premature mortality. In parts of South Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America, key welfare metrics have still not recovered. (3) Where progress has occurred, significant improvements in human welfare began several centuries after the rise of capitalism. In the core regions of Northwest Europe, progress began in the 1880s, while in the periphery and semi-periphery it began in the mid-20th century, a period characterized by the rise of anti-colonial and socialist political movements that redistributed incomes and established public provisioning systems.
21/30
RD
in reply to RD • • •Let's continue to look at the real results of capitalism, colonialism, state, and the religious rituals of "economics" - environmental destruction, violent coercion and exploitation of humans:
How Colonialism Spawned and Continues to Exacerbate the Climate Crisis
news.climate.columbia.edu/2022…
22/30
How Colonialism Spawned and Continues to Exacerbate the Climate Crisis
State of the PlanetRD
in reply to RD • • •Here is @KevinCarson1 on the Victims of Capitalism (note this was published in May 2020, if written now it would also include millions more deaths due to capitalism's failure to prioritize human safety and well-being, throwing us under the bus of the SARS-Cov-2 pandemic in favor of an imaginary entity "the economy"):
c4ss.org/content/52864
23/30
Victims of Capitalism Day
Center for a Stateless SocietyRD
in reply to RD • • •To go off on a tangent for just a moment: we should be clear that we are not going to be rescued by converting our cars to electricity or by switching our current insane energy "needs" to "renewable" sources. Technology will not save us. We are not going to be able to have our cake and eat it too:
The Rising Chorus of Renewable Energy Skeptics
The green techno-dream is so vastly destructive, they say, ‘we have to come up with a different plan.’
thetyee.ca/Analysis/2023/04/07…
Do I report what I’ve learned about solar PVs - or live with it, privately?
katiesinger.substack.com/p/do-…
24/30
Do I report what I’ve learned about solar PVs— or live with it, privately?
Katie Singer (Katie Singer's Substack)RD
in reply to RD • • •Enclosure continues, in the name of "green capitalism":
"‘They Will Die’: Tesla-Linked Mining Project Is Devastating One of the World’s Uncontacted Peoples"
vice.com/en/article/wxj8wm/unc…
edited 4 Oct 2024 to add this new essay:
"Green Jobs or Greenwashing?"
Unequal exchange, extractivism, and colonialism in the new energy economy
maxwilbert.substack.com/p/gree…
25/30
‘They Will Die’: Tesla-Linked Mining Project Is Devastating One of the World’s Uncontacted Peoples
Jack Brook (VICE)reshared this
DoomsdaysCW reshared this.
RD
in reply to RD • • •How is it that we are not all rising up against all these horrors? How are so many fooled for so long, scammed into supporting a system that treats us as a resource to be consumed? This is a huge subject worthy of it's own project. Investigate the term "capitalist realism" and Gramsci's concept of "cultural hegemony":
Capitalist Realism (Wikipedia)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitali…
Cultural Hegemony (Wikipedia)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural…
Ideology: Coercion's Spin Doctor
thecommoner.org.uk/ideology-co…
26/30
Ideology: Coercion's Spin Doctor
Samuel Clarke (The Commoner)RD
in reply to RD • • •Think about the stories and characters we are presented with in popular fiction, the endless supply of cop shows on TV, the rags to riches stories; examine the many assumptions built-into every aspect of our lives, planted there by institutions both of control and recreation (interesting word that: our engaging in recreation can *re-create* the capitalist program).
For now we'll just touch on this with some thought-provoking examples.
From @AdrianRiskin - Why Are Children Forced To Study Mathematics At Gunpoint?
chez-risk.in/2023/04/05/why-ar…
27/30
Why Are Children Forced To Study Mathematics At Gunpoint?
chez-risk.inRD
in reply to RD • • •Capital is served by various institutions (property rights and legal codes, corporations, the system of wage labor, law enforcement, military, other religions, education systems, media, white supremacy, colonialism, imperialism, etc), by the billionaires and oligarchs who are its priests and the rulers and politicians who are their henchmen. As Albert Einstein wrote in Monthly Review, May 1949:
"...private capitalists inevitably control, directly or indirectly, the main sources of information (press, radio, education). It is thus extremely difficult, and indeed in most cases quite impossible, for the individual citizen to come to objective conclusions and to make intelligent use of his political rights."
As a result we have unwittingly internalized Capital's demands, to our great detriment. Capital's narrative is deeply embedded into every aspect of our lives.
Note how this quote from the speech "The Three Evils of Society" by Martin Luther King Jr. assumes the Protestant work ethic is a good thing and not itself part of the implanted narrative that serves Capita
... show moreCapital is served by various institutions (property rights and legal codes, corporations, the system of wage labor, law enforcement, military, other religions, education systems, media, white supremacy, colonialism, imperialism, etc), by the billionaires and oligarchs who are its priests and the rulers and politicians who are their henchmen. As Albert Einstein wrote in Monthly Review, May 1949:
"...private capitalists inevitably control, directly or indirectly, the main sources of information (press, radio, education). It is thus extremely difficult, and indeed in most cases quite impossible, for the individual citizen to come to objective conclusions and to make intelligent use of his political rights."
As a result we have unwittingly internalized Capital's demands, to our great detriment. Capital's narrative is deeply embedded into every aspect of our lives.
Note how this quote from the speech "The Three Evils of Society" by Martin Luther King Jr. assumes the Protestant work ethic is a good thing and not itself part of the implanted narrative that serves Capital. Instead of calling it out, MLK tried to distance it from capitalism. So while the second sentence of this quote is very true, the first sentence is an example of the deep conditioning of the narrative of capitalism and its precursors:
"We have deluded ourselves into believing the myth that capitalism grew and prospered out of the Protestant ethic of hard work and sacrifice. The fact is that capitalism was built on the exploitation and suffering of black slaves and continues to thrive on the exploitation of the poor, both black and white, both here and abroad."
Even "Democratic Socialist" Bernie Sanders sadly equates dignity and security with wage slavery:
"This is the United States. We are the richest country on the planet. One job should be enough to live with security and dignity."
David Graeber, from “Debt: The First 5,000 Years”:
"For me, this is exactly what's so pernicious about the morality of debt: the way that financial imperatives constantly try to reduce us all, despite ourselves, to the equivalent of pillagers, eyeing the world simply for what can be turned into money - and then tell us that it's only those who are willing to see the world as pillagers who deserve access to the resources required to pursue anything in life other than money. It introduces moral perversions on almost every level. ("Cancel all student loan debt? But that would be unfair to all those people who struggled for years to pay back their student loans!" Let me assure the reader that, as someone who struggled for years to pay back his student loans and finally did so, this argument makes about as much sense as saying it would be "unfair" to a mugging victim not to mug their neighbors too.)
"The argument might perhaps make sense if one agreed with the underlying assumption - that work is by definition virtuous, since the ultimate measure of humanity's success as a species is its ability to increase the overall global output of goods and services by at least 5 percent per year. The problem is that it is becoming increasingly obvious that if we continue along these lines much longer, we're likely to destroy everything."
As @HeavenlyPossum has commented: "capitalism depends on ignorance of history for its ideological survival". It is the intent of this project to do what we can to remove some of this ignorance, to share the debunking of some of the lies we've been told; to encourage *unlearning the lesson* that has been forced upon us.
28/30
RD
in reply to RD • • •So, if capitalism, state, and other hierarchical power structures are existential threats to humanity and to the biosphere and therefore must be removed, what does that leave us with?
Anarchy??!
Yes.
From @AdrianRiskin - "Anarchism isn’t a fantasy and it’s not a political theory — it’s a collective name for whatever forms of society can exist without murder as a political tool"
chez-risk.in/2023/02/19/anarch…
29/30
Anarchism isn't a fantasy and it's not a political theory
chez-risk.inRD
in reply to RD • • •If you're not already a student of anarchism, then you probably have some very negative ideas about "anarchy" or anarchism. It is beyond the scope of this project to mount a comprehensive defense or explanation of anarchism, but we also don't want to leave you hanging without some guideposts towards further understanding.
Here are a couple popular introductions:
"Are You An Anarchist? The Answer May Surprise You!"
by David Graeber
theanarchistlibrary.org/librar…
"To Change Everything"
crimethinc.com/tce
Here are some pieces dealing with specific common concerns about anarchism:
@HeavenlyPossum on Anarchism and Leadership
... show moreIf you're not already a student of anarchism, then you probably have some very negative ideas about "anarchy" or anarchism. It is beyond the scope of this project to mount a comprehensive defense or explanation of anarchism, but we also don't want to leave you hanging without some guideposts towards further understanding.
Here are a couple popular introductions:
"Are You An Anarchist? The Answer May Surprise You!"
by David Graeber
theanarchistlibrary.org/librar…
"To Change Everything"
crimethinc.com/tce
Here are some pieces dealing with specific common concerns about anarchism:
@HeavenlyPossum on Anarchism and Leadership
kolektiva.social/@HeavenlyPoss…
Anarchists Are Not Naive About Human Nature
anarchopac.com/2022/02/28/anar…
The Conspiracy of Law by Howard Zinn
theanarchistlibrary.org/librar…
Anarchism and Democracy
anarchopac.com/2022/04/15/anar…
David Graeber on democracy:
There Never Was a West
Or, Democracy Emerges From the Spaces In Between
theanarchistlibrary.org/librar…
[edited 20 Nov 2024 to add this book]
Here is a different take on democracy. This book is not really an introductory sort of text, more like internal anarchist discourse, but as such it offers revealing insights into actual anarchist ideas, practices and experiences. Featuring many fascinating examples and analysis from recent history, grounding it in real life struggle, not just theory.
"From Democracy To Freedom"
The Difference Between Government and Self-Determination
crimethinc.com/books/from-demo…
Free PDF: cdn.crimethinc.com/assets/book…
Here is a rich survey of anarchistic principles and practices in action in the real world, past and present: "Anarchy Works"
theanarchistlibrary.org/librar…
For further research here is a very good reading list ranging from basic introductions to specialized aspects and history of anarchism:
docs.google.com/document/d/1KD…
30/end
Anarchists Are Not Naive About Human Nature
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HeavenlyPossum, Gerry McGovern, SarahATX, Melissa B, Neighborhood Anarchist Collect, It's Going Down, Nuke, Jay Baker, joene 🏴🍉 and wannabe axolotl reshared this.
RD
in reply to RD • • •Appendix: EcOnOmIcS!!1!!
If you have ever been told to "go learn some economics!", this post is for you. Here are links to a surplus of valuable thoughts on the subject, starting with the @blair_fix piece that was excerpted in the fifth post of this thread, in case you didn't read the whole thing then:
Can the World Get Along Without Natural Resources?
economicsfromthetopdown.com/20…
A mathematician on the "free market" economic model, excellent thread from @magitweeter
mastodon.social/@magitweeter/1…
Revealing paper from Shimshon Bichler and Jonathan Nitzan on how both
... show moreAppendix: EcOnOmIcS!!1!!
If you have ever been told to "go learn some economics!", this post is for you. Here are links to a surplus of valuable thoughts on the subject, starting with the @blair_fix piece that was excerpted in the fifth post of this thread, in case you didn't read the whole thing then:
Can the World Get Along Without Natural Resources?
economicsfromthetopdown.com/20…
A mathematician on the "free market" economic model, excellent thread from @magitweeter
mastodon.social/@magitweeter/1…
Revealing paper from Shimshon Bichler and Jonathan Nitzan on how both liberal/neoclassical and Marxist economists fail at describing anything actually real when it comes to capital:
Capital accumulation: fiction and reality
"What we need now are not better tools, more accurate modelling and improved data, but a different way of thinking altogether, a totally new cosmology for the post-capitalist age."
paecon.net/PAEReview/issue72/B…
David Graeber: Against Economics
theanarchistlibrary.org/librar…
Interesting piece about what supply and demand misses, with important insights about value and market power, poverty and inequality:
Bargaining Power and Prices: A Response to Sanyazi and Carson
c4ss.org/content/58918
Exponential Economist Meets Finite Physicist
dothemath.ucsd.edu/2012/04/eco…
Free Market Genocides: The Real History of Trade
evonomics.com/free-market-geno…
GDP and the Idolatry of Growth from @dsdamato counterpunch.org/2023/05/25/gd…
The Lie At The Heart Of Consumer Society
indica.medium.com/the-lie-at-t…
The Problem With Economic Models from @pluralistic pluralistic.net/2023/04/03/all…
David Graeber: What is the meaning of money?
theanarchistlibrary.org/librar…
Here's another article from @blair_fix that really belongs here:
The Ritual of Capitalization
economicsfromthetopdown.com/20…
For an extensive deep dive into capitalist economics, here is a very thorough examination from An Anarchist FAQ, very much worth your time:
What are the myths of capitalist economics?
anarchistfaq.org/afaq/sectionC…
"State Capitalism: The Wages System Under New Management" by Adam Buick and John Crump
files.libcom.org/files/State%2…
The focus of this short book is to argue (very successfully IMO) that individual private ownership is not a defining feature of capitalism and that countries such as China, The Soviet Union (this was published in 1986), Cuba, Vietnam, etc, though they may identify as "socialist" and are called "communist" by many are in fact simply another form of capitalism called "state capitalism". In the process of making this argument, this book also became an excellent general reference for understanding what capitalism really is, how capitalist economics work, what socialism really is and isn't, and plenty of fascinating and clarifying historic context.
I would be remiss not to mention:
"Debt: The First 5,000 Years" by David Graeber, an absolute must-read to better understand the history of debt and money.
we.riseup.net/assets/393727/Da…
#economics #capitalism
GDP and the Idolatry of Growth - CounterPunch.org
David S. D’Amato (CounterPunch.org)reshared this
FoolishOwl reshared this.
RD
in reply to RD • • •Appendix 2: Prefiguring Degrowth
Confronting Power, Accumulation, and Ecocide
I found this essay to be an excellent overview bringing together many of the same themes presented in this thread, explaining the necessity of an anarchist approach to #degrowth and clearly describing the continuum of hierarchical power structures, #state, #colonialism, #capitalism, #ClimateCrisis and #ecocide. Features solid basic info on #anarchism and #democracy
nishikantsheorey.substack.com/…
Prefiguring Degrowth
Nishikant Sheorey (Convivial Means)RD
in reply to RD • • •Appendix 2b:
The Climate Movement is Making a Huge Mistake
"Judged by their actions rather than their words, many environmental organizations put more emphasis on sustaining a modern western lifestyle than on sustaining the planet.
They’ve become more focused on what is politically feasible than what is ecologically necessary."
I wish this link wasn't on substack, but I thought it important info and perspective to share!
maxwilbert.substack.com/p/the-…
The Climate Movement is Making a Huge Mistake
Max Wilbert (Biocentric with Max Wilbert)RD
in reply to RD • • •Appendix 3: Human Nature
Many claims about human nature have been trotted out in defense of the idea that we must be managed or controlled by some higher authority (God, state, rule of law, capital, "the market", so-called "democracy") because we are inevitably violent and selfish, perpetually prone to being oppressed by the ever-present potential tyrants among us, condemned to reproduce hierarchy forever everywhere.
To dispel these non-innocent narratives, here are some @HeavenlyPossum threads that are bursting at the seams with history, archeology and anthropology:
On Anarchism and Leadership
kolektiva.social/@HeavenlyPoss…
A survey of some of the ways in which people sustain egalitarian societies against would-be tyrants.
... show moreAppendix 3: Human Nature
Many claims about human nature have been trotted out in defense of the idea that we must be managed or controlled by some higher authority (God, state, rule of law, capital, "the market", so-called "democracy") because we are inevitably violent and selfish, perpetually prone to being oppressed by the ever-present potential tyrants among us, condemned to reproduce hierarchy forever everywhere.
To dispel these non-innocent narratives, here are some @HeavenlyPossum threads that are bursting at the seams with history, archeology and anthropology:
On Anarchism and Leadership
kolektiva.social/@HeavenlyPoss…
A survey of some of the ways in which people sustain egalitarian societies against would-be tyrants.
kolektiva.social/@HeavenlyPoss…
Neither violent conflict nor peaceful cooperation are inevitable products of human nature, but rather deliberate social choices we can make.
kolektiva.social/@HeavenlyPoss…
On the social construction of altruism and egoism.
kolektiva.social/@HeavenlyPoss…
An exploration of some of the ways non-state societies deter power-seeking and aggression.
kolektiva.social/@HeavenlyPoss…
The state is not necessary for preventing violent aggression, such as murder, and indeed may be worse for that purpose than its absence.
kolektiva.social/@HeavenlyPoss…
“Tribal” societies were often more civilized than capitalist modernity is.
kolektiva.social/@HeavenlyPoss…
Do people really like living under state rule?
kolektiva.social/@HeavenlyPoss…
Some introductory thoughts on the state, hierarchy, and statelessness.
kolektiva.social/@HeavenlyPoss…
HeavenlyPossum (@HeavenlyPossum@kolektiva.social)
kolektiva.socialRD
in reply to RD • • •Appendix 4: One attempt to tell a new story
An area in northeast Syria that’s populated by around five million people and is roughly the size of Belgium, Rojava (Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria) is a vision of hope and a daily struggle full of paradoxes. We have much to learn from this experiment and it's history.
Rojava Revolution: Women’s Liberation, Democracy and Ecology in North-East Syria
bioneers.org/rojava-revolution…
Hope and Contradictions: My Year in Rojava
defendrojava.org/news/hope-and…
Hope and Contradictions: My Year in Rojava
Emergency Committee for Rojava ECR (Emergency Committee for Rojava)RD
in reply to RD • • •Appendix 5: More discoveries challenging conventional ideas about human cultural evolution
Essay by David Wengrow: Beyond Kingdoms and Empires
A revolution in archaeology is transforming our picture of past populations and the scope of human freedoms
aeon.co/essays/an-archeologica…
@HeavenlyPossum thread on the spread of agriculture and the rise of the state:
kolektiva.social/@HeavenlyPoss…
@HeavenlyPossum thread on humans' relationship with "wilderness":
... show moreAppendix 5: More discoveries challenging conventional ideas about human cultural evolution
Essay by David Wengrow: Beyond Kingdoms and Empires
A revolution in archaeology is transforming our picture of past populations and the scope of human freedoms
aeon.co/essays/an-archeologica…
@HeavenlyPossum thread on the spread of agriculture and the rise of the state:
kolektiva.social/@HeavenlyPoss…
@HeavenlyPossum thread on humans' relationship with "wilderness":
kolektiva.social/@HeavenlyPoss…
How ghost cities in the Amazon are rewriting the story of civilization
Remote sensing, including lidar, reveals that the Amazon was once home to millions of people. The emerging picture of how they lived challenges ideas of human cultural evolution (archived from NewScientist)
archive.ph/vcsip
@HeavenlyPossum thread: The City Without the State—complex urban infrastructure at the Pingliantai Neolithic site
kolektiva.social/@HeavenlyPoss…
@HeavenlyPossum thread: The City Without the State—political revolution and social leveling at the Taosi Neolithic site
kolektiva.social/@HeavenlyPoss…
Exploring the ways in which residents of Neolithic Çatalhöyük in Anatolia differentiated themselves as well as the ways in which they did not:
kolektiva.social/@RD4Anarchy/1…
An archeological revolution transforms our image of human freedoms | Aeon Essays
David Wengrow (Aeon Magazine)RD
in reply to RD • • •Appendix 6: 🚨POLICE!🚨
The institution of police that we have now has only existed for around 200 years, but many people have been conditioned to accept it as a natural and necessary fact of life and have trouble accepting the idea of abolishing the police, even if they strongly support major (dare I say utopian) police reform. Constantly echoing around the Fediverse are debates around questions like "what would you replace police with?" or "what would you do about violent crimes?"
Let's examine the real origins and purposes of police, and the truth about what they actually do and don't do.
Origins of the police - David Whitehouse
... show more"Excellent text examining the creation of the first police forces, which took place in England and the US in just a few decades in the mid-19th century. And explaining that they were not brought into being to prevent crime or protect the public, but primarily to control crowds: the working class, white and black."
Appendix 6: 🚨POLICE!🚨
The institution of police that we have now has only existed for around 200 years, but many people have been conditioned to accept it as a natural and necessary fact of life and have trouble accepting the idea of abolishing the police, even if they strongly support major (dare I say utopian) police reform. Constantly echoing around the Fediverse are debates around questions like "what would you replace police with?" or "what would you do about violent crimes?"
Let's examine the real origins and purposes of police, and the truth about what they actually do and don't do.
Origins of the police - David Whitehouse
"Excellent text examining the creation of the first police forces, which took place in England and the US in just a few decades in the mid-19th century. And explaining that they were not brought into being to prevent crime or protect the public, but primarily to control crowds: the working class, white and black."
libcom.org/article/origins-pol…
Police are not primarily crime fighters, according to the data
reuters.com/legal/government/p…
Police Have No Duty to Protect the Public
prospect.org/justice/police-ha…
The Kids The Guns Are For
The same police force that failed Uvalde children is arresting peaceful student protesters at UT Austin. It's not about safety. It's about order.
momleft.com/p/the-kids-the-gun…
Evidence that curtailing proactive policing can reduce major crime
nature.com/articles/s41562-017…
A little roundup of some of the ways police play a “necessary role” in society. (sarcastically titled thread of links compiled by @HeavenlyPossum)
kolektiva.social/@HeavenlyPoss…
The Body Camera: The Language of our Dreams (64 page pdf from the Yale Journal of Law & Liberation)
Did you know that police forces were pushing to implement body cams on their own, before they were pressured to do so by activists for police reform? To understand why, I highly recommend this very well-researched and revealing article by Alec Karakatsanis penetrating the facade of police reform in the specific case of body cams.
Excerpts from the introduction:
Most people would prefer a society with less government surveillance, violence by employees of the state, and waste of public resources. And yet they all keep growing despite decades of “reform.” It is my uncomfortable suggestion in this article that they all keep expanding in part because of these “reforms.” ... By situating the rise of the police body camera within its actual legal, political, and economic contexts, I suggest that the body camera is one of the most important Trojan horses in contemporary U.S. history. ... All of it happened under the guise of making the police bureaucracy more “accountable” and “transparent.”
bpb-us-w2.wpmucdn.com/campuspr…
The End of Policing Means the End of Capitalism — Some Likely but Rarely Discussed Economic Effects of Abolition by @AdrianRiskin
chez-risk.in/2023/08/24/the-en…
Alternatives to Police
A compilation of case-studies on alternatives to cops. A long bibliography for further reading is also included.
theanarchistlibrary.org/librar…
The End of Policing
This book by Alex Vitale falls short of addressing fundamental conditions such as the state, rule of law, and capitalism, and so its proposed solutions are somewhat shallow and flimsy, and despite the title it never quite fully embraces complete abolition of police. Nevertheless it remains a valuable resource as a detailed survey of the vast landscape of death, damage and abuse caused by police (which has only gotten worse since 2017 when this book was published). Notably this book makes its argument against police from a more conventional, non-anarchist context, demonstrating that police abolition is not merely a fringe ideology of extreme radicals but an idea that makes sense even in more mainstream, pragmatic liberal terms.
files.libcom.org/files/Vitale%…
The institution of police is closely associated with a belief in Rule Of Law. Here are a couple essays on that important context:
Already shared earlier in this thread, this classic piece "The Conspiracy of Law" by Howard Zinn is also very appropriate here.
theanarchistlibrary.org/librar…
Take Your Pick: Law or Freedom
How “Nobody Is above the Law” Abets the Rise of Tyranny
crimethinc.com/2018/11/09/take…
#police #abolition #ACAB #RuleOfLaw
The Kids The Guns Are For
Kelly Weill (MomLeft)HeavenlyPossum
2023-07-31 17:29:56
RD
in reply to RD • • •New data just released on police use of force:
US police use force on 300,000 people a year, with numbers rising since George Floyd: ‘relentless violence’
theguardian.com/us-news/articl…
Some highlights:
Police in the US use force on at least 300,000 people each year, injuring an estimated 100,000 of them, according to a groundbreaking data analysis on law enforcement encounters.
...despite widespread protests against police brutality following the murder of George Floyd in 2020, overall use of force has remained steady since then – and in many jurisdictions, has increased.
The data builds on past reports that found US police kill roughly 1,200 people each year, or three people a day, a death toll that has crept up every year and dramatically exceeds rates in comparable nations. The nonfatal force statistics and accompanying report illustrate how the killings are just a s
... show moreNew data just released on police use of force:
US police use force on 300,000 people a year, with numbers rising since George Floyd: ‘relentless violence’
theguardian.com/us-news/articl…
Some highlights:
Police in the US use force on at least 300,000 people each year, injuring an estimated 100,000 of them, according to a groundbreaking data analysis on law enforcement encounters.
...despite widespread protests against police brutality following the murder of George Floyd in 2020, overall use of force has remained steady since then – and in many jurisdictions, has increased.
The data builds on past reports that found US police kill roughly 1,200 people each year, or three people a day, a death toll that has crept up every year and dramatically exceeds rates in comparable nations. The nonfatal force statistics and accompanying report illustrate how the killings are just a small fraction of broader police violence and injuries caused by law enforcement.
The group also estimated that along with the 300,000 use-of-force cases each year, there are an additional 200,000 cases in which officers threaten force.
Many people subject to police force are unarmed
Thirty-one agencies disclosed whether people were armed when they faced police force. On average, 83% of people subjected to force across those jurisdictions were unarmed, the agencies reported.
Thirteen agencies disclosed information on what preceded the encounter. In those jurisdictions, fewer than 40% of use-of-force incidents originated with reports of violence or involved a violent crime charge. This mirrors patterns for lethal force, with data suggesting the majority of people killed by police are not accused of violent or serious crimes.
The racial disparities are stark
Black people were subject to overall police use of force at a rate 3.2 times greater than white people in 2022, according to the report. That disparity is more severe than lethal force trends; Black people were killed by police at 2.6 times the rate of white people in 2022.
Limited data also suggests that unhoused people are disproportionately impacted; for the eight agencies that disclosed housing status, 11 to 44% of people subject to force were listed as unhoused.
#police #ACAB
US police use force on 300,000 people a year, with numbers rising since George Floyd: ‘relentless violence’
Sam Levin (The Guardian)RD
in reply to RD • • •"In Los Angeles, at least, the police exist primarily to harass and abuse unhoused people.
Every other function is tertiary to this primary role. The purpose of a system is what it does.
Police are only necessary for the function of society if you imagine that harassing and abusing unhoused people is necessary for the function of society."
- @HeavenlyPossum
Detailed and comprehensive report from Human Rights Watch, August 2024:
“You Have to Move!”
hrw.org/report/2024/08/14/you-…
The Cruel and Ineffective Criminalization of Unhoused People in Los Angeles
"Human Rights Watch analysis of LAPD data from 2016 through 2022 revealed that even though unhoused people account for less than 1 percent of the overall population of the city, 38 perc
... show more"In Los Angeles, at least, the police exist primarily to harass and abuse unhoused people.
Every other function is tertiary to this primary role. The purpose of a system is what it does.
Police are only necessary for the function of society if you imagine that harassing and abusing unhoused people is necessary for the function of society."
- @HeavenlyPossum
Detailed and comprehensive report from Human Rights Watch, August 2024:
“You Have to Move!”
hrw.org/report/2024/08/14/you-…
The Cruel and Ineffective Criminalization of Unhoused People in Los Angeles
"Human Rights Watch analysis of LAPD data from 2016 through 2022 revealed that even though unhoused people account for less than 1 percent of the overall population of the city, 38 percent of all arrests in Los Angeles were of people identified as unhoused, including over 99 percent of all infraction arrests and citations, and over 42 percent of all misdemeanors."
"Criminalization effectively destroys lives and property based on race and economic class. It is a set of policies that prioritizes the needs and values of the wealthy, property owners, and business elites, at the expense of the rights of people living in poverty to an adequate standard of living. As a consequence of historical and present policies and practices that discriminate against Black and other BIPOC people, these groups receive the brunt of criminalization."
RD
in reply to RD • • •"Americans are afraid of many threats to their lives – serial killers, crazed gunmen, gang bangers, and above all terrorists – but these threats are surprisingly unlikely. Approximately three-quarters of all homicide victims in America are killed by someone they know. And the real threat from strangers is quite different from what most fear: one-third of all Americans killed by strangers are killed by police."
granta.com/violence-in-blue/
Violence in Blue | Patrick Ball | Granta
Luke (Granta)RD
in reply to RD • • •Reformist reforms vs.
abolitionist steps in policing
An informative chart (pdf) breaking down the difference between reformist reforms which continue or expand the reach of
policing, and abolitionist steps that work to chip away and reduce its overall impact. As we struggle to decrease the power of policing there are also positive
and pro-active investments we can make in community health and well-being.
static1.squarespace.com/static…
Sally Strange reshared this.
la tierra de nuestros nietos
in reply to RD • • •The term #tupambae from the #Guarani language kinda means #commons.
It's told that the #Jesuits in the Paraguayan region when they created their "christian reign" had difficulties to get the indigenous people to work on their specific #abambae, the personal family yard the Jesuits invented and tried to impose onto the local tribes.
At the same time the indigenous people joyfully engaged when ever it was time to go to the Tupambae, the region further away from the village to hunt and gather together.
The Jesuits managed to translate the term Tupambae into "tierra de dios", "land of good" to the point that now a days if you ask people in this region for the meaning, you get this translation as an answer. "The everything", the space of everything, of every one, became "the all", "the all emb
... show moreThe term #tupambae from the #Guarani language kinda means #commons.
It's told that the #Jesuits in the Paraguayan region when they created their "christian reign" had difficulties to get the indigenous people to work on their specific #abambae, the personal family yard the Jesuits invented and tried to impose onto the local tribes.
At the same time the indigenous people joyfully engaged when ever it was time to go to the Tupambae, the region further away from the village to hunt and gather together.
The Jesuits managed to translate the term Tupambae into "tierra de dios", "land of good" to the point that now a days if you ask people in this region for the meaning, you get this translation as an answer. "The everything", the space of everything, of every one, became "the all", "the all embracing", "the one and only".
Actually, to unveil this "wrong translation" it's ultimately quite simple as the only thing you have to do is ask if the Guarani where a monotheistic culture. As the answer is obviously no, Tupambae can't be "the land of the good of all" but "the space of all".
> es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupamba%…
Toponimia guaraníTupambaé, proviene del vocablo guaraní formado por Tupá = "trueno, Ser Supremo" y mbaé = "perteneciente a", se traduce como “cosa que pertenece a Dios”, "propiedad de Dios" o en un sentido más amplio ”lugar donde habita Dios”.6
> territoriodigital.com/herencia…
El azote aplicado como castigo a los indígenas, fueran hombres, mujeres o niños, era un método común para sujetar a indio a un régimen de trabajo que muy poco se relacionaba con su cultura. El trabajo en los lotes del abambaé se iniciaba muy temprano, luego de escuchar misa.
..
Luego, con sus herramientas, entonando canciones alegres en guaraní, acompañadas con los sones de cajas, flautas y chirimías, partían rumbo a las labores. El aire festivo continuaba durante el día de trabajo, ya que la música y las canciones eran constantes en los ámbitos de trabajo. Se trabajaba con la convicción de que se lo hacía para Dios y para la comunidad.
@HeavenlyPossum
localidad del departamento de Cerro Largo, Uruguay
Colaboradores de los proyectos Wikimedia (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.)cpm
in reply to RD • • •Sooooo long ago
read Locke (in depth)
and said:
"this is just bullshit"
but it makes the assholes happy
so you are a suck up asshole pos
@blair_fix @SallyStrange