1 00:00:05,080 --> 00:00:10,920 Speaker 1: It could happen here. Uh, it being a number of things. Uh, 2 00:00:11,039 --> 00:00:13,920 Speaker 1: this is the podcast about things falling apart and also 3 00:00:13,960 --> 00:00:17,279 Speaker 1: maybe putting them back together. And assuming there's not a 4 00:00:17,360 --> 00:00:19,919 Speaker 1: nuclear war in the immediate future, you will probably be 5 00:00:19,960 --> 00:00:24,000 Speaker 1: hearing this episode sometime in early March. I am Robert Evans, 6 00:00:24,480 --> 00:00:28,760 Speaker 1: my co hosts as always well as often Chris and Garrison, 7 00:00:29,120 --> 00:00:30,880 Speaker 1: and that's that's my job for the day. Done. I'm 8 00:00:30,920 --> 00:00:32,879 Speaker 1: gonna I'm gonna sit back and chill. You guys want 9 00:00:32,880 --> 00:00:34,960 Speaker 1: to take it from here, Yeah, I'll take it from here. 10 00:00:35,040 --> 00:00:38,080 Speaker 1: We are doing one of our perennial things fall apart 11 00:00:38,120 --> 00:00:40,599 Speaker 1: but also we sort of put it back together again episodes. 12 00:00:40,720 --> 00:00:45,240 Speaker 1: And joining us today is j m C from Strange 13 00:00:45,280 --> 00:00:49,559 Speaker 1: Matter as a new libertarian, socialist cooperative magazine. J MC 14 00:00:49,760 --> 00:00:52,560 Speaker 1: great to have you here. Yeah, this is really great. 15 00:00:53,520 --> 00:00:56,520 Speaker 1: So I guess we should probably explain with the magazine 16 00:00:56,640 --> 00:00:59,720 Speaker 1: is not just in of itself, but also because it's 17 00:00:59,720 --> 00:01:03,720 Speaker 1: a good lead in into um um into what we're 18 00:01:03,720 --> 00:01:06,880 Speaker 1: gonna be talking about. So we basically, uh, there's five 19 00:01:06,920 --> 00:01:09,199 Speaker 1: of us as co editors and we're all equal worker 20 00:01:09,280 --> 00:01:12,680 Speaker 1: owners in it. It's a magazine called Strange Matters. And 21 00:01:13,200 --> 00:01:17,280 Speaker 1: the point of it is to explore radical new ideas, 22 00:01:17,560 --> 00:01:20,200 Speaker 1: not just in terms of politics and economics, which is 23 00:01:20,240 --> 00:01:22,160 Speaker 1: going to be kind of half the focus is trying 24 00:01:22,200 --> 00:01:25,000 Speaker 1: to figure out like you know, libertarian socialists talk a 25 00:01:25,040 --> 00:01:27,280 Speaker 1: lot about dual power, which I know y'all talk about 26 00:01:27,319 --> 00:01:30,800 Speaker 1: on the show a lot talk about building independent institutions 27 00:01:30,920 --> 00:01:32,960 Speaker 1: under the direct democratic control of the working class to 28 00:01:33,000 --> 00:01:35,680 Speaker 1: control real resources and are not the state or capitalist firms. 29 00:01:35,920 --> 00:01:37,760 Speaker 1: But like, we talk a big game, but do we 30 00:01:37,760 --> 00:01:39,520 Speaker 1: actually know how to do that stuff, and do we 31 00:01:39,560 --> 00:01:41,560 Speaker 1: know how to do stuff like run like you know, 32 00:01:41,680 --> 00:01:45,000 Speaker 1: a big company as a as a self managed democracy, 33 00:01:45,120 --> 00:01:46,720 Speaker 1: or do we know how to like run a city 34 00:01:46,840 --> 00:01:49,480 Speaker 1: as a as a radical democracy like rooted in neighborhood 35 00:01:49,480 --> 00:01:51,680 Speaker 1: councils or anything like that. The answer kind of is 36 00:01:51,760 --> 00:01:54,600 Speaker 1: not really. And there's a lot of like um open 37 00:01:54,680 --> 00:01:58,040 Speaker 1: questions that we don't know yet the answers to, and 38 00:01:58,080 --> 00:02:00,080 Speaker 1: that very few people are working on those answers. So 39 00:02:00,120 --> 00:02:05,400 Speaker 1: Strange Matters is um partly about discovering, uh, those answers, 40 00:02:05,440 --> 00:02:07,720 Speaker 1: not because we the editors have the answers, but because 41 00:02:07,760 --> 00:02:09,720 Speaker 1: we need like some kind of space within which we 42 00:02:09,760 --> 00:02:13,200 Speaker 1: can bring lots of different people different life experiences together uh, 43 00:02:13,240 --> 00:02:15,760 Speaker 1: in order to talk about the stuff and figure it out. 44 00:02:16,280 --> 00:02:18,000 Speaker 1: And then the other mission of it is to be 45 00:02:18,040 --> 00:02:21,200 Speaker 1: a kind of general interest literary intellectual magazine doing the 46 00:02:21,280 --> 00:02:24,480 Speaker 1: kind of journalism and philosophy and poetry and memoir and 47 00:02:24,560 --> 00:02:29,680 Speaker 1: stuff like that that uh that UH perhaps gets shut 48 00:02:29,720 --> 00:02:32,760 Speaker 1: out of capitalist society because it's not commercial or because 49 00:02:32,760 --> 00:02:36,360 Speaker 1: it's too weird, because it's like, I don't know, historiographical 50 00:02:36,440 --> 00:02:38,200 Speaker 1: essay about it's been called doon or something like that, 51 00:02:38,320 --> 00:02:39,880 Speaker 1: you know. And and we think that there should be 52 00:02:39,880 --> 00:02:43,640 Speaker 1: a place for that, um, just because it brings delight 53 00:02:43,680 --> 00:02:46,880 Speaker 1: and meaning into people's lives, and it's what we're fighting 54 00:02:46,960 --> 00:02:49,200 Speaker 1: for more democratic society in order to do so. That's 55 00:02:49,240 --> 00:02:52,600 Speaker 1: basically our vibe UM. And the answering question is a 56 00:02:52,639 --> 00:02:57,040 Speaker 1: collective editorial that we that we collectively drafted and edited uh, 57 00:02:57,080 --> 00:03:00,720 Speaker 1: talking about our political views in particular and the recent 58 00:03:00,800 --> 00:03:04,600 Speaker 1: history of libertarian socialism UM. And then asked for me, 59 00:03:04,840 --> 00:03:07,959 Speaker 1: I'm I'm a writer who's written for a couple of 60 00:03:08,000 --> 00:03:11,520 Speaker 1: other places like The Point in the Brooklyn Rail UH, 61 00:03:11,800 --> 00:03:14,600 Speaker 1: and I also was involved in the d S as 62 00:03:14,639 --> 00:03:22,960 Speaker 1: Libertarian Socialist Caucus and also the the Yeah yeah, right, yeah, 63 00:03:23,240 --> 00:03:27,000 Speaker 1: but a lot of history there, trauma, you know, some 64 00:03:27,000 --> 00:03:30,760 Speaker 1: some uh yeah, but any who, uh and also the 65 00:03:30,800 --> 00:03:35,560 Speaker 1: Symbiosis Federation UM, which is a federation across Mexico, the US, 66 00:03:35,720 --> 00:03:39,200 Speaker 1: and Canada that is trying to put together. It's a 67 00:03:39,280 --> 00:03:42,280 Speaker 1: it's a confederation of local organizations that are trying to 68 00:03:42,320 --> 00:03:46,040 Speaker 1: do this kind of direct democracy stuff. Yeah. So I guess, well, okay, 69 00:03:46,040 --> 00:03:49,360 Speaker 1: so the pandemic isn't I guess the perfect jumping in 70 00:03:49,440 --> 00:03:52,600 Speaker 1: point for this. But I wanna go back and I 71 00:03:52,640 --> 00:03:54,840 Speaker 1: guess getting into the meat of this piece because I 72 00:03:54,840 --> 00:03:57,040 Speaker 1: think it's very interesting. I wanted to sort of talk 73 00:03:57,080 --> 00:03:59,800 Speaker 1: about the origins of like what's called sort of new 74 00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:05,320 Speaker 1: anarchism and how it's sort of begin to decay after 75 00:04:06,280 --> 00:04:09,920 Speaker 1: after the collapse of occupying After well, I guess that 76 00:04:10,120 --> 00:04:15,040 Speaker 1: the sort of kind of revolutionary arc ofens so basically 77 00:04:15,720 --> 00:04:18,520 Speaker 1: before you do the decline, at least is the way 78 00:04:18,520 --> 00:04:20,240 Speaker 1: that we wrote it, and I kind of think that 79 00:04:20,400 --> 00:04:22,800 Speaker 1: it's the way that I would tell it. Um, you 80 00:04:22,839 --> 00:04:25,120 Speaker 1: have to kind of do the rise first, right, because 81 00:04:25,600 --> 00:04:31,800 Speaker 1: like there was this moment from roughly the fall of 82 00:04:31,800 --> 00:04:39,480 Speaker 1: the Soviets in two roughly like two thousand and even 83 00:04:39,600 --> 00:04:43,240 Speaker 1: kind of lingering in an afterlife afterwards where it kind 84 00:04:43,279 --> 00:04:45,559 Speaker 1: of looked like anarchism was going to take over the world. 85 00:04:45,760 --> 00:04:47,640 Speaker 1: And that's a bit of a joke. But it's also 86 00:04:47,839 --> 00:04:50,120 Speaker 1: not a joke because in the context of like the 87 00:04:50,200 --> 00:04:52,920 Speaker 1: radical left, which is of course obviously a kind of 88 00:04:52,960 --> 00:04:55,800 Speaker 1: like you know, dissidents seen in any country where it 89 00:04:55,839 --> 00:05:01,599 Speaker 1: happens to exist. Um, you know, everything ing receded in 90 00:05:01,720 --> 00:05:04,200 Speaker 1: terms of the traditional parties because the fall of the 91 00:05:04,400 --> 00:05:09,680 Speaker 1: Soviet style uh Leninist states uh, either through their collapse 92 00:05:09,880 --> 00:05:12,440 Speaker 1: as in the case of the USSR, or in the 93 00:05:12,480 --> 00:05:15,800 Speaker 1: case of their transition to much more like clearly and 94 00:05:15,839 --> 00:05:21,320 Speaker 1: obviously like state capitalist uh semi liberalized model like in China, 95 00:05:21,760 --> 00:05:27,279 Speaker 1: like the you you basically had like this total recession, 96 00:05:27,320 --> 00:05:30,640 Speaker 1: not just in Leninism interestingly, which obviously enough right, like 97 00:05:30,680 --> 00:05:33,120 Speaker 1: you know, it's basically a global collapse of Leinist style 98 00:05:33,160 --> 00:05:37,520 Speaker 1: of governments, but also in like social democracy, um, because 99 00:05:37,720 --> 00:05:39,720 Speaker 1: it's a lot of the I mean, it's actually kind 100 00:05:39,720 --> 00:05:43,520 Speaker 1: of interesting why it's it's unclear why it is. Uh. 101 00:05:43,600 --> 00:05:46,239 Speaker 1: People have different theories, but they're you know, people often 102 00:05:46,240 --> 00:05:49,480 Speaker 1: describe it in in um you know, Fisher's term the 103 00:05:49,680 --> 00:05:53,800 Speaker 1: the writer Mark Fisher capitalist realism. The attitude in the 104 00:05:53,880 --> 00:05:58,159 Speaker 1: nineties was that, uh, you know, there's there's only one 105 00:05:58,240 --> 00:06:00,800 Speaker 1: world that's possible, and it's the best of all possible worlds, 106 00:06:00,800 --> 00:06:03,400 Speaker 1: and that's the capitalist world, where everybody's gonna have McDonald's 107 00:06:03,400 --> 00:06:05,480 Speaker 1: in every country, and two countries that have the same 108 00:06:05,560 --> 00:06:08,560 Speaker 1: McDonald's are never going to go to war, which we 109 00:06:08,680 --> 00:06:10,160 Speaker 1: kind of found out the hard way this week that 110 00:06:10,200 --> 00:06:13,880 Speaker 1: that's not really the case. Well, and if people had 111 00:06:14,320 --> 00:06:16,680 Speaker 1: paid attention more to other parts of the world, they 112 00:06:16,720 --> 00:06:18,560 Speaker 1: would know that, like, well, there were civil wars in 113 00:06:18,600 --> 00:06:20,960 Speaker 1: a bunch of countries that had McDonald's. It didn't stop 114 00:06:20,960 --> 00:06:26,039 Speaker 1: people from shooting each other, as as the United States 115 00:06:26,040 --> 00:06:28,360 Speaker 1: should tell you, people will kill each other whether or 116 00:06:28,400 --> 00:06:31,159 Speaker 1: not they have access to chicken McNuggets. Yeah, you know, 117 00:06:31,200 --> 00:06:32,719 Speaker 1: I mean I think like that, that's that's a period 118 00:06:32,760 --> 00:06:35,280 Speaker 1: that has it's full of the most wrong anyone has 119 00:06:35,320 --> 00:06:38,480 Speaker 1: ever been, Like you got Franchis Fukiyama, like the most 120 00:06:38,560 --> 00:06:42,520 Speaker 1: wrong person ever You've got. Yeah, You've you've got a 121 00:06:42,560 --> 00:06:46,360 Speaker 1: lot of sertif idealogues you like, have sort of deluded 122 00:06:46,400 --> 00:06:49,840 Speaker 1: themselves into thinking this stuff is over. And yeah, I 123 00:06:49,880 --> 00:06:51,600 Speaker 1: think you're right. That that that sort of plays into this, 124 00:06:52,680 --> 00:06:54,960 Speaker 1: you know, into sort of the collapse of of of 125 00:06:56,080 --> 00:06:59,200 Speaker 1: I guess, the party state left, and then the way 126 00:06:59,240 --> 00:07:02,640 Speaker 1: in which that at, you know, the alternative to that, 127 00:07:02,760 --> 00:07:06,680 Speaker 1: I guess becomes new anarchism, and anarchists practice, even if 128 00:07:06,720 --> 00:07:09,000 Speaker 1: it's not necessarily ideology with all the groups, kind of 129 00:07:09,960 --> 00:07:13,840 Speaker 1: seeps its way into the rest of the activist scene. Yeah. 130 00:07:14,000 --> 00:07:17,800 Speaker 1: So basically the story that we tell is that there's 131 00:07:17,920 --> 00:07:23,280 Speaker 1: some you know, the sepathist of rebellion in triggers these Uh. 132 00:07:23,320 --> 00:07:25,640 Speaker 1: It's not just that the stufferthiasts are able to create 133 00:07:25,640 --> 00:07:28,720 Speaker 1: their autonomous territory and chap us, but they it triggers 134 00:07:28,760 --> 00:07:32,600 Speaker 1: this wave uh that UM. We use a term that 135 00:07:32,680 --> 00:07:36,960 Speaker 1: sometimes it's used in academia called neo anarchism for this. UM. 136 00:07:37,000 --> 00:07:40,760 Speaker 1: You know, there's an anarchist revival in the nineties UM 137 00:07:40,800 --> 00:07:44,640 Speaker 1: around the world, and it's not just people calling themselves anarchists. 138 00:07:44,640 --> 00:07:48,160 Speaker 1: It's all these movements that were inspired by the libertarian 139 00:07:48,280 --> 00:07:53,720 Speaker 1: socialist broadly speaking UM sabathistas UM adopting kind of similar 140 00:07:53,760 --> 00:07:57,720 Speaker 1: methods in their local contexts in different countries, fighting against 141 00:07:58,120 --> 00:08:00,800 Speaker 1: I mean a lot of things. Initially it's against like 142 00:08:00,920 --> 00:08:03,640 Speaker 1: you know, neoliberal trade deals, but it also ends up 143 00:08:03,680 --> 00:08:06,040 Speaker 1: being against like sweatshops, because that's basically what a lot 144 00:08:06,080 --> 00:08:08,480 Speaker 1: of outsourcing is is. You know, if if they have 145 00:08:08,640 --> 00:08:11,240 Speaker 1: unions in this country from the social democratic period, they 146 00:08:11,280 --> 00:08:13,720 Speaker 1: shut down the factory fire, everybody moved it to someplace 147 00:08:13,720 --> 00:08:16,360 Speaker 1: where some dictatorship is going to shoot anybody who tries 148 00:08:16,400 --> 00:08:19,000 Speaker 1: to do a union. Uh. And then that you know 149 00:08:19,120 --> 00:08:23,400 Speaker 1: that lowers Uh. Logistics has gotten sophisticated enough by this 150 00:08:23,440 --> 00:08:25,560 Speaker 1: point that you know, it ends up being cheaper for 151 00:08:25,560 --> 00:08:27,360 Speaker 1: the company even though they have to transport goods all 152 00:08:27,400 --> 00:08:29,360 Speaker 1: across the world and do just in time delivering that 153 00:08:29,440 --> 00:08:34,359 Speaker 1: kind of thing. So um. The a lot of the 154 00:08:34,360 --> 00:08:38,320 Speaker 1: the the anti globalization movement that sprouted up around the 155 00:08:38,320 --> 00:08:42,560 Speaker 1: two thousands was like, um, against all these things and 156 00:08:42,640 --> 00:08:46,040 Speaker 1: usually using the kinds of direct actions, which is when 157 00:08:46,080 --> 00:08:48,560 Speaker 1: you act kind of independent of the state and not 158 00:08:48,640 --> 00:08:52,040 Speaker 1: trying to like, you know, convince politician to do something, 159 00:08:52,120 --> 00:08:56,360 Speaker 1: but taking direct action to get your results, your desired result. Um. 160 00:08:56,440 --> 00:08:58,800 Speaker 1: You know, and all this kind of stuff uh that 161 00:08:58,840 --> 00:09:03,080 Speaker 1: we're at using direct democratic consensus methods uh in the 162 00:09:03,120 --> 00:09:06,480 Speaker 1: way that they organized stuff. Uh. That that was that 163 00:09:06,520 --> 00:09:08,720 Speaker 1: was all basically an artistic and so there was this 164 00:09:08,760 --> 00:09:13,040 Speaker 1: way in which anarchist methods, anarchist tactics, anarchists like attitudes 165 00:09:13,120 --> 00:09:17,000 Speaker 1: towards what activism even is, started filtering into all these 166 00:09:17,040 --> 00:09:18,960 Speaker 1: other movements. And this has been happening a little bit 167 00:09:18,960 --> 00:09:20,280 Speaker 1: in the eighties too. So there was like the anti 168 00:09:20,360 --> 00:09:23,520 Speaker 1: nuclear movement had a lot of this, the feminist movement 169 00:09:23,520 --> 00:09:26,480 Speaker 1: had a lot of this. Um there was a whole 170 00:09:26,559 --> 00:09:30,520 Speaker 1: um stream of single other ecological movements were actually like 171 00:09:30,600 --> 00:09:33,280 Speaker 1: pioneered in a lot of ways by anarchists in the nineties, 172 00:09:33,640 --> 00:09:37,720 Speaker 1: um so, as well as indigenous movements in places like Mexico, Bolivia, etcetera. 173 00:09:38,000 --> 00:09:41,920 Speaker 1: So the this is the kind of like rise of 174 00:09:41,960 --> 00:09:44,280 Speaker 1: this neo anarchist movie that we're talking about, which is 175 00:09:44,320 --> 00:09:48,680 Speaker 1: not just about anarchists, it's about people who act and 176 00:09:48,800 --> 00:09:53,040 Speaker 1: think like anarchists without necessarily identifying as it. Yeah, I 177 00:09:53,040 --> 00:09:55,079 Speaker 1: mean that's the kind of thing that I hope we 178 00:09:55,080 --> 00:09:57,040 Speaker 1: can kind of more encourage as well in the next 179 00:09:57,600 --> 00:10:02,040 Speaker 1: few decades as those types of ideas can be I 180 00:10:02,400 --> 00:10:04,160 Speaker 1: want I want to make sure that we can take 181 00:10:04,200 --> 00:10:06,800 Speaker 1: these ideas and make them very approachable for people, even 182 00:10:06,840 --> 00:10:09,480 Speaker 1: if they don't use the terms that we might use. 183 00:10:10,040 --> 00:10:15,199 Speaker 1: You can still kind of suggest these types of thoughts, 184 00:10:15,240 --> 00:10:22,280 Speaker 1: and this suggests these types of kind of lenses and viewpoints. HM. 185 00:10:28,679 --> 00:10:30,040 Speaker 1: As much as we're about to get to how this 186 00:10:30,080 --> 00:10:33,559 Speaker 1: sort of goes wrong fails in substence, Like, I think 187 00:10:33,600 --> 00:10:35,800 Speaker 1: that was the strength of this movement was that it 188 00:10:35,920 --> 00:10:43,280 Speaker 1: was its tactics were really easy to spread, and that 189 00:10:43,360 --> 00:10:44,840 Speaker 1: led to a lot of people adopting me. It led 190 00:10:44,880 --> 00:10:49,679 Speaker 1: to it sort of becoming this I guess activist consensus 191 00:10:49,679 --> 00:10:52,040 Speaker 1: that you know, like you use in consensus process. You 192 00:10:52,040 --> 00:10:54,880 Speaker 1: you know, you have hozontal organizations, you have you do 193 00:10:54,960 --> 00:10:57,680 Speaker 1: direct actions, you mobilize people. You don't have these sort 194 00:10:57,679 --> 00:11:01,839 Speaker 1: of like article parties. But that yeah, And I think 195 00:11:01,840 --> 00:11:03,959 Speaker 1: I think the next part of the story that you 196 00:11:04,000 --> 00:11:06,400 Speaker 1: want to tell us about, I guess how that fell 197 00:11:06,440 --> 00:11:12,440 Speaker 1: apart and the consequences of that. Basically what ends up 198 00:11:12,600 --> 00:11:18,920 Speaker 1: happening is that like there was this moment of our ascent, 199 00:11:18,960 --> 00:11:22,720 Speaker 1: because I would identify myself as being definitely like part 200 00:11:22,800 --> 00:11:25,640 Speaker 1: of these uh, the this general of you. I mean, 201 00:11:25,679 --> 00:11:27,640 Speaker 1: I came I hopped aboard a lot later with like 202 00:11:27,640 --> 00:11:30,240 Speaker 1: Occupy Wall Street, but a lot of the kind of 203 00:11:30,440 --> 00:11:33,760 Speaker 1: explosion of movements that happened around the world in again 204 00:11:33,920 --> 00:11:35,880 Speaker 1: not always right. It started with the Arab Spring, which 205 00:11:35,920 --> 00:11:38,559 Speaker 1: started with somebody seeing themselves on fire in Tunisia and 206 00:11:38,679 --> 00:11:41,640 Speaker 1: like you know, and then that spreads to um other 207 00:11:41,679 --> 00:11:44,400 Speaker 1: countries in the Middle East and um, you know, protest 208 00:11:44,440 --> 00:11:47,640 Speaker 1: against dictatorships and so on. But it starts getting kind 209 00:11:47,679 --> 00:11:51,160 Speaker 1: of like transported beyond its initial Middle Eastern context. And 210 00:11:51,200 --> 00:11:53,319 Speaker 1: what a lot of people don't know is that the uh, 211 00:11:54,360 --> 00:11:58,920 Speaker 1: the Occupy Wall Street movement in North America and like 212 00:11:59,160 --> 00:12:01,480 Speaker 1: other movements that you know, some of them were called 213 00:12:01,520 --> 00:12:03,400 Speaker 1: occupy some of them, I'm one of them was my 214 00:12:03,480 --> 00:12:06,320 Speaker 1: Don in Ukraine as a matter of fact, um, and 215 00:12:06,520 --> 00:12:09,880 Speaker 1: other like you know, the the Hong Kong, the the 216 00:12:09,880 --> 00:12:13,480 Speaker 1: the umbrella movements, yeah, the and all these kind of 217 00:12:13,520 --> 00:12:17,080 Speaker 1: movements that that proceeded from after twenty eleven. A lot 218 00:12:17,120 --> 00:12:20,400 Speaker 1: of them were basically in a single kind of wave, 219 00:12:21,040 --> 00:12:24,640 Speaker 1: a protracted wave of copycat movements. Uh that we're trying 220 00:12:24,679 --> 00:12:26,800 Speaker 1: to adopt the same kind of tactics of like occupying 221 00:12:26,840 --> 00:12:30,840 Speaker 1: public squares, uh, declaring them basically autonomous and doing like 222 00:12:30,880 --> 00:12:33,560 Speaker 1: direct democracy in those squares, modeling the kind of society 223 00:12:33,600 --> 00:12:37,000 Speaker 1: that they that people wanted to create, um, you know, 224 00:12:37,160 --> 00:12:39,920 Speaker 1: in this moment where it seemed like you could have 225 00:12:40,160 --> 00:12:45,079 Speaker 1: these direct democratic, uh sorts of movements the the end. 226 00:12:45,200 --> 00:12:47,640 Speaker 1: In the US, there's like a direct line of succession 227 00:12:47,720 --> 00:12:50,240 Speaker 1: from like Occupy Wall Street through to like Black Lives 228 00:12:50,280 --> 00:12:54,120 Speaker 1: Matter through to like the anti pipeline Indigenous protests. There's 229 00:12:54,160 --> 00:12:56,880 Speaker 1: a lot of like shared movement experience, a lot of 230 00:12:56,880 --> 00:12:59,120 Speaker 1: the same people showing up to it or teaching the 231 00:12:59,160 --> 00:13:02,480 Speaker 1: next generation UM in those movements. And I think this 232 00:13:02,520 --> 00:13:05,480 Speaker 1: is something I mean, uh, it's difficult to find like 233 00:13:05,600 --> 00:13:07,840 Speaker 1: sources on this, but I mean, y'all are involved in 234 00:13:07,880 --> 00:13:10,520 Speaker 1: social movements. I think that that's like a rough that's 235 00:13:10,640 --> 00:13:14,160 Speaker 1: roughly a description of of what's happened, right unless unless 236 00:13:14,160 --> 00:13:20,400 Speaker 1: we're crazy. Yeah, I think, you know, I think I 237 00:13:20,400 --> 00:13:22,360 Speaker 1: guess what you call the last wave that is occupied 238 00:13:22,400 --> 00:13:27,280 Speaker 1: ice In Yeah, yeah, you know, like I remember, like 239 00:13:27,440 --> 00:13:30,520 Speaker 1: that was the sort of mix of I guess two crowds. 240 00:13:30,600 --> 00:13:33,360 Speaker 1: One is you know, I mean, like I remember it 241 00:13:33,400 --> 00:13:35,120 Speaker 1: was a bunch of you know, people who'd been an 242 00:13:35,120 --> 00:13:37,480 Speaker 1: occupy and then also it was a lot of people 243 00:13:37,520 --> 00:13:40,960 Speaker 1: who radicalized essentially about Trump. Yeah, there was there was 244 00:13:41,000 --> 00:13:44,160 Speaker 1: a pretty big new wave of people, yeah, around around 245 00:13:44,160 --> 00:13:47,199 Speaker 1: just sixteen and that, you know, and I guess I 246 00:13:47,200 --> 00:13:49,640 Speaker 1: guess the other thing that that that's going on through 247 00:13:49,679 --> 00:13:56,360 Speaker 1: this period is the the the ascension of consession of 248 00:13:56,400 --> 00:14:00,160 Speaker 1: the right and the return also not just of you know, 249 00:14:00,200 --> 00:14:02,920 Speaker 1: not just a sort of the fascist right, but of 250 00:14:03,240 --> 00:14:08,040 Speaker 1: Leninism and social democracy as well. Yeah. Um lapped around 251 00:14:08,040 --> 00:14:10,560 Speaker 1: like when Bernie Sanders was getting more popular. Yeah, yeah, 252 00:14:10,559 --> 00:14:12,280 Speaker 1: And I think I think I think there's there's you know, 253 00:14:12,320 --> 00:14:13,920 Speaker 1: there's a couple of there's like two threats there. There 254 00:14:13,920 --> 00:14:17,480 Speaker 1: there's the sort of Bernie Sanders thread, and then there's 255 00:14:18,040 --> 00:14:20,240 Speaker 1: you know, the the rise of the rise of the tankies, 256 00:14:20,360 --> 00:14:23,000 Speaker 1: which has to do with Syria and has to do 257 00:14:23,080 --> 00:14:27,920 Speaker 1: with sort of this backlash against the justin eleven revolutions 258 00:14:27,960 --> 00:14:30,360 Speaker 1: that you know, like some some of that backlash turns 259 00:14:30,400 --> 00:14:34,520 Speaker 1: into like just you know, like aired ones like hard 260 00:14:34,600 --> 00:14:38,200 Speaker 1: right bobbing. It's never like not a right wing but 261 00:14:38,280 --> 00:14:40,400 Speaker 1: like air to wance turn into just like fire bombing 262 00:14:40,440 --> 00:14:47,240 Speaker 1: cities and um and literally barrel bombing, you know, the 263 00:14:47,280 --> 00:14:52,520 Speaker 1: peaceful protests stuff. Um can overthrow governments if the government 264 00:14:52,640 --> 00:14:56,560 Speaker 1: is not willing to bomb and shoot people who gather 265 00:14:56,640 --> 00:14:59,360 Speaker 1: on mass in the central Square because they're afraid of 266 00:14:59,400 --> 00:15:01,320 Speaker 1: what the world response would be if they did start 267 00:15:01,400 --> 00:15:04,000 Speaker 1: doing that. But you know when Bashar Alasad did that 268 00:15:04,040 --> 00:15:07,880 Speaker 1: in Syria against the Democratic opposition movements, Um, you know, 269 00:15:08,400 --> 00:15:11,920 Speaker 1: that basically sent the signal nothing, I mean nothing happened 270 00:15:11,920 --> 00:15:14,440 Speaker 1: to us side, right, So that basically sent the signal 271 00:15:14,520 --> 00:15:18,640 Speaker 1: that like oh he had a stress of years. But yeah, yeah, 272 00:15:18,800 --> 00:15:22,240 Speaker 1: right right, yeah, like like you can you can just 273 00:15:22,520 --> 00:15:25,720 Speaker 1: shoot people and bomb them and like it. And that 274 00:15:26,120 --> 00:15:29,840 Speaker 1: basically defanged the kind of central tactic that a lot 275 00:15:29,880 --> 00:15:31,440 Speaker 1: of these movements were trying to do, which is to 276 00:15:31,480 --> 00:15:35,040 Speaker 1: have like large numbers of people do nonviolent civil disobedience 277 00:15:35,080 --> 00:15:38,360 Speaker 1: and then through those like direct actions, cultivate this culture 278 00:15:38,400 --> 00:15:41,840 Speaker 1: of like direct democracy in the hopes that, um, you know, 279 00:15:41,880 --> 00:15:43,960 Speaker 1: the assemblies that are created in that space could in 280 00:15:44,000 --> 00:15:46,240 Speaker 1: some way become the germ of the organs that could 281 00:15:46,320 --> 00:15:48,120 Speaker 1: run society, or at least that's like when it's taken 282 00:15:48,120 --> 00:15:50,960 Speaker 1: to its logical conclusion. Because usually people who are involved 283 00:15:50,960 --> 00:15:52,640 Speaker 1: in this, they get involved in it, they think the 284 00:15:52,640 --> 00:15:55,840 Speaker 1: assembly stuff is really cool, they start learning more about it, 285 00:15:55,920 --> 00:15:58,640 Speaker 1: they get radicalized by being in the assembly because like 286 00:15:58,720 --> 00:16:01,160 Speaker 1: when you're in a direct democratic something you're actually making 287 00:16:01,240 --> 00:16:03,520 Speaker 1: the decisions like together, and then you come to an 288 00:16:03,560 --> 00:16:06,320 Speaker 1: agreement and you execute the decision. You start asking yourself 289 00:16:06,320 --> 00:16:10,240 Speaker 1: like why can't we do everything like this? Um? And 290 00:16:10,280 --> 00:16:13,320 Speaker 1: then um, you know all that that's what directs a 291 00:16:13,360 --> 00:16:16,840 Speaker 1: lot of people in this kind of anarchistic direction. But yeah, 292 00:16:16,920 --> 00:16:18,880 Speaker 1: one of the reasons why these movements starts to decline 293 00:16:19,000 --> 00:16:23,600 Speaker 1: is because they get smashed um the But I think 294 00:16:23,600 --> 00:16:28,440 Speaker 1: that there's always this other thing going on, which and 295 00:16:28,480 --> 00:16:31,680 Speaker 1: I wonder how y'all felt about this, like reading it, 296 00:16:31,840 --> 00:16:37,760 Speaker 1: like you know, there's there was this kind of both 297 00:16:37,880 --> 00:16:41,200 Speaker 1: like an external critique at first from people like you know, 298 00:16:41,280 --> 00:16:44,400 Speaker 1: Boskar Sencrove, Jacobin and things like that, but then also 299 00:16:44,480 --> 00:16:48,520 Speaker 1: like this increasingly over the years in the last half 300 00:16:48,560 --> 00:16:53,480 Speaker 1: of the internal critiques of anarchism coming from anarchists themselves. 301 00:16:53,800 --> 00:16:57,440 Speaker 1: Are people in this general kind of you libertarian socialism 302 00:16:57,440 --> 00:17:03,560 Speaker 1: talking about how like anarchists didn't have solutions to the 303 00:17:03,600 --> 00:17:07,000 Speaker 1: most pressing crises in the twenty century. Like if you like, 304 00:17:07,040 --> 00:17:09,080 Speaker 1: if you guys had to say, I know it's like 305 00:17:09,200 --> 00:17:11,400 Speaker 1: kind of pretentious, but like, what is the most pressing 306 00:17:11,400 --> 00:17:13,600 Speaker 1: crisis of the century, What are like the top three 307 00:17:13,840 --> 00:17:15,880 Speaker 1: just off the top of your heads without thinking, what 308 00:17:15,920 --> 00:17:17,640 Speaker 1: would you list if you have to list three, two 309 00:17:17,720 --> 00:17:23,160 Speaker 1: or three separate things? Climate change, creeping authoritarianism, and rampant 310 00:17:23,320 --> 00:17:27,920 Speaker 1: disinformation about basic facts of reality. Sweet? Okay, so let's 311 00:17:27,920 --> 00:17:32,840 Speaker 1: tackle each one of those, right, Like, what's what's an 312 00:17:32,840 --> 00:17:35,879 Speaker 1: anarchist got to say about climate change? Well? Okay, disrupt 313 00:17:35,920 --> 00:17:40,080 Speaker 1: the pipelines, like you know, do uh, Like, you can't 314 00:17:40,080 --> 00:17:42,199 Speaker 1: have infinite growth on a finite planet, so you have 315 00:17:42,240 --> 00:17:44,719 Speaker 1: to have like, you know, we we have all the slogans, right, 316 00:17:44,760 --> 00:17:46,680 Speaker 1: I mean we've all heard them like a million times. Yeah, 317 00:17:46,720 --> 00:17:50,080 Speaker 1: you have the diagnoses of the problem. But yeah, yeah, 318 00:17:50,080 --> 00:17:52,960 Speaker 1: But then like, okay, so how are we going to 319 00:17:53,640 --> 00:17:55,919 Speaker 1: like you know, I guess we're gonna build some co 320 00:17:56,000 --> 00:17:59,840 Speaker 1: ops and then the co ops are gonna democratized per 321 00:18:00,000 --> 00:18:03,240 Speaker 1: auction and then we can do d growth somehow, but 322 00:18:03,480 --> 00:18:06,840 Speaker 1: like also disrupting existing production. But there's like a missing 323 00:18:06,880 --> 00:18:09,320 Speaker 1: step here, right, because like, you know, the reason why 324 00:18:09,320 --> 00:18:11,480 Speaker 1: we have all this production in certain ways, because the 325 00:18:11,560 --> 00:18:14,520 Speaker 1: entire economy depends on it's been set up that way. Uh. 326 00:18:14,840 --> 00:18:17,800 Speaker 1: So you implied in the idea that we're going to 327 00:18:17,880 --> 00:18:19,600 Speaker 1: do de growth somehows that we need some way of 328 00:18:19,640 --> 00:18:22,399 Speaker 1: constructing a different economy, and how do you construct a 329 00:18:22,400 --> 00:18:25,359 Speaker 1: different economy right through some kind of planning? So really 330 00:18:25,400 --> 00:18:29,000 Speaker 1: the question is like how do you do economic planning? Uh? 331 00:18:29,080 --> 00:18:32,560 Speaker 1: Second one, um, I got a skip creeping authoritarianism for now, 332 00:18:32,560 --> 00:18:35,000 Speaker 1: because that's actually like feeding into the more the ending 333 00:18:35,000 --> 00:18:37,720 Speaker 1: of the essay. But the but the other one, right, disinformation? 334 00:18:37,760 --> 00:18:41,399 Speaker 1: Another great question, right, like what do you do with 335 00:18:41,480 --> 00:18:45,959 Speaker 1: social media? Like? Okay, again, anarchists talked in general a 336 00:18:46,000 --> 00:18:49,280 Speaker 1: lot about like, okay, we're gonna democratize all the companies 337 00:18:49,560 --> 00:18:53,000 Speaker 1: because we're democratizing everything. We're democratizing neighborhoods or democratizing cities. 338 00:18:53,040 --> 00:18:55,040 Speaker 1: So it's kind of the same thing, turning everything into 339 00:18:55,040 --> 00:19:00,160 Speaker 1: like a radical direct democracy. Okay, but if we're going 340 00:19:00,240 --> 00:19:02,760 Speaker 1: to have social media, first of all, should we like 341 00:19:02,880 --> 00:19:06,080 Speaker 1: was it a mistake to invent a centralized system instead 342 00:19:06,119 --> 00:19:09,240 Speaker 1: of the more decentralized internet that created that existed before 343 00:19:09,359 --> 00:19:12,159 Speaker 1: social media? Right? That's kind of an interesting question. But 344 00:19:12,200 --> 00:19:15,560 Speaker 1: then assuming that we do, how do we restructure it? 345 00:19:15,840 --> 00:19:17,760 Speaker 1: Not just in terms of how it's managed, but like, okay, 346 00:19:17,800 --> 00:19:20,240 Speaker 1: we have the democracy of Facebook or whatever, and let's 347 00:19:20,240 --> 00:19:24,080 Speaker 1: say that we're the workers at Facebook, what do we do, Like, 348 00:19:24,400 --> 00:19:27,119 Speaker 1: how do we structure it so that it's not a 349 00:19:27,240 --> 00:19:31,080 Speaker 1: giant misinformation engine? Right? Like once once you actually have 350 00:19:31,359 --> 00:19:33,800 Speaker 1: like the responsibility and the power of being in the saddle, 351 00:19:33,840 --> 00:19:35,320 Speaker 1: which is what we spend so much of our time 352 00:19:35,440 --> 00:19:37,480 Speaker 1: kind of just trying to do. You have to actually 353 00:19:37,480 --> 00:19:40,960 Speaker 1: make decisions about what to do. And honestly, there aren't 354 00:19:41,000 --> 00:19:42,199 Speaker 1: that many. I mean, what do you what do you 355 00:19:42,200 --> 00:19:45,199 Speaker 1: do with with the within with the utility like that? Like, 356 00:19:45,240 --> 00:19:47,960 Speaker 1: for example, who ought to be in control of the 357 00:19:48,040 --> 00:19:51,520 Speaker 1: utility like that? Is it really just the workers of Facebook? 358 00:19:51,680 --> 00:19:53,640 Speaker 1: Aren't all the people who are users of it? Don't 359 00:19:53,640 --> 00:19:57,240 Speaker 1: they have a right to be making decisions about it too? 360 00:19:57,440 --> 00:19:59,840 Speaker 1: And is it just an American institution just because it's 361 00:19:59,840 --> 00:20:02,720 Speaker 1: an American LLC? Or is it like a global institution 362 00:20:02,720 --> 00:20:06,760 Speaker 1: because everybody on the planets on it? Um is there? 363 00:20:06,800 --> 00:20:09,840 Speaker 1: You know, are are there ways that it could be reconfigured, 364 00:20:09,880 --> 00:20:13,000 Speaker 1: like fundamentally in terms of how users use it that 365 00:20:13,040 --> 00:20:16,320 Speaker 1: would change the experience in some way to actually make it, uh, 366 00:20:16,600 --> 00:20:19,119 Speaker 1: make you less liable to misinformation. But on the other hand, 367 00:20:19,160 --> 00:20:22,480 Speaker 1: if you try to manipulate people in order to UM 368 00:20:22,560 --> 00:20:25,840 Speaker 1: you know, not see something that's going to be misinformation, 369 00:20:26,040 --> 00:20:31,399 Speaker 1: isn't that well, you know, like censorship or or or 370 00:20:31,480 --> 00:20:34,320 Speaker 1: some other thing that we generally would oppose, right, like 371 00:20:34,720 --> 00:20:38,800 Speaker 1: the tool of centralized social control. So they like, these 372 00:20:38,840 --> 00:20:42,480 Speaker 1: are really deep questions, and again this is generally a 373 00:20:42,560 --> 00:20:45,320 Speaker 1: kind of silence, and of course, you know in that case, 374 00:20:45,359 --> 00:20:48,040 Speaker 1: there's silence from the social democrats too, and there's silence 375 00:20:48,040 --> 00:20:49,919 Speaker 1: from the Leninist I mean, well, the Lennis just kind 376 00:20:49,920 --> 00:20:52,800 Speaker 1: of fantasize about turning Facebook into the tool of the 377 00:20:52,840 --> 00:20:56,440 Speaker 1: central party state uses in order to crush dissent forever 378 00:20:56,520 --> 00:20:58,920 Speaker 1: or whatever. But you know, social democrats are like less 379 00:20:58,960 --> 00:21:03,840 Speaker 1: nationalized Facebook, and it's like, you know, yeah, sure we could, 380 00:21:03,880 --> 00:21:05,680 Speaker 1: we could do that. And then you know the n 381 00:21:05,760 --> 00:21:09,160 Speaker 1: S s A owns on Facebook. I'm sure that that's 382 00:21:09,200 --> 00:21:12,480 Speaker 1: a that's a better scenario. Yeah. I mean, I tend 383 00:21:12,520 --> 00:21:16,199 Speaker 1: to think somewhat differently about what it means to have 384 00:21:16,240 --> 00:21:18,760 Speaker 1: an anarchist solution to those problems. Like, for example, I 385 00:21:18,760 --> 00:21:22,240 Speaker 1: don't I don't see anarchists or social democrats or Leninists 386 00:21:22,320 --> 00:21:26,800 Speaker 1: having any kind of stopping climate change solution um, because 387 00:21:26,920 --> 00:21:32,199 Speaker 1: I don't I don't realistically see the organizing potential um 388 00:21:32,600 --> 00:21:36,600 Speaker 1: capable of actually stopping what's going on in any kind 389 00:21:36,640 --> 00:21:38,840 Speaker 1: of reasonable time frame. And I certainly don't think that 390 00:21:38,880 --> 00:21:43,080 Speaker 1: the existing you know, neoliberal structures or the authoritarian structures 391 00:21:43,080 --> 00:21:45,520 Speaker 1: that exist in you know, other countries or in this 392 00:21:45,600 --> 00:21:48,240 Speaker 1: country are going to stop it either. So when I 393 00:21:48,280 --> 00:21:51,359 Speaker 1: think about solutions to climate change from an anarchist perspective, 394 00:21:51,359 --> 00:21:55,440 Speaker 1: I think about how can anarchist organizing help people deal 395 00:21:55,760 --> 00:22:00,200 Speaker 1: with the consequences of climate change, And I see to 396 00:22:00,359 --> 00:22:05,000 Speaker 1: see the potential for actually like mitigating climate change coming 397 00:22:05,000 --> 00:22:09,960 Speaker 1: more from there's as the consequences of this become more 398 00:22:10,040 --> 00:22:13,320 Speaker 1: dire to people, if anarchists are better, are good at 399 00:22:13,520 --> 00:22:16,920 Speaker 1: providing relief and helping people and organizing through that, and 400 00:22:17,040 --> 00:22:19,919 Speaker 1: eventually there's some potential to actually get people organized to 401 00:22:19,920 --> 00:22:24,080 Speaker 1: stop the causes of the problem. But um, I just don't. 402 00:22:24,880 --> 00:22:27,840 Speaker 1: I'm not an optimist of about our ability to stop 403 00:22:27,880 --> 00:22:31,639 Speaker 1: the worst of it at this point, um especially not 404 00:22:31,720 --> 00:22:33,480 Speaker 1: after the most recent I p c C report. And 405 00:22:33,480 --> 00:22:35,600 Speaker 1: I guess I'm kind of in the same boat when 406 00:22:35,600 --> 00:22:40,080 Speaker 1: it comes to disinformation, um I. And this is not 407 00:22:40,160 --> 00:22:44,040 Speaker 1: just like anarchists, I feel like lack as you've stated, 408 00:22:44,119 --> 00:22:46,199 Speaker 1: at a like a good idea about like what do 409 00:22:46,240 --> 00:22:47,879 Speaker 1: we do with Facebook, what we do with you do, 410 00:22:48,040 --> 00:22:49,960 Speaker 1: what do we do with the way all of these 411 00:22:50,000 --> 00:22:51,639 Speaker 1: things are set up in the harms that they do 412 00:22:51,680 --> 00:22:56,200 Speaker 1: at scale. Um, Nobody and I include the people currently 413 00:22:56,200 --> 00:22:59,800 Speaker 1: in charge, has any real good ideas for that, because 414 00:22:59,800 --> 00:23:02,040 Speaker 1: they they haven't. Like I've been working in this space 415 00:23:02,080 --> 00:23:04,119 Speaker 1: for a very long time, I've I've spent a lot 416 00:23:04,119 --> 00:23:07,639 Speaker 1: of time talking with and debating with a lot of 417 00:23:07,680 --> 00:23:10,119 Speaker 1: the folks who are leading minds kind of in the 418 00:23:10,160 --> 00:23:15,120 Speaker 1: fight against disinformation, and I just don't feel like there's 419 00:23:15,119 --> 00:23:18,760 Speaker 1: any sort of solution that is an immediate term solution 420 00:23:18,840 --> 00:23:21,560 Speaker 1: because so many the problem is so advanced as it is, 421 00:23:21,680 --> 00:23:24,240 Speaker 1: so as I guess that's kind of like where I 422 00:23:25,400 --> 00:23:27,800 Speaker 1: land on a lot of this stuff is we certainly 423 00:23:27,800 --> 00:23:31,840 Speaker 1: need to be thinking about solutions, but I kind of like, 424 00:23:31,920 --> 00:23:34,880 Speaker 1: I think it's less likely that there's going to be 425 00:23:35,119 --> 00:23:37,520 Speaker 1: like you were you were saying, the kind of debate 426 00:23:37,600 --> 00:23:39,760 Speaker 1: is between is there some way of like reforming or 427 00:23:39,760 --> 00:23:42,119 Speaker 1: fixing making Facebook more democratic, or is it just we 428 00:23:42,160 --> 00:23:43,960 Speaker 1: need to decide that maybe we don't have some of 429 00:23:44,000 --> 00:23:47,119 Speaker 1: this stuff. And I tend to land towards that that like, well, 430 00:23:47,600 --> 00:23:50,240 Speaker 1: I think the solution is going to be maybe maybe 431 00:23:50,280 --> 00:23:53,120 Speaker 1: Facebook's a bad idea, maybe we should maybe we shouldn't 432 00:23:53,119 --> 00:23:56,479 Speaker 1: have There's aspects of it that are necessary, obviously, and 433 00:23:56,640 --> 00:23:59,920 Speaker 1: I think aspects of things like Telegram and Twitter that 434 00:24:00,000 --> 00:24:05,439 Speaker 1: are useful, But um, I I think the they're also 435 00:24:05,760 --> 00:24:09,679 Speaker 1: fundamentally tied to the algorithms that drive them, which is 436 00:24:09,680 --> 00:24:12,280 Speaker 1: also what drives so much of the toxic aspects that 437 00:24:12,359 --> 00:24:16,600 Speaker 1: I think if you're divorcing the medium from the algorithm, 438 00:24:16,840 --> 00:24:20,120 Speaker 1: you're talking about something that is very different and longer 439 00:24:20,119 --> 00:24:23,400 Speaker 1: than media. It's longer than media. It's it's so radically 440 00:24:23,680 --> 00:24:25,760 Speaker 1: different that it's just it's it's not even useful to 441 00:24:25,840 --> 00:24:28,600 Speaker 1: compare them. It's like it's like it's like comparing Discord 442 00:24:28,920 --> 00:24:31,560 Speaker 1: to Facebook. It's like they're not they don't operate the 443 00:24:31,600 --> 00:24:35,280 Speaker 1: same way. That's the Yeah, that's exactly kind of where 444 00:24:35,320 --> 00:24:38,280 Speaker 1: I where I tend to be on on that. And 445 00:24:39,160 --> 00:24:43,040 Speaker 1: I know that's not like I I to the extent 446 00:24:43,119 --> 00:24:46,960 Speaker 1: that like, uh, that's pessimistic. I guess I am kind 447 00:24:46,960 --> 00:24:51,199 Speaker 1: of pessimistic about anarchisms ability to stop the worst of 448 00:24:51,240 --> 00:24:54,600 Speaker 1: things that's happening. Where I kind of look at myself 449 00:24:54,680 --> 00:24:58,560 Speaker 1: as an optimistic anarchist is in the I believe anarchism 450 00:24:58,680 --> 00:25:01,400 Speaker 1: offers solutions when these things go as badly as they're 451 00:25:01,440 --> 00:25:03,520 Speaker 1: going to do in a way that you know, the 452 00:25:03,560 --> 00:25:07,760 Speaker 1: present systems or you know, more authoritarian systems that people 453 00:25:07,840 --> 00:25:12,000 Speaker 1: propose can't solve the worst consequences of these problems as 454 00:25:12,080 --> 00:25:15,440 Speaker 1: as well. That's that's kind of where I feel like 455 00:25:15,680 --> 00:25:18,159 Speaker 1: it is can feel a lot simpler to default to 456 00:25:18,200 --> 00:25:21,800 Speaker 1: like the dual power framework of a lot of these things, 457 00:25:21,840 --> 00:25:24,639 Speaker 1: because otherwise the problems are so complex that you cannot 458 00:25:24,680 --> 00:25:27,520 Speaker 1: approach them from from from every angle, because you really 459 00:25:27,520 --> 00:25:30,280 Speaker 1: do need to simplify and condense them and collapse them 460 00:25:30,320 --> 00:25:32,879 Speaker 1: into something that is more simplified, which often results in 461 00:25:32,920 --> 00:25:35,600 Speaker 1: like a dual power kind of framework for what you 462 00:25:35,600 --> 00:25:39,320 Speaker 1: actually start doing. Yeah, and I think you have to. 463 00:25:39,440 --> 00:25:43,359 Speaker 1: I think if you're an insurrectionist, if you're a revolutionary, 464 00:25:43,440 --> 00:25:46,720 Speaker 1: whether it you're an anarchist or or you know, a 465 00:25:46,840 --> 00:25:49,560 Speaker 1: Leninist or whatever, you have to be looking at what's 466 00:25:49,560 --> 00:25:54,439 Speaker 1: actually happening in Ukraine right now and recognize that, all right, Well, 467 00:25:55,080 --> 00:25:56,720 Speaker 1: to what extent do you think you're going to be 468 00:25:56,760 --> 00:25:59,960 Speaker 1: able to organize people in such a way that allows 469 00:26:00,040 --> 00:26:03,359 Speaker 1: them to deal with thermobaric weapons. You know, in what 470 00:26:03,480 --> 00:26:06,320 Speaker 1: way are you going to organize people that allows them 471 00:26:06,320 --> 00:26:10,840 Speaker 1: to effectively resist cluster musician munitions? Um And I think 472 00:26:10,880 --> 00:26:12,720 Speaker 1: that when you kind of look at it that way, 473 00:26:12,760 --> 00:26:15,000 Speaker 1: which is what it would take to overthrow any of 474 00:26:15,040 --> 00:26:18,680 Speaker 1: the large hegemonic powers in the world right now, a 475 00:26:18,800 --> 00:26:22,280 Speaker 1: much more realistic set of solutions is, all right, well, 476 00:26:22,760 --> 00:26:28,120 Speaker 1: let's work on building power by building organizations and communities 477 00:26:28,200 --> 00:26:30,879 Speaker 1: that are capable of taking care of themselves in the 478 00:26:30,920 --> 00:26:35,080 Speaker 1: holes that these powers are increasingly going to be experiencing 479 00:26:35,160 --> 00:26:38,480 Speaker 1: because because they too are crumbling. And that's much smarter 480 00:26:38,520 --> 00:26:40,199 Speaker 1: than being like, all right, well, I'm gonna try to 481 00:26:40,680 --> 00:26:42,919 Speaker 1: get a bunch of my friends with rifles and and 482 00:26:43,200 --> 00:26:45,359 Speaker 1: arm up a couple of drones and and go up 483 00:26:45,400 --> 00:26:48,200 Speaker 1: against you know, people who have access to m l 484 00:26:48,359 --> 00:26:52,480 Speaker 1: r s, you know, weapons systems and whatnot. Yeah. No, 485 00:26:52,560 --> 00:26:55,320 Speaker 1: I think that that's a really great point. Um I. 486 00:26:55,840 --> 00:27:00,440 Speaker 1: The way that I would think about it is the 487 00:27:00,520 --> 00:27:03,359 Speaker 1: starting with the big picture problems is a bit misleading, because, 488 00:27:03,560 --> 00:27:07,000 Speaker 1: as you said, like nobody, it's quite like that nobody 489 00:27:07,000 --> 00:27:12,280 Speaker 1: has solutions to these problems. Certainly the social Democrats. Yeah, 490 00:27:12,560 --> 00:27:15,000 Speaker 1: you know, and I say this is somebody who's like 491 00:27:15,000 --> 00:27:17,320 Speaker 1: half a social Democrat by temperament. Um. It would be 492 00:27:17,359 --> 00:27:18,840 Speaker 1: really nice if we like did it a little social 493 00:27:18,880 --> 00:27:21,320 Speaker 1: democratic government and they swooped in and you know, did 494 00:27:21,400 --> 00:27:23,879 Speaker 1: like new deal stuff. I like new deal stuff. I 495 00:27:23,920 --> 00:27:26,520 Speaker 1: like w p A stuff as much as the next. Uh. 496 00:27:26,560 --> 00:27:33,160 Speaker 1: You know, um person who likes arts programs and infrastructure development. Well, 497 00:27:33,240 --> 00:27:37,240 Speaker 1: you know, some infrastructure development, not others. Right, the war, 498 00:27:37,440 --> 00:27:39,720 Speaker 1: the war complex we can do a little without. But 499 00:27:40,880 --> 00:27:45,400 Speaker 1: you know, the thing about it is those big problems. 500 00:27:45,480 --> 00:27:46,919 Speaker 1: You're right, it looks like there's not going to be 501 00:27:46,960 --> 00:27:49,520 Speaker 1: like a big solution, uh, and that we're going to 502 00:27:49,640 --> 00:27:52,080 Speaker 1: kind of have to cope with the consequences of of it, 503 00:27:52,119 --> 00:27:57,480 Speaker 1: at least at first. Even coping this is this is 504 00:27:57,520 --> 00:27:59,440 Speaker 1: kind of where I think the real kind of substance 505 00:27:59,680 --> 00:28:03,040 Speaker 1: of of of the problem that libertarian socialist are facing 506 00:28:03,119 --> 00:28:07,040 Speaker 1: right now. Even coping would require a greater level of 507 00:28:07,119 --> 00:28:10,520 Speaker 1: organization than we have proven able to muster up to now. 508 00:28:10,960 --> 00:28:14,399 Speaker 1: Not because the methods that we choose don't work. Because 509 00:28:14,400 --> 00:28:16,760 Speaker 1: in fact, as you point out, and as I actually 510 00:28:16,920 --> 00:28:20,359 Speaker 1: really want to forcefully argue, and because because we do 511 00:28:20,440 --> 00:28:23,320 Speaker 1: in the end of the essay, like authoritarian methods don't 512 00:28:23,320 --> 00:28:25,560 Speaker 1: work and can't work for a lot of the specific 513 00:28:25,560 --> 00:28:28,840 Speaker 1: problems that we face, uh, and history shows that very definitively. 514 00:28:29,240 --> 00:28:35,520 Speaker 1: But um, there is also a serious way in which 515 00:28:35,640 --> 00:28:40,840 Speaker 1: even kind of developing these like you know, local highly 516 00:28:40,960 --> 00:28:44,120 Speaker 1: like you know, rooted in a community, uh like direct 517 00:28:44,120 --> 00:28:48,479 Speaker 1: democratic institutions that control real resources, scaling that up to 518 00:28:48,520 --> 00:28:51,480 Speaker 1: the point where it actually could start replacing some of 519 00:28:51,520 --> 00:28:56,280 Speaker 1: the gaps left behind by uh you know, U states 520 00:28:56,280 --> 00:28:59,200 Speaker 1: and capitalist firms that are too dysfunctional or too focused 521 00:28:59,200 --> 00:29:01,320 Speaker 1: on their own goals to to to to meet those 522 00:29:01,360 --> 00:29:04,800 Speaker 1: needs that would actually require us to be able, for example, 523 00:29:05,080 --> 00:29:09,880 Speaker 1: to know how to build up a cooperative sector in 524 00:29:09,880 --> 00:29:13,080 Speaker 1: a city, or how to kind of like network the 525 00:29:13,120 --> 00:29:17,040 Speaker 1: tennis unions that already exist, you know, across different uh 526 00:29:17,120 --> 00:29:20,320 Speaker 1: you know, regions, maybe even across like a continent, and 527 00:29:20,360 --> 00:29:23,960 Speaker 1: then construct like the way in which they self manage 528 00:29:24,640 --> 00:29:28,080 Speaker 1: each other or or not each other self managed together 529 00:29:28,200 --> 00:29:30,440 Speaker 1: the you know, the the larger group or it would 530 00:29:30,440 --> 00:29:32,080 Speaker 1: require and you know, there's a lot of people working 531 00:29:32,080 --> 00:29:36,080 Speaker 1: on these problems, but sometimes there is a kind of 532 00:29:36,120 --> 00:29:38,560 Speaker 1: like you know, you'll you'll see this like obstacle in 533 00:29:38,600 --> 00:29:41,040 Speaker 1: the road, because, for example, like what do you do 534 00:29:41,480 --> 00:29:45,840 Speaker 1: when the it might not even be the state properly speaking, right, 535 00:29:45,840 --> 00:29:48,360 Speaker 1: it might be like a posse that's funded by some 536 00:29:48,520 --> 00:29:52,560 Speaker 1: rich billionaire asshole who's got like his uh, you know, 537 00:29:52,640 --> 00:29:54,560 Speaker 1: his notion that some people are just better than others 538 00:29:54,560 --> 00:29:56,800 Speaker 1: and that you should institute the dictatorship of the tech 539 00:29:56,840 --> 00:30:00,560 Speaker 1: bros um, you know, and then that billionaire funding a 540 00:30:00,600 --> 00:30:02,760 Speaker 1: bunch of people who have got now like you know, 541 00:30:03,080 --> 00:30:06,760 Speaker 1: some industrial access to industrial infrastructure, and they don't like 542 00:30:06,840 --> 00:30:09,040 Speaker 1: the fact that you're doing your d I Y like 543 00:30:09,200 --> 00:30:12,560 Speaker 1: you know, commune or whatever stuff in there on their turf. 544 00:30:12,920 --> 00:30:15,200 Speaker 1: So how do you fight back against that? I mean, 545 00:30:15,240 --> 00:30:17,400 Speaker 1: some of it you can fight back against that kind 546 00:30:17,400 --> 00:30:19,520 Speaker 1: of our current level of capacity, but some of it 547 00:30:19,520 --> 00:30:21,560 Speaker 1: does kind of require us to start thinking like, well, 548 00:30:22,040 --> 00:30:25,000 Speaker 1: how do you how do you build up financial independence? 549 00:30:25,400 --> 00:30:26,760 Speaker 1: What like, how do you build up the kind of 550 00:30:26,760 --> 00:30:28,640 Speaker 1: independence where it's like, if we get kicked off of 551 00:30:28,640 --> 00:30:32,080 Speaker 1: the capitalist uh social media, for example, which is a 552 00:30:32,080 --> 00:30:34,920 Speaker 1: great deal of what we use for fundraising, what kind 553 00:30:34,920 --> 00:30:38,600 Speaker 1: of institutions could we create that would be like alternatives, um, 554 00:30:38,680 --> 00:30:41,440 Speaker 1: that are not like the ones that the Nazis created 555 00:30:41,440 --> 00:30:43,920 Speaker 1: when there was a purge of some of them that 556 00:30:44,080 --> 00:30:46,800 Speaker 1: gab like highly dysfunctional, Like you know, it didn't even 557 00:30:46,840 --> 00:30:48,960 Speaker 1: work for them. Uh not that I mean I'm happy 558 00:30:48,960 --> 00:30:50,760 Speaker 1: about that, but like you know, my point is, like 559 00:30:51,040 --> 00:30:53,280 Speaker 1: the same thing could happen to us, So what would 560 00:30:53,280 --> 00:30:56,560 Speaker 1: we do? Um the like they're there are all these 561 00:30:56,640 --> 00:31:00,320 Speaker 1: kinds of things that are more little picture questions in 562 00:31:00,320 --> 00:31:03,320 Speaker 1: a way, but they scale up relatively quickly to at 563 00:31:03,400 --> 00:31:05,920 Speaker 1: least like medium sized questions where we need this kind 564 00:31:05,960 --> 00:31:10,880 Speaker 1: of like um these these because because part of what 565 00:31:10,920 --> 00:31:13,440 Speaker 1: it is is also that like it's not that these 566 00:31:13,480 --> 00:31:18,040 Speaker 1: questions are impossible, it's that they're kind of neglected. And 567 00:31:18,080 --> 00:31:23,160 Speaker 1: there's um there, there's these uh the thinkers like Christian Williams, 568 00:31:23,160 --> 00:31:25,120 Speaker 1: who is an anarchist from the Pacific Northwest, who wrote 569 00:31:25,120 --> 00:31:28,800 Speaker 1: a pamphlet about this called Wither Anarchism. And there was 570 00:31:28,840 --> 00:31:34,160 Speaker 1: another pamphlet, uh an essay and CounterPunch by a person 571 00:31:34,240 --> 00:31:37,600 Speaker 1: named Gabrielle Coon who's an autonomous Marxist basically like a 572 00:31:37,640 --> 00:31:42,640 Speaker 1: libertarian Marxist Marxist anarchist type um called what Happened to 573 00:31:42,640 --> 00:31:44,600 Speaker 1: the Anarchist Century? And both of those essays which I 574 00:31:44,640 --> 00:31:47,600 Speaker 1: highly recommend that people read. They may they make points 575 00:31:47,960 --> 00:31:52,280 Speaker 1: basically like this, you know, like where where the focus 576 00:31:52,320 --> 00:31:54,920 Speaker 1: on how to construct those institutions and the nitty gritty 577 00:31:54,920 --> 00:31:56,960 Speaker 1: of how to do that has kind of receded from 578 00:31:57,320 --> 00:32:01,680 Speaker 1: anarchism um as it's actually proud actist uh init Like 579 00:32:01,920 --> 00:32:04,880 Speaker 1: so there's like a rhetoric of revolutionary transformation, but not 580 00:32:04,960 --> 00:32:07,800 Speaker 1: always the attention to the nitty gritty of how you 581 00:32:07,800 --> 00:32:12,480 Speaker 1: actually can like build resilient institutions that actually like carry 582 00:32:12,520 --> 00:32:15,400 Speaker 1: that through which you know, a hundred years ago people 583 00:32:15,480 --> 00:32:18,200 Speaker 1: talking about like the one big union and the general strike, 584 00:32:18,520 --> 00:32:21,760 Speaker 1: but that's kind of like, um, well a it didn't 585 00:32:21,800 --> 00:32:23,280 Speaker 1: work in exactly the way that they were thinking it. 586 00:32:23,360 --> 00:32:26,200 Speaker 1: What even in the most successful revolutions like in Spain 587 00:32:26,440 --> 00:32:30,480 Speaker 1: and b it was also like the there's there's there's 588 00:32:30,480 --> 00:32:33,480 Speaker 1: a certain way in which our tensions are focused on 589 00:32:33,640 --> 00:32:35,640 Speaker 1: other things. And it's not that those things are bad, 590 00:32:35,800 --> 00:32:38,520 Speaker 1: it's just that like there's been this kind of neglect 591 00:32:38,720 --> 00:32:42,520 Speaker 1: of the question of large scale organization and how you 592 00:32:42,600 --> 00:32:46,200 Speaker 1: do coordination, like you know, in order to tackle problems 593 00:32:46,200 --> 00:32:47,880 Speaker 1: that are kind of like at the scale that that 594 00:32:47,960 --> 00:32:50,840 Speaker 1: I was talking about before. UM and so Basically the 595 00:32:50,920 --> 00:32:53,680 Speaker 1: argument of the essay is that in the absence of that, 596 00:32:54,200 --> 00:32:59,120 Speaker 1: like for the socialist movement that emerged after turned away 597 00:32:59,480 --> 00:33:02,440 Speaker 1: from NEO because I'm thinking basically that it had no solutions, 598 00:33:02,440 --> 00:33:05,040 Speaker 1: which I don't think it's true either, but it's like, 599 00:33:05,120 --> 00:33:07,640 Speaker 1: you know, like rather it was true in the moment, 600 00:33:07,680 --> 00:33:10,240 Speaker 1: but it doesn't have to be true, but it was true, 601 00:33:10,280 --> 00:33:12,120 Speaker 1: but enough people thought that it was that they turned 602 00:33:12,160 --> 00:33:15,000 Speaker 1: to like the social democratic route. But with the failure 603 00:33:15,040 --> 00:33:17,880 Speaker 1: of Corbin and Bernie that kind of burned a lot 604 00:33:17,880 --> 00:33:20,600 Speaker 1: of people out too, and a lot of what is 605 00:33:20,640 --> 00:33:23,440 Speaker 1: seems like it's coming up now, and I'm wondering, I 606 00:33:23,440 --> 00:33:26,280 Speaker 1: wonder what you guys think of this, Like a lot 607 00:33:26,360 --> 00:33:29,600 Speaker 1: of the people that we see showing up in movement spaces, 608 00:33:29,760 --> 00:33:32,120 Speaker 1: who we see kind of like getting politically activated for 609 00:33:32,160 --> 00:33:34,640 Speaker 1: the first time or whatever, a lot of those people 610 00:33:34,800 --> 00:33:38,320 Speaker 1: are really interested in Leninism and on specifically, because I 611 00:33:38,360 --> 00:33:40,240 Speaker 1: don't know, I don't know how true that is. That's 612 00:33:40,280 --> 00:33:42,160 Speaker 1: at least that's that's that that that part is not 613 00:33:42,240 --> 00:33:46,880 Speaker 1: true at least at least at least here in Portland. Portland. 614 00:33:47,800 --> 00:33:50,720 Speaker 1: Yet no other, no other part of the country is 615 00:33:50,760 --> 00:33:54,840 Speaker 1: like Portland other than maybe Eugene, Like, Okay, that's that's fairy. 616 00:33:56,800 --> 00:33:59,080 Speaker 1: Like Portland. Portland is a big enough anarchist city that 617 00:33:59,080 --> 00:34:03,520 Speaker 1: there are entire decade long like like into anarchist wars 618 00:34:03,600 --> 00:34:05,400 Speaker 1: that no one else in the US has ever heard 619 00:34:05,440 --> 00:34:07,800 Speaker 1: of that are like the most important thing that's ever 620 00:34:07,840 --> 00:34:11,880 Speaker 1: happened in Portland's Oh boy, welcome to the Green Red. 621 00:34:12,160 --> 00:34:14,359 Speaker 1: Let me tell you, Chris, you have just piste off 622 00:34:14,560 --> 00:34:18,480 Speaker 1: sixty people who could not explain to you if you 623 00:34:18,640 --> 00:34:21,200 Speaker 1: gave them a year, could not explain to you why 624 00:34:21,239 --> 00:34:25,520 Speaker 1: they're angry. And I mean, I mean to to be 625 00:34:25,600 --> 00:34:28,480 Speaker 1: to be fair, like I I am an anarchist in Chicago. 626 00:34:28,520 --> 00:34:29,919 Speaker 1: When the first time I introduced too of my Twitter 627 00:34:30,000 --> 00:34:31,880 Speaker 1: mutual together, they almost got a fist fight. So like 628 00:34:32,560 --> 00:34:46,120 Speaker 1: that make yeah, that's that completely scans Even with like 629 00:34:46,239 --> 00:34:48,960 Speaker 1: d s A stuff, I feel like there's there was 630 00:34:48,960 --> 00:34:50,760 Speaker 1: at least was a trend a little bit to stay 631 00:34:50,800 --> 00:34:55,400 Speaker 1: away from some of the more Russia Communist kind of 632 00:34:56,080 --> 00:34:59,120 Speaker 1: like types of aesthetics and ideas because it is a 633 00:34:59,160 --> 00:35:02,680 Speaker 1: turn off for so many people and it does encourage 634 00:35:02,719 --> 00:35:05,560 Speaker 1: us and it has like encouraging forefront a form of 635 00:35:05,600 --> 00:35:11,080 Speaker 1: authoritarianism that maybe is not great. Yeah, I don't know, 636 00:35:11,160 --> 00:35:14,640 Speaker 1: Like I've seen sort of both friends of walking. So 637 00:35:14,680 --> 00:35:19,839 Speaker 1: I think the last like a year has been very 638 00:35:19,840 --> 00:35:22,200 Speaker 1: different than I think the previous five. I've seen it 639 00:35:22,200 --> 00:35:24,719 Speaker 1: on Twitter, but I don't know how much it expands 640 00:35:24,719 --> 00:35:27,719 Speaker 1: into as I think. I think it's like I saw 641 00:35:27,840 --> 00:35:30,040 Speaker 1: lot ex happens in the d s A is that 642 00:35:30,040 --> 00:35:34,160 Speaker 1: the Leninists essentially took over the International Committee and they 643 00:35:34,200 --> 00:35:36,160 Speaker 1: had this kind of delicious division label inside the d 644 00:35:36,239 --> 00:35:38,239 Speaker 1: s A where like you have like you have a 645 00:35:38,280 --> 00:35:39,799 Speaker 1: part of the d s A that's essentially a social 646 00:35:39,840 --> 00:35:42,440 Speaker 1: democratic machine, and then you have the International Committee, which 647 00:35:42,440 --> 00:35:44,719 Speaker 1: is which is the foreign policy wing essentially run by 648 00:35:44,800 --> 00:35:48,160 Speaker 1: by essentially run by by the Leninists. And I think 649 00:35:48,719 --> 00:35:50,000 Speaker 1: I don't know, I think I saw it there. And 650 00:35:50,120 --> 00:35:51,799 Speaker 1: the other thing I think I saw a lot of 651 00:35:52,239 --> 00:35:54,880 Speaker 1: that I've seen even from people who are ordinarily not Stalinist, 652 00:35:54,960 --> 00:35:56,359 Speaker 1: is what you know, part of what was talking about 653 00:35:56,360 --> 00:35:59,200 Speaker 1: this is the sort of like climate Stalinism or like 654 00:35:59,239 --> 00:36:03,480 Speaker 1: climate house Off like that that is a huge problem 655 00:36:03,800 --> 00:36:07,480 Speaker 1: that you know. I mean, I think I think part 656 00:36:07,520 --> 00:36:09,000 Speaker 1: of it also just has to do with the fact 657 00:36:09,040 --> 00:36:12,640 Speaker 1: that people don't like Okay, so like we we have 658 00:36:12,760 --> 00:36:16,480 Speaker 1: actually existing, uh, climate leninism, like we have it. It's 659 00:36:16,520 --> 00:36:19,400 Speaker 1: it's it's it's it's China, like the CCP changed, it's 660 00:36:19,960 --> 00:36:23,759 Speaker 1: literally changed. State ideology in in in the mid two 661 00:36:23,760 --> 00:36:26,920 Speaker 1: thousand tends, as you know, as an attempt to deal 662 00:36:27,040 --> 00:36:29,440 Speaker 1: to deal with with within with pollution climate change. It 663 00:36:29,520 --> 00:36:32,400 Speaker 1: did nothing. Like they pressed every pricey it doesn't it 664 00:36:32,400 --> 00:36:34,440 Speaker 1: didn't like it didn't work. Yeah, yeah, I mean they 665 00:36:34,480 --> 00:36:36,759 Speaker 1: did carbon markets, they did. They literally just banned coal 666 00:36:36,800 --> 00:36:39,960 Speaker 1: and entire provinces and it didn't work. They they change 667 00:36:39,960 --> 00:36:45,440 Speaker 1: your contravaluations. I I problem people. Yeah, Like La Late 668 00:36:45,920 --> 00:36:49,520 Speaker 1: lays this out specifically with China to an excruciating degree, 669 00:36:49,719 --> 00:36:52,200 Speaker 1: like like in detail. If you're really interested in this 670 00:36:52,320 --> 00:36:55,760 Speaker 1: type of like climate left authoritarianism. They call it climate 671 00:36:55,840 --> 00:36:58,400 Speaker 1: Mound the book, but you can call it climate climate Leninism, 672 00:36:58,480 --> 00:37:00,879 Speaker 1: you can call it whatever. But they they lay out 673 00:37:01,040 --> 00:37:03,560 Speaker 1: how it could work and how use cases of it 674 00:37:03,920 --> 00:37:07,680 Speaker 1: have not worked, um to a pretty pretty intense degree. 675 00:37:07,719 --> 00:37:09,480 Speaker 1: If you're interested in that, I would recommend reading the book. 676 00:37:09,480 --> 00:37:12,720 Speaker 1: Climate Leviathan definitely influenced a large portion of the writing 677 00:37:12,760 --> 00:37:17,359 Speaker 1: for this show. Yeah, And I mean to your point, 678 00:37:17,800 --> 00:37:20,279 Speaker 1: I don't think that this is the only trend I do. 679 00:37:20,480 --> 00:37:22,719 Speaker 1: I agree with you that out of like the conjuncture, 680 00:37:23,960 --> 00:37:27,960 Speaker 1: there was this um I I think that a lot 681 00:37:28,040 --> 00:37:31,280 Speaker 1: of the more like establishment reformist aspects of the movement 682 00:37:31,320 --> 00:37:34,520 Speaker 1: were discredited and that pushed people in different radical directions, 683 00:37:34,640 --> 00:37:37,640 Speaker 1: like one of which very much is anarchism and libertarian socialism. 684 00:37:37,680 --> 00:37:40,200 Speaker 1: I am seeing a lot more faces that are interested 685 00:37:40,200 --> 00:37:43,040 Speaker 1: in in in those questions for sure. Uh. And that's 686 00:37:43,120 --> 00:37:45,240 Speaker 1: kind of counter to the trend that I was describing 687 00:37:45,440 --> 00:37:47,279 Speaker 1: from the last like five years of like you know, 688 00:37:47,360 --> 00:37:50,320 Speaker 1: people becoming more disinterested because of the real or perceived 689 00:37:50,440 --> 00:37:54,200 Speaker 1: lack of solutions. However, I do think that it's important, 690 00:37:54,320 --> 00:37:56,520 Speaker 1: and this is kind of following on Chris's climate Leninism 691 00:37:56,600 --> 00:37:59,280 Speaker 1: point to understand that there's at least a counter trend 692 00:38:00,000 --> 00:38:02,239 Speaker 1: where a lot of people are have not only moved 693 00:38:02,280 --> 00:38:05,439 Speaker 1: away from libertarian socialism, have not only moved, but they've 694 00:38:05,480 --> 00:38:08,760 Speaker 1: also moved away from democratic socialism. And if you follow 695 00:38:09,480 --> 00:38:11,480 Speaker 1: that pattern, which is a pattern that I at least 696 00:38:11,520 --> 00:38:15,320 Speaker 1: have seen within the d s A, within various trade unions, 697 00:38:15,520 --> 00:38:17,480 Speaker 1: in a lot of among a lot of like intelligencia 698 00:38:17,560 --> 00:38:21,480 Speaker 1: type people like journalists, professors, blah blah. You see a 699 00:38:21,760 --> 00:38:24,839 Speaker 1: very common set of arguments. And I think it's very 700 00:38:25,000 --> 00:38:27,719 Speaker 1: clear that as the century proceeds and the crises get 701 00:38:27,800 --> 00:38:30,359 Speaker 1: worse and start killing like even larger numbers of people 702 00:38:30,400 --> 00:38:32,840 Speaker 1: than they already are, we're going to see this argument 703 00:38:32,960 --> 00:38:36,239 Speaker 1: a lot more. Um and and the argument is something 704 00:38:36,320 --> 00:38:39,080 Speaker 1: like this. I mean, there's a quote from a tweet. 705 00:38:39,480 --> 00:38:41,640 Speaker 1: Uh and And you know, one could argue that the 706 00:38:41,640 --> 00:38:47,200 Speaker 1: tweet doesn't matter, but you are naive if you think 707 00:38:47,400 --> 00:38:50,279 Speaker 1: this is the tweet climate You are naive if you 708 00:38:50,320 --> 00:38:53,640 Speaker 1: think climate change can ever be solved without an authoritarian 709 00:38:53,760 --> 00:38:57,000 Speaker 1: government at this point. That's and that's that's the whole thing. 710 00:38:57,360 --> 00:39:01,000 Speaker 1: So it's a it's a nasty little tweet because it's ambiguous, right, 711 00:39:01,360 --> 00:39:03,840 Speaker 1: it has this like shocking and scandalous effects. You know, 712 00:39:03,960 --> 00:39:07,120 Speaker 1: we need authoritarianism to to to solve climate change, the 713 00:39:07,200 --> 00:39:10,960 Speaker 1: scandalous you know, bougeois or whatever. But then it's like, okay, wait, 714 00:39:11,280 --> 00:39:13,600 Speaker 1: but what do you mean by authoritarian? Am I just 715 00:39:13,680 --> 00:39:19,240 Speaker 1: being hysterical reacity. It's the same as saying you're naive 716 00:39:19,400 --> 00:39:22,800 Speaker 1: if you think that, um, climate change can be solved 717 00:39:22,840 --> 00:39:26,920 Speaker 1: without nuclear power, or climate change can be solved without 718 00:39:27,040 --> 00:39:30,600 Speaker 1: really big hammers, Like, we have authoritarian governments, we have 719 00:39:30,760 --> 00:39:33,359 Speaker 1: nuclear power, we have really big hammers, and climate change 720 00:39:33,360 --> 00:39:35,440 Speaker 1: does not be solved been solved. Is it possible that 721 00:39:35,480 --> 00:39:37,080 Speaker 1: any of those things might be a part of a 722 00:39:37,200 --> 00:39:41,960 Speaker 1: theoretical solution that may happen someday. Yes, but it hasn't. 723 00:39:42,080 --> 00:39:45,080 Speaker 1: And there's like, if you're trying to say that authoritarian 724 00:39:45,120 --> 00:39:49,080 Speaker 1: governments are better at dealing with climate change than the 725 00:39:49,200 --> 00:39:51,839 Speaker 1: governments that currently dominate number one, hell of a lot 726 00:39:51,920 --> 00:39:55,239 Speaker 1: of authoritarian governments are responsible for our current situation, are 727 00:39:55,360 --> 00:39:58,920 Speaker 1: climate change. Number two, the Soviet Union, which I suspect 728 00:39:59,000 --> 00:40:02,040 Speaker 1: most of these people's see as a guiding light. Horrible 729 00:40:02,160 --> 00:40:05,320 Speaker 1: for the environment, turned the largest body of water in 730 00:40:05,440 --> 00:40:10,680 Speaker 1: Eurasia into a poison lake. Yes, not not good at 731 00:40:10,760 --> 00:40:14,480 Speaker 1: the environment, you know. And here's here's what's interesting about 732 00:40:14,480 --> 00:40:17,200 Speaker 1: the thing to me. The other thing that it's doing 733 00:40:17,440 --> 00:40:20,800 Speaker 1: is kind of signaling that it's like patently ridiculous to 734 00:40:20,880 --> 00:40:25,040 Speaker 1: oppose this idea without specifying what the idea is like 735 00:40:25,560 --> 00:40:28,799 Speaker 1: and like, in other words, authoritarianism, like but like, I mean, 736 00:40:28,880 --> 00:40:32,880 Speaker 1: let's let's be blunt, right. What they're implying as a 737 00:40:32,960 --> 00:40:35,680 Speaker 1: Leninist is the one party state, the secret police, press 738 00:40:35,719 --> 00:40:39,400 Speaker 1: censorship in the command economy. So does that help you 739 00:40:39,520 --> 00:40:42,080 Speaker 1: fight climate cheese? That's actually an interesting and a kind 740 00:40:42,120 --> 00:40:45,120 Speaker 1: of like you know, distant five thousand foot view, you know, 741 00:40:45,280 --> 00:40:48,200 Speaker 1: from the god's eye view or whatever, like, uh, the 742 00:40:48,520 --> 00:40:51,520 Speaker 1: that's an interesting technical question. Do these institutions actually help 743 00:40:51,640 --> 00:40:53,600 Speaker 1: or hinder a response? But we're not even having that 744 00:40:53,680 --> 00:40:57,080 Speaker 1: conversation because instead it's this kind of underhanded attempt to 745 00:40:57,160 --> 00:40:59,799 Speaker 1: get you to think that. So again, does a tweet matter? Well, 746 00:41:00,160 --> 00:41:02,400 Speaker 1: I think a tweet matters if it comes from a 747 00:41:02,480 --> 00:41:04,719 Speaker 1: member of the National Political Committee of the d s A, 748 00:41:05,600 --> 00:41:08,120 Speaker 1: because at least ostensibly if d s A is, which 749 00:41:08,160 --> 00:41:11,359 Speaker 1: is who the person who did that tweet? Because at 750 00:41:11,400 --> 00:41:13,520 Speaker 1: least ostensibly if d s A is a mass movement 751 00:41:13,560 --> 00:41:16,480 Speaker 1: as it purports to be the mass movement of socialists 752 00:41:16,480 --> 00:41:19,280 Speaker 1: in the US, and you know, and and the National 753 00:41:19,320 --> 00:41:22,560 Speaker 1: Political Committee is ostensibly the leadership of the d s 754 00:41:22,760 --> 00:41:26,000 Speaker 1: which I personally don't believe, but that's certainly how they 755 00:41:26,040 --> 00:41:30,320 Speaker 1: think of themselves. Um, then this indicates that the largest 756 00:41:30,400 --> 00:41:33,359 Speaker 1: most important socialist mass movement in the US, at least 757 00:41:33,440 --> 00:41:38,040 Speaker 1: self branded UH has people in its leadership who believe 758 00:41:38,239 --> 00:41:42,120 Speaker 1: that the secret police might help in addressing climate change. 759 00:41:42,320 --> 00:41:45,200 Speaker 1: That's an interesting thing and it's also very disturbing. And 760 00:41:45,280 --> 00:41:49,600 Speaker 1: the thing is this, this person is not actually like important, 761 00:41:49,680 --> 00:41:53,160 Speaker 1: He's a symptom because this is something that's happening across 762 00:41:53,360 --> 00:41:56,840 Speaker 1: the board. And a more intellectually serious version of this 763 00:41:57,080 --> 00:42:02,160 Speaker 1: argument was put forward by the Arxist intellectual and historian 764 00:42:02,520 --> 00:42:06,279 Speaker 1: um a professor of human ecology called Andreas mom And 765 00:42:06,320 --> 00:42:08,520 Speaker 1: people who are really into like Marx Nerds stuff will 766 00:42:08,560 --> 00:42:12,440 Speaker 1: probably have heard, Yeah, what a very good book called 767 00:42:12,440 --> 00:42:15,560 Speaker 1: Fossil Capital. Everything he's written after Fossil Capital is a disaster. 768 00:42:17,360 --> 00:42:21,120 Speaker 1: I like some of the sabotage. It's it's I mean, 769 00:42:21,160 --> 00:42:25,360 Speaker 1: it's a little romantic and impractical. He wrote an ethical 770 00:42:25,480 --> 00:42:28,440 Speaker 1: discourse instead of a thing about like the risk of 771 00:42:28,520 --> 00:42:33,279 Speaker 1: eco sabotage, which is the actual important part of the 772 00:42:33,400 --> 00:42:37,520 Speaker 1: degree to which it can matter because eco sabotage. There's 773 00:42:37,560 --> 00:42:40,400 Speaker 1: this idea on the left that like, what we need 774 00:42:40,440 --> 00:42:43,280 Speaker 1: to do is be targeting fossil fuel infrastructure. And again 775 00:42:43,440 --> 00:42:45,480 Speaker 1: it's like what it's it's like what that ds A 776 00:42:45,600 --> 00:42:49,680 Speaker 1: dude said, like, yeah, that could theoretically be a part 777 00:42:49,719 --> 00:42:53,920 Speaker 1: of but as if it's like nine dudes who do 778 00:42:54,040 --> 00:42:56,520 Speaker 1: it and then they go to prison or get shot. Well, 779 00:42:56,560 --> 00:42:59,520 Speaker 1: that doesn't really fix climate change. I think the book, 780 00:43:00,040 --> 00:43:02,640 Speaker 1: the book A Ministry for the Future really lays out 781 00:43:02,760 --> 00:43:05,000 Speaker 1: all of the all kind of like the best case 782 00:43:05,080 --> 00:43:07,480 Speaker 1: scenario for all these types of things and how they 783 00:43:07,520 --> 00:43:11,480 Speaker 1: can work together to overall trend in this direction. Because yeah, 784 00:43:11,680 --> 00:43:14,640 Speaker 1: that type of like eco sabotage in conjunction with other 785 00:43:14,760 --> 00:43:17,800 Speaker 1: like political effects can be impactful on what things happen. 786 00:43:18,160 --> 00:43:21,920 Speaker 1: But it's can won't necessarily be you know, it's not 787 00:43:21,960 --> 00:43:23,560 Speaker 1: it's not as simple as we would like it to be, 788 00:43:23,840 --> 00:43:27,440 Speaker 1: because yeah, it's it turns out a complex world has 789 00:43:27,480 --> 00:43:30,960 Speaker 1: complex consequences and complex and and I think I think 790 00:43:31,000 --> 00:43:32,480 Speaker 1: this is you know the trend that Mom was on, 791 00:43:32,560 --> 00:43:34,120 Speaker 1: the trend on that you know, there's there's a big 792 00:43:34,200 --> 00:43:37,920 Speaker 1: environmental authoritarian like thing among among liberals. This is a 793 00:43:38,000 --> 00:43:39,960 Speaker 1: huge thing. In political science was a big thing, and 794 00:43:40,080 --> 00:43:43,320 Speaker 1: in ecological studies that was essentially making a similar argument 795 00:43:43,480 --> 00:43:45,320 Speaker 1: to to I'm almost making this like, well, okay, you 796 00:43:45,400 --> 00:43:49,799 Speaker 1: need some kind of air quotes vague authoritarianism to deal 797 00:43:50,239 --> 00:43:56,440 Speaker 1: to climate change, and you know, it's it's it's it's 798 00:43:56,480 --> 00:43:59,960 Speaker 1: basically this this attempt. There's like these people have seen 799 00:44:00,120 --> 00:44:03,160 Speaker 1: climate change, but they have no actual solution to it, 800 00:44:03,239 --> 00:44:05,600 Speaker 1: so they wave their hands and pretend that like this, 801 00:44:05,840 --> 00:44:07,440 Speaker 1: like you know, the state is going to descend from 802 00:44:07,480 --> 00:44:10,360 Speaker 1: this guy and save them, and it's not. And I 803 00:44:10,440 --> 00:44:13,880 Speaker 1: think that's you know, I think I think we're we're 804 00:44:13,920 --> 00:44:18,480 Speaker 1: sort of I don't know, I think as we just 805 00:44:18,640 --> 00:44:21,000 Speaker 1: I guess kind of wrap this up because we unfortunately 806 00:44:21,040 --> 00:44:24,239 Speaker 1: they're running out of time. But you know, this like 807 00:44:24,360 --> 00:44:26,880 Speaker 1: this exact moment like like these like few weeks are 808 00:44:27,000 --> 00:44:29,360 Speaker 1: this moment of incredible like rupture on the left right, 809 00:44:29,360 --> 00:44:30,840 Speaker 1: because we we have we've had we've had in some 810 00:44:30,920 --> 00:44:33,520 Speaker 1: way social democrats be discredited by the fact that like 811 00:44:33,719 --> 00:44:36,239 Speaker 1: Corbin and Sanders both lost right their political project has 812 00:44:36,280 --> 00:44:40,000 Speaker 1: been discredited. Um, we've had a serious sort of anexist failures. 813 00:44:40,120 --> 00:44:42,239 Speaker 1: But then you know, and in the last couple of weeks, right, 814 00:44:42,280 --> 00:44:44,120 Speaker 1: it was all of the sort of big state like 815 00:44:44,200 --> 00:44:47,400 Speaker 1: authoritarian people like tied themselves to a bunch of imperialists 816 00:44:47,920 --> 00:44:51,239 Speaker 1: and you know, May staked their whole entire politics off 817 00:44:51,320 --> 00:44:53,920 Speaker 1: of them being the anti imperialist class. And then you know, 818 00:44:54,280 --> 00:44:56,479 Speaker 1: the state, who's like a bunch of their press, people 819 00:44:56,719 --> 00:44:59,200 Speaker 1: like literally work for right and who who they've been 820 00:44:59,280 --> 00:45:02,640 Speaker 1: arguing like is is the contramperist powers does imperialism? And 821 00:45:02,760 --> 00:45:06,480 Speaker 1: so like, Yeah, I think we have this moment where 822 00:45:06,560 --> 00:45:10,880 Speaker 1: everything is in chaos in which we have to be 823 00:45:11,040 --> 00:45:14,800 Speaker 1: the ones that that that have solutions or have or 824 00:45:14,880 --> 00:45:17,120 Speaker 1: have the tools to build them. And I think that's 825 00:45:17,160 --> 00:45:20,600 Speaker 1: why that's why this project is important, because that's that's 826 00:45:20,680 --> 00:45:25,120 Speaker 1: something that we need in this exact moment. Yeah, I 827 00:45:25,239 --> 00:45:30,160 Speaker 1: think there's a tremendous value in being humble about seeking 828 00:45:30,160 --> 00:45:33,279 Speaker 1: out solutions to these questions and not doing what so 829 00:45:33,400 --> 00:45:35,600 Speaker 1: many do on the left and pretend that their tendency 830 00:45:35,680 --> 00:45:38,240 Speaker 1: has an absolute answer, because all we have is theories. 831 00:45:38,360 --> 00:45:40,120 Speaker 1: And the reason I know that to a point of 832 00:45:40,160 --> 00:45:42,080 Speaker 1: certainty is that no one has solved any of these 833 00:45:42,120 --> 00:45:46,600 Speaker 1: problems yet absolutely, And and so there is a tremendous 834 00:45:46,680 --> 00:45:49,000 Speaker 1: degree of humility that people need to have in terms 835 00:45:49,040 --> 00:45:51,440 Speaker 1: of like, all right, well, we are attempting to arrive 836 00:45:51,800 --> 00:45:55,640 Speaker 1: at the conclusions that can lead us to a better world, 837 00:45:55,719 --> 00:45:59,440 Speaker 1: as opposed to we are trying to force through this 838 00:45:59,640 --> 00:46:02,719 Speaker 1: thing we know will work. Um, because you don't, you know, 839 00:46:02,840 --> 00:46:05,400 Speaker 1: if you're a Marxist leninist, and you think that we 840 00:46:05,520 --> 00:46:07,920 Speaker 1: need climate MAU, you don't know that that will work 841 00:46:07,960 --> 00:46:10,839 Speaker 1: because it hasn't yet. And if you're an anarchist who 842 00:46:10,880 --> 00:46:15,120 Speaker 1: thinks the solution is bombing as many oil refineries as 843 00:46:15,160 --> 00:46:16,920 Speaker 1: you possibly can, well, you don't know that you're ever 844 00:46:16,960 --> 00:46:18,520 Speaker 1: going to get enough people on board for that to 845 00:46:18,640 --> 00:46:24,000 Speaker 1: mean anything. Um. And I think that there's the conversations 846 00:46:24,080 --> 00:46:26,279 Speaker 1: that we need to be having. I think it's it's 847 00:46:26,280 --> 00:46:29,239 Speaker 1: important to see them as conversations as opposed to polemics 848 00:46:29,880 --> 00:46:33,320 Speaker 1: aimed at just getting people in line behind this shining 849 00:46:33,440 --> 00:46:36,279 Speaker 1: vision of a of a clear set of steps. Um. 850 00:46:36,480 --> 00:46:38,480 Speaker 1: It's important to envision the end goal. I say that 851 00:46:38,560 --> 00:46:40,640 Speaker 1: a lot. You know, we need to be looking and 852 00:46:40,840 --> 00:46:44,359 Speaker 1: and accepting the possibility of a better future, but it's 853 00:46:44,400 --> 00:46:46,759 Speaker 1: important not to be dogmatic about the road to get 854 00:46:46,840 --> 00:46:49,600 Speaker 1: there because nobody, nobody really has a clear idea of 855 00:46:49,680 --> 00:46:54,880 Speaker 1: what that looks like. Yeah, So the piece ends up, 856 00:46:54,920 --> 00:46:56,600 Speaker 1: and if you want to see the ending of it, 857 00:46:56,680 --> 00:46:59,239 Speaker 1: it'll it'll be up in um in sometime in the 858 00:46:59,320 --> 00:47:02,000 Speaker 1: next couple of weeks. But the basic gist of where 859 00:47:02,000 --> 00:47:06,040 Speaker 1: it goes is precisely to the practical question, right, Instead 860 00:47:06,080 --> 00:47:11,480 Speaker 1: of like making these like polemical arguments that are rooted 861 00:47:11,600 --> 00:47:14,160 Speaker 1: more in like kind of like what tribe you've decided 862 00:47:14,200 --> 00:47:16,600 Speaker 1: to identify with within the broad family of socialism than 863 00:47:16,719 --> 00:47:18,840 Speaker 1: in like actually trying to like solve problems for the 864 00:47:18,880 --> 00:47:22,160 Speaker 1: people around you, right, or help contribute to the solutions. 865 00:47:22,480 --> 00:47:25,960 Speaker 1: Like it's actually what we want to ask is like, 866 00:47:26,560 --> 00:47:31,399 Speaker 1: if we have like the giant ecological crisis, Uh, how 867 00:47:31,480 --> 00:47:33,640 Speaker 1: do you how do you actually do it? Is it 868 00:47:33,719 --> 00:47:35,600 Speaker 1: by trying to force people from the top down to 869 00:47:35,719 --> 00:47:38,160 Speaker 1: do it as Um under his momb kind of draws 870 00:47:38,239 --> 00:47:41,239 Speaker 1: on the failed uh policies of war communism as and 871 00:47:41,280 --> 00:47:45,160 Speaker 1: inspiration for that. Or is it potentially by having like 872 00:47:45,239 --> 00:47:49,120 Speaker 1: democrats democratized institutions that incentivize people with carrots instead of sticks, 873 00:47:49,160 --> 00:47:52,200 Speaker 1: Like Naomi Klein basically uncovered a want of her journalism 874 00:47:52,280 --> 00:47:54,719 Speaker 1: and this changes everything. So this is kind of like 875 00:47:54,960 --> 00:47:58,000 Speaker 1: the debate that we have to start having in order 876 00:47:58,040 --> 00:48:03,880 Speaker 1: to be able to together formulate the kinds of solutions. Yeah, alright, 877 00:48:03,960 --> 00:48:07,600 Speaker 1: well I think that's gonna do it for for us today. Um, 878 00:48:08,400 --> 00:48:10,080 Speaker 1: what do we what do we we do? You got 879 00:48:10,120 --> 00:48:12,640 Speaker 1: you guys gotta gotta gotta plug You want to throw up, 880 00:48:13,000 --> 00:48:17,600 Speaker 1: throw up before we roll out. Yeah, if if you 881 00:48:17,640 --> 00:48:23,319 Speaker 1: want to follow us at at Strange Underscore Matters UM 882 00:48:23,800 --> 00:48:27,440 Speaker 1: on Twitter. UM. We also have a Facebook and you 883 00:48:27,520 --> 00:48:32,239 Speaker 1: can read our articles at Strange Matters dot co op, 884 00:48:32,800 --> 00:48:35,840 Speaker 1: which is our website. Uh and if anything that you 885 00:48:36,040 --> 00:48:38,359 Speaker 1: read there that you've heard here inspires you at all, 886 00:48:38,360 --> 00:48:40,399 Speaker 1: please consider donating. We're going to be in the next 887 00:48:40,480 --> 00:48:43,759 Speaker 1: month raising money uh for for the magazine and we 888 00:48:43,800 --> 00:48:46,400 Speaker 1: want to pare writers above market rate because we think 889 00:48:46,440 --> 00:48:48,840 Speaker 1: market rates too low. So but in order to actually 890 00:48:48,880 --> 00:48:50,279 Speaker 1: do that, and none of the money is going to 891 00:48:50,320 --> 00:48:53,239 Speaker 1: the editors from the fundraisers, so if if, if we're 892 00:48:53,239 --> 00:48:54,480 Speaker 1: going to be able to do that, we've got to 893 00:48:54,520 --> 00:49:00,200 Speaker 1: meet our fundraising target. All right, Well support them and um, 894 00:49:01,000 --> 00:49:03,920 Speaker 1: you know, figure out how to save the world. It's 895 00:49:03,960 --> 00:49:06,560 Speaker 1: it's up to you. And I'm speaking to exactly one 896 00:49:06,640 --> 00:49:09,160 Speaker 1: person right now and no one else, but I'm not 897 00:49:09,200 --> 00:49:15,799 Speaker 1: going to be more specific. It could happen here as 898 00:49:15,840 --> 00:49:18,520 Speaker 1: a production of cool Zone Media. Well more podcasts from 899 00:49:18,560 --> 00:49:21,200 Speaker 1: cool Zone Media. Visit our website cool zone Media dot 900 00:49:21,280 --> 00:49:23,359 Speaker 1: com or check us out on the I Heart Radio app, 901 00:49:23,360 --> 00:49:26,719 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can 902 00:49:26,760 --> 00:49:29,440 Speaker 1: find sources for it could happen here. Updated monthly at 903 00:49:29,480 --> 00:49:32,680 Speaker 1: cool Zone Media dot com slash Sources. Thanks for listening.