Ravenschlief

It’s important to remember that Anarchism isn’t about dressing in funny clothes and strange hairdos. Your plain-clothes brothers and sisters are out there.

Noam Chomsky wears normal people clothing and is still my favorite public Anarchist. (a rose by any other name is still a rose)

No one is asking you to drop everything. Do what you can to build a better world.

(Source: thesignalfires)

beefranck:

I’ve worked for two huge corporations that encouraged this way of thinking. All it ever accomplished was burning out their best and brightest employees.

I miss caring about my job. I miss being proud of it. I miss giving a crap about my employer. I don’t know if I’ll ever feel that way again.

As long as we live in a society where we feel indebted to our bosses and we toil for a wage, it’s work. Without those worries, our labor would be for ourselves. Take back the means of production and taste the fruits of your labor.

leahxvx:

starmichael:

xmackenziex:

leahxvx:

This is a small resolution scan of a poster I drew that my friend Lantz will be printing when I get back from Europe. It is anti-smoking and it will be a two color print(black and red) on white. I hope to pair this with the second version of my zine that pertains to the same topic: hypocrisy of radical folks who smoke.

Alright, so I’m going to counter this with an unpopular position. Yes, cigarettes do suck, and there are so many people oppressed by their creation and consumption. But guess what? SO IS EVERY OTHER INDUSTRY UNDER CAPITALISM! Smoking can help people cope with stress and anxiety, and specifically in western culture, where we don’t have many healthy ways to deal with the stress, anxiety, and oppression so many people are crippled by every day. I personally do not smoke, but I could see why someone would. And I don’t think anyone is more or less of a radical for smoking or not. I feel like chastising someone for smoking is being really fucking holier-than-thou, when everything we consume and do under the capitalist system is virtually just as destructive. INDIVIDUAL CHOICES (yes, this means veganism too) WILL NOT BRING REVOLUTION. Only collective action and connecting across differences will. Condemning someone for something as pity smoking cigarettes is extremely divisive and to me, just seems like a way to boost ones ego.

Over the years I have dealt a lot with my own ego complexes about being a cr00shal XVX warrior; but honestly, judging people on what they do or do not consume, when EVERYTHING under the capitalist system is created from oppression and exploitation, is no way to enact radical change.

Xmackenziex you’ve fallen into an interesting fallacy here, and already defeated your own argument. you just haven’t seen it. you already note that smoking is not good and supports oppression and other problems. your argument is “but so do other things,” and “but it brings comfort.”

as to the stress relief, or the bringing of comfort, that argument has no leg to stand on, it’s extremely condescending to say i don’t do a thing, or need it/but other people aren’t as good, or strong as me and need/find the crutch helpful. as well as it being extremely presumptuous arrogantly electing yourself to be the champion of defending the helpless smoker. it’s also scientifically just not so. smoking causes stress and anxiety, or i should say the absence of the addictive substances in it do, and then the act of reintroducing those substances brings that level down a bit, but it does nothing for any stress, beyond a slight and temporary placebo effect, that the habit itself isn’t responsible for creating (but so will anything, including taking a short brake without smoking). nothing more (well except kill the user and funnel their money toward supporting oppression, which in itself isn’t good or defensible).

as to the point of other things under capitalism are also bad: smoking, or any negative/harmful activity, is its own thing and held to the same standards as everything else, regardless of any one of billions of other examples you could find to compare it to. just because oil, or coke is also bad doesn’t excuse smoking as no longer bad in and of itself, or knowingly supporting the cigarette industry as less bad because you don’t buy gas or coke that offten. willfully (not out of ignorance of the problem, but knowingly), supporting messed up businesses is specifically pro oppression. 

unless you are trying to plead a special case here we need to look at this in an intellectually honest way. your argument is the same as comparing any two fucked up things and excusing the first because the latter exists. using your logic why can’t we rationalize eating animals because the soy industry is messed up (as if any reason in the world not to eat soy meant you had to eat animals). do you see the false dichotomies here? they are separate problems, with some intersections, but not to be confused. monopolies and monocultures and chemicals and all the other problems with big agriculture never excuse any of the problems with killing animals needlessly, or any of the other reasons to be vegan. they are separate problems that need to be dealt with honestly, not scapegoated in rationalization. nothing you can say about any other capitalist product will ever change the reality of how messed up it is to support tobacco. there is nothing holier than thou about pointing out fucked up shit, unless specifically as a comparison of your own egocentric superior position to make yourself seem better than people that haven’t made or acted on these realizations. which is not being done by leahxvx. (and is most certainly not being done by me: i smoked for over ten years, and and knew, if not fully coherently why that was a problem on many levels the whole time).

as to your argument that everything is wrong in a capitalist culture therefore we can do nothing, and that actively boycotting/not participating in oppression where we can is not good because it is not revolutionary, i don’t know how to console you. we both already know you don’t believe that or you wouldn’t be vegan and your critique of this poster would just be something like, “shut up, expletive. no one tells me anything, this is america.” if all is wrong then nothing is right and there is no possibility of becoming less fucked up or striving toward living in a less fucked up world. it’s a nihilistic all or nothing viewpoint that leaves us with no options but buy into capitalism, or to give up and starve to death; or throw our bodies in the gears of the capitalist machines (but, for some reason, not the cigarette industry’s machines?).

why you would choose to defend an indefensible position is beyond me. I’m not sure if you just haven’t had time to think it out yet, or if you are just being a contrarian? or perhaps just have some problem with the perception of being told what to do by others in the radical community? /are imagining being judged yourself for something you feel guilty about? there is nothing wrong with passing judgment! i know this is a controversial thing to say, but it’s true, there are clearly some things that are less harmful/fuct than others, and if we can agree that something is less bad than something else then we must also be able to say that something is more bad, and if we are trying to minimize suffering then, yes, it is clearly worse than good to support something that is more bad/harmful.

i’m not talking about condemning people (smokers), for bad actions for the rest of their lives, but simply pointing out bad behaviors that have real consequences beyond short term embarrassment or hurt feelings. as i’ve already mentioned i smoked for years, and really wish people would have challenged me on it so i could have spent more time thinking about it and gotten around to cutting the shit a lot earlier. have you even read “Cut the Shit,” the zine in question that this artwork is for? I don’t think you have based on your reaction to the art.

I’m honestly not trying to flame you or fight you. I’m just pointing out some very real problems with your logic and reason in a hopefully helpful way.

—starmichael

Starmichael wins a cookie for demolishing absurd arguments! Facepalm forever!!!!!!!!! 

Firstly, I don’t think that this sort of zine would necessarily be preachy or divisive. Cigarettes are unhealthy, and most people don’t really need more reasons not to smoke, but giving people more reasons to quit surely isn’t going to hurt. Addictions suck.

Secondly, I understand Mackenzie’s reason for being upset. (Though their frustration is ill-placed, I’m sure the zine is purely positive) In my experience, anarchist communities are often fairly insular and judgmental, definitely not good for the movement as a whole. If our objective is to convince other people that our way of life is better, we ought to offer an open palm rather than a pointing finger.

-BriKi

P.S. I like the art.

anarchistreview:

For real, I’m telling you that I believe you are naturally a decent and compassionate person, and you’re telling me I’m wrong. What does that say about you?

(Source: societycreatedme)