When were those days, exactly? I’ve studies a hell of a lot of history, and I can really only point to two moments:

1. The American Civil War, but we were both the good guys and the bad guys there, so doesn’t really count.

2. WW2. We fought against fascism. We were squarely on the side of the good guys.

I’ve never been alive when America was the good guys, and neither has the vast majority of anyone else.

There’s really only failing, then learning, then death

My kids have me listening to way too much Disney music lately…

Cannabis

It all needs to get a lot less complex and confusing. I know the complexity is a byproduct of the defederated nature of the whole thing, but it’s also the primary thing limiting growth. The fediverse is never going to grow to anything other than a tiny niche if it isn’t immediately understandable to people who have 0 background in tech.

It is, in fact, possible to quite smoking. I was a regular smoker for a decade. My fiancee asked me to quit, so I did. Haven’t had a cigarette or vape since. That was over a decade ago.

Yes, it’s difficult, and not everyone is able to quit as easily as I did. But don’t pretend like it’s impossible to quit.

Because second-hand smoke doesn’t exist…

Second hand smoke isn’t a biohazard? It literally causes cancer…

There were MASSIVE anti-Vietnam war protests at the time. Far more massive than anything we’ve seen since. And they did recognize the hypocrisy in calling it a “police action” when it was obviously a war.

You do not understand anarchism in the slightest. You are imagining some Hobbsian hellscape out of a disaster movie, which is completely counter to human nature.

So your argument is that the only way to get people to live together is under the constant threat of violence from the state?

I don’t know what that means, but I don’t think you do either.

What’s the circle A supposed to be here, then?

Anarchists (lib left) aren’t typically waiting for society to collapse. We typically focus on building the world we want to see now in order to make the collapsing society unnecessary to provide out material needs. You know, the whole mutual aide and community organizing bit.

Fun fact: Monopoly was originally called “The Landlord’s Game” when it was created and was meant to teach people about the fundamental absurdity and contradictions inherent in the capitalist system of land ownership. It was later co-opted by a family member of the creator who sold it to Parker Brothers. They renamed it Monopoly and turned it into the commercial success it is today.

Sure. And the US government has the CIA and military to enact that regime change. Plus they have all the cops and military to defend against a popular uprising overthrowing the government.

I’m not saying it can’t be done, but we’re still in the early stages of a popular uprising. That’s what these protests are about. This one on Saturday got, reportedly, ~5 million people on the streets at the same time. That’s ~1.5% of the country’s population. According to the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict, it takes ~3.5% of the population mass mobilizing at the same time to effect political change. That’s ~12 million people. That’s why this wasn’t a 1 and done protest. The next one is already scheduled for April 19. And there will be another after that. And another after that.

Let’s not just aim for 3.5%. Go higher. What can 5% of the country, 17 million people, do if we’re all out in the streets together? Rather than just complain that one single protest didn’t immediately result in widespread political change, why don’t you get out there and join us on the 19th? Bring your friends. Bring your family. Help make a change rather than just complaining that others aren’t doing it for you.

There is no mechanism within American politics to run a new election. If that’s the demand, we first would need to amend the Constitution, which isn’t going to happen, or violently overthrow the government. Just demanding, “run a new election” is as empty a demand as anything else you could imagine.

Nobody would be stupid enough to fall for this…

Brother, the US has been doing this for literally our entire history. We both Gulf Wars, Vietnam, and Korea were all just “police actions”, not wars (according to our government). Hell, in history we call our westward expansion the “Indian Wars”, but we never declared war on any Native American tribes ever. Those were just “internal police actions”.

Anarchists are kinda the exact opposite of authoritarians…

As an anarchist myself, I would not call libertarians or state communists fascists. All 3 are bad, but in different ways and for different reasons.

And if we’re standing against fascists, I’ll stand side-by-side with a communist or a libertarian. But I’ll never stand side-by-side with a fascists against anyone for any reason.

Mental asylums as they existed in the US before the 80s were often little more than glorified prisons. They did all kinds of horrific things to people which today we would consider torture.

That said, most people (not all, but most) who were in mental asylums were there because they had very real issues they needed real treatment for. Most people were not getting the treatment they needed, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t need something.

The mental asylums absolutely needed a lot of reform. Most probably did need to be shut down, or, at the very least, the entire staff needed to change and they needed a completely new philosophy of care. What this country absolutely did NOT need is to just throw all those people out onto the streets to fend for themselves. It seems to have been a lateral change for the people who needed help and a negative change for the rest of the country.

I’m not sure I would use the term “mental asylum” as that has a lot of cultural connotations I don’t think we need or want to bother with. However, I do think the federal government should provide massive amounts of block grant funding to states to open new facilities which can provide inpatient services to people who suffer with mental health problems. These should be founded on a care-first framework, not the torture prisons of yore.