The first text that introduced me to crimethinc was this: https://crimethinc.com/2019/04/08/against-the-logic-of-the-guillotine-why-the-paris-commune-burned-the-guillotine-and-we-should-too.

Having seen one too many posts around the leftist comms on the subject, I made my own small meme about it. A bit more violent than what the article suggests but I think that makes it just that much more effective.

After all what would the life described here be other than suffering:

The worst punishment anyone could inflict on those who govern and police us today would be to compel them to live in a society in which everything they’ve done is regarded as embarrassing—for them to have to sit in assemblies in which no one listens to them, to go on living among us without any special privileges in full awareness of the harm they have done.

  • lurch (he/him)@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    21·
    9 days ago

    That’s a lot of words for saying you’re to uncomfortable to do what it takes to secure a win.

    Death sentences are not about punishing an individual. It’s about scaring ppl who consider doing the same shitless, so they don’t revert your progress later.

    • Val@anarchist.nexusOPEnglish
      32·
      9 days ago

      Oh hey, I have a quote for that: https://youtu.be/xnouj9Yz-Gs?t=35

      Winning? Is that what you think it’s about? I’m not trying to win. I’m not doing this because I want to beat someone, or because I hate someone, or because I want to blame someone. It’s not because it’s fun. God knows it’s not because it’s easy. It’s not even because it works, because it hardly ever does. I do what I do because it’s right! Because it’s decent! And above all, It’s kind! It’s just that. Just kind.

      Here is a section of AFAQ as well: https://anarchistfaq.org/afaq/sectionJ.html#secj73

      And we don’t need to scare people. Fear shouldn’t be among our weapons. It creates conformity, timidness, a desire to cower and hide until it goes away. Values that are antithetical to anarchism. Or in the worse case, fighting, attacking those creating fear ruthlessly and without mercy. Nothing is more scary than someone backed into a corner. How many innocent people would be killed by rulers who want to go out in a blase of glory because they know they’ll die anyway? Their power comes from the people that uphold the social structures. To win we need to destroy the ideas that justify their power. If we can do that, we don’t need to kill them, and if we can’t, killing them will accomplish nothing, the people will just fall behind another leader, one who will now try and enact their revenge.

      Revenge is a cycle, “Eye for an eye and the world would go blind”. The only thing killing will accomplish is more killing. Our success is dependent on our ideas winning, and nothing destroys peoples willingness to listen than ruthless killing.

            • Val@anarchist.nexusOPEnglish
              3·
              9 days ago

              Of course I am. Aren’t you? Being considered not anarchist/revolutionary enough and killed to maintain the purity of the anarchist/revolutionary vision². This is exactly what happens once you start considering some people as killable. The definition expands and expands and you end up with the same authoritarian structures that we try to escape from.

              This kind of othering is exactly why we cannot use violence¹ as a means to advance our cause. It gives an easy solution to disagreements, fuels tribalism and sows discord.

              ¹: on people, property destruction isn’t violence. Killing of cops, CEOs, and politicians is always self-defence as they maintain the status quo that is killing us. Although they should always be given the option to quit.

              ²: kinda like what the bolsheviki did by calling everyone counter-revolutionary. This kind of thinking leads to Kronstadt.

                • Val@anarchist.nexusOPEnglish
                  1·
                  8 days ago

                  So all of your ideas are so simplistic that you think no-one will disagree with you? or do you think you can kill them before they can kill you? If you are an anarchist, decide to ally yourself with communists, and start talking about guillotining, I can guarantee you it’s only a matter of time before you’re called counter-revolutionary and get killed yourself. Or you could decide not to ally with them, in which case they get added to the list of people you’ll need to kill. Making it rather long. And you can be sure that sooner or later a charismatic autocrat will take your place and use it to consolidate power. Thinking that killing our enemies is a path to victory opens up so many potential vectors through which power could be consolidated. It’s just better to do without them.