jwiggler

  • 13 Posts
  • 397 Comments
Joined 2 years ago
cake
Cake day: June 18th, 2023

help-circle


  • I think you should start out reading some anarchist theory, like The Conquest of Bread by Kropotkin, rather than try to use it to label people evil or good.

    It’s not a tool to judge people’s goodness or badness, even if it can be used as a guide to judge the relations between two people.

    Your friends accumulation of wealth probably doesn’t jive with anarchist principles for a wide variety of reasons, even if they don’t exploit labor. That doesn’t mean they’re evil people. And just because someone exploits labor, doesn’t mean they are necessarily evil.




  • jwigglertoPolitical Memes@lemmy.worldBernie was our compromise
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    4
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    19 days ago

    Nah, you’re right, it definitely isn’t as simple as all due to the material conditions, although I do tend to think the majority of crime is due to them. At the same time, I’m not sure I’m using material conditions in the correct technical sense, and was thinking about including a , “someone feel free to correct my usage” note in my comment. I also wasnt really itching for a super in-depth conversation about it, even though your question

    do you think Trump is lacking in material conditions?

    is a really interesting one that I’d need to think and talk about a lot. I think if we had appropriate non coercive controls against accumulation of property, while also living in a society that met the physical, psychological, and social needs of its people, Trump perhaps would not be a criminal.

    This comes from my tendency to think people are more inherently good than evil, and that much of the evil comes from the patriarchal culture of accumulation








  • jwigglertoPolitical Memes@lemmy.worldBernie was our compromise
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    56
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    19 days ago

    lmaooo

    tangentially I feel like Batman could never jive with leftist ideology anyhow. His whole thing is beating and scaring the crime out of people, which is in contrast to the leftist idea that crime happens because the needs of individuals (physical, psychological, and social) are not met by their material conditions.





  • I’m conflicted over whether I’m glad or disappointed at his respect for the feds.

    On the one hand, I’m disappointed, because like many many others, I identify with his frustration with fat cat CEOs imposing systems of structural violence against us. I wish that had extended to lack of respect for the state, which also imposes and upholds the same systems, and others.

    On the other hand, I’m glad because I still think what he allegedly did is wrong and don’t necessarily want further ideological alignment with that, even if billionaire CEOs have it coming, and even if I think he should go free.




  • I think you might misunderstand me. I’m not saying that the only way to attain power is through wealth. Im pushing back against your idea that since an individuals wealth isn’t cash, it’s not worth accounting for. It may stop making sense to count, but only in the sense that it literally becomes incomprehensible to, and at that point it is long overdue to say it is too much. The vast power those people have is due to their net worth. Because someone else has vast power without the wealth doesn’t contradict that fact.

    Also I don’t really see why you’re tying up your freedom with billionaires, as if it is a binary choice between billionaires and personal freedom or no billionaires and tyranny. That’s a bit of a strange equivalency you draw. In any case, and in practical terms, you* probably don’t even have the freedom to be in the presence of the wealthiest of wealthy, let alone fart in front of them.

    *assuming you are not ultra wealthy or somehow related personally to a member of the ultra rich

    Edit: in other words, billionaires don’t grant you your freedom – and their freedom to extract capital and accumulate vast amounts of wealth probably has little bearing on your right to your house or personal property. In fact, they are far more equipped to seize things like your land, your data, your means of subsistence, than you are to defend them.


  • jwigglertoAsk Lemmy@lemmy.worldWhat are your thoughts on billionaires?
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    15
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    2 months ago

    Untill I grew up and realised it’s not money they’ve got, it’s estimated net worth. It’s hard to turn that into cash.

    I used to think that, too. But just because its not cash doesn’t mean it doesn’t still translate to wealth or power. They essentially park their money in investments, liquidate when they need to, but otherwise use their assets to extract further wealth exert further influence.