Why do you believe in it, do you approve it in theory or also in practice? I think a lot of people approve of anarchism in theory but rejects the possibility of it to be put in practice unless we live in an utopia… which I don’t think we do, unfortunately. Maybe techno-anarchism would be more practical? Technology is such badly regulated and ordinary people are punished harsher than corporate so I really think techno-anarchism deserves a lot more attention (not saying anarchism itself doesn’t) I see a lot of people here are more knowledgeable than me so don’t take my word so seriously, maybe I shouldn’t be expressing my idiot thoughts on it, or maybe just embrace it and ask regardless of any shame I might get.

I’m not trying to be mean to anyone, just genuinely wanted to discuss with whoever is willing to chip in on the topic.

  • @rottingleaf
    1•1 month ago

    ARPANET was created by the US, but no one forced the Russians or the Chinese to adopt the IP protocol on their computers and connect to their neighbors.

    Also no one forced people to adapt railway gauge or PSTN standards.

    This is important because a super common anti-anarchist talking point is that people won’t cooperate (at least not at scale) unless an overarching authority forces them to. The existence of the internet demolishes that argument. It would be fundamentally impossible if that talking point were true.

    I can’t agree. It’s the lower authorities submitting to the higher authority. That happens. A small group of authorities is close to one. In fact none are monolithic.

      • @rottingleaf
        1•1 month ago

        Nah. The US hasn’t been able to force Russia to stop their invasion of Ukraine, nor stop them from playing fuck-fuck games all over the rest of the world. And China is almost certainly stronger than Russia is. They both joined the internet because they wanted to, not because they were forced.

        I’m begging your pardon, but when the Internet came to Russia, US was sending humanitarian aid there. Literally giving out chicken legs in Moscow.

        Also differences in power are not two discrete states. A parent can’t force their child to marry a specific person, but they can force them to live in a certain area, using, say, financial help as leverage.

        Oh, they’ll just choose to cooperate and act like a single central authority? Without a preexisting central authority forcing them to? 🤔

        So? They’ll form a cluster.

        One can say top-level Soviet bureaucrats were not yes-men to the general secretary either. They made decisions collegially.