I know some places are more progressive in this regard. But from the U.S., I’d like to see every person entitled to: - shelter - food - healthcare - education and higher education (As an aside, not sure “right” is the best term here, I think of these more as commitments that society would make because we have abundance. One advantage of the word “right” is that a person is justified in expecting it - it’s not welfare/ a benefit / a privilege)

This one answer to that question has been ringing through my head for a couple of days.

  • The right to solidarity, i.e. all should be allowed to partake in solidary action during a strike.
  • The right of initiative and right to recall.
  • The right to free software, or freedom from proprietary software.
  • The right to a third place, i.e. ready access to physical spaces that allow for socializing with strangers.
  • Freedom from eviction (mainly wrt rent strikes and squatting.)
  • The right to democratic education.
  • The right to cross borders.
  • The right to be forgotten.
  • The right to purpose, or freedom from meaningless labor. This includes the right to an employee fund.

And there are of course other things. I just think that under the world’s current paradigm, these, at least individually, seem relatively attainable without a literal revolution.

Perhaps we might talk about how we might guide society toward these things using technology.

  • cacheson
    7•1 year ago

    I guess cypherpunks aren’t strictly the same as crypto-anarchists, but this feels like sort of odd fare for this community? Maybe my idea of what cypherpunks are has been colored by hanging around with Bitcoin people for so long.

    Overall I’m not huge on pushing for positive rights. The only negative right I see on this list is “the right to cross borders”, aka freedom of movement, which is something that I’m very much in favor of. I guess from a mutualist perspective, “freedom from eviction” would also be a negative right, since ownership is supposed to be based on occupancy and use.

    For anyone that’s not familiar with the terms, a negative right is a right not to have something imposed on you, where a positive right is a right to be provided with something.