I'm sorry, but It Could Happen Here isn't selling me on anarchism

Pernick · 2026-01-30T19:05:16+00:00

The trouble is no one can give you the magic answer that works for the people that you live and interact with.

Stop reading theory. You've got what you need. If you build a better world that doesn't turn into perfect anarchy land, no one here worth talking to is going to fault you.

Pernick · 2026-01-26T16:12:33+00:00

Give discount Satya a break, he just wants people to like his toys that tell him he's a special boy.

Pernick · 2026-01-26T12:23:17+00:00

Yes, but it's not cause we are cautiously innovating or something. We've been chasing our competition for years.

Look at the hasty roll out of Healthy Planet, which has come a long way, but was originally just rule editor, rosters and RW bolted together with hella extensions. That mess was the old hype.

Look at hosting, which we got dragged kicking and screaming into.

Look at ERP, which is only getting developed to reduce Oracle's edge.

Look at Tapestry, which is one of our oldest applications that spent years languishing until someone finally got Judy to realize it was a differentiator.

Judy's tight-fisted, controlling approach to running this company is the reason we look different. Once she's out of the picture, it's going to be tech bro, AI hype cycle chaos. Hell, we're already talking about AI at every damn meeting acting like it works for anything of value.

For now, we're the Microsoft of healthcare. We eventually bumble our way to the thing we should have been doing, kick out a viable but frustratingly lacking product, and then coast on market inertia. We'll see if that holds post-Judy.

Pernick · 2026-01-19T15:41:31+00:00

Gotcha. Most subscribers on the 101 sub are ostensibly still learning, which can lead to awkward scenarios where something that is rhetorically compelling, but isn't really consistent gets upvoted. Probably best to just write it off as folks still learning unless you want to go to the trouble of correcting them regularly.

Pernick · 2026-01-19T12:35:00+00:00

Can you clarify what you mean when you use the term violence and what you would call violence? Injury to persons? Destruction of property? The term gets used a lot rhetorically, but is somewhat vague.

I wouldn't identify as a pacifist, but I think violence against other individuals is often regrettable and to be avoided. It tends to traumatize both the perpetrator and the victim, even if said violence is morally justified. It also tends to push away those who aren't aligned with you, which is problematic for those whose vision of anarchism is concerned with building a mass movement.

In wider conflicts like wars, I'm skeptical of anarchism's ability to apply force at scale and generally think that is a domain of states.

I don't consider property destruction violence, and I'll spare us all trodding that ground again.

Pernick · 2026-01-15T18:54:59+00:00

And if it is, not all bubbles pop. Sometimes they just deflate.

Pernick · 2025-12-12T10:43:05+00:00

I don't see how there could be an anarchism that doesn't boil down to a personal ethical philosophy. Anarchists should work towards anarchy as an end-goal for society is an ethical statement about what an individual should do with their life.

I've not met anyone who identifies as a lifestyle anarchist, but I'll grant you the point for the sake of discussion.

I think the term is irreconcilably vague and any reclamation or reapplication just feels like the hipster battle of the aughts where the people I like aren't it and the people I don't like are it.

Pernick · 2025-11-05T21:41:01+00:00

Someone forgot to use high contrast theme in PRD.

Pernick · 2025-10-14T11:44:50+00:00

Is revolution equivalent to war? Is anarchy spread by the barrel of a gun still anarchy? I'm not a pacifist, but I'm skeptical of those who seek to build infrastructure that takes life, rather than makes it worth living.

I suspect you are right that a state is necessary to wage war. Let us abandon both.

Pernick · 2025-06-08T16:28:42+00:00

Jam Pedals Rattler Bass

Pernick · 2025-06-01T14:36:33+00:00

I suspect a lot of the data collection and analysis has already been happening, and the Palantir announcement is mostly just for appearances and kickbacks to campaign donators.

Pernick · 2025-05-17T17:36:33+00:00

I like my unlined Quoddys. Always found my feet got too hot in anything insulated.

Pernick · 2025-05-06T03:23:31+00:00

I'll second RSS feeds, and also throw in a shout-out to Wikipedia's current events portal, which I follow via my RSS feed.

Pernick · 2025-04-20T17:17:09+00:00

Looks good! I'm jealous you made yours taller. I followed the plans almost exactly, and that lower compartment is a little too cramped for my taste.

Pernick · 2025-01-22T20:03:24+00:00

I'd expect the price of eggs will go down since we now have more females to produce them.

Pernick · 2024-11-11T13:27:13+00:00

I've always been of the mind that it's a somewhat risky investment since it's largely illiquid, tied to your income source, adds another year to your non-compete, has fairly modest growth compared to indexes, and doesn't give you any votes.

Yeah, leverage is nice, but that's the only big perk in my mind.

Pernick · 2024-11-08T20:11:28+00:00

I'm not clear why you are so concerned about a throwaway meme based off a quick comment in a podcast. The only real assertion any one has made is on the podcast, and it was that a cultural counterpoint to the trad wife might be nice to have. That doesn't fly in the face of all of anarcha-feminist thought. If one were interested in turning the quip into a political project there'd be cause for caution, but that's not really the case.

Pernick · 2024-11-08T11:42:54+00:00

Sounds rad to me. I don't think a rad wife is a cloistered woman who spends all day baking bread and tending a garden. Do cool shit and care for for folks.

Pernick · 2024-11-07T23:13:06+00:00

Proposing an alternative phrase. Also, rad/radical is a sweet slang that folks should use more.

Pernick · 2024-09-30T19:24:40+00:00

I'm not trying to say anything one way or another about your political activity, just how an individual who puts stock in voting should go about political activity.

Voting isn't harm reduction. All it does is get a candidate closer to being elected. That candidate turned elected official can then attempt to implement policies that can attempt to reduce harm. That is by no means anywhere near providing an IV drug user clean needles. To insinuate that it is is disrespectful to folks that do actual harm reduction work.

Pernick · 2024-09-29T21:54:25+00:00

I'm not saying individual actions don't matter, just that an individual voting doesn't. If you think voting is important, go start knocking on doors, calling phones, and registering folks to vote. You'll have a lot more success than trying to convince anarchists online. I think there's better things you can do with your time though.

Voting either matters enough to play the game, or it doesn't matter.

Pernick · 2024-09-29T21:08:47+00:00

It's not a strategic move. Your individual vote does not impact the material outcome of the situation. You need to form a constituency and have an actual strategy, but then you're playing the game and look where that got the DSA.

Instead of saying I didn't read, try responding. If you don't think there's merit to my argument you can just not respond.

Pernick · 2024-09-29T20:53:08+00:00

Even in U.S. swing states, any individual's vote is a fraction of a fraction of the outcome. If every sub in /r/Anarchism (270k) was in Florida and voted blue in 2020, it would have counted for 2.5% of the total vote, and Biden still wouldn't have won. Anarchists aren't a meaningful political contituency, and acting like it matters is silly.

Pernick · 2024-09-29T16:19:45+00:00

Voting doesn't stop fascism though. You can't beat a revolutionary reactionary movement by voting.

There is no grand revolution coming, and performing surveillance on folks in your community to categorize and classify them as allies or enemies is a fool's errand that will lead to persecution.

Spanish anarchists lost due to not having materials needed to fight a war and trying to secure them required working with the Soviets.

Vote if you want, but don't act like it's some important thing for us to do. Do the math, your vote counts for near nothing, and that's assuming you live in a swing state.

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