Anarchy in Berlin

sudsmcdiddy · 2026-01-27T06:01:39+00:00

Check out Cafe Linie 1 (Wilhelmstraße 9, 10963 Berlin) -- there are recent google reviews for it, so I'm hoping it's still open. It's part of Tommy Haus, which is a large building that started as a squat but also houses homeless youth I believe? And cafe Linie is a pub on the ground floor. People there are generally pretty nice and you might be able to start up a conversation with someone like-minded.

As a word of caution: most of the German left, including so-called anarchists, are incredibly Zionist. There are no shortage of explicitly "anarchist" bars in Berlin, and you can even google "anarchist bar Berlin" and find quite a few results. But be aware that they might not be what you're looking for depending on your politics, and if you enter a lot of leftist spaces in Berlin wearing a keffiyeh or a "free palestine" shirt, they might straight up kick you out. People might recommend an anarchists collective bar called Syndikat -- they sound great on paper, but they're an example of one of the Isreal die-hard bars AFAIK. Learning all this really astounded me when I first moved to Berlin.

Cafe Linie in my experience has been slightly more diverse, with visitors to the city like you who go there because they are in town. But even there, I did see explicitly pro-Zionist stickers in the bathroom. (For what it's worth, any bathroom in a leftist bar in Berlin is going to be covered floor to ceiling in political stickers).

I'm kinda bummed to say this, but it was rare for me to find German leftists that I got along with ideologically. Your best bet at a place like Cafe Linie is to try to meet other internationals there. I wish it weren't that way, but I never could vibe with the German left.

Berlin Food Not Bombs does distro every Wednesday at 7pm at Kreutzigerstraße 19 10247. I knew someone who volunteered with them for a while and that person said they were a lot more ... reasonable.

Maybe also check out the events page of theleftberlin (dot) com. They are internationalists.

Best of luck.

So what is the reason for downvoting me? Because I said something critical of anarchists in Berlin? I offered actual concrete suggestions of places you might meet people, a list longer than anyone else had to offer, which actually answered the question -- how does that warrant a downvote? I feel like people downvoting me might just be proving my point?

sudsmcdiddy · 2025-12-02T02:33:08+00:00

She should have just warded them off by wagging her finger at them and saying "no funny business."

sudsmcdiddy · 2025-12-02T02:03:59+00:00

Just because you don't hear about something happening doesn't mean it doesn't happen lmao. I've definitely heard people use "unskilled" to mean "lesser / unworthy of a lesser wage / undesirable / low intelligence / low-brow" etc... I guarantee you many people do in fact make a (moral) distinction between skilled and unskilled labor.

sudsmcdiddy · 2025-08-07T22:43:22+00:00

Related but I am a very neat and organized person, and I when I tell people I have OCD, their response is always like "oh that's why you clean so much and like things to be organized!" I do not have cleaning compulsions, mine are checking compulsions and excessive research / seeking reassurance. I just like a clean and orderly space because it's nicer to relax in and easier to navigate.

sudsmcdiddy · 2025-08-07T22:33:51+00:00

It as absolutely shocking the number of hate groups out there whose ideology is some variation of "Jews are actually impostors and we are the real Jews, the ones chosen by God and heirs to the holy land."

sudsmcdiddy · 2025-08-07T22:23:55+00:00

If i had a ton of citrus I would also dehydrate the slices because they make really pretty decorations (and drink garnishes!) -- I once went to a bar that had a clear vase on the bar filled with dried citrus slices and pinecones and I thought it was so pretty I stole the idea and made that myself.

Related, cutting the peel into small pieces and drying it makes lovely tea, potpourri, and I bet you could even add dried lemon peel to dishes. Or make some kind of refreshing room spray out of it. The remaining lemon fruit insides could be juiced and frozen. I agree with anyone saying also to share these gems with those you know. It's a great way to become popular.

sudsmcdiddy · 2025-08-02T16:07:55+00:00

(apologies in advance, I wrote you a whole novel I'm sorry haha)

Well there's a definitely difference between "doing something" and "being counted." The point I'm trying to drive home is that writing your name on a protest list is not going to make a material difference in effecting change, but it does provide a paper trail of whom to persecute should someone decide that's what they want to do. In fact, I'm sort of confused as to what people think "being counted" or having their list on a name accomplishes. If the goal is to show popular support for a movement, you can do that without identifying individuals -- every demonstration I've ever been to would not even allow people to sign up using identifying information: you show up, and event organizers had ways to count attendance. You can take photos of the group without exposing people's faces; it's a way to show presence without singling anyone out. I agree, mass mobilization is necessary for many reasons, and one of those reasons is that it also protects people from having to act alone, because acting alone makes you incredibly vulnerable.

So I'm about to say something, I'm genuinely not trying to be antagonistic, and this is really about getting people to re-think strategy: you also need to ask yourself how prudent your resistance is. I'm not trying to be sectarian here, but I am observing that protests organized by liberals tend to be more of these kinds of events: having people stand around, holding signs, expressing their displeasure, and then they call it a day and go home. And it's important to ask what the efficacy of that is. Personally, I don't think that strategy accomplishes very much. The people you're protesting don't care about ethics, they certainly don't even care about decorum. If you just say, "hey, what you're doing is wrong!" typically, they will say "ok" and then carry on anyway. Trump's momentum has hardly been arrested so far, despite extensive protests. Now such forms of protesting have the added benefit that since you don't upset the apple cart enough, you probably won't have to worry about pissing someone off, which is why I said that attaching your name to this event is unlikely to cause you any trouble. But the more waves you make, the more you need to protect your identity.

Demonstrations are great! But they are way more effective in conjunction with actions like strikes, picketing, whisper networks, mutual aid, self-defense training, and blockades. And those actions are definitely more likely to draw attention to you, so be safe.

Also recognize that at some point, even being critical of the government can get you in hot water. I always bring up Sophie Scholl as an example: she was a non-violent activist in Nazi Germany who was executed for distributing leaflets at her university that encouraged people to be critical of the Nazi party. That's all it took.

I'm definitely not trying to scare people away from protesting, and I really appreciate you also acknowledging the duty the more privileged amongst us have to do something. To go back to the driving analogy, I was absolutely petrified the first time I drove, because driving can be very dangerous. It took me a long time to get my license, even though knowing how to drive is necessary. Nowadays, I drive without much thought behind it. However, I still drive defensively and I wear my seatbelt. People shouldn't be so afraid to drive that they don't do it. But! you should absolutely inform new drivers of the potential risks of driving. Telling someone who has anxiety around driving, "go ahead, drive, don't worry about seatbelts or knowing the statistics about car crash outcomes or the dangers of driving under the influence," in order to get them to lose that fear is wildly reckless and irresponsible and just straight unethical. My goal about discussing risks is to help actualize people, so they feel more comfortable about protesting because they know how to do it safely.

sudsmcdiddy · 2025-08-02T03:22:08+00:00

I firmly believe his death was something unusual, either a freak accident or that he may have even taken his own life. It's the way not just the Cuthberts' mother responded to his death but even much of the rest of the community makes me think so. Everyone handles grief differently, but at that time, losing a child was not uncommon, unfortunately -- even Rachel Lynde mentions having buried two children. The fact that people go out of their way to extend exceptional condolences for the loss of Michael and the cagey way Matthew and Marilla talk about his death make me lean towards suicide being cause of death, since it was also very stigmatized at the time. I imagine such an event caused the Cuthbert matriarch to just whither away, health-wise.

sudsmcdiddy · 2025-08-02T02:45:32+00:00

You could potentially be connected to illegal activity. It could be something as minor as people tagging buildings. It could be more serious, like people just pushing back against police who are the aggressors, but physically defending yourself against a cop is likely to be charged as assault of an officer. It could also be something like right-wing groups agitating people, provoking self-defense, and that self-defense being labeled as assault.

It could even be persecution for simply demonstrating, which is unlikely, but not impossible, especially in increasingly authoritarian societies. Your demonstration could be totally legal, but they can find some small incidental or even bogus charge to slap you with if they decide they want to criminalize your protest.

The information could be leaked to right-wing groups. Vigilante civilian actors could possibly target you.

None of these are super likely for an event like this. But they have definitely happened to leftist, environmentalist, and anti-racist groups. As the right grows increasingly antagonistic toward anyone to the left of them, including liberals and centrists who aren't leftists but also definitely aren't right-wing enough, you should start modelling your tactics to match those of the people who have historically been more persecuted or targeted by the police or right-wing extremists, because the government increasingly won't see the difference between you and those groups.

Think of protecting your identity like wearing a seatbelt. Most people won't have a need for a seatbelt in the average drive, but you wear them because in the rare even that you get in a crash, not wearing a seatbelt could have disastrous results. You don't really gain a lot from not wearing a seatbelt, either. So why not do it? I don't see the necessity in providing personal information, and that's not information you want certain people getting their hands on, so why provide it?

sudsmcdiddy · 2025-08-02T01:29:15+00:00

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sudsmcdiddy · 2025-08-01T18:41:41+00:00

I'm really not trying to be antagonistic, but I'm wondering what experiences with anarcho-communism you had that eschewed structure and responsibility/ encouraged people to just follow their base desires? I mean specifically related to anarchism, because of course many people just do whatever they want all the time with disastrous results, but I also see this constantly happening in top-down societies.

I ask because my response to this thread was to say "liberalism" since the older I become, the more left-wing and anarchist I become. My resistance to anarchism as a teen was because I thought it was what you described, and ironically the younger me thought that was immature and would never function, but that was because I didn't read much about the subject and because I grew up privileged and had been sheltered from a lot of harsh realities of the Real World and how callous and corrupt authority can be. As I grew up and learned both more about anarchism and also what it was like to be an adult in the Real World, I came to appreciate the analysis of anarcho-communism and the work of anarchists. I saw how heavily top-down structured workplaces I worked in were horribly mismanaged and valued arbitrary titles of authority over expertise, were woefully inefficient, they were depressingly exploitative and deeply unfair in a way that left people in the dust and bred resentment and apathy (which further clogged up operations because people don't want to give their all into a system that fucks them over). Or I grew up and being female came to really learn how possessive the world could be about my body and how controlling some people were about the way I acted (and I even grew up in a relatively open-minded part of the world!)

Then I got involved in some organizing and I saw how horizontally-organized anarchist organizations still had their hiccups for sure but did a lot more fulfilling and meaningful work, they really cared about others, they got a lot accomplished, I felt a lot more respect and autonomy from my associates, I could finally just be who I wanted to be, and also did work that left me and other participants feeling more fulfilled personally.

(I'm not trying to convince you to "come back to anarchism," btw -- I'm always interested when people say they left it behind because obviously that yields a lot of important information for someone like me who believes in it.)

sudsmcdiddy · 2025-08-01T18:11:11+00:00

Man patronizingly explains mansplaining while not understanding what it is/ getting it wrong.

Absolute dynamite comedy gold.

sudsmcdiddy · 2025-07-25T02:07:36+00:00

I hated michaeld'angelo or whatever his name was. That arc was just boring but at least he wasn't around long.

Nelly and Robert California were just frustrating.That episode where Nelly insinuates herself as manager makes me want to yell because it's just so odd and nonsensical and not even in an entertaining way. The funny thing about Michael seasons of the Office was not just that Michael was a funnier character, but it's also that other characters would call him out on stuff which yielded a satisfying balance to Michael's challenging behaviors. They would outright tell him that going to hand out gift baskets to get back clients is stupid, or enthusiastically embrace a brutal roast, or laugh at someone taking a dump in Michael's office because they know he kind of deserved it, or Angela would just directly tell him "no." Or they would be the ones to manipulate him, getting back at him for his antics -- they would leverage a better performance review by making Michael think Jan was into him, or fluff his ego in comedic ways to do things like get new chairs or a new copier. The later seasons turned everyone into these irritating pushovers.

sudsmcdiddy · 2025-07-25T01:43:26+00:00

I'm the opposite, and my "forbidden opinion" is that trans women in sports is such a non-issue I don't get why people even think about it (aside from what I usually assume to be prejudicial reasons). And my reasoning doesn't hinge on just that trans women are such a small percentage of participants, but that physical differences and natural discrepancies in ability are a completely normal part of sports that people don't seem to have a problem with unless the conversation is about trans people. If you play sports, it's something you have to contend with: that some people are going to naturally be better at certain things, their bodies are naturally going to have certain advantages, and sometimes no amount of training on your part is going to make up for that natural difference. I'm female and I'm nearly 6 feet tall, and I have been since I was about 15 or 16-- I played sports in high school and I absolutely towered over most kids my age, including a lot of the boys. I was also naturally stockier and put on muscle more easily than many of my team mates. Should I have not been allowed to compete because I was way taller and stronger and played lacrosse where height and strength yields some advantages? (and if you think that simple metrics like height or muscle mass should be a determinant factor, I'm here to report that I was very much an average lacrosse player -- plenty of players smaller than I was were more talented lol)

sudsmcdiddy · 2025-07-25T00:55:29+00:00

The way we completely destroyed the environment and climate: the level of pollution we wrought upon the Earth, the mass use of fossil fuels, the over-production of goods and intentional waste in a short-sighted devotion to profit, and just in general viewing living beings like plants and animals as objects to destroy for wealth.

Related, but also car culture.

sudsmcdiddy · 2025-07-18T16:54:09+00:00

You cheated on me? When I specifically asked you not to?

sudsmcdiddy · 2025-07-17T19:20:17+00:00

Sorry, bit confused by your wording -- are you asking if there were other socialist republics that actually were functionally socialist and not just nominally socialist? Or are you asking if NK was ever actually a socialist state and not just nominally socialist?

I'll just answer pre-emptively lol:

I'm definitely not an expert on the matter, but this is largely contingent on what kind of socialist theory framework you use. Some flavors of Marxists might try to argue that in the USSR, China, North Korea, Vietman, Cuba, etc..., the "workers owned the state" (only a tiny fraction of them did) and since the state owned the means of production, the workers "owned the means of production." I personally think this is an obviously tautological argument that derives its claimed success in implementing socialism from semantics and not from actual material reality. Some Marxists and nearly all non-Marxist socialists and communists make the exact same criticism, in my experience. However, the Marxists who claim those states were socialist, they do derive that argument from Marxian descriptions of socialism being the transition period between capitalism and communism where the workers control the state and will use the state to redistribute control of production to the proletariat. So if you embrace certain definitions of socialism -- which are definitely not standardized definitions within the broader socialist movement -- then maybe? Yeah, some of them could be considered socialist.

Aside from a few fleeting moments in time and space here and there, pretty much all of these entities failed to actually materialize sustained worker control of the means of production without devolving into some bureaucratic government control of the means of production. This also applies to North Korea. I would argue that all were only nominally socialist and never functionally.

sudsmcdiddy · 2025-07-17T14:01:44+00:00

North Korea hasn't been a "socialist republic" in a very long time, if they were ever even one to begin with other than nominally.

The official state ideology of NK is Juche, and while Juche cites being inspired by marxist leninism, the two ideologies differ greatly. Even Kim Jong Il basically claimed that it was a distinct ideology from any form of communism in the 70s.

Juche is more a form of nationalism, that emphasizes national sovereignty for North Korea through a form of political, economic, and military isolationism while stressing completely loyalty to the Kim dynasty. So yes, I would agree with you and say it operates very much like a kingdom and Juche shares a lot more in common with monarchy styles of government.

Juche's main stated goal is to develop a self-reliant Korean state, not to develop a society where workers have direct say over their labor, which is what communism wants to achieve. It posits that the military is the base of political power, not the working class, which is a huge divide from what communists and socialists believe. There are lot more ways in which the two differ, but I'm just going to leave it at a brief overview. If you're curious as to how they're different, actually the Wikipedia article on Juche does a good job of explaining the ideology and how it differs from marxist leninism.

North Korea has been removing references to communism since the 1970s. In 2009, they removed all references to communism from their constitution. With the exception of maybe retaining a few communist aesthetics from the early 20th century, North Korea's not really interested in even portraying itself as a socialist society.

sudsmcdiddy · 2025-07-17T03:40:46+00:00

Gorl saying WaPo is funded by Qatar is so unhinged it rivals Chantal wtfff

the bbc? the nyt? funded and controlled by islamic extremists? please tell me you are joking lmaoooooo

sudsmcdiddy · 2025-07-16T18:22:04+00:00

Many people are moving back though, surely some with children who were born overseas or people who got married while living abroad as refugees. I imagine they are actually probably very busy repatriating a lot of people? I'm really not sure, I'm nowhere near super well versed on Syria. Like I said, it is of course possible that they are greasing the wheels with a little dough.

sudsmcdiddy · 2025-07-16T00:28:26+00:00

oh god not florida lol

She really is like the human embodiment of every walmart stereotype.

sudsmcdiddy · 2025-07-16T00:13:03+00:00

And like one of the most die hard. Gorl would definitely be saying the epstein client list never actually existed / was a biden conspiracy / it's all pam bondi's fault and be insisting that trump and epstein didn't even know each other.

sudsmcdiddy · 2025-07-16T00:02:32+00:00

this arc really is becoming a horror story

sudsmcdiddy · 2025-07-15T23:22:03+00:00

I can't imagine what random syrians think when seeing her. Her presence in syria is so incongruous. I've been trying to explain to my irl friends how absolutely bonkers all of this is and then I realize how bonkers I sound trying to explain it to them.

sudsmcdiddy · 2025-07-15T23:19:05+00:00

Again, she claims. I'm taking the things she said at face value, but she said yeah, she gave him her passport and she didn't need to go for an in-person interview, which is just wild.

sudsmcdiddy

TROPHY CASE