Cops Don't Wear Masks, Anarchists Must

the show that feigned solidarity

In April here in Portland there was a benefit show for Boris, a disabled French anarchist who is in need of a wheelchair. The show had both outdoor (where almost no one was wearing masks) and indoor spaces (where 2/3rds were still unmasked), and was a massive COVID hazard. Over 50 people attended this show to try to show solidarity with a disabled anarchist and in my opinion failed at it by not masking. This is unconscionable in 2023 in an anarchist space.
Portland was a lot better at wearing masks than a lot of the rest of the country. People who visited told me this. And yet it is quickly ending. People do not mask anymore. Anarchists do not mask anymore, because the government said it is all over, and it is disgusting.

It is ridiculous to gather to raise money for a person who is disabled and not participate in a way that is safe and shows solidarity with other disabled people. Like going to a solidarity show with an anarcha-feminist and consistently calling people misogynist slurs or welcoming a band full of abusers, or trying to show solidarity with a victim of racism and wearing blackface. You cannot choose which disabled people you are in solidarity with — either you are with all of them or none of them. If you can spend money on a wheelchair you can wear a mask. (Even outside!! Because unless you are more than 6ft apart outside air does not guarantee that airborne particles will not make it from one person to another!! We’ve known this and seem to have forgotten it! Or are ignoring it to make ourselves feel better about our bad habits!)

What I saw at the show was the picking and choosing of which disabilities are considered real. People deciding for others what they consider disabling or a disability, and clearly not including people who are immune-compromised, on immunosuppressants, have respiratory ailments, or are otherwise at risk from a respiratory illness that raises the odds of developing diabetes and Alzheimer’s, of having a stroke or heart attack rates, of having lasting brain fog, fatigue, and lung damage, and of straight up fucking dying.

Just because mobility disabilities are very visible and more accepted as “real” does not mean they are the only ones, and it does not mean we have to throw all other disabled people under the bus for the ones people choose to make tokens (who do not fucking want to be your tokens).

assorted arguments for masking

COVID limits the reach of our organizing and our capability to attack. We are already limited by work and chores and family care and sleep and transportation and energy levels. All of these things take away from our capability to come together and organize and plan and scheme. And for some reason there are anarchists who want to add a severely disabling and potentially deadly illness into that mix. That is ludicrous. We are fighting for liberation and autonomy; a mass disabling event amongst anarchists will not help us do that – just ask all the disabled people who are fucking screaming at you to wear a mask so that you do not end up like them, with even less energy and more limits on your time and ability to attack.

The cops use COVID like this, too. There are already struggles in this country where people are not wearing masks and when entire encampments get sick the cops know this and choose to raid on those days, when everyone is feverish, bed-ridden, and unable to breathe. You do not need to be in a high-risk camp for COVID to be used like this, though. If tomorrow there is another flashpoint and you are sick or disabled from previous illness, the police have won that battle. And your friends who will need your strength, courage, experience, and love by their side will lose, just as much as you who will miss out on being able to strike back and potentially win some freedom. We laughed all of 2020 and 2021 when the cops kept getting sick and dying because they refused to wear masks and now y'all are the suckers refusing to learn from your enemy's mistakes.

It has been now 3 years and 2 months since the March 2020 COVID policies began. That is a long time, and anarchists, just like the rest of the population, is showing it. But we are not flashpoint-oriented. If you're still in the scene, and you were in the scene before 2020, you should know that. Anarchism is not about the riot night, it is about organizing and building affinity, writing to prisoners and hosting reading groups, it is about waking up every morning and living in a tension, not a realization, and accepting that year after year. It is, again!, about practicing security culture long after all the people you originally practiced it with are gone, and hoping that they are doing it too. Anarchists are in it for the long haul. It is why attacks are happening still, so long after May of 2020, so long after Ferguson and Seattle 99 and LA 92. Masking every day and at every event is part of that. Yes it is exhausting and uncomfortable, but what is more is accepting defeat.

Because the state thinks it has won. It has declared COVID "over", for us all to rejoice in not having to worry anymore about a disease that is killing 3000 people every week. The state has declared no more masking, and anarchists are following suit. Anarchists should know that the state is doing this because it wants to cut medicare expansions that were created under COVID, and cut back on EBT, and cut free school lunches for children, and more. Anarchists should know that COVID is not over and that the state is lying to us, but for some reasons anarchists choose to go with the propaganda when it fits their ableist bigotry. If the state told you that white men should be in charge would you follow that? Yeah, some of you would.

It bears repeating that outdoors is not safe. The guideline has always been six-feet distance between unmasked people. Six-feet minimum. There are multiple instances of unmasked people spreading disease beyond six feet when outdoors. Masking up outdoors is important. Yes even when it is hot and you are sweating. COVID does not rest during a heatwave (or a power outage or a snow storm or a hurricane or an earthquake). People tend to gather closer than three-feet distance when together. That is putting each other at risk.

Anarchists are very bad at being inclusive. Going beyond the clique-y-ness and the subculture shit, anarchists are actually very bad at creating safe and accessible spaces. The misogyny and abuse is rampant and regularly tears scenes and friend groups. So is the racism. I figured that a disease that affects everyone could bring people together, but that is clearly not true. Everyone is so ableist they assume they themselves are healthy enough to stave-off an infection. Except you're not. Everyone is so ableist they forget they can become disabled, too. There is also of course a racial and classist aspect, too. The poorest and the most racially marginalized are the ones affected the most by COVID. Death and disability rates amongst Latines and Black people is worse than in any other demographic (even all the white reactionaries that these (white) anarchist anti-maskers are now mimicking). The question raised in anarchist spaces on racial discrimination and gendered violence must be repeated with disability: when you gather and feel comfortable, who are you excluding? Who does not feel safe around you? Why are you contributing to marginalization?

masking is security culture

Maybe these arguments do not convince you, so I will posit this: COVID precautions are a part of security culture, and we need to stop organizing with people who do not adhere to stringent security culture.
In the same way that we do not let everyone in on our need-to-know, we should not let everyone breathe the same unfiltered air. The same way you cover your eyebrows and discard your clothes you should cover your mouth and nose and change your mask regularly when it gets old. The same way we do not gather in large crowds to discuss sensitive matters we should not gather in large crowds without wearing masks.

Security culture only works when everyone is working from a similar set of standards, when there are no weak links. The same is true for COVID precautions. When one person does not mask properly, they are putting the entire chain at risk. People can be infectious for 48hours before developing symptoms, and even never develop symptoms and be infectious for days! One set of loose lips can put dozens at risk; put a mask on!

The scary thing about COVID is not so much the disease but how one person's laxness can make everyone lax. Group dynamics of trust are a dangerous thing because so often they require implicit or non-discussed trust, which is where the weakness lies in the armor that is affinity. One person trusts another, and then that second one brings a friend and so the first person figures "Oh I can trust the friend" without vetting. We see this happen all the time. Implicit assumptions that everyone is on the same page. It is why people are against the sharing of information in large groups or in signal group chats, because one unvetted connection can be the undoing of everyone.

And yet… we are breathing everyone's unvetted air. When people come from all over town, all over the state, hell all over the country, they bring their pathogens with them, and there is no way to vet them all. When I have a hangout with my friends in a backyard or in a park I can ask people to test or to mask or how risky they have been in their exposures. It is impossible to do that at a concert or bookfair or other large gathering. We should be masking at all of those because it is impossible to have safety and security with everyone, and so we should assume we are both a danger and in danger, and act accordingly. Ideally people are testing regularly and monitoring for symptoms, but anti-masker anarchists are selfish enough that I will take them wearing masks as a victory.

The most important part of security culture is getting home safe and staying safe going forward to allow us to act again. This includes public low-risk events. It always included public low-risk events. Being surveilled and followed from those has always been a risk. And now it includes being infected and taking that home to spread it to your roommates and loved ones and co-workers and random people on the bus or the sidewalk. Wearing a mask at events ensures that you act safely and get home safely.

It is okay to have laxed your precautions, like we all slip up on security culture. But it is necessary to tighten them back up, and to remind each other to tighten it up, too. Because otherwise we will endanger everything we work on and everyone we work with.

I hear people complain constantly about needing to mask and how it sucks to mask for so long what with work and going to the store and just wanting to take them off. Compare that again to security culture concerns. We say "the riot is one night but metadata is forever", we keep a culture of never talking about things that were done and shun those who brag or break that silence. This disease is here. It is here to stay unless we mask and limit our exposure and transmission by limiting our interactions. If we do not keep doing it, we are opening ourselves and others to risk.

Another excuse/complaint I have heard is that people want to have fun and relax and masking makes that difficult because you are assuming you are in danger. You are in danger! Ignoring it will not make it go away! It is like saying "the state is already surveilling me so I might as well take my phone everywhere and tweet my every thought and text my every action". It is ludicrous. Masking, and other COVID precautions, allows you to relax and have fun by eliminating danger and building trust and care with each other. You all are acting like fucking brunch Democrats! Like Trump in April 2020 when he said that if we stopped testing the case count would stop going up! Biden wants you to spread COVID! You, like every Democrat and Republican bootlicker, want COVID to be over so bad you are acting as if it is and you're going to make us all hurt for your recklessness!

If you do not act like it is a risk your fun will come to an abrupt stop. You may argue you are here for a good time not a long time but many of us are here for both – so put on a fucking mask for those of us not selfish enough to think going along with state-sanctioned eugenics is a free life.

think for yourselves

An argument was made to me that Boris and many French anarchists are anti-maskers because of the severe 2020 lockdowns and police-enforced mask mandates. I do not fucking care! If the French were pro-being filmed or pro-talking to journalists would we unquestioningly follow their milieu, or would we think for ourselves? Would we show solidarity with the disabled and with the imprisoned (who are still suffering from severed COVID outbreaks) and practice security culture of our own volition? Or would we blindly follow what others think is an act of rebellion (but is in fact not an action in search of liberation but one of obstinacy for the sake of contradicting the state (which does not want you to mask anyway))?

Wear a mask.
Keep each other safe.
Shoutout to the people who never stopped.

There are 117 Comments

no one in europe has wore a mask for over a year. not even in hospitals.

everyone in the world has either had covid, had a vaccine, or had both by now. stop using a pandemic that's long gone as a club to beat people with.

You seem to have a deep and unexamined fear of becoming disabled yourself, and this prevents you from weighing risks reasonably. Demanding everyone else accommodate your own irrational fear of disability is not the anti-ableist praxis you think it is.

you calling something irrational is not an argument. your're just name calling.

It's a plea for some reflection.
If someone's approach to COVID looks like "wear a mask so that you do not end up like them [disabled people]", they're reacting to their own fear of ending up disabled ("like them"!) - internalized ableism. The writer seems far more scared of becoming like their perception of disabled people than even of dying. Extreme fear rooted in unconscious biases is an obvious barrier to any sort of rational analysis and action.
"you're going to make us all hurt", "we're in danger!" , etc. etc. This fearmongering is always the language of control. We're always told we should be afraid of this or that, and the only way to be "safe" is through obedience to this rule or that group of people. There's nothing anarchist about it.

makes it harder for people to discern the possible consequences of their actions. I said this same thing in that de-colonization discussion: if you have some event...and you demand attendees do something that would make the event less enjoyable or make it really awkward for socializing, then me thinking twice about it has nothing to do with me being "a white and privileged" or "bad" person.

I even say this acknowledging that me not wearing a mask could put me and other people in danger, but my presence could put people in danger for a lot of reasons, so why make everything about guilt and fear? The solution to worries about vulnerable people getting diseases is to buy N95 masks and put them on a table with a sign letting people know they are there. The amount of effort it would take to do something like that doesn't even compare to the amount of effort it takes to write and submit a PSA like above. People just do so many fucking senseless and crazy things now adays, and it makes everyone more susceptible to practically...everything.

buddy, some of us are already disabled and have already been functionally abandoned by not just capitalism and the state, but our own communities for having high support needs, that we are struggling to meet ourselves with our loyal close people. making the calculation that you are already barely able to work, barely able to keep house, barely able to do most things you like, and that you don't want to lose more or be sicker in more pain and have fewer options and less independence, is not irrational fear of disability any more than wearing a fucking helmet on your bike.

I don't know if you yourself are a disabled person with high support needs but I doubt it, and even if you are: you're really low for using 'internalised ableism' as a fig leaf for your defensiveness about refusing solidarity with those of us who might die if we get sicker. have an ounce of shame if sense or empathy don't suffice.

who tell people to stay inside. I'm seeing a lot of long winded hot air about bad people but absolutely nothing about real people. Holier than thou shit online (yeah this website is a pretty big source of it, and sometimes they call themselves individualists...) looks even more hypocritical than it does in real life, i don't see how shame in any way feeds people with disabilities, it's usually people in the immediate families of people who have disabilities that pick up the tab.

in the same sentence is really fucking hilarious, like, would hypothetically be something an anarchist state would say...and you may think that's to contradictory to be real, but remember that USA politicians on the right have long attacked other politicians for being politicians...

I'm not wearing a mask, not because I don't care about disabled people, nor because the State told me to do so, but because I'm not sick and, therefore, don't need to protect anyone from anything a mask can prevent. If I was sick, I wouldn't be going out. For those who need to protect themselves from the many coronaviruses, wear a mask.

You are one hell of a 'Murikan. 'The world revolves around me.'

Really, that’s how you understand autonomy? You think its self-centered to move through the world from your own understandings like (12/06/2023 - 05:20)? They have, as far as I am concerned, the only anarchist response to all of the covid bullshit. you are sick, stay home if you don’t want to infect others, otherwise, do what you think is best. That has always been my stance from day one. I wish this issue would just go away, but it won’t as long as you have idiotic posts like this. Don’t blame the anti-maskers either, the mask-authoritarians are the ONLY problem here. And don’t put all “disabled” people into the same category either, they have many divergent perspectives on this or any other matter, just as any “marginalized” group this type of political garbage tries to use for their authoritarian agendas.

"your own understanding" does not equal "only people i know."

the ONLY problem are the people saying what groups are the ONLY problem

Acknowledges that the entire world doesn't wear masks anymore, assumes white middle class college American paranoid hypocondriacs have got it all right.

Oh gee where to begin? How about the last section header being "think for yourselves" while the whole piece could be summed up as "don't think for yourselves." Hilarious!

yeah, obvioulsy "think fo ryourself" is an entirely empty thing to say, since everyoen focuses on their own envieronment, how they're a victim.

fo course WE're not doing that...

This seems like clever satire or written by someone who at some point got a piano dropped on their head.

Does Portland have any actual anarchist projects or is everyone just insane?

The latter, 96% of everyone here are severely mentally ill virtue signaling liberals. Clementine Morgan came to Portland earlier this year shed some light on how authoritarian the anarcho-democrats are, and they lost their shit and literally threw it on her car. But her critiques of them are more salient than ever https://www.instagram.com/p/C0c-Z5MtOqg/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igs...

damn I didn't know it was so difficult to get a group of anarchists to wear masks but apparently it is

Idk why this is all really a controversy. Civilization makes ti so people give each other diseases all the time. Putting some effort in to reduce the amount of damage civilization does to the lives of anarchists seems fairly smart. Wearing a mask isn't that bothersome but it's very bothersome if I end up infecting w cool anarchist with COVID or flu and they have to pay arround for a week not doing anything. And also like I have cool stuff I like to do and getting COVID fucking sucks and I had to put cool stuff on hold for a bit last time I got it. So wearign a mask seems like giving up nothing to be sabotaged by civilization less. Seems like a obvious win to me.

Yes because wearing a mask at all times being in constant fear of disease is definitely a normal thing to put your mind and body through.

Just stop we don't care.

and i don't care what you think! Welcome to anarchy. You can wear a mask, and I won't. Not hard.

Okay deal. Now shut up and quit being a little bitch snowflake about it! Don't wear a mask. Nobody cares, you don't go to anarchists events anyway. BYE, KAREN!

So this is now an "anti-civilization" position? If you're really concerned about all this MOVE OUT OF THE CITY!

i would be more sympathetic to this argument if there were some details offered. this starts by saying —

"In April here in Portland there was a benefit show for Boris, a disabled French anarchist who is in need of a wheelchair. The show had both outdoor (where almost no one was wearing masks) and indoor spaces (where 2/3rds were still unmasked), and was a massive COVID hazard. "

So, did people get covid at this event? was this a mass spreading event? this bit of news does not seem to get answered here. if 50 people attended the benefit how many got sick? sure, being unmasked indoors is a hazard for acquiring any airborne illness, but if the author here can't say if anyone actually got ill from attending then maybe it wasn't the biggest hazard. and / or all or some of these people were not complete strangers to each other, maybe, and so had already shared air....

i find both anti-maskers and pro-maskers a bit shrill. use some sense. haha, anarchists using sense haha... i can dream!

You're victim blaming, Nettle.

Believe disabled people.

But to answer your question as a Portlander. Yes, many people who attended got quite sick. A bigger point here in this very excellent article is that the callousness is what is in question. Your comment included.

Believe disabled people lmao what the fuck does that even mean. That's gotta be a joke. My friend is going through a schizophrenic episode at the moment, should I believe them?

Should you believe that "your friend" is "going through a schizophrenic episode at the moment"?

Yes.

Take your medicine, friend.

if that is the case why oh why was this not mentioned in the article, like right after the paragraph i quoted???

that seems like it would be pertinent to the conversation, no?

I want you to report back with the logical fallacy your demand is displaying.

There was a time it looked like: "Well, I've never known anyone to die from AIDS and they have unprotected sex ALL THE TIME. They don't even talk about it to me."

probably cuz the point they're making is about preventative measures?

people don't have to get shot to justify the existence of firearms safety, except when you realize you went shooting with really stupid people and should leave immediately

because isn't this a benefit for Boris? and then at the end of the article it says – "An argument was made to me that Boris and many French anarchists are anti-maskers because of the severe 2020 lockdowns and police-enforced mask mandates."

i just read the entire article, i have no desire to know more of Portland, actually.

You mean you were commenting and jumping to conclusion before reading the entire article first, Nettle?

What the fuck. Not you too!

"many people got sick" - you are just making things up.

"believe disabled people" - lmao which ones??? surely not the ones spreading misinformation to push their One True Cause...

What is the source of this article? Direct anonymous email? Copy and paste from an enemy website to not give them credit? How can we contact he author and give them a publishing deal and MANY American Dollars? Why do thecollective hate writers?

interesting article!

here's my question, did everyone who attended have to walk past a sign or read an online invite that explained clearly that the person in question was immuno-compromised?

or was it possible to wander in to the show space without realizing that the entire point of the night was about solidarity with somebody who wanted me to wear a mask?

i ask because at that point, i can pop on a mask or find something else to do with my evening easily enough.
seems pretty reasonable to me

I hate it when lumpy is right and i agree with him.

The rest of you opposing wearing a mask for "muh reasons" are awful people and I hope you suffer for making me agree with lumpy.

crowds of people should not be used in the same sentence as "anarchist". If you folks want to have solidarity events for the disabled, and have a list of rules for strangers...that's fine, but please don't call it anarchist so that me and other people know that i'm supposed to be respectful. This is basic social skills 101. Anarchism isn't about respect and solidarity...it's about being irreverent and not trusting authority. A demand based anarchy is basically the same thing as anarcho-capitalism or anarcho-nationalism. These kinds of events are definitely worthy of a monty python sketch because anarchism becomes totally meaningless. The words we use actually do matter.

Do leftist anarchists now want there to be genuine "anarchist districts"? Donald Trump was kinda into the idea, but that doesn't mean it will happen.

Tell me you don't know how sars2 disables people regardless of health without telling me you don't know how sars2 works.

yes this disease will eventually give the entire planet crippling long term illness unlike no other flu pandemic in history. Or you are just *paranoid*

No need to illustrate my point but thank you anyway.

omg the vaccine is in the room with you right now!

it's going to wait til you're asleep, crawl up your nose and BAM ! cultural marxism!

Anti-mask Snowflake doesn't care what anyone thinks so he's sure to tell everyone.

Anti-mask Snowflake doesn't believe the science around the transmission of covid-19 and will use science to prove his point, but the really good science not the fake bad science that wants to inject you with controlling vaccine science.

Anti-mask Snowflake is an Ubermensch that isn't afraid of illness because he doesn't leave his room except when his mom makes him come all the way upstairs to microwave his own tendies (she's such a ibitch!).

Anti-mask Snowflake thinks the earth is overpopulated with humans but needs to save the humans from deadly vaccines because he cares so much about them being free (to die and rid the earth of their presence!).

Anti-mask Snowflake loves Anarchistnews.org for always listening.

Anti-mask Snowflake wants to feel Lumpy's biceps.

I've had 2 shots of the Pfizer RNA vaccine and a booster and I'm fully illuminated so have no fear. Take the shot!

Boris, who the benefit show was for, is neither immuno-compromised nor trying to get people to wear covid masks. He lost the use of his arms and legs in a prison fire while serving time for arson of comms towers, and the author is using Boris's disability to argue that it's hypocritical to raise money for Boris's wheelchair but not require masks in support of people with immune system disabilities.

Its really weird to see this piece make accusations of tokenization while making sweeping generalizations about disability to prove a point.

But you would have to because you are old and weakened by your alcohol consumption, so yeah, no problem slipping on a mask, IF YOU WANNA STAY ALIVE!!

no. i do not have the power of deletion. i said i just read the article, meaning i don't have any more information on the Portland scene than what is in the article. not just read as in just now read. but language is weird and some readers are un-generous.

BE MORE CAREFUL WITH YOUR LANGUAGE!
TELL YOUR STUPID MODERATOR FRIENDS TO LET US WORK THINGS OUT OURSELVES INSTEAD OF DELETING COMMENTS BECAUSE THEY NEED TO CONTROL EVERYTHING AND MAKE US FIGHT. THOSE FUCKERS!
WE ARE FRIENDS AGAIN NETTLE.

Lumpy, I think the moderators are gaslighting Nettle's "friend" by selectively deleting and undeleting comments. Do not put your faith in the people with all the power when you are without power.

if comments deleted or undeleted on threads for this obtuse, head-scratching submission concern someone enough to be considered gaslighting we're pretty dang far from making total destroy and all that.

It would even be funnier if it was just a troll submission (doesn't seem likely if you look at the other submissions...), or if the writer included clearer details on what they meant. I wonder if this wheelchair dude likes being put on a pedastal that way! I've been a pretty able bodied person my hole life (even though my health has kinda sucked over the past few years), and my understanding is that the disabled do not like it when people talk about them like this...

is this a fucking joke?

are anarchists still towing this bullshit line?

It's not a joke or satire, a good chunk of leftists here in Portland are so neurotic, so hysterical, such hypochondriacs that they still live as if it's March of 2020. But the key thing to recognize here is that these people ARE NOT ANARCHISTS, THEY'RE AUTHORITARIAN DEMOCRATS/LIBERALS WHO LARP AND MASQUERADE AS ANARCHISTS. It would be easy to just ignore them and dismiss them as mentally ill kooks if they weren't at least 40% of our population here. Those of you who are considering moving to Portland, be warned that these nuts are the majority of the people you will encounter.

the most important thing for me when it comes to masking in anarchist events is that people i know are high risk for covid(and other things too) and i want them to be able to show up. i can think of one person i hate who is and i want them there too. not sure about slinging eugenicist and cop when its that simple for me.

Anarchists are not humanists, there is an overpopulation problem in all continents that is not sustainable. We are all hungry rats in a CAGE called Earth full of lingering ghosts kept alive. Save and feed the young YES, but extending the lives of bed-ridden affluent has-beens is,,,,,,c'mon anarchists, be bold, don't become leftist humanist liberals who cannot see the forest from the political corporate veil which envelopes them!

Aw, this anon cares about....the future... the young.... and Earth's.... overpopulation problem.... As an act of good faith and in alignment with your principles you should rid the Earth of yourself, anon. Do it for the young! Take at least 2 other whites with you too! Bye!

It is affluent white folk who wear masks mostly, so yes, when the time comes I will cough on a few unmasked old white people, but what is your point?

I know how hard it is to avoid this mortal dilemma, but stoicism will help you enjoy your ultimate fate. Good luck brah,,,

how will stoicism lull mine weary soul into the land of milk and honey!

You will be filled with esprit and avoid the pitfall of choosing opioids as you prime method of pain relief!

I have too many constipation issues for me to feel cool about that though! Drinking coffee and spraying shit is pretty n0ice dude.

well said, and i agree. the various @libs who want to rebrand "anarchy" into some palatable humanist feel-good concept they can try and convince the masses to agree with will never be free of those of us who literally crave the extinction of the human species.

Hey brah, it goes with saying, but I'm gonna say it anyway, because all statists are potentia.ly fallacious if the context for which they are in reference to are NEVER explicitly explained.
Most deaths, and I mean 99% of them, amounting to 2% of al thel population, already have serious health issues related mostly to the accumulation of organ deterioration, and other illnesses from eating junk food, lack of exercise, and old age.
We all die one day dude, it's natural and noble to go gracefully and with dignity, to feebly remove the mask and breath deeply an uncaged gasp of air.

So... Is anarchism basically just Nazi shit in different clothes? I thought anarchism was a leftist idealogy with interesting ideas, but if this comment section is any indication, "the anarchy we'd like to see in the world" is one that kills old, sick, and disabled people and considers that "natural" and "dignified."

I guess the best thing us "useless eaters" can do for anarchy is to give up and die faster, since we're so inconvenient to include in your better world. You know that's how governments treat disabled people, too, right? What a disappointment; y'all are just parroting the eugenicist views of the state and acting like it's revolutionary.

to claim who don't masks are the "bad anarchists". But i like your reasoning! It really does paint the vast majority of people as nazis.

with nazism

individualism:

-a very "do it yourself" type of ethic

-a desire to enjoy one's life above all other considerations (see anon above)

-sometimes a disregard for other people's safety (see anon above)

nazism:

-based on a political party from germany in the late 30s/40s

-a belief that jews are the problem and need to be exterminated

-a belief that either "Aryans" or white people are the superior race

The two are completely unrelated and i find it really strange that you conflate the 2. The only similarity I see is that sometimes idividualists rant about "the weak", and the nazis also had a superiority complex at times.

I never wore a mask to begin with. "You cannot choose which disabled people you are in solidarity with" I can and I will. If me not masking means less of you annoying Portland tenderqueers then hell yeah. But when I'm around my immunocompromised friends, people I actually care about, I will mask up.

what a nasty ass thing to say... "if you annoy me too much, i don't care if you get sick cause of me" awesome!

I think you misunderstood the above poster. It means less of you annoying fucks coming around. We don't want you anywhere near our anarchy lmao. Get it?

Yeah that makes a lot more sense. Though idk why you're assuming I'm from Portland...

Everyone is assumed to be from Portland until proven otherwise, we are keeping us safe.

As far as I know I've never had it. I have never been tested for it nor have I been vaccinated.

You sir are a true outlaw anarch in the 21st Century whether you like it or not! Congratulations ;)

it's a lot more empathetic towards all human beings (and their somewhat individualistic nature) than guilt tripping random strangers on the internet in to obeying you. I would think if there were real anarchists, they would be content with letting everyone take their own risks because that's less of an issue than microbial control. Effective microbial control also implies classism/bureaucracy...at least when the state tries to do it.

There are those who just don't care about the immuno-compromised at all, and those people are "sociopathic" and we don't need to worry about them because they will lead their own miserable lives away from the disabled as well... plus, people with no fear suffer specific consequences...

“It bears repeating that outdoors is not safe.”

What a joke this piece of poorly written handwringing is. Fuck this guilt tripping control freak mentality. The same one that led to suicides, exacerbated domestic violence, isolation, and depression during and after lockdown. The state and the social distancing radical-liberals did more to harm and kill anarchists and the anarchist space than the actual virus.

Theres times where it makes sense to wear a mask. Events and individuals request this and people more or less respect it. If there is an actual problem figure it out then and there. You know like anarchists should be good at doing. This is an opportunity for growth. And may we all be spared heavy handed shame diatribes online.

Fuck 3M and their masks. The money they made of these masks will likely be invested in more industrial chemical plants that are polluting our air and water.

So, I have to ask, what does it mean to call yourself an anarchist in 2023?
ABSOLUTELY NOTHING seems to be the answer. Any moron with a phone can now be….yeeeeaaaaaa! Super dooper!
This piece is the epitome of lameness. Identity politic, victimized, harm-reductionist liberal/eftist bullshit, not to mention, poorly written. Even the arguments are riddled with non-sequiturs, hyperbole, and government-fed bullshit. It is simply atrocious and has nothing to do with anarchy. But, of course, ANEWS posts it. New low. Is this from the new Slingshot? Come the fuck on you good-citizen social workers who pretend to be anarchists. Somewhere you got your wires crossed. Are we in some deranged multi-verse? It was hard enough stomaching much of the anarcho-punk over-simplifications and social justice activism twenty years ago, but this shit is the bottom of the barrel.

Deletions though: i agree milquetoast anarchist activism is a joke, yet its important to have hobbies and interests beyond social media. Its not like anyone has solutions to life sucking. Id-pol is fully integrated. I would like to see how that has happened through a historical lense.

Did it ever take anything to call yourself an anarchist, or attach any other label to yourself? I mean come on.

If you went back 20 years ago you could talk to just about any anarchist about Bonnano for instance or have a common baseline with just about anyone at the SF Bookfair etc. These days, look at Twitter, it's a big larp. Also those days 20 years ago I'd say we were the closest to having a local milieus that we're not just big friend groups overrun by insane control freaks.

So short answer, yeah.

Although what has happened since has made it pretty clear that we were definitely not as coherent or serious as possible.

I mean, decline of historical or contemporary knowledge of anarchism is not really something that I have observed. You could make the case that political twitch streamers took on the label of anarchism without quite understanding it, and that their fans followed suit and "diluted" the movement a little, but that was more of a mid-2010s phenomenon... I don't really see it anymore. The common baseline is still there as far as I'm concerned but I don't really know what you mean by that term considering I'm not from any US scene.

if i'm being generous, they might be referring to the spike in dilettantes that is being caused by ... let's just say late stage capitalism among other things. quantity over quality!

I can only speak to Europe and the USA but the USA is how the above commenter described it in terms of having less of a baseline. Not Europe though.

One of the things I see is people doubling down defending or promoting plain out wrong things. Even though someone might have been ignorant of something back then I don't remember anyone just making clearly wrong shit up and defending it

I dont have an answer but it's there.

"This is unconscionable in 2023 in an anarchist space.
Portland was a lot better at wearing masks than a lot of the rest of the country. People who visited told me this. And yet it is quickly ending. People do not mask anymore. Anarchists do not mask anymore, because the government said it is all over, and it is disgusting"

This is interesting, because it was the government who told you to wear masks in the first place!.

"pathogens" yet you same 3-4 throw shit all over a playground. Do you realize the irony of claiming to be anarchists but also being mask cops? Shouldnt be a surprise that you got physically confronted.

To get a rise out of people. And it did.

Warning: Collapse is coming. And it will NOT be safe.
Collapse is a process, not an event. But it will be punctuated by events.

One example: Hearding billions of wage/salary slaves into vast, crowded, high-stress megopoli, and then globalizing this vast mess, is a highly efficient machine for breeding and spreading plagues.

COVID, with an infectious death rate of 0.7% (all ages) was just a warning. Sooner or later, we will get a REAL plague with an infectious death rate of 15.0% or worse. This will paralyze everything. There will be no food in the stores.

Snow-flakery and IdPol are not adaptively fit, and as Collapse develops, will accelerate the mass death of those who get sucked into them.

Yes, it is eminent, time to prepare! Good tactics and planning. No room for empathy towards folk over 50 yrs of age unless they can rub 2 sticks together aNd mAke fIRe tO stErLiZe utEnsiLs.

What if I'm over 50, and know how to spell imminent, I can be your communications officer to the outside world?

And I could list the Terrible Conditions I supposedly have. But am somehow able to do up to 5 hours of hard labor (with breaks) in a day.

I also have over 10 years experience living in a truck with camper shell. Am now on a 10 acre debt-free homestead in the backwoods of Appalachia.

is capable of killing 15% of the population: the only reason why COVID killed as many as it did is because it was a pretty quiet assassin when it was novel, as in, people a lot of people weren't negatively effected to an extreme degree. Deadlier disease only kill a lower percentage, because people respond to it more quickly.

To kill 15% of the worlds population, I think it would have to be some WW3 type scenario

Hey anon who wrote this article, as a disabled person, I just want to say thank you. Thank you for at least attempting to have solidarity with people like me. And thank you for this comment section which makes it clear anarchy is apparently not compatible with being disabled people. If you literally do have to be forced to care about other people like so many others in this comment section, I cannot imagine wanting to live in an anarchist society. You have made this concept so unappealing to me I am unable to imagine why I would ever support anarchism in any capacity ever again because I know what the final result is for myself and people like me.

I have seen there are some of you who are kind and I thank you for that kindness, but yeah... I can't imagine every wanting an anarchist society after reading these comments period.

A lot of these commenters haven't figured out that disabled people often need support beyond what "an anarchist society" can offer.

However, as far as the article is concerned, i don't see the point of trying to force anarchists to do anything.

There will always be a kind empathic anarch willing to carry you on their back over the obstacles that life throws up. Don't dismiss "an anarchist society" so hastly, communism will put you in a confined institution without freedom of movement whereas with anarchy you will have horizons and freedom of travel anywhere. Good luck ;)

There will always be a kind empathic anarch willing to provide you with a mask or if you are a man put condoms on you before they carry you on their back over to the bed to help you have a Reichian orgasm and expel all fascist notions. Don't dismiss "an anarchist society" so hastly, communism will put you in a confined institution without condoms and freedom of movement whereas with anarchy you will have multiple orgasms and freedom of travel anywhere. Good luck ;)

It would appear that you believed an "anarchist society" would be some sort of utopia. Very strange.

According to the capitalist man, I'm disabled too. The person that wrote this article wants to enforce their personal preferences onto others. Unsurprisingly, they suggested that anyone who doesn't follow their personal preferences are ableists, fascists, misogynists, racist... You know, the whole shebang. Does a disabled person's personal preferences trump another's preferences? How would that ultimately be decided? Rock paper scissors?

If that article isn't parody, then it's one of the more cringy things I've read in awhile. I cant even imagine what it would be like being around screeching about their paranoia.

Did they gather enough funds to buy a wheelchair? Did anyone get covid at this fundraiser for the wheelchair?

you stupid pseudo anti-ableist idiots, equalling every disabled person with every other. You idiots speak directly in the name of Boris, which will laugh about you stupid idiots. There's enough of a fraction of anarchists who are against your position of maskwearing etc. since 2020. Just look at the attack boris realised, which is against your sterile shit world your promoting!
Fuck you you paternalism is exposed.

Anti-masker upset about ableism.
Calls anarchists who are interested in preventing harm to others "stupid idiots".
ToOotally checks out.

"anarchists who are interested in preventing harm to others" isn't what this is about, don't play fucking games.
its about identity politics intersection with stupidity and authoritarianism. anarchists should smack this down every time.

OoOooh nOooo antimasker doesn't want to play fucking games and wants to make anarchists smack differently-abled and immuno-compromised people down who do not obey what they "should" be doing! OoOoh nOoo how dare they wear masks and encourage others to do so too to help prevent the transmission of airborne illness! This are sOoo authoritarian identity politics!

OoOooh nOooo antimasker doesn't want to play fucking games and wants to make anarchists smack differently-abled and immuno-compromised people down who do not obey what they "should" be doing! OoOoh nOoo how dare they wear masks and encourage others to do so too to help prevent the transmission of airborne illness! This are sOoo authoritarian identity politics!

fffuuuuccckkkk yyyyoooouuuu!!!!!!!
what's your definition of "encourage"?
and what a dishonest read of comments.

if i ever catch you endangering women, POC and the disabled at an anarchist event with your white privilege and anti-mask pro-trump bullshit I will actually feed you to a fucking woodchipper

wow. this is exactly the attitude i'm encouraging people to smack down. first, never said people should not wear a mask WHEN THEY FEEL LIKE THEY SHOULD. i do when i feel its necessary. so to call me anti-masker is just a stupid overstatement for false-binary politics. that is not what this "essay" or the garbage perspectives like them are saying and doing and everybody knows this.

and" pro-trump"? what a moron you are

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