Or Just Say Nothing

Palestinian child holding up a sign saying "Mr. Biden our blood and the American pilot Aron Bushnell blood is a ghost will follows you"

A Response to CrimethInc.'s Initial Statement on Aaron Bushnell

"Revolutionary suicide does not mean that I and my comrades have a death wish; it means just the opposite. We have such a strong desire to live with hope and human dignity that existence without them is impossible. When reactionary forces crush us, we must move against these forces, even at the risk of death."
- Huey P. Newton, Revolutionary Suicide

"It seems to me that one ought to rejoice in the fact of death—ought to decide, indeed, to earn one's death by confronting with passion the conundrum of life. One is responsible for life: It is the small beacon in that terrifying darkness from which we come and to which we shall return. One must negotiate this passage as nobly as possible, for the sake of those who are coming after us. But white Americans do not believe in death, and this is why the darkness of my skin so intimidates them."
- James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time

Aaron Bushnell, before self-immolating in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C., sent notice to a few radical platforms including CrimethInc. (henceforth: the Outlet) informing them of his decision to commit "an extreme act of protest" against the ongoing genocide in Gaza. He asked simply that they preserve the footage of his action and report on it. Most complied, but in the face of such a humble request, the Outlet was confused: "All afternoon, while other journalists were breaking the news, we discussed how we should speak about this. Some subjects are too complex to address in a hasty social media post." It's telling that they self-identify as journalists.

Still, the white man's burden of "anarchist" journalism demanded that they not ponder too long before releasing a statement , even if half-formed. Within hours, they hastily published their garbage take. Putting Aaron's actions in the context of another self-immolation that occurred on December 1st by a woman in Atlanta, (who, despite the Outlet's misinformation, is still alive) they said: "It is not easy for us to know how to speak about their deaths." Such dis-ease surely disquieted the spin-doctors and self-appointed spokespeople of revolution. For a project which only contributes to struggle by knowing what to say, the imperative to speak is paramount. In light of what they wrote, it would have been better for them to contemplate a little longer, or just say nothing at all.

After grossly overestimating their importance as journalists "speaking to people of action," they ultimately write:

"Just as we have a responsibility not to show cowardice, we also have a responsibility not to promote sacrifice casually. We must not speak carelessly about taking risks, even risks that we have taken ourselves. It is one thing to expose oneself to risk; it is another thing to invite others to run risks, not knowing what the consequences might be for them. And here, we are not speaking about a risk, but about the worst of all certainties. Let’s not glamorize the decision to end one’s life, nor celebrate anything with such permanent repercussions. Rather than exalting Aaron as a martyr and encouraging others to emulate him, we honor his memory, but we exhort you to take a different path."

While it would be easy to dismiss this as the Outlet cautiously mitigating any potential liability if self-immolation generalizes, the rejection of the framework of martyrdom demands attention. The question is not whether Aaron qualifies as a shahid within the Palestinian context, although demonstrators in Yemen have proclaimed Aaron a "martyr of humanity" and an argument can be made for him having become an anarchist martyr in the lineage of Louis Lingg, Avalon, and Mikhail Vasilievich Zhlobitsky. The bigger issue: the Outlet's assertion that an individual's death, particularly in the context of the US, is the "worst of all possible certainties" reveals a deep disconnect with the context of this entire decolonial struggle. In the days following October 7th, anti-colonial anarchist thinkers such as Zoé Samudzi argued that the figure of the martyr marked a fundamental contradiction for the secular left's ability to fully comprehend and act in solidarity with the Palestinian resistance. The martyrs constitute a force in the present for all who live and continue to struggle. Aaron framed his self-immolation as "not that extreme" compared to the ascension to martyrdom of tens of thousands in Gaza. By implying that Aaron's choice was too extreme, the Outlet dishonors the reality of the struggle within Palestine and undercuts the potential of Aaron's sacrifice.

In denouncing any action taken with "such permanent repercussions," the Outlet reproduces the anti-death paradigm of capitalism itself. The philosopher Byung Chul-Han, commenting on an exchange between the filmmaker Werner Schroeter and Michel Foucault, says:

"Schroeter describes the freedom unto death as an anarchist feeling: 'I have no fear of death. It's perhaps arrogant to say but it's the truth... To look death in the face is an anarchist feeling dangerous to established society.' Sovereignty, the freedom unto death, is threatening to a society that is organized around work and production, that tries to increase human capital by biopolitical means. That utopia is anarchist insofar as it represents a radical break with a form of life that declares pure life, continued existence, sacred. Suicide is the most radical rejection imaginable of the society of production. It challenges the system of production. It represents the symbolic exchange with death which undoes the separation of death from life brought about by capitalist production."

The fact that an anarchist media syndicate cannot recognize the anarchic nature of a sovereign death, or the symbolic exchange of a uniformed US airman's self-immolation (which cannot be simply reduced to suicide) is in and of itself a disgrace. Even worse, this conforms to a long established pattern where every time a comrade's actions pass a certain threshold of intensity, the Outlet is first in line to call for restraint. While Michael Reinoehl was still on the run after shooting a fascist, they wasted no time issuing a hasty social media post denouncing his action and urging their followers to "reject the logic of the guillotine." The Outlet preferred to remain palatable for liberal eyes, ears, and politicians, rather than express solidarity with a comrade on the run for his life.

In his "Letter to Michael Reinoehl," Idris Robinson exposes the logic at the heart of the contradiction of those who chose to parse Reinoehl's actions as nonstrategic:

"What the double-standard with regards to your situation reveals is how violence in America will always necessarily have a profoundly racial dimension. And it is precisely this—the terrifying core of racialized violence—that they are trying to repress when they lie to both themselves and others that their issue with what you did is a question of strategy or tactics. I mean, give me a break: in a country that is literally saturated in violence, from blind mass shooters to murderous police, no one can honestly claim that the few shots that you let off could in some way be construed as an escalation. There is simply no way to avoid the spiral of violence that began at the very moment when the first wooden ships reached the shores of the Atlantic."

While the Outlet has no problem sanctioning enlistment in the fascist-dominated Armed Forces of Ukraine or calling for the US to keep troops in northern Syria, it seems even a single white death in the United States is a red-line they refuse to cross. For them, the self-sacrifice of a white person in the US military (a fact they fail to ever mention in their response but that was, without question, important to Aaron's action) in solidarity with colonized people might be even worse. Rather than a liberatory or truly life-affirming position, this timidity betrays a fundamental discomfort with anything that challenges the fragile unity of whiteness and the American racial order. Neoconarchists at it again!

The Outlet quotes Kropotkin (who broke with anarchist internationalism by supporting the Allied imperialists in World War I and is therefore a fitting predecessor to their brand of pro-NATO anarcho-liberalism) on the contagious nature of courage, yet their analysis downplays Aaron's courage again and again. They call death "the worst of all certainties," showing that they share Western civilization's pathological fear of death, yet feel confident in making pronouncements about the impact and efficacy of Aaron's offering mere hours after it happened. Those who are truly comfortable with uncertainty know that it remains to be seen what the full repercussions will be. The Outlet assumes the universality of a rationalist teleological perspective in the context of a gesture that is best understood deontologically: its essence, independent of outcome, is of distinct and ineffable value.

It's clear that the Outlet fears any form of struggle that challenges the sanctity of liberal democracy that they feel comfortable operating within. Echoing a line they have often used in the past, they frame themselves as protestors and militant lobbyists, not insurgents or practitioners of direct action (which is not about influencing government policy, but rather creating direct results of destruction and ungovernability.) They say: "The kind of protest activity that has taken place thus far in the United States has not served to compel the US government to halt the genocide in Gaza." While Aaron did call his self-immolation an "extreme act of protest [within U.S solidarity with Palestine]," the resulting question for anarchists should not be what more effective forms of protest might be, but rather how to honor Aaron's act of personal refusal through our own deeds. His action was directed towards the rest of us. He looks us in the eye and asks: "What will you do?"

While the authors of the Outlet have called Aaron’s decision “self destruction” and “sacrifice,” we read little in their text of the long tradition of self-immolation as an ultimate form of self-expression against repression and war. They make only a diminishing reference to Tunisian Mohamed Bouazizi's self-immolation to protest police bribery, which lead to the Sidi Bouzid Revolt and impelled the Arab Spring. In 1965, Thich Nhat Hanh wrote to Rev. Martin Luther King:

"The self-burning of Vietnamese Buddhist monks in 1963 is somehow difficult for the Western Christian conscience to understand. The Press spoke then of suicide, but in the essence, it is not. It is not even a protest. What the monks said in the letters they left before burning themselves aimed only at alarming, at moving the hearts of the oppressors and at calling the attention of the world to the suffering endured then by the Vietnamese. To burn oneself by fire is to prove that what one is saying is of the utmost importance. There is nothing more painful than burning oneself. To say something while experiencing this kind of pain is to say it with the utmost of courage, frankness, determination and sincerity…

The monk who burns himself has lost neither courage nor hope; nor does he desire non-existence. On the contrary, he is very courageous and hopeful and aspires for something good in the future. He does not think that he is destroying himself; he believes in the good fruition of his act of self-sacrifice for the sake of others…"

The Outlet claims that Bushnell, in the rhetorical tradition of the notion of the selfishness of suicide, was “denying the rest of us a future with [him].” But the monks who self immolated in the sixties teach us that perhaps that is the pain we must bear as witness, just as those who chose fire bore the pain of their death or injury for the expression of their will.

"But why does he have to burn himself to death? The difference between burning oneself and burning oneself to death is only a difference in degree, not in nature. A man who burns himself too much must die. The importance is not to take one’s life, but to burn. What he really aims at is the expression of his will and determination, not death."

Pain can be a motivating factor towards life, just as the witnessing of an autonomous death can inspire us to live deeper into our convictions now.

The question remains: what is the "different path" the Outlet urges readers to take? They admit that no act of solidarity in the US, however massive or targetedly destructive, has been able to slow the war machine. And yet they claim what the ruling class fears most is "collective action." They give no examples of what said action might be. It doesn't take too much creativity to imagine how disenchanted members of the US military could strike against the war machine, especially if they've overcome the fear of death. We could list those actions of desertion, sabotage, and fragging (and their long history in the anti-war movements of generations past) and theorize on their efficacy. However, we have no desire to reduce ourselves to the indignity of the anarcho-commentariat, issuing self-serving hot-takes about the grave actions of someone more courageous. We can only imagine what they will say when (not if) the war is brought home in even more escalated ways. What are they to do when a revolution based on summering in squats in European social democracies and engaging in ritualized playfights with police is no longer intelligible? Their greatest fear is not of state or economy but of an epochal shift that will render them incoherent.

The Outlet's pontification on the inappropriateness of Aaron's action is beyond disrespectful. Faced with such acts of self-sacrifice, the appropriate responses are pause, prayer, contemplation, remembrance, and solidarity. Instead, the Outlet doesn't fail to make the selfless about themselves: "Choosing to intentionally end your life means foreclosing years or decades of possibility, denying the rest of us a future with you." Lacking any real other direction, this future seems to amount to years of patient readership and faithfully following the lead of well-platformed self-declared strategists. Their obnoxious tendency to quote their own past texts illustrates their narcissism and self-importance. This self-reference demonstrates a deepening dogmatism on their part, a commitment to stay the course on a sinking ideological ship.

The ill-timed call for recruitment is made explicit in the closing paragraphs: "Prepare to take risks as your conscience demands, but don’t hurry towards self-destruction. We desperately need you alive, at our side, for all that is to come." Just as in recent weeks they celebrated those who fight side-by-side with the Azov Battalion in the Ukraine, they would prefer active US military personnel alive and well, ready to fight for Western interests at home and abroad.

The time has long passed to dispense with these bloggers who, through their appeals for restraint and moderation, stand in the way of the resistance movements they imagine themselves to lead. The Outlet's inadequacy was already evident in the "both sides" narrative of their initial coverage of Al-Aqsa Flood. Instead, we choose to act out of affinity and solidarity with the resistance axis of the Palestinian struggle itself. Compare the milquetoast equivocations of the Outlet to the statement of unconditional solidarity with Aaron Bushnell and his loved ones issued immediately by the PFLP:

"The act of an American soldier sacrificing himself for Palestine is the highest sacrifice and a medal, and a poignant message to the American administration to stop its involvement in the aggression.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine affirms that the act of the American soldier Aaron Bushnell from the U.S. Air Force by setting himself on fire in front of the zionist embassy in Washington, D.C., in protest against the war on Gaza, which he called for the “liberation of Palestine,” confirms the state of anger among the American people due to the official American involvement in the zionist genocide war being waged on the Gaza Strip. It also indicates that the status of the Palestinian cause, especially in American circles, is becoming more deeply entrenched in the global conscience, and reveals the truth of the zionist entity as a cheap colonial tool in the hands of savage imperialism.

The Front expresses its full solidarity with the soldier’s family and all the American sympathizers who took a honorable stance and whose struggle and pressure to stop the genocide on the Strip have not ceased, confirming that the act of an American soldier sacrificing his life to draw the attention of the American people and the world to the plight of the Palestinian people, despite its tragic nature and the great pain it involves, is considered the highest sacrifice and medal, and the most important poignant message directed to the American administration, that it is involved in the war crime in Gaza and that the American people have awakened and are rejecting this American involvement, calling on the American administration to stop this support and bias for the zionist entity.

The Front sends a message to the Arab soldier to take this American soldier who sacrificed his life for a noble cause like the Palestinian cause as an example and role model, and to leave the trenches of waiting, incapacity, and move to the trench of confrontation in support of Palestine and its people who are being slaughtered, besieged, and starved in full view and hearing of the world and just a few kilometers from Arab lands and meters from the borders.

Palestine will be victorious as long as it has deeply engraved itself in the conscience and consciences of the world, and history will record in golden letters the names of all the sympathizers and free people of the world who stood with it and sacrificed their lives for its sake.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
Central Media Department
26-2-2024"

Those golden letters of history will not record the name CrimethInc., whose version of anarchism cannot hold, comprehend, or move with the young militants taking increasingly bold and dire action. While the pro-Ukraine anarchists continue to stumble again and again over the question of militarism, Aaron's act of self-negation resolved the contradiction. This is not to say his was the only way to resolve the contradiction, but it was a powerful way that threatens the worldview the Outlet desperately clings to: a view inextricably affixed to Western epistemological hegemony. The decline of the neoliberal consensus indicates the inevitable illegibility of their explanation of the world. The coming days and years will surely see a proliferation of increasingly drastic actions, marked by an intensity which surpasses what the Outlet can accept or condone, positioned as it is. For the Outlet, the death of this world conjures the existential anxiety of dissociation. For others, ourselves included, the end of this world is essential for the legibility of our perspective.

Aaron left us a will. That will, in the many senses of that term, is our inheritance. It reads: “I wish for my remains to be cremated. I do not wish for my ashes to be scattered or my remains to be buried as my body does not belong anywhere in this world. If a time comes when Palestinians regain control of their land, and if the people native to the land would be open to the possibility, I would love for my ashes to be scattered in a free Palestine.”

Whatever Aaron was in the preceding years of his life, he died as an anarchist, and will be remembered as one. His action points to a new organic anarchism emerging out of the present moment, one disconnected from the scenes, subcultures, and cults-of-personality that constitute the anarcho-mainstream. This development threatens the hegemony of the anarchist talking heads as much as the rest. His death is already drawing unprecedented attention, at new levels, to the cause of Palestinian liberation, and likely to anarchism as well. Those who cannot adapt to the changing tides will be washed into historic oblivion, toward which they're already careening. The rest of us must act within the unsayable. Deeds must speak where words fail.

There are 44 Comments

A thorough critique with significant positive aspects as well. And perhaps an opportune moment to remind others that CrimethInc critiques are currently being solicited for publication.

https://anarchistnews.org/content/crimethinc-critique-compilation-call-s...

"We're seeking critiques of the CrimethInc Ex-Workers Collective, by anarchists and fellow travelers, to compile, ideally into a book.

Whether friendly or hostile, analytical or relational, timely or outdated, in prínciple we're open to a wide range of takes, as long as it seems clear that the subject of criticism is the specific group - and/or its social milieu - rather than anti-authoritarianism in the abstract.

If you're interested in making suggestions or collaborating on production, feel free to comment here or get in touch by email: ekitaph@espiv.net."

A well-deserved criticism, but it is funny that the authors conflate North American, Anglo-speaking milquetoast peaceful anarchists with the autonomous support for the resistance in Ukraine--led by Ukrainian, Russian, Belarussian and Polish anarchists who are fully willing to put their bodies on the line, with several already martyred. It seems that for the authors it is laudable to give one's life to resist one invading genocidal army but not the other.

Led by? According to Petrov himself the anarchists in the Ukrainian army are subservient, as all soldiers in state armies are. The military hierarchy doesn't disappear when some anarchists decide to join and say "sir, yes sir!" Just as an anarchist joining a police force wouldn't automatically become the Chief of Police or a politician above the police. The army is leading the anarchists, not the other way around. Anti-militarist anarchists like Berkman or R.F. Magón were the opposite of pacifists. They never stopped encouraging autonomous prole violence. As Joe Hill, who actually died in the class war once said, if we are to be "soldiers", it should be for autonomous forces (like the Mexican anarchist forces he actually fought alongside), not the forces of a bourgeois state like America (or Ukraine.)

As usual, the sources you cite on the situation in Ukraine are ... CrimethInc. itself. Surely you can't be all that mad about them educating you about a situation you love to carp and whine so much about.

No, you're just too ignorant to realize I've cited Petrov himself speaking to sources other than CrimethInc, as well as other pieces by ABC Dresden etc. Also doesn't matter whether I'm mad at Crimethinc or love them more than anything. Would make no difference to the fact that them normalizing state collaboration and downplaying fascists having actual units in the Ukrainian army might not be the greatest thing for the anarchist scene. Doesn't matter what my personality is. Won't make collaborating with the state the best thing since sliced bread. I also don't particularly like to talk about Ukraine. I talk much more about Mexican anarchism or Indigenous struggles or the IWW than I do Ukraine and Crimethinc. But again, you're an ignorant fool, so what better home for you than here (or other equally idiotic peanut galleries)?

Thanks for alerting us as to their political identity. We now know that every point they make must be wrong. I will pray they never say to drink water, cuz then I'd have to abstain.

There is no source here, meaning that it was more than likely it was shared by author(s) directly to ANews. Abolition Media also posted this, but that doesn't mean that it was the original source, just that they were also supplied the text (by the author?).

-ANews thecollective_1.8

A funny joke to a person in a place where no war is taking place, I'm guessing.

If we address ourselves to you, men and women who have reached the point of essential revulsion and who nothing and no one could any longer rescue from a tragic destiny, it is not to remind you of a non-existent duty in the face of a life that isn’t worth living. We don’t lack respect for your decision, because you and you alone know the precise extent of the pain and anguish that poison your existence. Those who do not feel that pain and anguish, those who have never even come close to this because they are kissed by fortune or soft in the head due to faith, have no reason to censure your fatal decision.

So we don’t want to preach you any sermon or keep you from acting on your decision. We only intend to ask a favor of you, a small favor for you who have decided to abandon this world, but one that would give great joy to those of us who have decided, for the moment, to stay here. Since you are resolved to embark on the Great Voyage, while you are at it, could you maybe bring a few of the known calamities, that made your days on this earth unbearable with, you? Wanting to take the last step in solitude is understandable, it is human. But to do it in company is sublime; it is godlike. Besides, what do you have to fear? For once, no one will get to harass you, throwing the consequences of your gesture in your face. To give an example, you could swallow your poison after making the congressman, who has given you the poison of his lies to drink for years, taste it. Do you want to add a bit of weight to your brain? Very good, but not before supplying some of it to the bank manager who ruined you. If instead you want to squeeze a noose around your neck, it would be good if you first got some practice on the neck of the industrialist who fired you. Before going into the beyond, you could give the bishop who excommunicated your consciousness a surprise by arranging an immediate meeting for him with the Supreme Boss. And why not drag the cop who is standing beside you waiting for the train or subway with you onto the rails? He will finally lose his ugly habit of imprisoning other people’s freedom. Not to offend you, but we have never understood why courthouses and stock exchanges don’t excite the fantasies of you desperate ones in the way schools seem to in the United States: Target practice on judges and financial speculators would be a stirring goodbye gift to your companions in misfortune.

Imagine what might happen if only a fifth of the inflexible suicides of all countries were to associate their last breath with that of a despicable person in power? Thanks to you — you suicides who are usually reviled — we would be witness to a great ethical awakening. On high, anyone who managed to avoid you would think twice before casting other human beings into desperation. At the bottom, we cowards who aren’t capable of making a revolution might find the strength to bring the work that you have started so generously to term.

We ask you, we beg you, if we may, great desperate ones of five continents, have heart one last time. Don’t die alone and ignored, a sardonic conclusion to a life already lacking in joy. Select an institutional celebrity and knock him off allong with yourself.

https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/various-authors-articles-from-ma...

Mm yes always start critiques about and for anarchists with quotes from Huey Newton and James Baldwin. Yes always criticize the decisions of people who take radical action for what they believe in.

Correct, they should have started with real anarchist quotes like, "In these past months, I have concluded that we, as revolutionaries, should not be squeamish about making contacts within state institutions." (Petrov, Four Months..., 2022), or, "...we need to collaborate somehow with the state military structures." (Petrov, Final Straw interview, 2022).

Real anarchism is when you don't quote non-anarchists and instead yourself work for, talk to and encourage collaboration with the State. Thank you for your service. Salute.

Just curious here—I know you've made it your project to shit all over CrimethInc. and any dead Russians you associate with them, including those who participated in the same underground resistance actions in Russia that you used to praise until you learned who was doing them... but... have you ever been to Russia or Ukraine? Have you met a live Russian or Ukrainian in the flesh? Who died and made you the anarchist police of that part of the world?

It's not actually part of my project (more like a very minor pastime), I've never written an article on CrimethInc in relation to Ukraine, I've only written one article about them, and it was about a mistake they made in referencing a historical event in the south of the US, not Ukraine. But of course you're only interested in slander, like the good stalinist/trotskyist-style-anarchist you are (if you're even an anarchist, who knows?).

I also have no project of associating "any dead Russians" with CrimethInc. They themselves were friends with and promoted the writing of one particular Russian, Petrov, who openly called for collaborating more intensely with the state than just following orders as a soldier and dying alongside right-wing christian soldiers. I've never been to Russia or Ukraine (which is irrelevant, I doubt I would start loving Canadian militarism and policing if I had been there), but I have met Ukrainians and Russians (and people from other former USSR countries) in real life, most of them great people, in my opinion. I sympathize and empathize with the Ukrainian people(s), even Russian conscripts. Whether I send thoughts and prayers though isn't super relevant. Anarchism isn't just a church or liberal hand-wringing circle.

As French anarchist André Prudhommeaux said in criticizing Rudolf Rocker, "Anarchists long ago left the ranks of those lighting candles in the churches." War is hell for people in Ukraine and Russia, war is an even deeper level of hell for people in Palestine, war was hell in what's now Saskatchewan, and Indigenous peoples there are still paying the price today so that Ukraine can get all of its uranium fuel from there. Two wrongs don't make a right for anarchists either. Keep on being a campist tho, it's the only way you know.

your first point is pedantic, your last one makes no sense. crimethinc is the one criticizing someone who took radical action.

I haven't read the Crimethinc statement yet, so I can't comment on it, nor on this anonymous writer's criticism of it. Certainly I respect and honor the brave sacrifice of Aaron Bushnell, fighting against U.S. promotion of Israeli genocide in Gaza.

I do not agree with the author's apparent downplaying of mass action. Of Crimethinc, they seem to sneer, 'they claim what the ruling class fears most is "collective action."' But this is true (even though it does not rule out individual actions). The constant popular "pro-Palestinian" demonstrations, throughout the country, has shaken up the system as nothing else has since the Black Lives Matter demonstrations. They may not have ended the war or "made the country ungovernable," but they have radicalized a great many people--especially younger people and People of Color. The myth of Democratic Party liberalism (supported by all the "progressives" and "democratic socialists" in the DP) has been severely damaged. Anarchism has increased in its influence. We need to continue in this direction as much as possible.

If there's a group that's supporting such ind of "militancy", scapegoating Western anarchists into offing themselves in such horrible way, it's indeed not CrimethInc, but these authoritarian fanatics who're pretty much as bad if not worst than Hamas. They were the ones attacking synagogues, Jewish schools and other Jewish social hubs *outside* of Israel for decades, and could have very well be the ones behind the recent attacks in France and in Montreal targeting Jewish communities. Their hands of these dogmatic demagogues are stained with blood, as much as the Mossad. So anyone giving them credibility shouldn't be allowed to push their crap in anarchist circles... much less through anarchist "Outlets". That is even worse than giving a free pass to Maoists, for that only contributes to making anarchist resources getting associated with Jihadist groups, and... You. Don't. Want. That.. Anarchists aren't around to take the fall for whatever these authoritarian dogs are doing.

Obviously, the ideal thing that authoritarians would hope for an hardcore anarchist to do, is to commit suicide. In the most painful way. That, also, is what the state would have us doing. To self-destruct, so that our true enemies don't even have to bother with all the complications and implications of eradicating someone.

What this guy Aaron did, that was his choice for his own life, and no one's to judge him for sure. But suicide is also totally compliant with the anti-self, anti-life control systems of both our dominant society, and that of even more brutal sects and mobs. Any authoritarian structure seeks a flattening of the Different, the Unruly, the Misfit; the full conformity of everyone, in the disappearance of the individual.

For a Nation, for the Empire, for the race, for the family, for Allah or God (but not limited to these two).

So I don't find CrimethInc's statement to be anywhere as bad as this garbage piece of ideological scapegoating above desperately tries to convey, with extreme ID pols and all their ressentiment-driven narrative. I don't like "the Outlet" (whatever the reason for such spooky designation) for what they did the past 10-15 years or so, but here they managed to keep their usual cringe to a low and avoid a decisive position, which is the best they can do in such case where they can get criminally scapegoated by the US government for supporting "terrorism" or promoting suicide of their followers.

...something that both the cowardly anon author of this shit piece and their PLFP overlords aren't exposed to, btw.

The other best thing CrimethInc could do is to condemn the actions of Hamas and PFLP, as much as they condemn the Israeli state for its ongoing massacre in Gaza. Tho I ain't responsible for this collective, so I'm just making a friendly advice.

This devil here suggests those resisting colonial oppression, genocide and living in starvation in a concentration camp need to be critiqued as ruthlessly as their oppressors. And then people ask why anarchists are 95 percent crackers, part of a collapsing movement that signs up to fight willingly for NATO. War with the existent=smash windows and hope the world stays the same for the white and powerful. There's a real question about how tenable this foolishness will remain as these power structures collapse. Cause if these opinions are even semi popular than it's pretty much a dead project. Or one that will march hand in hand with Euro-American genocide. Either isn't surprising

> And then people ask why anarchists are 95 percent crackers, part of a collapsing movement that signs up to fight willingly for NATO.

Dude I dunno in what specific type of crackhead Wonderland you fell, but DO go get hired by some polling firm, coz they apparently like bullshit experts able to make shit up out of their asses, lol

So 95% of anarchists signed up for NATO?

Seems to me like, on the contrary, somebody is on the very edge of ceasing to be an anarchist and becoming a Maoist, but wants to be sure to shout some insults over their shoulder on the way out the door.

Where are you getting this stuff? I’m seeing that outside of “Israel” their attacks have mostly been hijackings and embassy attacks. “Could very well be behind..”???- could you very well jump up my butt, please? We don’t have to agree with them but just making shit up about groups we disagree with makes us look at best uninformed.

...

As if hijacking airliners filled with hundreds of civilians was alrite!? They did a lot of these, from the '60s to the '80s and often not even with flights to/fro Israel (but even when they were... what's the idea with directly threatening the lives of random civilians?). The Copenhagen Synagogue attack was attributed to the PFLP and PLO. This was a major attack, not just a side note.

I didn’t say it’s alrite, I said it’s not “a random synagogue or Jewish space”, the claim I was responding to. Copenhagen 2015 was an Islamist incident that had nothing to do with PFLP much less the PLO which is now basically the PA. Get your facts straight.

"could have very well be the ones behind the recent attacks in France and in Montreal targeting Jewish communities."

Umm. It's unlikely

...and I can also correct myself in that the PFLP seems to be more of a dead horse these days, where Hamas Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad have been the dominant Palestinian militant groups since the '80s, so my insistence in them is just related to their statement quoted above. Yes there's some more or less supported claims of their association with Hamas, tho I ain't the MI6 or the CIA to care so much about it.

PFLP still exists and are the main Palestinian leftist resistance group, although obviously they were larger and better known in the 60-70s. They are mostly based in the West Bank as they actually do not get along well with Hamas. They have participated in the 10/7 and aftermath in Gaza.

Great article! Thank you for putting the time and effort to write something that so many of us non-white and anti-Zionist anarchists have been thinking and feeling.

I think the Committee has to rule on whether using intersectionality so we can include Trans women and Latino people within this same non-White category. Shit troll.

Hope is a thing with feathers I guess. Never thought I would read such good writing on this site. Excellent riposte to the same ol same ol "anarchist" scribblings by leftist website editors. Crimethinc and other "anarchist" organizations betray anarchism, which to me is the epitome of individualism. How can you join a group and steal be anarchic, still be "free?" Impossible. Groupthink prevails far more on the so-called left than on the right. I mean, anyone who believes an eighty year old senile pedophile got eighty million legit votes in a national election might as well self-immolate. Funny. Not funny.
Groucho Marx said it best: "I would never join a club that would have me as a member." The lone wolf is the ideal anarchist.
In another heart felt post on this site, we see a man lamenting loss, of his friends, of humanity, of politics past. I appreciate his words because I am human, empathetic. I am not a cyborg lost in a "transhuman" self-immolation of mind and spirit. Yet he misses the point. Groups like Crimethinc and other so-called "anarchist" organizations will always fail. They will see members turn on members, petty squabbles turn to betrayals, infiltration (of course), and so on. The Lone Wolf strikes at the Megamachine and then flees the scene, leaving (hopefully) chaos behind. Groupthink is the opposite of chaos. It is controlled opposition, whether the group members believe it or not.
The airman's sacrifice is puzzling - as it goes against basic human self-preservation and survival instincts, but it is also chaotic in its desperation. So it must be appreciated for what it is, in the moment. Let his family weep, let the Palestinian activists laud him, but in the end there is a charred space that was once the loneliest wolf left behind. Perhaps he is no longer alone in the new space he occupies. We will not know until we get there ourselves.
In the meantime, keep on howling. Stay away from crowds. Watch your backs ....

The Lone Wolf is the epitome of american masculinity, not of anarchy, much less of anarchist thought.
your rejection of one doddering old man without also rejecting the othr doddering old man is indicative of your tendency.

nice that you;re so empathetic though.

the amount of comments posted and subsequently deleted that were critical of this article is astounding

I believe it. I'd be curious if the moderators could share what they are deleting and why. If they don't, it's easy to imagine that they're intentionally taking a side in this debate.

"The Outlet assumes the universality of a rationalist teleological perspective in the context of a gesture that is best understood deontologically: its essence, independent of outcome, is of distinct and ineffable value."

in other words, we shouldn't judge things based on whether or not they bring about desired outcomes, but whether or not they are morally upstanding and virtuous.

it is the authors of this piece that are the true moralizing anarcho-liberals, hate to say it

sure because there's nothing moralizing about "judging things based on whether or not they bring about desired outcomes." whose desired outcomes? yours? his? he stated he would no longer be complicit and he seems to have accomplished that in at least a certain concrete way. he also said "free palestine." how can you "judge" whether what he did will "bring about" that "outcome?" i agree with the author here that the power of the dead is greater than the immediate and quantifiable consequences of their particular ways of living and dying. people carry them in a variety of ways, some less admirable than others, which means the kind of question you seem to want to ask will not, in an important sense, ever be settled, not even if or when palestine is freed.

but don't explain yourself either. if neither of us thinks the other one is saying anything then i win by default as a postmodernist driveller!

Things can and do have a content other than being "morally upstanding and virtuous" that is distinct from their end. Maybe the content is simply consistency with principle. Maybe the content is simply that it's a glaring directed act. No moralism need be involved with that. What's more akin to moralism is randomly accusing other people's statements of being moralist and liberal simply because you don't understand them, they frighten you and you want to smear them.

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