Anews Podcast 139 – 11.8.19

Anews Podcast 139 – 11.8.19

From Anews Podcast

Welcome to the anews podcast. This podcast covers anarchist activity, ideas, and conversations from the previous week on anarchistnews.org.

TOTW-Opsec! with Aragorn! and Greg
sound editing by Linn O’Mable
editorial by Greg
what’s new was written by Jackie and Greg, and narrated by Chisel and Greg
Music:
1) Jana Winderen – Sense Of Latent Power
2) Bela Bartok – String Quartet no. 5, IV. Andante
3) Konami Computer Entertainment Sound Team Japan – Encounter




There are 35 Comments

Lol, the shoe phone is total opsec! Don't forget your cone of silence!
Liked the editorial, Greg.
Sigh. I so wish there was a culture of camera "maintenance", but sadly, we have become too blasé about surveillance or really we are too busy trying to live.
Good podcast all around, thanks.

I'm confused at the TOTW discussion here.

"OPSEC", as was alluded, is military jingo for "operational security". In the discussion, Aragorn and damo seem to conclude that resistance to the State and society is futile. Therefore, the discussion missed the mark completely, as it's about simply staying on the Internet anonymously.

There was no discussion about how to keep anarchist operations secure, because Aragorn and damo seem to argue that anarchist attack is futile. No matter, because anarchists, judging by the number who land in jail for years and years, completely suck at it; one should never accept there advice.

Anarchists — stick to what you know — prison support networks.

Is the conclusion "futility" or is it that certain things are very high stakes, therefore must be done only by very serious people who don't halfass their shit or mistake it for LARPy preformative posturing?

The latter is about harm reduction, the first is resignation. I see validity in both but resignation isn't exactly the anarchist howl ... More like the wet fartnoise of complacency.

It's about being honest with oneself.
At a certain age one is mislead to belief that one can be anyone.
After certain age, such delusions are immaturity.
Realistically: What can one be? To be or not to be?
What can one do? To do or not to do?
There's an ample spectrum of very to half-ass serious people who half-ass their shit but don't LARP or posture.
A lot of people want to bring them into their pet projects or favored activities, and sometimes to do so dissuade them of investing time in others they don't favor. Fair game.
I ask myself: What's still appealing and what has lost its appeal (taking for granted the things that have never appealed, and things that will always appeal)?

Well... I don't think halfassed anarchy is the part that interests me so much.

I prefer the whole ass! On the pot! Shitting!
Shit or get off the anarchy pot!

i'm constipated : (

metaphorically.

are you a midwife for anarchy shits?
i need help.

Wow! Feel like we're really gettin to know each other now anon!

This seems to be, as with most things, possibly more of a problem with yourself than with the discussion. If you, as I, believe that anarchy can be more than one thing, than there are plenty of directions for a conversation on any topic to go in. If your interest in opsec is to materially attack the state and not get caught, if you are carrying out "ops" then I don't know what us talking could do for you anyway.

I definitely agree that anarchy can be more than one thing, than there are plenty of directions for a conversation on any topic to go in. So much so, that this discussion of the TOTW, along with other parallel ones, have given me enough food for thought that I'm currently digesting, which is why I have not replied yet (except for this comment here).

This is where post-left can go wrong, damo. Anarchy means no government. It's not a "state of mind" as some, perhaps yourself, want to imply. I'm not opposed to lifestylism, no...I'm opposed to the anarchy of "freedom or slavery is all in your head." Sounds like something Le Way would argue.

You're making the rest of is interested in egoism look like assholes. Please stop giving Zerzan the ammunition. If you were cleaning a toilet at the White House, you'd be every bit as much as a wage slave as the rest of the proletarians. Quit deluding yourself. The best slaves think they're free.

No, but I wouldn't be cleaning the White House toilet, but if I was plucked from whereever I lived and placed in the toilet to clean it into eternity, I would be able to rise above any authoritarian control and live my life free of any sense of imprisonment or oppression. I would have my great unattached consciousness to keep me autonomously the ruler of my own destiny.

PS I've just used "cleaner of White House presidents toilet" as an example of the most physical over-controlled Statist position to be in to explain the psychology of sovereign individualist autonomy, that it is not material fate which should be challenged, but rather mindset and belief structures one adheres to.
Lol, you didn't think that an individualist would stay employed at the White house and not try to escape? Absurd thought!

Le Douche Way isn't shy about making himself and anyone evenly vaguely associated, look like a complete jackass. Feels like I've lost all credibility by acknowledging him for 3 seconds.

uhhh..... what credibility?

How the fuck can you be sovereign and have a boss? Does that not seem paradoxical to you?

This is using hypothetical scenarios to explain the finer points of theory, something senileoldfools can't do! The whole Capitalist/Marxist binary doesn't exist when one is in the sovereign individualist frame of mind, or SIFM to be short.
SIFM allows one to detach from all cultural values, gender, ŕace, status do not exist. There is only ---How can I best enjoy my existence without any hindrance or authority coersing or placing moral restrictions upon me. For instance, I could be a SIFM in Anchorage during a blizzard, and it would benefit me to be a dishwasher in the local hotel at the time of the blizzard would it not?
As a SIFM, I may have 50 different positions working, hiking, living by the kindness and charity of others, being truly free because I am nomadic and are not restricted by ONE entrapment/employment.
Bring on as many bosses as you like, including the president, because they don't own me, I am a SIFM, and I have a free mental state, the material is insignificant, I SHIT DOWN BOSSES NECKS WITH MY SOVEREIGNTY!!!

That's all just bartleby bullshit... As you were already asked Le Solipsism, mirror mirror on Le wall, who is the most hopelessly enslaved of all?

I wake up everyday and there is just me, those I luv, and a blank everyday slate.

This is something that Eastern and other minded societal detachers have been working on for a long time. Someone like Mr Melville represents the first and important step in detachment but there are other psychological mindful approaches and techniques to take on. Mindfulness is FAR more important to anarchic existence then materialism is. Anarchy is the psychosomatic beyond the idealism and materialism binary.

Me and LeWay are, not for the first time, in sync on these sorts of issues.

still close enough to dismiss with only one wave of the hand ziggles. Not worth two. You've always made a fine pair tho!

Your ability to project positions on other people seems to be enhanced by not engaging with anything they've actually said. I wouldn't say that Anarchy is a "state of mind", or that it is simply no government. I think Anarchy is/would be an almost unimaginable break from things as they are. The forms of that vary wildly, and I don't particularly privilege the things that people do outside their heads vs. inside them.

1. Pick a different word to use than anarchy, then, pal, because it quite simply means no Government.
2. Stop reading so much Monsieur Dupont.

Yeah anon, Damo's right! Check your real-vs-imaginary privilege yo

If 99% of the human population died off, that would be quite the break. And look! I'm sitting here imagining it. Whatdyaknow.

"Anarchy means no government. "

anarchy means "no rulers", which goes WAY beyond "government".

No, the trick is to live like an anarch within a State system, that is the greater challenge, because human nature will always create hierarchies, the biggest meanest dude is always gonna use his power to tell others what to do. That's government. So bend with the blow, the stiff branch snaps in the river current, but the long blade of grass bends and flows with the current.

so the authoritarian nuclear family is "government"?
i don't disagree that creating one's own anarchic pockets of life within this world of anti-anarchy is both necessary and a huge challenge. but your limited definition of anarchy is completely bogus. hierarchy and domination are in no way limited to government. making "government" the sole boogie man is typical binary, narrow-minded thought. OR it is yet another leftist-academic tactic of redefining language to fit their agenda.

Hi friends!
A few comments/feedback on this podcast:
1. I really enjoyed the fact that you all seemed to have fun on this one.
2. Thanks for the hint on The New Yorker's article. I'll check it. This subject interests me a lot.
3. I didn't even know what the word opsec meant, but I found the discussion very fruitful. I'm also interested in knowing more about how those security technologies work. Not because I want to hide myself or anything like this (even though I do try to use non-tracking stuff), but I think it's interesting to understand it in a way of "knowing your enemy". Security issues, for me, is the big thing that differentiates an anarchist perspective from a neoliberal perspective: "One's freedom ends where others' begins" as opposed to "My personal freedom, confirmed by the liberty of all, extends to infinity."

I heard you play The Jam Going Underground and I thought what the fuck does this have to do with anarchist interests? Yeah, so come on, ANews, if you're going to have mini music breaks, let's, at least, have some anarchist clips.

Also, by way of contradiction (but not really) here is a link to a Nina Hartley interview on sexual freedom and consent: https://podtail.com/it/podcast/tangentially-speaking-with-dr-christopher...

The interviewer is Christopher Ryan, author of 'Civilized to Death'. There are loads of other podcast interviews too: mostly White males. And Christopher does love his quotes (he is an academic after all whilst trying not to be!). Still, Nina is well worth listening to.

For those anarchists who believe in 24/7 angst, opsec rituals, destroy destroy, smashy smashy or flowery language, this may not be for you as it two adults have an interesting dialogue about sex, love and consent (and it is face-to-face I believe), something else the kids are not comfortable with.

Suppose I can make an exception for an hour or two...JUST THIS ONE TIME THO

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