Interview with Pearson Bolt

From Debate Me Bro

Can you share a little more about your organizing and media work?

Yeah, Hi! My name is Pearson Bolt (he/they). I am a writer, a professor, a parent, a queer, and an anarchist among many other wonderful things. These days, I do a lot of labor organizing with the AAUP (American Association of University Professors) and mutual aid work with MADR (Mutual Aid Disaster Relief.) We also got a Food Not Bombs chapter back up and running in our local community in the midwest. As far as media work goes, I used to host a podcast called Coffee with Comrades, which you can find anywhere you listen to podcasts. I’m also constantly writing. I’ve a few poetry chapbooks out via Rebel Hearts Publishing and I’m perennially working on a fantasy novel that will (hopefully) see the light of day at some point in the future.

How would you describe your political views/orientation, and why? Do you consider any theorists or movements influences?

Like I said, I am an anarchist. When I gaze soberly at the material ramifications of the world’s hierarchical systems today, I am struck by an overwhelming desire to not only tear them down, but to build more imaginative, compassionate, human-centered alternatives. Power is a corrosive force in the world when it’s hoarded for the self. When shared, though, power can be emancipatory and life-changing. I’ve always harbored a strong revulsion for injustice and nursed an abiding curiosity that seeks truth wherever it may lead me. As a general rule, I think that people act as well as they can given the circumstances they find themselves in. If we build a world that incentivizes and rewards compassion, solidarity, justice, and liberation rather than misanthropy, ruthless individualism, corruption, and prisons then humanity will be far more likely to pursue ways of living, thinking, and being that are in harmony with this planet and all the critters who call it home.

Anarchy is a rich tapestry of voices, perspectives, and traditions. There is no monolithic conception of what anarchy ought to be or ought to mean. This makes anarchy unique in leftist spaces since many radical left-wing traditions tend to trace their ideological lineage to a particular person or small group of people. I like to think of anarchism like fungal spores, propagating and turning the dead refuse of the world into something new and beautiful. As such, there are far too many theorists or philosophers that come to mind. But, for the sake of the conversation, I’ll list a few of my anti-authoritarian favorites: Albert Camus, Ursula K. Le Guin, Gilles Deluze, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Francisco Ferrer, carla joy bergman, Paulo Freiere, bell hooks, etc. That being said, I often find myself looking to my friends and comrades for inspiration and knowledge as the best analysis for today is often forged in the crucible of mutual struggle for universal emancipation.

What anarchist projects (including your podcast) have you participated in, and what has that been like? What experiences have felt meaningful and generative, and why?

God, too many to count. I always feel like it’s strangely braggadocios to “flex” all my anarchist street cred by referencing all the different gatherings, mobilizations, projects, and communities I’ve frequented (and, besides, there are more than a few that I simply should not publicly recount here.) But I’m more than happy to speak to the experiences that have felt personally meaningful and generative in the hopes that they might resonate with others and inspire action, analysis, or community-building.

The big one that springs to mind is MADR. Growing up in Florida, we were constantly beset by the horror of hurricanes. The magnitude of destruction can be terrifying to behold in the still quiet of the aftermath. But one of the things that MADR does is organize to help aid folks who’ve been impacted by hurricanes. Since I’ve needed help firsthand myself as a young person, I found myself drawn to that work. There are few things as fulfilling and enriching as getting to listen to people’s needs and help meet them with a small cadre of comrades. I also find the idea of “solidarity, not charity” to be especially edifying.

What was the first organizing project you were part of, and what was that like?

I got involved with the Orlando, FL Food Not Bombs chapter when I was 15 or 16 shortly after the cops had arrested some FNB comrades for sharing food with the unhoused without a permit. The inhumanity of such an act shattered me and drove me into the streets. FNB continued to do its good work in defiance of the authorities, choosing moral conviction over the petty legislation of the state. The ranks of the chapter swelled. The cops’ crackdown backfired spectacularly, galvanizing a stronger chapter and a real sense of solidarity between the housed and the houseless in that community.

What is the most recent action or project you've been part of, and what has that been like?

Uh…well, it’s been pretty disappointing, to be honest.

The state of Ohio has recently introduced blatantly fascistic legislation that seeks to strip both faculty and students of their rights and empower the reactionary right to target teachers for harassment and potentially termination under the guise of an “anti-woke” and “anti-DEI” senate bill. Our university administration has been (at best) utterly craven or (at worst) actively complicit in the face of these developments, choosing to bend the knee to the state rather than protect our faculty and student community. While the administration’s justification for this is, “Oh, we have to follow the law, otherwise we’ll lose our funding,” anyone with two brain cells to spark between their ears knows that this is just a convenient excuse for abdicating any responsibility for safeguarding the lives, education, and research interests of faculty and students on campus. Besides, admin is not merely “complying” with the law. They’re rushing to comply and, in many cases, overcomplying with the law in order to appease the Board of Trustees which is made up of conservative dipshits nominated to their position by OH’s regressive governor. Pair that with an incredibly vile bargaining year as we tried to put together a new CBA (contract bargaining agreement) with administration and it has been…a pretty adversarial year!

To be honest, I vacillate between being furious and dejected. While it has been bolstering to see many of my colleagues and comrades rally to the cause of faculty and student rights, there were simply not enough of us. In the popular imagination of liberals and other right-wing chucklefucks, the university is a bastion of leftist ideology. As someone who’s been teaching for over a decade now in the public university system all across the so-called US, I’d be happy to disabuse any of your readers of such a silly and vapid notion but I reckon I would only be preaching to the choir. The reality, as we all know, is that “higher education” has long been captured by the capitalist class and is used not as an institution for exploration, education, and growth but instead as a tool to ruthlessly exploit people for sky-high tuition. I say all this to emphasize that there’s not some grand Marxist conspiracy in academia. If anything, the university is mostly comprised of well-meaning liberals and progressives who often lack a real critical analysis of capitalism. While that is changing as more and more people—from all walks of life—are radicalized by the current contradictions of our contemporary times, there just weren’t enough of us to stop the state from forcing this incredibly unpopular bill through the legislation, let alone to stop admin from cravenly caving.

So, yeah. Not so good.

What advice do you have for new anarchists or those questioning whether they want to get involved?

I’d hate to end on a sour note, so I’ll borrow an idea from the comrades at CrimethInc. “To change everything,” their lauded anarchist tract says, “start anywhere.” I think we often forget that anarchism is not solely a political ideology. The beauty of it, in my mind, is that anarchy asks us to rethink our relationship to all beings (human and other-than-human) and understand one another as kin. Anarchy is an invitation to unbuild walls, as Ursula K. Le Guin remarked in The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia, and tear down social hierarchies. Patriarchy, cisheteronormativity, white supremacy, colonialism, ableism, ageism, and a litany of other social hierarchies invade our lives, pervasive and often all-consuming. But it is our moral obligation as anarchists to fight back against those structures wherever they might rear their ugly heads and strike them down before they can spit venom into our eyes and rob us of the ability to see a brighter tomorrow burgeoning on the horizon.

Comments

anon (not verified) Mon, 08/18/2025 - 08:51

this is so cringe, dude.

what does "functioning" even mean, here?

going to work? paying rent? dealing with bills? consooooooming products and then getting excited for next product?

and what if you're not "functioning"? what if you're a gay NEET? also, what if a queer identifying person decides to function as a manager, a cop or a politician?

..still revolutionary?

it's all so fake and gay, anons..

anon (not verified) Wed, 08/20/2025 - 11:00

In reply to by anon (not verified)

By proclaiming to be "revolutionary" by sheer virtue of simply existing, you're basically relieving yourself of the responsibility of having to actually "do" anything for that credibility. Actual revolution-making is scary, risky and uncomfortable. But, if all I have to supposedly do is just go to the cruising bar, the club, eat hot chip and lie for the same effect, well, isn't that just convenient for me?

anon (not verified) Wed, 08/20/2025 - 14:19

In reply to by anon (not verified)

Free-dom canmot be recuperated. As it is neither profitable for capitalists or of any integrative purpose to bureaucracies. Its blurry ontology is also an obstacle to managers. It can be undermined or put under a level of control, tho (through "rights", and "free" public services for instance), but not recuperated.

anon (not verified) Wed, 08/20/2025 - 17:58

In reply to by anon (not verified)

hmm, i do want to point out, akshually, to say that your self is being irrecuperable bc your self is living out freedom is the exact same pattern of argument the text clip says: "my existence is revolutionary"

like we don't know whether freedom for you means being the worst employee in any job site, adhering to a pristine straight edge ethic, or fucking being the king of the pirates luffy "i don't want to conquer anything. the king of the pirates is the one who has the most freedom!"

anon (not verified) Thu, 08/21/2025 - 12:27

"But, for the sake of the conversation, I’ll list a few of my anti-authoritarian favorites: Albert Camus, Ursula K. Le Guin, Gilles Deluze, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Francisco Ferrer, carla joy bergman, Paulo Freiere, bell hooks, etc."

Le Guin & Kimmerer are democrats. Any list can be annoying, especially when it's almost all famous people, but...still. CrimethInc. also gets more annoying by the day.

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