William Gillis on Radical vs Liberal Abolitionism

From YouTube via Seeds of Revolution Podcast

WATCH ON YOUTUBE HERE: https://youtu.be/Q387Qd6c898

William Gillis is a second generation anarchist activist who studies high energy theoretical physics and has written extensively on the politics of abolition and transformative justice. Check out William's website (https://humaniterations.net/) which hosts a ton of their writing, and order William's new book, "Did The Science Wars Take Place: The Political & Ethical Stakes of Radical Realism (https://store.c4ss.org/index.php/prod...) ."

Comments

8,nbasll (not verified) Tue, 09/23/2025 - 17:49

Nop yuis fiockoing rong, I m asm niot a fyuvking scientristIo fuixkijng itrolectual aima a fyuckinbg loine weolf huillbuilly fuivking nihiolisdt, NOIT a fyuxkimg iodeiologuical introlecytual !, I anm NIOT A FYUCKOING NUIMBER YIOU FUICKUNG CIONTRIOL FREWAK!.,? ,imnma ryural hillbikl.y nihiolidst, a a POIST-'ASNARTCH fyucjkinf nuianced sedentitry ryreal fyuvkong rebekl niohiloist anarcgh mmjk?!.,!

Ted I Ous (not verified) Wed, 09/24/2025 - 17:30

Against all previous evidence i somehow thought i could listen to this but 20 minutes in and i just want to plug my ears & throw my device into the sea.

Gillis is not wrong that there is a difference between liberal restorative justice and anarchist prison abolition. i just don't believe he has thought through how anarchists would deal with offenders (for lack of a better term) in our ideal scenario. he seems to start from the notion that if we had anarchy tomorrow we would also be starting from zero in terms of who has harmed who, whose grievances get repaired, and whose get elided for expediency, the emotional content of all of that, etc. As if we all can just cast aside the past.

not to mention i don't believe he knows what goes on in restorative or transformative justice processes. he has a cartoon idea of what they entail. it isn't always about forgiveness, and to that, what is his beef with forgiveness?

it's as if his view is "we are strong muscular anarchists and we will smash smash the state & prisons but none of that icky talking through shit, that's for weaklings."

maybe the final hour & 10 minutes will change my mind....

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