Critique of On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder

Twitter is manipulating all of us, including anti-capitalists; stirring up outrage to get us to look at ads.

Neoliberalism led governments and business leaders to put profits over people, weakened healthcare systems, made it easier for the virus to spread, established supply chains that are more vulnerable to disruption, and is retarding the global manufacture & distribution of vaccines.

Anarchism does not mean chaos, random violence, or total opposition to all organization. It is a philosophy calling for the abolition of hierarchy, an analysis of how hierarchies work, and a vision of a better society.

Even when genuine radicals are elected they are not permitted to carry out their campaign promises but must serve capital. Elections coopt dissident leaders & organizers and divert energy & resources away from direct action into pointless political action.

Murder is only illegal if you're not a cop.

Growing up in the late twentieth-century United States I, like many others, was taught that protestors against the Vietnam war spat on American soldiers when they returned home from the war. When I got older and studied history more thoroughly I discovered that I had been taught a myth. That spitting did not happen.

The wage system coerces workers into selling our labor; it is not freedom.

The electoral system coopts and weakens dissent in several ways.

A brief note on some aspects of Richard Nixon’s Presidency.

The CNT typically discouraged its members from voting, or simply ignored elections, and did not participate inside the Spanish political system. During the Spanish Civil War it compromised its principles, and the results were disastrous.

Effective campaigns using direct action and effective political campaigns using the ballot box tend to work at cross-purposes. Direct action and political action, when organized by regular people, tend to undermine each other.

A little note on the differences between left communists, council communists, autonomous Marxists, and anarcho-communists.

The actions of the state are contingent on factors other than who wins the election, such as the status of the economy, the use of direct action by popular movements, interaction with other states, the needs & desires of the 1%, technological changes, etc.

Minor reforms to the prevailing social structure, even when they make genuine improvements, neglect the underlying root causes of social problems and end up treating the symptoms, not the disease. What is needed are not the minor cosmetic changes liberals propose but a radical restructuring of society.

The war in Afghanistan is unethical and unjust. It kills thousands of people, is based on faulty logic, and protects an oppressive Afghan government. The United States must withdraw immediately.

The Coca-Cola Company uses outsourcing to drive wages down, shuts down plants for unionizing, fires (and sometimes murders) workers for joining unions, and pays poverty wages wherever it can get away with it.

The Nobel Peace Prize has repeatedly been awarded to warmongers and imperialists while passing over the likes of Ghandi and Dorothy Day. Giving Barack Obama the prize is only the latest case discrediting it.

There is a fundamental conflict of interest between workers and employers. Workers must organize and fight back.

Understanding the history of the Industrial Workers of the World requires taking a global view. The common approach of looking only at the union’s US history, or looking at it only in one country, is inadequate and obscures transnational patterns.