Unthinking Majority wrote:So you are an anarchist/Antifa?
Ummm, yes and no. I have experience on the ground in Denver during the George Floyd riots. I am much older than most of those involved. From my perspective the whole thing was just a random lashing out. I support the full of the protests, but having seen the people on the ground, the way they live, and how terribly unorganized they always were (This is on the White Antifa side, not the Black BLM side), I'm not like that.
I oppose all forms of neoliberalism, and political and religious hierarchy. I Do think states of Anarchy are possible, but the most logical way to build them are using Black Panther-style Dual Power initiatives to drive community involvement.
I do not see the Anarchists I met on the ground as capable of building this, nor do they have conceptions of how to put aside basic immaturity issues for the building of a sustainable greater good.
So yes, but no, but yes. I identify with Iron Front mostly, as I am 2/3rds German (Diaspora), the Nazis destroyed research that matters to me greatly in my personal life, and they were opposed to Communists. However, they were also neolibs, so there's that. Still, you can get a feel for me with these details.
I see support for North American Indigenous Autonomy to be an important part of my views. I doubt Euros of many stripes will agree with my stances, but I don't care about them anymore as it pertains to loving, protecting, respecting, and ultimately working toward Autonomy for all Turtle Islanders in their homelands. So, #Landback. At least as long as I'm on land taken by murdering women and children anyway.
ckaihatsu wrote:My only thing, which I'll get out of the way here, is that I think even *pagans* tended to have *one* deity that they emphasized, or saw as superior to the other gods ('sun god'). In this way even pantheistic paganism may have had the beginning trappings of *monotheism* (which arrived after, of course).
So, yeah, I'm an atheist.
Religion is the second channel to power, and I won't ever back down from that.
Spirituality, and/or personal relationships with Deities are another matter. It's funny you mention Pagans. I am one. Freya is my patron, but I don't "worship" her. I simply look to her stories for guidance in my life. When I was young, I admit I did a bit of Thor worship (half-seriously) and may have renounced all ties to Christianity in a thunderstorm when I was 16 (That part was serious though).
Maybe.
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ckaihatsu wrote:Understandable. Sorry to hear of the family distress. That has to be difficult both personally and politically.
Hopefully you're under no obligation on your end of things to have to 'turn out' more of *anything*. Take care, later!
Thing is, I came to learn about my family through some research my "Crazy Aunt" did before she was committed to a mental institution! Get this, She found a historical database for Volga Germans that tracked our family back to their original village in a now-destroyed village called Herzog.
(There is a Herzog in KS now, however, still a small German village of Wheat farmers. Long story short she dug up a handwritten account of what the Soviets did. It was awful. I'm only here because the Soviet Officers skipped over my great-grandpa because he was too scrawny!
So no immediate danger to my life beyond anything anyone who opposed Putin has to fear (Polonium in your Cheerios), but the event represents a definite distinction in my support of other ostensibly leftist positions.
Anti-American is a big "whatever" to me. Good! The US is the biggest Imperium going right now.
But if you go Pro-Russia to be Anti-American you lose me. Especially modern Russia, and Stalinist Russia. The Russian people tho, they're different and worth mentioning every time the issue comes up. We were colonists in their lands. I know who my family are. If my ancestors were anything like the family is now, I get exactly why no one ever intermarried.
My family are also uber-USA conservatives btw. My grandmother had them during WWII so she never taught them German out of fear of reprisals. At one point they had several thousand in war bonds too.
Several of my uncles bought the "Rah Rah" nonsense and one is still designing murder machines for Boeing in Alabama as we speak. A proud wealthy, American warmonger with a big mouth.
The widespread use of Permaculture and the elimination of lawn grass would offset global warming but then Capitalists couldn't sell you food excess.