Category Archives: criticism

Entry 4 – From BC to MI

On the essay denouncement The author of one of the three recent denouncements of nihilism that I am at least partially culpable in lives in the city of Vancouver (or so they say in the essay). My presentation there was pregnant with the possibility of a public face-to-face with this critic. Sadly, though not surprisingly, … Continue reading “Entry 4 – From BC to MI”

Also posted in bison, denouncement, devils mountain, motorcycle, Tour Reportback | Comments closed

10 years of Anarchist News

This is the date that is more-or-less 10 years after the first entry of a very early (think php-nuke) version of anarchistnews on the Wayback Machine. The original mission of anarchistnews was to improve on deficiencies of the active news wires of that time These deficiencies were being too broad (as to not be particularly […]

Also posted in Anarchist News, report back, self-criticism | Comments closed

How not to burn bridges

At some point I became exhausted with the process of making new friends. This is perhaps telling sign of aging but I no longer feel like the honeymoon period of a relationship is the most important one anymore. It used to be that the first three hours, three weeks, three months of a new person, […]

Also posted in aging, Bookfairs, lbc | Comments closed

How to burn bridges…

and not end up living a life of lonliness and desolation I am a known bridge burner. This means that on several opportunities throughout my life I made choices that meant I lost friends. Not lost friends in that I got to pick them up again later, but lost friends in the sense that people […]

Also posted in death, personal, stubborn | Comments closed

If only trolls are cruel what’s left for us?

A self-criticism. I find terrible, mocking humor to be enjoyable. I laugh at others expense and find the foibles and flaws of my rivals and political adversaries to be particular amusing. I will, in all engaged interest, sit for hours detailing flaws and imperfections in others, hopefully to comedic effect. I am not going to […]

Also posted in cruelty, General, humor, laughing, moralism, trolls | Comments closed

The Four That Should Not Be One

After my trip to Europe I came back to a couple of different existential challenges. This was put succinctly during a conversation with T in Greece who responded to my question “What was your biggest criticism of American Anarchists?” by saying simply “You all act like you are in High School” and as unfair as […]

Also posted in General, nationalism, Turtle Island, west, west is the best | Comments closed

But What About the Vegans!?

Consider this post my farewell to veganism. I am writing it so that there is a single place to put down my ideas about the change and, I hope, the last place I’ll have to talk about this again. At the end of the day my change from being vegan has as much to do […]

Also posted in personal, stubborn, veganism | Comments closed

The problems of opinions & wealth

I want to wrap up my out loud thinking about my time in Europe (I’ve been back for three weeks but it doesn’t feel like it since I am now traveling so much) with some conclusions but first some thoughts about other problems that feel specifically American but perhaps are more general. US radicals are […]

Also posted in moralism, opinions, personal, wealth | Comments closed

A story of a Greek Assembly

Ever since I saw the Void Network give their presentation on the “Greek situation” I have wanted to seriously think, and put into practice, my understanding of what they meant by “an assembly”. Since I am in Greece now (updates of my Amsterdam trip will have to come later as I don’t want to lose […]

Also posted in action, assemblies, General, Greeks, leftists, what is to be done | Comments closed

Tactics? WTF are TACTICS?!?! On the recent events that transpired in Oakland (archived 11-7-2010)

“Learn to become indiscernible. Blend in. Revive the taste for anonymity, for promiscuity. Renounce distinction in order to evade repression: arrange for the most favorable conditions of confrontation. Become crafty. Become pitiless. To do so, become whatever.” – Tiqqun “How … Continue reading

Posted in criticism | Comments closed

The Great Lesson – VI

A review is in order. I read Letters of Insurgents as a great work on how to do criticism: a humane story about two sharp people cutting each other to size in appropriate, if harsh and perhaps mean-at-times, ways. This criticism ranges far beyond the tome of Letters of Insurgents or the dynamics between two […]

Also posted in criticism of criticism, labels, letters of insurgents, love | Comments closed

Letter of Insurgents: The Great Lesson V

This is the first chapter of the book that I have re-read in the book itself. Times have changed for me and now I spend 80% of my waking hours in front of a screen and so it is just more convenient for me to read the wonderful version of the text that we put […]

Also posted in criticism of criticism, letters of insurgents, personal | Comments closed

Letter of Insurgents: The Great Lesson III

I am writing about this book again after years of absence, because of how formative the book was in my thinking about criticism (and specifically criticism as a form of communication and engagement with written material). The relationships in this story are still the model I use when considering what I mean and what I […]

Also posted in letters of insurgents, Nihilism | Comments closed

Letters of Insurgents: The Great Lesson II

This week’s submission is going to be a little short. I think I need to pace myself (I still have eight weeks after this one) but there are so many themes from this week’s reading that I’must dig into, including a rich quote from Sophia about memory exercises, the concept that political people have “the […]

Also posted in letters of insurgents, perception | Comments closed