this post was submitted on 26 Jan 2024
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Anarchism and Social Ecology

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Anarchism

Anarchism is a social and political theory and practice that works for a free society without domination and hierarchy.

Social Ecology

Social Ecology, developed from green anarchism, is the idea that our ecological problems have their ultimate roots in our social problems. This is because the domination of nature and our ecology by humanity has its ultimate roots in the domination humanity by humans. Therefore, the solutions to our ecological problems are found by addressing our social and ecological problems simultaneously.

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~ Murray Bookchin

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I voted for the “harm reduction” vote in the 2016 Presidential election. Mar Roxas wasn’t great, but he was better than Duterte. Surprise, surprise, Duterte won. Hundreds of thousands died.

For the 2022 Presidential election, I voted for a principled vote for Leody de Guzman. Surprise, surprise, the Marcos dynasty returns to power.

Then people are treating Biden/Trump round 2 as top priority. Newsflash, if democracy was at stake in the election, then you don’t have democracy. I’ve been watching the Biden administration from afar. Biden, Trump, they’re the same. Same killer police. Same concentration camps at the border. Same prison industrial complex. Same trans genocide. Same abortion bans. No meaningful climate action. And now, a genocide in Gaza. Biden doesn’t care. Voting isn’t harm reduction.

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[–] mambabasa 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

What effect? Literally none of my actions have prevented fascists from coming into power. I did face-to-face conversations in why Duterte was bad. I campaigned against Marcos. Literally zero effect. The bad people win because the game is stacked in their favor.

[–] keepthepace 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

You lowered their score. Not enough people did what you did. One person is unlikely to sway an election by themselves, it is a collaborative effort.

Saying that voting is useless because your candidate did not win is missing the whole point of elections.

[–] mambabasa 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

No, voting is not useless because my candidate lost. Voting is useless because it separates people from mass politics and makes it appear as if the ballot is the power. Instead of people acting for themselves, they delegate their power to a ballot and to a candidate. That is not power, that is an image of power.

[–] keepthepace 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I am unconvinced that without voting people would feel more included in "mass politics"

[–] mambabasa 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

That's because the mass politics you envision is precisely one predetermined by the liberal-“democratic” voting form, where people are precisely separated from their power. Voting can be part of a truly liberatory and emancipatory politics, but its current form is authoritarian. Even the concept of voting as harm reduction and voting for lesser evils already shows people have no power.

[–] keepthepace 2 points 10 months ago

Yes, it is authoritarian and allows one to choose between two authoritarian alternatives that are not the same. Voting matters but can't be the only political action you have.