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> The legal system defines what is criminal, and that has nothing to do with morality. That's not entirely wrong, but "criminal" is often used figuratively to

> The legal system defines what is criminal, and that has nothing to do with morality. That's not entirely wrong, but "criminal" is often used figuratively to refer to morally-abhorrent behavior. I took the liberty to employ the word this way to address the blind spots of our respective legal systems. I personally wouldn't call a weed smoker a criminal but would call a murderous cop a criminal: that France's legal system does not agree with me is unfortunate but irrelevant. > Any other more socialist system was nothing else but much worse, and the social democracies of today have just the same issues That's a debatable point of view, but my opinion is that what you refer to as "socialism" or "social democracy" is in fact just another brand of capitalism. For example, in anarchist circles, the USSR was widely criticized as "State capitalism" [0]. In this mental framework, laissez-faire capitalism (Randt/Hayek ideals) is yet another brand of capitalism, although it has yet to be proven that capitalism can exist without nation states to enforce it, while stateless communism has a varied history throughout the ages. [0] https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/emma-goldman-there-is-no-communism-in-russia https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/emma-goldman-there-i...

emteycz 5y ago
The problem with criminality is that what we feel like is absolutely irrelevant, which is why this is a big mistake. The fact is that weed is criminal in France/elsewhere in Europe and that is a problem that must be recognized because it's immoral. Same re: murderous cops and other excesses of criminal systems. Ad brands of capitalism - well OK, but any place that tried any brand of anarchism failed even harder than any brand of capitalism ever did, and the end result was much worse for the individual people who lived there. The US was always a heaven on Earth in comparison, even during its worst era of unregulated capitalism. USSR is the largest example but it was a poor country. There were rich countries that voted for true communism democratically and even there it devolved into a catastrophe in less than a year (after WW2, or after a few years for the more recent examples). IMHO human nature makes it absolutely impossible to make communism work, because it will be immediately taken over by power hungry people for their own benefit. Any anarchism that might be desired will never be allowed to develop, these power hungry people will make sure they control it.
- Retric 5y ago
  The US has some seriously dark history including a relativity extreme form of slavery. Some failed states and tribalism where extremely unpleasant and legitimately better places to live.
  - emteycz 5y ago
    No, it was at best the same, US was never worse - and only much better after the abolition. The sad fact is that these anarchist places devolved into feudalism/slavery and then straight into warlordism. The only difference was that the people weren't called slaves directly.
    - Retric 5y ago
      Not all forms of slavery are equivalent. Cultural norms evolve to where European serfdom for example was a distinct institution. At the other extreme Caribbean sugar plantations had a ~50% mortality rate in the first year. US slaves where treated significantly worse than the average over history, though of course not the worst.
      - emteycz 5y ago
        It wasn't anything like the distinct European institution in these places, which was hell anyways - there was a good reason why these people risked death and went to America.
        Retric 5y ago
        While the most extreme abuses happen in basically every society at some level, widespread institutions run into real limits. Extremely brutal forms of widespread oppression take strong institutes to maintain stability. Haiti for example had truly horrific conditions, but it couldn’t maintain control first seeing significant numbers of escaped slaves living off the land then a successful uprising. Natzi’s where brutally efficient at working their slaves to death. At the other end, Native American tribes for example would capture people effectively taking slaves but they integrated them into their tribes. Similar practices where fairly widespread in many cultures without firm centralized governments. The captured wife/sex slave divide is historically nuanced. Keeping people under lock and key takes effort and limits the forms of manual labor they can do. Mines where often extremely horrific because they where so easily managed. Hunting on the other hand requires significant freedom of movement.

emteycz 5y ago

The problem with criminality is that what we feel like is absolutely irrelevant, which is why this is a big mistake. The fact is that weed is criminal in France/elsewhere in Europe and that is a problem that must be recognized because it's immoral. Same re: murderous cops and other excesses of criminal systems. Ad brands of capitalism - well OK, but any place that tried any brand of anarchism failed even harder than any brand of capitalism ever did, and the end result was much worse for the individual people who lived there. The US was always a heaven on Earth in comparison, even during its worst era of unregulated capitalism. USSR is the largest example but it was a poor country. There were rich countries that voted for true communism democratically and even there it devolved into a catastrophe in less than a year (after WW2, or after a few years for the more recent examples). IMHO human nature makes it absolutely impossible to make communism work, because it will be immediately taken over by power hungry people for their own benefit. Any anarchism that might be desired will never be allowed to develop, these power hungry people will make sure they control it.

Retric 5y ago
The US has some seriously dark history including a relativity extreme form of slavery. Some failed states and tribalism where extremely unpleasant and legitimately better places to live.
- emteycz 5y ago
  No, it was at best the same, US was never worse - and only much better after the abolition. The sad fact is that these anarchist places devolved into feudalism/slavery and then straight into warlordism. The only difference was that the people weren't called slaves directly.
  - Retric 5y ago
    Not all forms of slavery are equivalent. Cultural norms evolve to where European serfdom for example was a distinct institution. At the other extreme Caribbean sugar plantations had a ~50% mortality rate in the first year. US slaves where treated significantly worse than the average over history, though of course not the worst.
    - emteycz 5y ago
      It wasn't anything like the distinct European institution in these places, which was hell anyways - there was a good reason why these people risked death and went to America.
      - Retric 5y ago
        While the most extreme abuses happen in basically every society at some level, widespread institutions run into real limits. Extremely brutal forms of widespread oppression take strong institutes to maintain stability. Haiti for example had truly horrific conditions, but it couldn’t maintain control first seeing significant numbers of escaped slaves living off the land then a successful uprising. Natzi’s where brutally efficient at working their slaves to death. At the other end, Native American tribes for example would capture people effectively taking slaves but they integrated them into their tribes. Similar practices where fairly widespread in many cultures without firm centralized governments. The captured wife/sex slave divide is historically nuanced. Keeping people under lock and key takes effort and limits the forms of manual labor they can do. Mines where often extremely horrific because they where so easily managed. Hunting on the other hand requires significant freedom of movement.