Nothing to be embarrassed about. You did absolutely nothing wrong, yet got treated like shit - that's on them, not on you. Find a new place to get your groceries, never come back to that crap of a manager.

Sorry they fucked you over this much. Best wishes from throwaway (:

I don't mind getting some handy info, but I do mind pigs scouring our forum. Cops aren't welcome here.

Democracy is a category, with multiple branches. You can't denounce democracy as a whole, it's the very basis if comming to agreements in common. Direct consensus democracy is the basis of anarchism, and it's a branch of democracy.

Sure, representative democracy is bullshit, but democracy as a whole should not be shunned.

What i mean by that isn't a "peoples party" or some similar iron fist in a velvet glove. Anarchism is supposed to allow people, workplaces, unions and so on to take decisions together, with every born person on this earth having as much weight as the next.

Sorry if it came off as something else.

Hijacking top comment to do away with the absolute hatred towards the word 'democracy':

Representative democracy is bullshit. Majory voting is bullshit. But there are democratic solutions that are fucking optimal; direct consensus democracy in combination with anarchist syndicalism is beautiful, in my humble opinion.

You can't have a people's rule without democracy.

Now that's solidarity. <3

They rarely have any real web presence, and are difficult to locate unless you know some active anarchists already who can guide you. Almost every single major town has some level of anarchist or anarcho-communist organization.

Check out if there is any local anarchist book cafés or book stores in your area. I have some near me, and that's been my way to organize and meet people.

That's true, but voting still has an effect on the subconscious, even if you're actively trying to ignore it. Most people go into a thread with upvotes expecting to see something they'll agree with on a forum such as Raddle, and will be more likely to react positively to the post. At least that's my theory, but then again, this is coming mostly from my ass.

Vote manipulation is easy on Raddle. We had a Python bot that could pour in over 200 up/downvotes in 10 minutes.

If you ask me, voting should be discarded.

Yeah, FLOSS'ing is quite important, if you value your freedom!

badum-tss

We should rename languagebot to Skynet.

Cool, thank you!

LanguageBot should probably be disabled until it's ready to include all offenses in one response, and doesn't repeat the same messages twice. Just look at this mess.

I personally think this is over the line. I'm vegetarian (working on going vegan), so it's not that i don't think steak is crap - but replacing ordinary words such as bacon with "skin of a pig carcass" is stretching it. There's a big difference between the skin of a dead pig, and bacon. Same goes for steak, it's not flesh, it's flesh that's been prepared and made into food. Recognizing that such a thing exists isn't speciesism, it's common sense.

Having to conform to these rules is impractical and unnecessary.

On a side note, this probably belongs in f/meta.

I use Python as the server language in all my webdev projects, and it's fucking great. Hosting is cheap and easy too. PHP is dying day by day, I'd suggest Python if webdev is what you want to do. It also gives a much better grasp of newer programming languages, and is somewhat easy to get a foothold in compared to something like PHP.

It's a little difficult to get through because the writer has a complex style, and it's old, but it is an all-time gem: The Book of Bread, by Kropotkin. Here's some other good nonfictional books I've read that made an impression (be warned, though: mostly anarchist-communist philosophy):

• Direct struggle against Capital, a Peter Kropotkin anthology - this one is a beast, I don't recommend it if you're new in the world of anarchist literature
• God and the State, Bakunin - easily swallowed, doesn't deal with capitalism and economics but instead focuses on, you guessed it, the concept of god and its ties with the state
• Spontaneous Evolution, Bruce Lipton - A load of stuff that really makes you think, and introduces you to an unimaginable number of concepts and ways of thought; but, also a ton of bullshit. Take it with a grain of salt.
• Fragments of an anarchist Anthropology, David Graeber - An awesome short book, written with a modern and understandable language by one of the most notable anarchists of our time
• Bolo'bolo, P. M. - Presents a model for utopia, which helps with connecting all the up-in-the-skies philosophy that many of these books forces you to deal with, with the real world
• The Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels - A very powerful short manifesto, designed as a propaganda piece to inspire the masses. Gives you a short introduction the communist way of thought, gives your anger (at least in my case, I've been overflowing with rage at times) some purpose and direction, and ends it all with a page or two on authoritarian bullshit. Great read.

e: Here's some that I've been wanting to read, and will get to if my local book café gets them:

• Wither Anarchism?, Kristian Williams - Takes a closer look at the shortcomings of the anarchist-communist scene today, and investigates how anarchism can move forward
• Rethinking Anarchy, Carlos Taibo - Self-explanatory title, really; its topic of choice is similar to Wither Anarchism
• May Made Me, Mitchell Abidor - A real story from France, 1968

There is some truth to this, but i think it's an overstatement all-in-all. People on the radical left should be more ready to present their litterature and introduce other people to their ideologies and ways of thought, instead of shunning them - but within a reasonable frame.

Not all forms of democracy. Representative democracy perhaps.

Happy birthday, Raddle! Thanks for providing this space for people, with no regard for profit or exploitation.

e: gotta say though, graphic design isn't your strong suit ziq. ;)

I don't expect you to teach me, but it does sound like you got a thing or two that i could learn from. Is there any reading material that you would recommend regarding your criticism of anarcho-communism?

our lives have been ruined because of our governments

You're asking us to sign a petition, to get the attention of the government and the corporations, the parasites that have put society in this screwed up place. That's not how things work.

If you think the powers will willingly give up their power, you're in too deep.

Arca Majora 3 Heavy.

You're really not supplying any valid arguments - you're deflecting everything i say, while lavishing in your own holier-than-thou wisdom and, apparently, ego.

It seems to me that you've rejected everything that has a tie to communism without any valid reason, probably because of all the corrupt authoritarian national bodies branding themselves communist (USSR, China and the likes). Don't fall prey to the constant bullshit lies and propaganda.

The natural order is devoid of artificial government.

That's anarchism.

Your logic is ancient.

That does not make it flawed (perhaps, quite the opposite).

Chaos bred capitalism, communism, ism ism ism. Anarchism is an initial condition, much like chaos.

Chaos bred authoritarian and oppressive ideologies and ways of thought. Communism in itself is, by all means, very authoritative and oppressive. Same goes for almost all other "ism's".

Anarchism is an initial condition, much like chaos.

I suppose you could say that anarchism is, in some ways, organized chaos. It's chaos with added cultural values such as solidarity, respect, self-reflection, responsibility and autonomy.