this post was submitted on 03 Nov 2024
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Anarchism and Social Ecology

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

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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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"Punitive Grandstanding" as a technique used chiefly by authoritarians on Lemmy and beyond (lemmy.blahaj.zone)
submitted 1 week ago by FundMECFSResearch@lemmy.blahaj.zone to c/anarchism@slrpnk.net
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“Punitive grandstanding” is the most descriptive short phrase I could come up to describe the following concept:

A situation where someone pushes for extreme punitive measures against in immoral act, which in practice “virtue signals” moral superiority and implies people proposing lesser punishment are immoral. This behaviour often goes beyond what is proportionate or productive.

You probably know what I mean. Say there’s a new lemmy thread on a news community, it’s about someone having committed a horrible crime. All the comments end up being a sort of “jerk off contest” for who can propose the strongest punishment and thereby assert their moral superiority.

Instead of taking an approach to actually reduce the incident of said crime, looking at what problems might have led to it, how to care for the victim/family, and how to properly rehabilitate and treat someone who committed such an act, solely focusing on coming up with the most draconian punishment possible.

Anyone who comments something about the justice system ideally being rehabilitative gets accused of being no better than the criminal themselves or “helping” criminals.

I’ve just noticed this general trend which seems to be at odds with anarchist principles. I wonder what you think? Have you noticed this too? Do you think it’s a major problem? What can we do about it?

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[–] treefrog@lemm.ee 6 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I see more prison abolitionists here on lemmy then most places. And I do think it's a problem more generally. People often want revenge and safety from people who might be violent, and we often mistake this for justice. I'm guilty of it myself, cheering over the idea of Trump going to prison for instance (revenge). But, I did time. I know Trump wouldn't go any place that difficult, anyway. And part of me relishes in the idea of him suffering as I did. But, it's not the way. And it's not justice.

Restorative justice is the way, as you pointed out. And I think if we seed more of that model into the larger lemmy community, posting in larger communities like news, politics, science, etc, as well as (gently) in reply to comments like the ones you're seeing, that people will learn and in turn spread those good ideas. The posters on lemmy are intelligent, and a lot of them do value prison abolition.

It's fertile soil, just has a lot of weeds at the moment.

[–] punkisundead@slrpnk.net 5 points 1 week ago

Just taking this chance to link the !abolition@slrpnk.net community here on Lemmy.

[–] Five@slrpnk.net 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

This kind of behavior was rampant in Reddit city subreddits. People would frequently post a crime story featuring a racial minority, and then others would come out of the woodwork to engage in creative writing exercises about the kind of punishment the suspect deserved. More often then not, they would use racially charged language to describe the suspect. The mods would typically downplay the seriousness of what they were doing, administer wrist-slap bans when pressed, and then eventually permaban the lefties calling racists out.

I'm happy to say that's not a problem with local comms like the ones in Midwest.social that I've seen.

[–] Boomkop3@reddthat.com 3 points 1 week ago

Oh ye, something like this happened to me at one point. I didn't agree that being violent first was a good way to avoid violence. I don't remember who they were fighting.

That disagreement was punished with the reasoning that I was supporting the thing they wanted to fight

[–] sharkfucker420@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I think this is more of a western societal problem than a lemmy problem. Honestly if anything I have seen much less of this on lemmy as compared to similar internet spaces. I'd say its a big problem in that it is reflective of common thought in the west and the common thought of the west is problematic. As for what we can do about it... I suppose we do what we have always done. Vocal opposition might get you some downvotes but who tf cares.