Let's Talk Politics! Here's mine, what's yours?
I am an anarcha-feminist. I believe in freedom from all forms of oppression and hierarchies. Peace, love, unity, solidarity, and punk rock. I don’t want to rule and I don’t want to be ruled. I don’t believe in any nasty isms – such as racism, sexism, ageism, ableism, classism, and specism. I am against homophobia, xenophobia, and transphobia. I detest violence. I am a pacifist. I am pretty extreme – I don’t watch violent movies or play violent games. I believe violence creates violence. That any peace held with violence – is a false peace. I believe that health care, food, water, and housing should be a right not a privileged. I don’t pledge allegiance to the flag – I want no nations, no borders. No human is illegal. I want community and people working to help humanity. I believe we have a responsibility to take care of our planet so all species can live in harmony. I believe thou shall not kill. Life is precious and should never be taken for any reason. I can see a world with no war – where people won’t ever want to leave their home because everything they ever need is right there in front of them. A world free of rape, starvation, slavery, and bombs. This world is possible – if you want it. The system is made up of people – with changing yourself, you being a person, you can change the entire world.
With that being said, I took a quiz which I took a couple of years back. When I took the quiz for the first time, my politics were aligned with Gandhi.
Now, Gandhi looks moderate compared to me. See my results here.
What’s your politics? Take the quiz here. Post a comment with your results! I am curious to see what other people are. 🙂
Anarchy and Anarcha-Feminism: What is it?
What is Anarchy?
To put it simply, Anarchy means not be ruled by another and not rule anyone else. This does not mean chaos and destruction, it simply means no one is in charge of you and you are not in charge of anyone else. Anarchy means that each person is their own entity, free to do as they please, but without hurting anyone else. This is where peace comes in, I want there to be anarchy and peace. Alone, anarchy could seem as leading towards chaos, as each person would be doing as they pleased. But the idea is that everyone would be responsible caring about other human beings and not wreck harm onto another, keeping in mind that one persons rights, cannot impede of the rights of others. This is why I say I want anarchy –and- peace, the two together are a match made in paradise. Peace implies no violence, no wars, no destruction and anarchy ensures freedom of the people in society. No person is free while someone holds control over them – and anarchy ideas are intended to provide that no one holds control over you. Anarchy usually takes the form of having small groups of people, who are working together towards a common goal. Just because no one is the leader, doesn’t mean that people cannot be assigned to different tasks and roles within the group, so long as everyone is okay with a specific person having the task. I recently read the article “The Tyranny of Structureless” by Jo Freeman and I think she makes a good point, that being when that if no one is assigned a leadership position, there are people in power in concealment. I am not saying someone should lead the group, as that would not be anarchy, but if the anarchical group doesn’t select their spokesperson, outside sources will select one for them. So, it is best that the group decides who is to be the spokesperson, which must be done in advance or give such person statements on behalf of the group. As well as making it clear to all as to who’s who and not hiding influence within the group. Each person should count just as much as the next person and I think there should be a reminder to the group members as such. Usually, from my experience, people are much happier following than leading. The goal of anarchy is to try to remove the “follower” and “leader” hierarchical setup. It is meant to provide that everyone is a leader. First, there’s the need to teach people to act in a non-oppressive or hierarchical matter to then focus on having a collective. Anarchy is the ideal organization. It is people working together hearing each other needs and helping one another fill those needs. From these small groups, it is hopped that a bigger group can be formed, which could build bigger groups and bigger groups. Start small and work big. As opposed to working with the big and going small. It means putting power back into the hands of the people and taking it away from politicians and corporations. It means working together in solidarity and building wonderful communities.
What is Anarcha-feminism?
Anarcha-feminism is the combination of feminism with anarchy principles.  Anarcha-feminism opposes all structures of power be it patriarchy, all leaderships, and all hierarchy. Anarcha-feminism is against government, it does not mean female President – it means no president. “Challenging sexism means challenging all hierarchy – economic, political, and personal.” (Peggy Kornegger, “Anarchism: The Feminist Connection”)  Anarcha-feminists want change, a complete revolution. Anarcha-feminism stands for peace and equality for all. It’s to end all power, all structure, and all systems of control.   Anarcha-feminism is the struggle for complete human liberation.
For me, anarcha-feminism doesn’t stop at just human liberation but it is also about animal liberation too. It is about all beings on this planet being treated with respect, love, and kindness and not having harm rendered upon them. It is about being an anarchist – a responsible human being who takes responsibility for their actions; one who will practice loving kindness in the absence of authority because we are beyond that. We do not need to be policed. We are the ones who have the highest honor and morals without the need of a God to condemn us – we are good and righteous because that is a way a HUMAN is supposed to be.
People need to be educated to think for themselves. The problem is that the school system is set up to condition people to do what they are told without questioning. One of the most important lessons I learned in school was from my high school biology teacher and he said, “Question everything.” I think if more people questioned things the world would be a better place since people would be thinking for themselves and not letting others rule their life for them. As Wendy O. Williams puts it, “The brainwash don’t even know they are brainwashed.”
Gender Binary, Sexism, and Sexuality.
The gender binary is a form of oppression and hierarchy. Male and female stereotypes and roles put so much stress on our kind. Things like “Boys don’t cry” or if a girl sleeps around she’s a slut and if it was a man, he’s a stud. Girls are supposed to wear dresses and boys are supposed to wear pants. What madman came up with the idea of dividing humanity along the lines of what’s in one’s pants? What I want is equality which isn’t the same thing as sameness. Men and women will always be different but we can also be equal. I am in the middle of reading a book Sexism in America: Alive, Well, and Ruining Our Future and there is so much overlooked. Just even classic television shows like “Father Knows Best” encourages the model that he male knows best and the woman is inferior. Even recently with the scandalous performance of Adam Lambert with the double standard that it’s okay for some girl on girl action on prime time Television and not guy on guy. Girls can be bicurious but men have to be straight and narrow. We need this to stop this sort of thinking.
I was talking with a friend last night how the label “bisexual” enforces the idea that there are only two sexes. Then again, if the person is only attracted to cis-males and cis-females this works but that is often not the case. It doesn’t really cover all aspects of human sexuality. Then again, why do we need to worry about labels? You can like what you like and just be yourself.
However, in this imperfect world labels are helpful for sorting things and giving meaning. They have their use. I usually identify as “queer” since it is all encompassing. I am against gay and lesbian assimilation like the Steford Gays who want to be the cookie cutter American family with 2.5 kids. I know some people are afraid of the word “queer” due to it’s past and it isn’t PC. That’s the thing though, being gay doesn’t have to be PC – we aren’t going for heteronormalitivity. I am more worried about the issues of homeless youth LGBT (gays make up 10% of the population but 40% of the homeless) than having gay marriage. Gay marriage would be nice for those who want it but it’s mostly a concern of the white middle class. People aren’t worrying about gay marriage if they can’t get their medicine. Universal health care should be more of a queer issue than gay marriage because we wouldn’t need partners benefits if everyone had health care.
Again, equality isn’t the same as sameness. I am proud to be queer and different then 90% of the people. I used to joke with my friends that if 90% of the population was queer and only 10% straight – we wouldn’t have the overpopulation problem. But we do because those breeders want to keep on breeding when there are so many children in need of a good home already.
