this post was submitted on 02 Feb 2026
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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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Poetry and imagination must be integrated with science and technology, for we have evolved beyond an innocence that can be nourished exclusively by myths and dreams.

~ Murray Bookchin, The Ecology of Freedom

People want to treat ‘we’ll figure it out by working to get there’ as some sort of rhetorical evasion instead of being a fundamental expression of trust in the power of conscious collective effort.

~Anonymous, but quoted by Mariame Kaba, We Do This 'Til We Free Us

The end justifies the means. But what if there never is an end? All we have is means.

~Ursula K. Le Guin, The Lathe of Heaven

The assumption that what currently exists must necessarily exist is the acid that corrodes all visionary thinking.

~Murray Bookchin, "A Politics for the Twenty-First Century"

There can be no separation of the revolutionary process from the revolutionary goal. A society based on self-administration must be achieved by means of self-administration.

~Murray Bookchin, Post Scarcity Anarchism

In modern times humans have become a wolf not only to humans, but to all nature.

~Abdullah Öcalan

The ecological question is fundamentally solved as the system is repressed and a socialist social system develops. That does not mean you cannot do something for the environment right away. On the contrary, it is necessary to combine the fight for the environment with the struggle for a general social revolution...

~Abdullah Öcalan

Social ecology advances a message that calls not only for a society free of hierarchy and hierarchical sensibilities, but for an ethics that places humanity in the natural world as an agent for rendering evolution social and natural fully self-conscious.

~ Murray Bookchin

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[–] jaennaet@sopuli.xyz 6 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (6 children)

I recommended this manual's section on workplace sabotage, and I had a user say that this would not work today, because apparently literally every single workplace is a panopticon that will detect even the tiniest amount of inefficiency and fire you for it, and apparently somehow even though every single worker in some unit was working as slow as possible it would not hurt efficiency, because magical surveillance technology.

Also according to them if you try this you will be PROSECUTED, and I guess you'll also be flogged, shot, hanged, quartered, burned at the stake, and then flogged again for good measure. And then you'll be fired.

Not sure if that person's just an idiot or actively trying to prevent people from trying simple sabotage.

That manual was published in 1944, when significant workplace malfeasance could be readily concealed. A worker in that time could easily hamper far more production than they were forced to produce to maintain their cover.

With modern workplace supervision, surveillance and record keeping designed specifically to identify and eliminate such “inefficiencies”, our modern saboteur cannot hope to achieve results anywhere close to those of his great-grandfather. The amount of production he has to achieve to maintain his cover greatly exceeds the loss of production from his efforts. Your great grandfather could throw a wrench in the gears and play dumb; you’ll be caught and prosecuted if you try the same, so you have to resort to less effective efforts.

With such extensive workplace surveillance in place, every worker in a unit can be a “saboteur”, and productivity from that unit can still be positive. They can churn out production even with every single worker actively trying to slow it.

Better for our would-be saboteur to resign. He sets the example for his former co-workers, while also saddling them with his work. His absence damages unit productivity more than he could achieve through active sabotage.

The tactics you are recommending are about 60 years out of date.>

[–] hex_m_hell@slrpnk.net 10 points 6 days ago

Literally all you have to do in most situations is exactly what your manager says without correcting them constantly. The level of incompetence in Industry is so overwhelming and pervasive because business creeps, who don't know what work is like, have taken over everything.

"Move faster." Sure thing, I can significantly reduce quality.

"Write more code." Sure thing, I can generate more lines of incomprehensible garbage.

"Use more AI" Rad, will do. I'll use on the most critical areas I can. I'll use it 100% of the time. Whatever you want boss.

Most managers are idiots who can't even discern what quality looks like.

[–] GeeDubHayduke@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I had that same conversation a few weeks ago. The boot licking runs deep.

[–] jaennaet@sopuli.xyz 3 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

And 90% of the people here are telling me that this sort of sabotage would be completely useless and all workplaces literally everywhere in the world really are surveillance machines.

I guess we should just lie down and give up.

[–] AntiBullyRanger@ani.social -1 points 6 days ago

lol lmao. Please save China, fellow Daoist Oliver!
Free China from private and public panoptics!
Please, my fellow Uhgyur ئەقىلداش needs this!
🙏

Mocking tactic practice #2, per by motherjones wisdom.

[–] OhNoMoreLemmy@lemmy.ml 4 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Long and generic text without actually making a point, and no actual facts. 

I'm not saying it was written by an LLM, but it might as well have been.

[–] AntiBullyRanger@ani.social 1 points 6 days ago

I just read dissonance, so I addressed it.
Hopefully the Finish person earnestly replies.

[–] AntiBullyRanger@ani.social -1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

literally every single workplace is a panoptic

Jeopardy What is “at-will” employment for 100$🔗

Hope you learn something today!🫡

[–] jaennaet@sopuli.xyz 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Maybe one day you'll learn that "at-will employment" isn't a thing in every country?

[–] AntiBullyRanger@ani.social 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Is this a self own?

You know I am Japanese, right?

[–] jaennaet@sopuli.xyz 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

So what the fuck is your point then?

[–] AntiBullyRanger@ani.social 0 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

You are serious‽ That you're wrong! More countries that are not yours HAVE panoptics, and you are denying this truth! Not everyone is from Finland, and actually have state enforced employee rights.
Yet mines, and the US does. Get with the program, Finland isn't the center of the world, China is!

[–] cerement@slrpnk.net 14 points 1 week ago (2 children)

a few pundits have also pointed out that several of these tactics are considered standard-operating-procedure by modern middle management (like multiple, long, pointless meetings)

[–] dylanmorgan@slrpnk.net 4 points 6 days ago

In those meetings, engage in JAQing off. If nothing is decided on in a meeting because you ask questions, it’s much harder to justify termination.

[–] floofloof@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 week ago

That could be a helpful thing though, since it makes it easier to disguise your deliberate inefficiency among the other inefficiencies.

[–] PanGodofPanic@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

There definitely is an argument here that most modern workplaces are truly dystopian panopticons where some of the methods laid out won't work nearly as well as they once did. And yes, some methods resulting in any amount of damage to equipment could very plausibly result in prosecution. But none of it is impossible and many methods will still work, at least with some cooperation.

[–] jaennaet@sopuli.xyz 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (2 children)

There definitely is an argument here that most modern workplaces are truly dystopian panopticons

There absolutely isn't an argument like that. Where the hell have you people been working if you think most workplaces are like that?

Edit: yes, some of the methods definitely wouldn't work because they're outdated, but not because every single workplace is like the NSA

Edit part deux – the return of the Edit: also, I think a lot of you folks are forgetting that not every job is an IT job

[–] Quill7513@slrpnk.net 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

where are you working that your computer isn't overloaded with snitchware?

[–] jaennaet@sopuli.xyz 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I've never, ever had a work computer with snitchware, and I've worked in multinational gaming companies.

I think this might be a USA vs Europe thing, because seriously this "every workplace is a panopticon" just isn't a thing at least in Finland.

Also, not every workplace is something where you deal with computers etc. Manufacturing and so on still exist.

[–] PanGodofPanic@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Could be a US vs Europe thing, maybe a specific to Finland or the Scandinavia thing, but I generally doubt it and think you're naïve to the experience of most people's jobs. Britain is quite famously even more omni-surveilled than the US.

I work management in retail, cameras are literally everywhere (and being at least occasionally watched) that there could ever be a legal liability in any form (e.g. a worker or customer doing absolutely anything whatsoever), which is basically everywhere. Manufacturing is the same, cameras are everywhere. On paper it's mainly for the liability reasons but surveillance is a nice bonus (or the real reason).

My mom worked in corporate telecommunications until last year when she retired, and her job frequently involved discussions about how the networks her company was installing enabled closer employee surveillance. Her stories from work are part of why I care to comment about this, it's almost laughable to me to see someone thinking this isn't common. It's standard. It's everywhere. The world became a panopticon a decade ago and you're running late to the realization.

[–] jaennaet@sopuli.xyz 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

The world became a panopticon a decade ago and you’re running late to the realization.

Or maybe you're just generalising your experiences and assuming that eg. the laws regarding what employers can do with cameras are the same everywhere?

[–] AntiBullyRanger@ani.social 0 points 6 days ago

aint no way you're this dense. Just because your country isn't surveillancing the planet, doesn't meant the big 14 haven't.

[–] PanGodofPanic@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Seconding Quill here, if you haven't been living this your entire working career you're one of vanishingly few lucky exceptions to the rule. Yes, the factual reality is that most workplaces at medium size or larger employers are in fact actual panopticons. There are exceptions, there always are. But that's the reality on the ground in 2025.

[–] jaennaet@sopuli.xyz 2 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Are y'all Americans? Because that definitely isn't the reality on the ground over here in Finland

[–] AntiBullyRanger@ani.social 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

First time I’ve ever seen someone finnish-centric dissonance themselves in threadiverse.

Who was it then you were focusing on your cited🧵?

I was there in that thread too, making fun of [complying] liberals.

What as a Finnish person are you capable of directly sabotaging?

[–] jaennaet@sopuli.xyz 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I have no idea what you're trying to say here

[–] AntiBullyRanger@ani.social 1 points 6 days ago

Who were you talking about in the thread you linked then? Can't be klay1@lemmy.world or Rivalarrival, because simple sabotage was never praxied in Finland.