The main contradiction of liberal democracy is that we can have social liberties without any economic liberty at all.
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In a society with economic liberty you don't need any civil disobedience at all. Civil disobedience is not a fundamental human right, it's a response to systemic injustice imposed on humans.
In a modern liberal democracy, civil disobedience happens only very rarely in response to anything but one or another kind of economic oppression.
Try to start a credit union to escape predatory banking? Regulatory nightmare.
Create a community land trust? Zoning violation.
Build your own internet infrastructure? Corporate lawsuits.
The system has perfected the art of channeling dissent into meaningless activities. Petitions, permitted protests, voting for pre-selected candidates (WHO CHEAT IN PRIMARIES), writing to representatives who send form letters back
Start another online petition! Who cares?
@happyborg
That's a good start, but you would only be moving bits, whilst they make all the atoms illegal.
Like proteins entering Gaza or the Warsaw Ghetto.
Symbolic freedom only gets you so far.
The autonomous internet becomes just another coloring book - a more sophisticated one, perhaps, but still confined to the realm of bits while the atoms remain under lock and key.
Real autonomy would require both: the digital infrastructure AND the physical/economic base to support it. Without the latter, you're just building castles in the cloud.
Governments and corporations don’t need to silence you—they just need to ensure you:
1. Own nothing
2. Can’t build
3. Can’t manufacture industrially
4. Can’t distribute at scale
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All the while maintaining the fiction that "the people have spoken" when they've only been allowed to whisper into the void.
The real message: "Here's your coloring book of democracy. Stay inside the lines."
Civil disobedience is not a human right, it's the coloring book.
@vruz
You know it’s interesting how right wing Libertarians have invaded towns in America with the purpose of hijacking it, and having it operate under their concepts of a small government, and how that’s uniformly led to a disaster.
It would be interesting to have a contrasting effort where the town residence take control of their own fucking community
@GhostOnTheHalfShell
If those fascists spoke Spanish or if they were openly gay, or if they had a different skin colour they wouldn't have let them, right?
Their pattern recognition is broken.
The system recognises genuine threats to its foundation versus theatrical opposition.
A bunch of white libertarians dismantling local services while keeping private property sacred? Annoying but harmless.
Communities building genuine economic democracy that might spread? That's when zoning laws, regulations, and if necessary, direct force come into play.
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@vruz Well, it’s jolly well time for some civil disobedience now, isn’t it.
@eyebrowsgerri
It would be better if you understood why you are doing it.
@eyebrowsgerri (I don't mean you personally of course, but all the people who don't)
@eyebrowsgerri
The issue isn't civil disobedience itself, but rather civil disobedience that's been defanged through management by controlled opposition.
When you are nearing the state of a Nazi occupation, you're way past the need of conveniently managed civil disobedience.
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