I am not an Anarchist but it makes me feel all giddy when you see them express thoughts like this.
I tend to think very lowly of the Left in general, especially when itNot that - but it is funny to see Gillis put the smack-down on authoritarians of any stripe - he's pretty good with invective. This
comes to matters of Free Speech. So many individuals, even those
wearing the mantle of "anti-authoritarianism" among the Left jump at
the first opportunity to apply social coercion. I can't tell you how
many times I've heard activists, even anarchists, talk about how forms
of institutional or collective control of communication are a good
thing, because they're the only way we can win against our overpowered
"enemies." And everyone believes that if Free Speech is actually a good
thing, that its a tertiary triviality, unimportant in comparison to the
starkly physical challenges all around us.
Such sentiments are, of course, fucking ridiculous.
No social element whatsoever is prior to the basic act of
communication. Although not everything that matters is linguistic,
every structure that comprises our society is based on the
interrelation of memetic information. Free Speech is not everything,
but without it we, as a people, have nothing. Furthermore it is a
battle that has already been won in many people's minds. The biggest,
most glorious, wonderful, joyous, gift left us from the American
Revolution (and all that surrounding historical junk). In this one
field, we start out on the defense. That's crazy fuckin' awesome.
Enough people already feel entitled to this freedom that our power
structures face an even steeper uphill battle, and as Anarchists we
should be all about deepening such feelings of privilege.
