Thoughts on Violence, Property Destruction, and building a revolutionary movement.

Posted on January 2, 2012

I just finished watching “If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front.”   Seeing the interviews from all sides really helped flesh out a lot of the details and paint a deep picture that I’d really like to see out there in the public eye.  It’s a really great film and I strongly recommend that ya’ll watch it.   It also helped me crystallize a few things I’ve been thinking for a while about tactics.

As some of you know, I took a hell of a lot of heat a few weeks back for a post I wrote about property destruction at the first #OccupyOakland general strike.  Now I’m used to getting hate mail, I’ve been getting a steady stream of death threats and hate mail for most of the last decade, ever since I released my first album.  In the past, most of that hate mail has come from neo-nazis calling me a race traitor or “patriots” who think I’m a traitor to the United States and should be shipped off to Guantanamo.  I’ve also gotten shit from Celts for identifying as an Anarchist (apparently anyone who opposes the ongoing brittish occupation of North Ireland but doesn’t think the government of the Republic of Ireland is much better deserves to get their kneecaps broken), from Anarchists for identifying as a Celt (because apparently having a deep appreciation for the struggles, history, and culture of my ancestors automatically makes me a racist), and from people who just generally don’t like my music and don’t understand why songs recorded in my living room don’t have the same production values as corporate pop music.  (1)

As of a few weeks ago you can add the insurrectionists to that list in a big way.  After my article “To my Fellow Anarchists” got reposted on anarchistnews.org I got deluged with hate mail claiming I’m not actually an anarchist, that I’m a counter-revolutionary, that I’m a sad old man screaming at the sky, that my music sucks (because that’s obviously relevant to a political debate), that I’m an authoritarian, that pacifist hippy fucks like me are getting in the way of real change (apparently they’ve never listened to my music if they think i’m a pacifist or a hippy) and so on.   I also got some great letters of support and appreciation from friends and comrades involved in the local movement and in #occupy around the world.  Thank you to everyone who took the time to do that, I appreciate it.(2)

At first I was really bothered by all the hate.  But as I read the letters and comments something struck me – most people who were writing weren’t actually replying to anything I’d said.  They were replying to what they thought I was going to say.  I suppose that’s common.  Most people read what they expect to read and see what they expect to see.  It’s one reason why both democrats and republicans think the corporate media is slanted towards the other party when in fact it’s really slanted towards the people that own both parties.

So this is where I stand.

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