I'm from the generation of hackers who's old enough to have believed in the hacker's manifesto but young enough to have spread the whole of "white hat/black hat" meme and yeah... It was completely bullshit the whole time. Today there are still people who I talk to who are like "oh, you're not one of those bad hackers though, right?" Like which ones? The ones who work for governments or who keep banks from getting hacked, cause yeah I've worked on DRM and helped keep things expensive that should be free. It feels bad because it is bad, and they lie to you and tell you you're "making sure Grandma is safe on the internet" but these fucking companies are feeding your grandmas conspiracy theories. They are the bad ones, and the "white hats" are keeping the injustice going...just like some other motherfuckers who like to wear white hoods and defend the status quo.

Yeah, fuck that. Illegalism is 100% legit and I wish you the best.

As someone who came of age in the renegade weed cultivation scene/culture, I feel this so hard. And I'm sure the community I was a part then would feel this too.
I really do wish tho, that more people in that community have/had that mentality of spreading that same idea outward towards more things that also benefit people, instead of just the nimby-ist/faux-libertarian vibe that permeates the culture nowadays...

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I think people need to be more comfortable with illegalism and I'm not kidding. Of course the more legal something is, the safer and easier it is to do, but the more people who disregard the law, the harder it is to enforce. There are plenty of laws on the books that people just ignore and are never or rarely policed.

Becoming more comfortable with little illegal activities makes you more comfortable with bigger more important illegal activities. Additionally, it is crucial to build a wall of silence. Nobody talks everybody walks.

People who give out food without a permit, hold a march without a permit, grow a garden without a permit, are more likely to be people you could turn to to work with on preventing an eviction, or keeping people out of cop hands, or helping your friend Jane get crucial healthcare when it's not legal in your state.

Communities comfortable with these acts won't call the cops, and then nobody knows that it's happening.

People have got to shift from both the idea that lawful = good/ illegal = bad, and that the illegality of something means that's the end of it, and the only fight left is to make it legal again.

#in tandem with this is the idea that the more people reject someone's authority as 'inherent' the harder people are to control #anarchism #illegalism #LJsm

As long as there is a criminal class, I am of it.

There is usually a reason something is deemed illegal by society.

And no, the answer isn't always just greed. But more like its hurting other people, even when you think it doesn't.