wonderingwanderer

A judge holding a defendant in contempt of court for violating a serious order to not bring recording equipment into the courtroom, is neither “anarchy” nor “vigilantism.”

In an “organized rules-based justice system,” a defendant who violated a court order by bringing recording equipment into the courtroom would be held in contempt, and depending on the severity, may face jail time (such as perhaps if that recording equipment has facial recognition technology).

This isn’t about whether or not we “dislike” him. But just because he’s widely disliked doesn’t make him immune to prosecution.

What the fuck are you smoking?

“Have your crafts”

You mean, “Buy materials from the big chain craft store, where ten beads will run you $5.”

“Boss, check out this gizmo that someone just printed in Sacramento!”

"That’s a great idea! Patent it, then sue their ass!

There are a few layers to it.

On the surface, the excuse they give is that printed guns don’t have serial numbers and thus can’t be tracked. They call them “ghost guns” to instill an element of horror in the messaging.

If you dig a bit deeper, you’ll see that it’s the same old tactic of manufacturing outrage and spreading fear in order to manipulate the masses. Even when people supposedly see through it, on the collective level it still works. So it seems to be an effective tool, which encourages them to keep using it.

On a deeper level than that, it’s a trojan horse. Just one more way to restrict consumers rather than holding corporations accountable. One more way to maintain their hold on people’s wallets. 3D printers give people too much autonomy, enabling them to be self-reliant. The people benefiting from the current system can’t have that, they won’t tolerate it. “No, you’ll spend $50 on that action figure, and if you need ten of them you can either cough up the dough or go to hell.” Basically.

That should be the norm everywhere

This is why this battle has to go on multiple fronts. One is creating coops where and when possible. The other is unionizing existing corpos to gain labour power that can be leveraged to curb the oligarch’s power. The third is fighting at the political level for state funding for coops and labour rights.

I can get down with that

If only there were a way to seize the means of production and redistribute the wealth…

Co-ops are often dismissed as attempts to create islands of socialism

I’m sold! When do we start?

“It’ll hurt our bottom line and make us less competitive” said google. “Aren’t you afraid of missing out?”

FUCK OFF.