Comments

1
well clearly they aren't anarcho-primitivists.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarcho-pr…
2
Potholes might damage cars, but they can seriously injure a cyclist. When's the last time you rode a bike, Charles?
3
While I don't think letting roads fall into complete disrepair would be a good thing as Charles seems to suggest, and while I do applaud the initiative (good to see those anarchists doing something constructive other than talking about utopia), what I am worried about is that the right will see this (and other acts, such as the increase in private donations to orgs. such as Planned Parenthood) as proof that the government no longer needsto fund things for the public good as private citizens will step up to do that job. Taken to its logical conclusion, the government could simply shirk much of its responsibility to provide public goods with the assumption that when it doesn't some citizens will come along and do it for them. And then the right's position is justified.
4
Anarchists ride bikes. Anarchist + bike + pothole (+ alcohol) = punk rawk fundraiser to cover medical bills. Punk rawk fundraisers attract edgy SJW youth who become anarchists.

5
I love when Charles does satirical rants
6
Potholes might be detrimental to cars, but they're fucking dangerous to cyclists. This position of yours is akin to approving of a fire in the ghetto because it might move into the nice neighborhood.
7
For Seattle cyclists we have a better solution: finditfixit (there's even an app). Generally fixes potholes within a day or two. No ski mask required.
8
@5: No, the sad thing is that he's not being saterical.

But to be sure, Charles can clarify.
9
After WII, infrastructure spending (AKA fixing/building roads etc.) and military spending used to be the lynchpin of "American Socialism"; it was the "dirty little secret" that kept Americans working, which in turn propped up "free market" capitalism.

You see, the Democrats and Republicans of the post war era both knew that we needed lots of government spending that would create jobs for the masses of uneducated Americans who were no longer part of the war effort. They couldn't call it Socialism, because we were at war with "Communism", and that just wouldn't do.
We built the interstate highway system at that time. It was the largest public works project known to man, and it was supposed to continue to this very day in the form of expansion and repairs. It was supposed to create perpetual jobs for the masses.
Somewhere along the line lawmakers (especially republicans) forgot that this was the long term plan to keep capitalism going, so now we have crumbling roads and crumbling capitalism.
10
....and I have to pay $600 to fix the suspension on my wife's new hybrid tomorrow because of a pothole.......
12
Anarchists get infrastructure. Mr. Muedede pretends not to.

Please write more about Marxism Charles. That is your strength.
13
How are goods supposed to be transported to, and transported within, a city? Even if we switched to horse-drawn carriage, potholes would still be an issue.

Unless you maybe dig broken eggs and damaged items. Maybe the computer you used to type this article would be improved by being violently shaken during transit.
14
But spray painting dicks on potholes was so effective ... why change now?
14
Charles, you should ride the 70 bus down Eastlake sometime before declaring potholes are a good thing.
15
They're making a point that when the state goes away, solidarity takes over. Aiding something as greedy and self centered as the automobile is not encouraging solidarity. They should find a gap in public transit and fill it, besides, maintaining something as huge of a project as road road infrastructure ... this is a facile gesture meant to signal rather than actually do something.
16
Cool, another person who doesn't understand anarchy. Yay! That's new and unique!
17
Will there soon be random groups of anarchists inspecting and "repairing" bridges and overpasses, too? Will anarchist arborists start patrolling city parks looking for limbs that are about to fall? Will anarchist Fire Marshalls cruise through grocery stores, issuing citations when they see boxes piled up near emergency exits? When one anarchist assaults another, will they call they anarchist police to take the perpetrator before an anarchist judge? When people realize there's a subterranean network of shadow quasi-governmental activity happening and they demand that these people connect themselves to a an accountable (via elected representatives) governmental body, what then?

By the way, actually asking a governmental body to do its job usually works for me. When I call my city's (Olympia's) Public Work's Department about potholes, sometimes I have to call twice, but usually then I see them filled in within a week.
18
Because working for free to support the petro-automotive empire is just soooo edgy!

Plus, the patch probably won't hold more than a week. You've got to sweep the hole out and heat it up with a torch for that crap to stick. Perma-patch works a little better, but it still only holds about 50% of the time.
19
Sorry Charles, potholes hurt bicycles even more. I broke a finger because of a pothole.

If you look back in history, you'll find, I think, that the very reason roads became paved in the first place was because of growing bicyclist pressure for smoother surfaces.

3, I would argue that the government has already begun to shirk it's responsibilities. And now that the federal gummint is in the hands of the ĂĽber-corporate, free-trade belivin' capity-capitalists, I'm expecting much more shirking to happen.

11, to date that is all they have done ??? Except, you know, risk jail to distribute women's health information (Emma Goldman), feed the homeless (Food Not Bombs), open infoshops & bookstores (Left Bank & innumerable others) to distribute thoughtful, dissenting, and small print writings, run newspapers (Fifth Estate, Slingshot), organize people to stand up for their rights (Prairie Fire Collective), run food & housing co-operatives, produce incisive political critique of authoritarianism (so many authors) ... the list goes on.

In fact, YOU may be an anarchist, but not even know it.

What are you doing for the whole with your freedom?
20
17, While your post is pretty funny (I personally would happily be an anarchist Fire Marshal), you point to a common misconception that anarchists are simply DIY with no respect for other people.

Anarchy, at root, can be summarized as: Mutual Aid, and Voluntary Cooperation.
From those two principles we can quite quickly arrive are agreements made between people, with obligations therewithin, and then community rules, and even institutions.
21
...quickly arrive at agreements...
22
Charles, you may have missed your calling: anarchist pothole creator.
23
It's like the point I was trying to make at the time of the WTO riots: Anarchism isn't breaking the windows of a Starbucks...it's taking OVER the Starbucks for a couple of hours and serving free caramel macchiatos to the street people outside.
24
This is what true anarchism(as opposed to nihilism) is like.
25
Good Afternoon Charles,
These anarchists remind me of the character, Archibald Tuttle, the renegade/terrorist air conditioner repairman portrayed by Robert De Niro in the film "Brazil". What a clever story/character. He fixes air conditioner units instead of the state-sponsored air conditioner repairmen. Why? He "hates the paperwork".

These anarchist pothole repairers aren't far off. In the end, I'd rather see them repairing than destroying.
26
Yeah anytime the anarchists are doing anything bad, a good scolding is all they need to set them aright.
27
Marry me, Charles.

I'm only about 40% kidding, which is about the same as I estimate you're kidding with this column.
28
@25 YES!!!!

Poor Mrs. Buttle and family (And Mr. Buttle, too, I assume).
29
@20, Yes, but the at the core of any definition of anarchism is the fact that no three anarchists standing on the same patch of sidewalk need agree about what that word means.
30
This post is stupid and is written like Charles has never seen a road in use before. As others have pointed out, bikes, buses, dump trucks and other need transportation all use roads and all are affected by pot holes.
31
Charles is so cute when he tries to be serious about transportation.
32
Bicycles, how do they work? What are they for?

Mr. Mudede, we would like some answers.
33
troll troll troll troll

Please wait...

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